battle-net-authenticator-iphone-app
Latest
iPhone Mobile Authenticator temporarily removed from iTunes store
Those players using the iPhone Mobile Authenticator in conjunction with their Warcraft accounts may want to note the latest news from Community Manager Lylirra on the official Blizzard forums. Due to an issue with the latest version of the authenticator, the app has been removed from the iTunes store, to be replaced with a new version at a later date. Don't panic if you happen to have the authenticator tied to your account -- all current authenticators will continue working as usual, but players looking to download or update the app for their iPhone or iTouch devices will have to wait until the new version is released. Also note that whatever this issue may be, it is not a security issue; your account is perfectly safe. Follow after the break for the full announcement.
Battle.net authenticators limited to one account
Blizzard is changing up the security on their authenticators a bit. This isn't a major change and shouldn't affect that many people. Starting now, if you happen to have multiple Battle.net accounts (not multiple WoW accounts under one Battle.net account), then each account must have its own authenticator. This means if you have separate Battle.net logins for zergrush@somedomain.com and taurenfever@example.com and you want to use an authenticator, you'll need to buy two. If you've just got taurenfever@example.com and all of your games are under that Battle.net login, then you're perfectly fine. This is not retroactive. If you already have two accounts linked to a single authenticator, everything will still work as it does right now until you unlink that authenticator. The full blue post detailing the changes is behind the cut below.
Blizzard responds to common Real ID concerns
Nethaera (Blizzard community manager) posted answers to some of the common Real ID questions and concerns on the forums today. With the PR disaster that was Blizzard's original Real ID on the forums concept, a follow-up aimed at easing tensions in the community -- even after the retraction -- was to be expected. While Blizzard offered some good news on things people have been requesting, they also dodged other points for the moment in true Blizzard style. Some highlights from the announcement: no current plans for an online handle to be used in game with Real ID instead of your name feature to disable your name's appearance in Friends of Friends list coming around the time of StarCraft II plans for some sort of unique ID on the WoW forums The full announcement is after the break.
Blizzard giving serious consideration to mandatory authenticators
WoW.com has learned through trusted sources close to the situation that Blizzard is giving serious consideration to making authenticators mandatory on all accounts. According to our sources, while this policy has not been implemented yet and the details are not finalized, it is a virtually forgone conclusion that it will happen. This response is a direct effort to stop the massive number of compromised accounts by gold sellers and keyloggers. The seriousness of the situation with compromised accounts has reached such a level that wait times for item and character restoration are entirely unacceptable, even to Blizzard executives. Blizzard has taken other internal measures to deal with long wait times of people in account restoration queues, and we'll be covering those measures tomorrow. However, with the inclusion of mandatory authenticators, this should solve a major problem for Blizzard's support and account administration teams.
Update: European weekly maintenance: 3rd June 2009
It's Wednesday once more in Europe and Blizzard has been busy. After the implementation of multilingual battle groups last week, they seemed to like it so much that they're merging some more, this time on a bigger scale. Hopefully all this should be happening between 3:00am and 11:00am CEST, but judging by some of the problems experienced by Americans yesterday, this could easily changed. Just keep calm and carry on.So during the maintenance tomorrow, we will not only be getting patch 3.1.3, various battle groups will be shoved together and renamed. Bloodlust (hey that's me) and Cataclysme will become Cataclysm/Cataclysme Cyclone and Todbringer will become Cyclone/Wirbeisturm Conviction and Raserei will become Frenzy/Raserei Rampage and Ferocite will become Rampage/Saccage Reckoning and Verderbnis will become Reckoning/Abrechnung Ruin and Glutsturm will become Emberstorm/Glutsturm Vengeance and Schattenbrand will become Vengeance/Rache, and finally Sturmangroff and Represailles will become Sturmangriff/Charge So while you're waiting for all this to happen, there's plenty to do. We've got patch notes for 3.1.3, there are the new Tauren kitty forms to drool over and you could even download the Battle.net authenticator app from EU iTunes stores. As usual one of my American colleagues - this week Alex Z. - has compiled a fun post to read that rounds up all the interesting tidbits which have been happening for your amusement to tide you over until the servers pop back up.UpdatE: Maintenance has now been extended to 1pm CEST.
