Account Security Issues.

Two days ago I was on Proudmoore US and noticed that there were three different occurrences of accounts being compromised. One I saw in trade. The other was discussed in the a private channel while the third affected someone I know. In the third case, this was a guild master who had two accounts compromised which lead to one of her characters being transfered to another server, while on her main account her other characters were stripped and her guild bank emptied of all valuables.

I have always felt that an authenticator was very much worth the peace of mind. I myself had to be slapped into reality by a friend of mine to have one attached to my account. I had obtained mine as part of the Blizzcon 08 bag of goodies. Since I had one for free and I was responsible for the security of the guild, it was in best interest I do so. I have not regretted it since.

There have recently been a few articles on wow.com about changes in the method Blizzard is now dealing with account compromises. While the danger of losing an account has always been there, it seems that the gold selling companies are in force more then ever in attempting to steal gold from players in order to sell it to others.

It saddens me that there are only two reason folks who had neglected to secure their account with an authenticator are now getting one. Either they finally were compromised or they want the free core hound pet provided with one now.

Honestly I don't care what excuses folks come up with for not investing $6.50 for peace of mind. It's cheap. I'm under employed and I am considering obtaining a second one as back up for when the battery dies in mine. I'm glad that at least I am making it hard for a hacker to get into my account, likely disband my guild, and give me a headache that warrants others to quit the game all together at times for how much one feels violated upon.

WOW Magazine Arrives!

Well I obtained my copy two days ago. The width of the magazine reminds me of a Newtype magazine but of course thinner and of smaller height. The paper stock is of good quality and the cover overlaps both the front and the back. They included a pull out folded poster inside the middle of the publication of the same art work. The on line preview does give an general preview of what is in the magazine.

You have several pages which cover changes that are occurring with Cataclysm. Interview with Mike Morhaime. Coverage of non combat pets in game. An interview with Brian Brolin "Breanni" as well as some input from other players interviewed about their pets.

Discussion of Ice Crown Citadel as well as the Isle of Conquest, followed by articles of the trading card game competive play as well as Arena play. Heroic Prints got some attention with an article covering the posters they can produce for each individual character. As a fan of character goods I liked the insight the article gave on how these came about.

There is a guide to the Coliseum providing history and play strategies for both faction versions of Trial 5, 10 and 25 man. I am interested in the Healer UI article that follows, but have not read it as of yet. I thought it nice they included a UI article however.

The last few pages cover the 5th anniversary of WOW and as per the preview has a time line of events during those five years. Ony is covered as is a small segment on the foundation of the viral Ony video animation most of us have seen on the web. There is a guide to Arathi Basin, an introduction to Scourgewar, the articles on Tanking, DPS, and Healing, which were seen in the preview (and yes I agree the rogue dps article sadly got outdated with the changes in the patch but not much you can do about it being printed material).

The Fan Art section was very good yet quite small. One of the reason I wanted this magazine was the "unique" art that was to be included. It is my hope that this will be expanded upon as the publication matures.

There are of course some things I skipped and I don't regret my subscription to this magazine. I like having a physical publication I can share with others and I do like the quality of the images. I found the articles to be more accurate then other printed coverage of the game. I recall this PC Gamer publication which was about $8 and much thinner with ads. It was a one shot and I had considered obtaining it however many of the articles were sorely out of date and inaccurate. An example of this was coverage of Warsong Gulch describing it as a 15man battleground. The print quality in this magazine is far superior and enjoyable.

Hello Again!

I know it has been a while since I posted but I've been severely distracted for many reasons. I will try to be more active however. Not that many follow me or know about this blog bit I will try to keep it active.