For all WoW players, from day one of playing the game no matter if it was when the game came out or if you just are getting into the game, game security is/has/will always be important to all (even to Blizzard!).
What do I mean by game security? Well, for one I think it is important we read!!!
Read you say? Yes read! It is a skill we are all lacking.
How many times you install a game, program, complete an application, anything and there is a TOS (terms of service agreement) that we (not all of us but I think a major majority, I say 70% of us) just click the box that states we have read it and understand it. Why do we do this? Well I think it is a combination of laziness, impatience, AND, not caring, and I am sure many other reasons, to many to list all of them.
Now before I upset all of you/us, I know I am generalizing but please prove me wrong; tell me that I am wrong. It will be hard to prove this wrong but until that time I believe that I am correct (maybe wrong in the percentage but I know it is more than half of us MMO players). So how does not reading the TOS make our game/account security vulnerable? Yet again the answer is lengthy but pretty much not knowing how your account can be canceled or suspended in my opinion is a security risk.
For WoW, the major security risk has been account hacking and that has been part of the game almost from the beginning I believe. For the first few years of the game, the only way to make sure our account was safe was to change our password often and make it as difficult as possible. Did/were you doing that? I think not. I did not do that! :(
Thankfully Blizzard came out with the authenticator and that started security more accounts; well people that would get the authenticator. Than the iPhone application came and and even more people made sure their accounts were secure.
The latest work of Blizzard is the Battle.net site for all of their games; I call it their hub, union station for players of their wonderful games. If you play a Blizzard game or are playing WoW, you go to the site, register, enter your WoW account info and you are in Battle.net! Some people for their own reasons do not want to do this (I personally do not know of any negatives, please let me know of some cons of doing this). Until recently, registering your WoW account on Battle.net was not mandatory until the news came out this week that Battle.net will be mandated by November 11th. Now I do not know all the details but I believe if you are not on Battle.net you will not be able to log into the game.
Why do you think Blizzard is doing this?
In my opinion, we are playing their game and if they require this as part of logging in, well we have to do it no matter what we think; it is their product, if you don't like it don't buy it and play it! A more thoughtful reason could be that it is additional security for them and us. Think of it as a good big brother aspect, where Blizzard will know all of their 12 million+ ( of that is the true number of players on WoW, which I do not think so) and help prevent the account hacking and spamming. I am not kidding when I say I do not know of any negatives and please let me know of some. Also, this will possibly allow interaction of wow players and players of Diablo and StarCraft possibly. Or even a Blizzard gaming achievement system in the near future. And the big one of them all, when ever the new WoW expansion and the next Blizzard MMO comes out.
The main point is, sign up for Battle.net, get an authenticator (if you can or try to win one) and also let me know why one would not want to do these things.
Thank you very much, and stay safe! In game and out of game!
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Mo
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Hello Gamers....
This is Xan. It has come to my attention that MO has a couple of authenticators he would like to give away in a contest. In order to make this interesting and to help emphasize the point of needing an authenticator I am posting this contest -
1 - Please respond to this post with an AUTHENTICATOR HORROR STORY of someone you know or even a story about your own account being hacked and the devastation it caused to you and perhaps your guild.
2 - One more contest is a LINKING CONTEST. This contest is one that will have you linking to us all over the internet. Your link should be this: The Experienced Noob, Your Friends and Guides in World of Warcraft, with a link to http://theexperiencednoob.blogspot.com/. These can be on your guild forums, your blog, WoW or gaming related forums, as long as it's not spamming or against the rules of the forum. If you want to write your own words around the link, feel free to. If you create a site solely for this contest, it will be disqualified. There should be real, useful content at the site.
Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, and other social networking sites are also allowed to be used. If you twitter, an @Xandarr2112 or @Mohalen is recommended, with a preferable #TEN at the end. If you Facebook, a link to the site would be appreciated. Any other social networking sites, just link back to the TEN website. Once again, spamming will get you disqualified. If we hear from a webmaster, guild leader, or otherwise from someone complaining, we will disregard any entry.
In order to let us know about your submission, send us the url to the site you linked to us on. If you can include a screen shot, that would be even better. The winning link will have to be verified on submission and on completion of the contest. Links on the WoW forums are discouraged, and can get you banned or suspended from forum posting privileges, therefore use them at your own risk.
THE PRIZES: Two (2) Authenticators from MO drawn randomly from the entrants. The winners will be drawn on November 11th (one entry from the authenticator horror story and one from the linking contest) and will be posted to the blog and will need an email from the winner to Xan at TheExperiencedNoob@gmail.com as to where the prize will be sent.
DONATIONS - If you wish to donate a prize for further contests, email Xan at TheExperiencedNoob@gmail.com
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