Gamers now required to use real names
Activision Blizzard Inc.’s move to require people to use their real names if they want to post messages in online forums for games is the latest sign that online anonymity is falling out of favor with many companies.
The upcoming change has upset many gamers who prize anonymity and don’t necessarily want their gamer personas associated with their real identities.
Blizzard, the maker of “World of Warcraft,” said Tuesday that the new rule will go into effect later this month. It will apply first to forums about the highly anticipated “StarCraft II,” out July 27; other games are to follow.
Blizzard hopes that making people use their real names will cut down on nasty behavior in the forums and create a more positive environment. Players will have the option — but not a requirement — to display the name of their main game character alongside their real name.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Blizzard is the latest company to require real identities. But he added businesses have “a lot of freedom” in doing so.
Facebook, the world’s most popular online social network, asks users to sign up with their real names. The company tries to delete fake profiles it comes across. A growing number of blogs and news sites are also abandoning anonymity. The Buffalo News said last month it will start requiring commenters on its website to give their real names and the towns they live in, just as they would do in a printed letter to the editor.
More people using cell phones to go online
When it comes to accessing the Web over mobile devices, Americans are far behind their Internet-connected counterparts in Japan, South Korea and parts of Europe.
“We are a third-world country where mobile is concerned. The rest of the world is using mobile phones underground, to pay for a parking space blocks away, to buy a Coke from a vending machine,” said Jeffrey Cole, director of the Center for Digital Future at the University of Southern California. “We in America are still having trouble getting our phones to (make calls).”
But this is slowly changing. The latest survey from the Center for the Digital Future, conducted last year, found that 25 percent of U.S. Internet users went online using their cell phones. That is up from 16 percent in 2008 and 5 percent in 2002.
“The mobile phone is the single most valuable device in people’s lives,” Cole said. “It’s becoming a device you use for virtually everything.”
On average, people who go online using their cell phones did so for about 2.5 hours a week in 2009, up from 1.7 hours a year earlier.
For most, this means getting small spurts of information, such as getting directions or checking who won an individual sporting event game, Cole said.
The Associated Press
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