Thursday, July 3rd 2008
Blizzard Intros WoW Authenticator Device to Counter Account Misuse
Following countless complaints of World of Warcraft (WoW) user account hijacks and misuse, Blizzard has come up with a device, a security code generator that each user possesses, the device generates a six-digit security code that the user has to enter when logging on to the WoW account. The generation pattern is unique for each user's generator and this effectively eradicates account misuse, or at least attempts to. Blizzard CEO and cofounder Mike Morhaime says "It's important to us that World of Warcraft offers a safe and enjoyable game environment", he further adds that an aspect of that is helping players avoid account compromise, so they are pleased to make this additional layer of security available to them.
Once activated with Blizzard, the authenticator offers a six-digit code that must be used within 60 seconds on a gamer's WoW account. The user has to enter this number alongside username and password. Similar methods are adopted by PayPal, banks, and other financial institutions to help protect data, PayPal charges US $5 for the PayPal Security Key.
Blizzard plans to charge US $6.50 for the device but no announcements are made as to when it will be available.
Source:
Blizzard
Once activated with Blizzard, the authenticator offers a six-digit code that must be used within 60 seconds on a gamer's WoW account. The user has to enter this number alongside username and password. Similar methods are adopted by PayPal, banks, and other financial institutions to help protect data, PayPal charges US $5 for the PayPal Security Key.
Blizzard plans to charge US $6.50 for the device but no announcements are made as to when it will be available.
25 Comments on Blizzard Intros WoW Authenticator Device to Counter Account Misuse
off subject i hope that they use this for all future blizzard games and offer it for free in SC2 and D3 since they could provide it to everyone at launch through as part of the game package that would be more buyer friendly and more widely adopted if they hide the price in the game price tag at least
sorry for running my mouth
Your bank gave it for free since you have given them your money for safekeeping, $5 becomes an insignificant figure for them. But for WoW whose charges are not anywhere close to the amount you saved in the bank, $5 becomes a significant figure.
And they have to resort to a random number generator why?
I've had friends accounts hacked, deleted, etc. Hell I even had my account banned and Blizz wouldn't even tell me why. I guess after 3 1/2 years they figured they'd gotten as much out of me as they were going to.
They need to do something about their account security.
...as long as there's some sort of emergency recovery process for when you lose your key thingy!
I've heard tons of people complain to blizzard about thier monthly fees, but, to be honest, I think its sort of worth it. I've been playing WoW non stop for about 1 1/2 years now, at £8.99 a month. Thats £100 a year (because I pay for 6 months in one big sum of money which is cheaper and I got 1 month free) for a game that will keep me entertained for, oooh, well, a long long time indeed - more than any other game I have played.
It is addictive however, play it within moderation. My friend has been playing it for 2 years, and his played time is 120 days. Straight. Thats 4 months - 1/4 of a year spent playing 1 game solid!
I've played since BETA and played regular since it came out Nov 2004. I think that was being quite the loyal customer. Granted the last 4 or 5 months I'd been playing was probably not more than an hour or two a week.
its just a way to make a few million extra bucks until wotl
Having said that this isn't a money grabbing scheme. Lets go through what is likely the whole process:
The user requests one of these ID's someone who Blizzard has to pay would have to filter these requests. Once filtered they would be passed through to be allocated.
The tags are tied to each individual account they are issued for (banks use the same system). This means it's not just a simple case of pulling one of these tags (which Blizzard has purchased) out of the box and issuing it to their customers. They must be first synchronised to an authentication server by someone Blizzard is PAYING to do so and this is once Blizzard has purchased the server and paid their IT personell to set this system up.
Once the tag is issued Blizzard then has to pay for the tags to be packed and sent (the carrier, the packaging and the person doing this cost money) a large number of these would be going all over the globe.
So once this is all factored in I think Blizzard will probably be LOSING money issuing these tags then they would be gaining from selling them to customers.
Where Blizzard does benefit from this is the fact that they will not have to hire any more GM's to sort out the already plauge proportioned account hacking problems.
I know Blizzard's GM's are good with this sort of thing and will restore almost everything if you get hacked, but my time is precious and I'll be damned if I'm going to wait the hours to speak to a GM and then the extra days it takes to restore my items, which I'm not guaranteed will all be restored anyway.
If $6.50 can add that extra bit of security and potentially save me a weeks worth of inconvenience then I am going to pay it. This would also means I can log on at LAN cafe's something I would never dare do previously.
trial ... but pay for a gadget lol ?
More modern society FTL.