Friendly reminder from WoW.com: Convert to Battle.net now!
by Zach Yonzon 
Oct 28th 2009 at 9:00AM
Blizzard has big plans for their new Battle.net upgrade, which they announced during BlizzCon 2009, and the mandatory merge works towards their long-term goals for all their games. Exciting features such as cross-realm, cross-faction, and even cross-game chat will be part of the new Battle.net, which some people have pointed out is reminiscent of XBox LIVE. Of course, we at WoW.com are dedicated to making sure you make the merge because aside from wanting our readers to cozy up to monochromatic, flightless birds, having them locked out from the game we talk about on the site all the time is kind of a lose-lose situation for everybody.
So hey, two weeks to go. Merge that baby.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
seniorgato Oct 28th 2009 9:19AM
Oh, and GET THE AUTHENTICATOR as soon as you do it.
Both my guildmate and I were hacked imediately after converting. Horray for deleted characters and guild bank.
*He's paranoid, ignore him. It isn't as bad as they say*
Yeah, your probably right, but it certainly does feel like a surge in account hacks the last few months.
Avan Oct 28th 2009 10:03AM
I too have heard numerous reports of compromised accounts, from people who only recently converted. My theory is that hackers are exploiting the mandatory date, assuming that this isn't simple correlation. This brings me to my next point:
Conversion to battle.net has always been mandatory. We knew from day one (perhaps even a few days before) that we would have needed to upgrade to the new platform eventually. If anyone is getting hacked now because of the recently announced deadline, then it truly is that account holders fault. They had MONTHS to upgrade. It is not as if Blizzard said one day, "upgrade or stop playing WoW," they've had plenty of time to do so. If their account is being compromised because of their procrastination, then they deserve it. Always adopt that which will be mandatory early.
I've got a tiger-repellant rock I'd like to sell, if anyone is interested. Proven to keep tigers away!
Manadar Oct 28th 2009 10:30AM
Maybe people just waited because they wanted Blizzard to fix the problems with the login servers and Battle.net accounts? You can't deny that people with Battle.net account have had more problems then people without. So no, I don't think it's the account holders' fault.
Ikarus Oct 28th 2009 10:40AM
I had a bad feeling about this whole thing as well. Having your account name be your email is not very smart. There's countless people who have my email address, that's half way to hacking my account now. Whereas the unique user name was just that: unique. No one knew it but me.
Amaxe Oct 28th 2009 11:19AM
you need to set up an email account which is only for WoW and not other things. I agree with the problem of using email as opposed to another kind of account name, but having one which is solely with Blizzard makes it less likely to be discovered I would think
Avan Oct 28th 2009 11:33AM
@Manadar:
I merged my account on the very first day. Since then, I have had absolutely ZERO problems logging in, and I've played literally every day since then for several hours at a time, during peak hours.
I will, however, take a bit of time to clarify my stance on people getting hacked:
If accounts truly are being compromised because of merging their account, then they deserve to have their account stolen. If merging the account is not the cause, then their account was simply stolen via keylogger, and the timing is coincidental.
Simply put, classic case of correlation vs. causation. I'm not going to fault someone if their account is stolen coincidentally after they've merged their account during this timeframe, as it very likely would not have mattered if they merged their account or not.
jfofla Oct 28th 2009 1:58PM
Battlenet or no, playing WOW without an Authenticator is naive.
Skonged Oct 28th 2009 9:22AM
Nov 10th sounds like the perfect time for a certain patch to come out.
Valt Oct 28th 2009 9:29AM
After people started to merge to battle.net ALL I've heard more and more is that "my/friends account got hacked after X years" and "more and more log in issues than ever before". Even wow.com says its "common excuse, just get authenticator to fix it lol" (thats basically saying you will most likely GET hacked rather than might get wich really seems to be case reading forums all over the place).
So um.. any good experience from people? Are people just filled with loggers or is this real "issue" with this "pretty new" database?
rosencratz Oct 28th 2009 9:37AM
Yeah here's some good news.
I've merged my account and so has everyone i know and not a single one of us has had our account hacked... still... after 4-5 years...
If you think merging makes it more possible your imagining it.
People who get "hacked" generally do so because they didn't take the security measures most people should, they would've been "hacked" regardless of what sort of account they had.
The authenticator is nice but I dread to think what happens when people who need authenticators try out online banking.
Jack Draven Oct 28th 2009 9:38AM
Just to throw it out there, I converted my account about a week ago and have had zero problems. It was a quick, painless process with zero down time on account usage. Since then I've had no account or connection issues at all. And I got a new little buddy, so it's all win as far as I'm concerned.
crschmidt Oct 28th 2009 9:44AM
I converted right after I got my account, and have had no problems in the 5 months since.
Mixx Oct 28th 2009 10:03AM
Converted about 3 weeks ago, at the same time I also switched from the handheld authenticator to the Battlenet authenticator on the iphone - both have worked great, no problems at all.
Authenticator ftw......
Seaborn Oct 28th 2009 10:29AM
@rosen
It can be easier for someone to hack a battle.net acct because it uses an email address for the login. Most people use the same email for battle.net that they use to buy gold etc. Therefore, said hacker has half the equation already when hacking.
rosencratz Oct 28th 2009 10:33AM
@Seaborn - Ironically i mention that in anothe rcomment i made earlier a bit lower down. :)
Merus Oct 28th 2009 10:41AM
I don't use an authenticator, and I've got a Battle.net account. So far, haven't been hacked.
This is because I'm monumentally careful, and I know immediately when something's up with my computer. I don't get keyloggers get on here.
My favourite feature (which is, at the moment, the only feature), is that if you put in the keys for any of your old Blizzard games, it recognises them and provides a digital backup. As a longtime PC gamer, that's more appealing than friends lists.
Rzar Oct 28th 2009 7:26PM
The reason why there is this perception of massive hacking and security breeches is because only those who have something to complain about are talking. The person who has played for five years, merged his account last week, has never ever been hacked has no reason to post anything.
This is why all the news seems negative, its a vocal minority with no competing stories.
Andrew R. Oct 28th 2009 9:39AM
I don't see how it's easier to hack into someone's account after they merge it to a battle.net account. If you've been hacked you more than likely have a key logger or some other type of malware that has access to everything.
It's just bad timing in my opinion. Of course my opinion is biased since I honestly don't know if it's easier or harder to hack after converting. If Blizzard plans to go through with the massive changes they announced they have no choice but to get everything stabilized.
Highly doubtful they'll let the stability issues go on into Cataclysm.
rosencratz Oct 28th 2009 9:45AM
Well... in fairness it's easier to "acquire" a person email address than it is their usernames as was required in the days of old.
People sign up to insecure websites with the same Email/password combo all over the shop. hack an easy forum or guild website or whatever and there you have it.
At least in days of old the username could be "trev01plop" thus putting a road block between the "hacker" who does know your email and password.
Also email address are easier for keyloggers to recognize than other random stuff... though i am just theorising on a subject i have no real experience of to be honest. :)
Greyhame Oct 28th 2009 12:51PM
@rosen
Everything you just typed applies to user names in general, not just user names as passwords.
As for email being easier to guess, all the keylogger would have to do is swap the two values until they got the right combination.