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Time to get that Authenticator
Well, they started giving away pets for having an authenticator, so I guess it's about time I went ahead and put one on my account. I've had the app on my iPhone for a while, actually, but I never really saw the point in attaching it to my account, especially since it seemed like just more hassle, and who knows what kinds of errors could pop up. And honestly, I haven't worried much about hackers -- I use a secure browser, I don't click on unknown links. But I know, I know, it's safer, and with the cute Corehound Pup out, I might as well go ahead and attach it. And you might as well, too. Blizzard's Store was flooded with people looking for authenticators yesterday, but things have slowed down a bit, and they've even got a brand new design with the Corehound Pup right on there. The price, as usual, is $6.50 with free shipping. If you've got an iPhone or an iPod touch, you can get the app free from iTunes, and we're told that it's coming to other platforms at some point in the future (guess when: "soon"). Even if you don't want to apply the Authenticator for whatever reason, just think of it as an almost-half-price pet.
EU-exclusive Frostmourne mug and keychain set now on Blizzard store
You lucky European ducks may just have finally gotten that one thing you can hold over the heads of those Americans with their superiority complexes. The official online Blizzard store is now offering, exclusively for Europe, a set of Frostmourne-themed merchandise. Enclosed in a special box, the set contains one Frostmourne hilt keychain and one insulated metal mug with Frostmourne's runic engravings on one side. Steely-eyed readers may notice that the keychain is the same one as, or at least identical to, the one that came in your BlizzCon '09 goody bag. Of course, this one is "made of rhodium, a rare metal offering even higher quality than silver." The mug, on the other hand, is a never-before-seen piece of merch. The set is, of course, limited edition, so if you want to make this the perfect gift for the burgeoning death knight in your family, you'd best act quickly. Then again, I don't think they like warmth very much. Maybe an insulated mug isn't the best gift idea. I'm thinking -- hear me out -- macaroni necktie.
Pandaren pet "sold out" on Blizzard store [Updated]
In an unexpected and strange twist in Blizzard's latest microtransaction saga, the Pandaren Monk vanity pet has apparently sold out on the Blizzard pet store. A mere week after the in-game pets were announced for sale on Blizzard's new pet store, the Pandaren Monk can no longer be purchased on US realms (as of this writing, it is still available on the Blizzard EU and Blizzard KR stores). That the Pandaren Monk would sell out comes as a surprise because, well, it's a virtual item. It's like Agent Smith. It never runs out. Unless, of course, Blizzard designed it that way, in which case there must have been a massive failure of communication somewhere down the line because it doesn't say anything about the Pandaren Monk being a limited item anywhere. It's also notable that Blizzard had committed to donating 50% of all proceeds from Pandaren Monk sales to the Make-a-Wish Foundation all the way through December 31. If the Pandaren Monk were to disappear, it should at least be expected to last until the end of 2009, right? We think this is an inventory error, where some number had to be inserted into the Blizzard Store's inventory management system, like some number "over 9000". Likely this will be easily corrected, and when it is, we'll update this post accordingly. UPDATE 11:30am ET: Blizzard is looking into the matter, which should assuage most people's fears that the item is indeed sold out. UPDATE 2:00pm ET: The Pandaren Monk is now back in stock and available for purchase! It was just a glitch in the Matrix, people. Nothing to see here. Thanks to Papa Shok for the tip.
Tom Chilton talks about the in-game pet store
The guys over at The Instance podcast got a chance to talk to Blizzard's Tom Chilton about the recent decision to sell in-game noncombat pets for real money, and the interview is now up in the latest episode on their site. He talks first about the pets' development, and it sounds like they designed the pets thinking they'd be sold on a real-money store eventually. He says the price point was "arrived at by trying to figure out what it would have to be to make sense for us to spend time working on it." And he mentions the TCG and their loot prizes -- he says those were meant to be a bonus, and they ended up being a roundabout way for players to buy pets anyway, so Blizzard decided to go with this more direct plan. He doesn't say much about the future, but he does say that Blizzard is planning on doing some "pet and plushie" deals, where you'll be able to buy a plushie from the Blizzard store, and get an in-game pet with it. For the game specifically, he mentions the guild transfer service that's coming (we heard about that back at BlizzCon -- you'll be able to server transfer an entire guild rather than do it account-by-account), but otherwise he tells players that the pet store is just a "side project" -- right now, it's not taking away from development at all, and if it does grow, Chilton says Blizzard would hire more people rather than using current developers. We'll have to see what happens in the future.
Breakfast Topic: How far would you let WoW microtransactions go?
One of the hottest topics in the past week was Blizzard's foray into the microtransactions game. By announcing the Blizzard pet store, World of Warcraft had officially come on par with other MMOs and online games that sold in-game items for real world money. Our informal survey showed that views on the move were officially split... a good third of our readers would buy the pet, another third didn't plan to, while another full third thought that our world was coming to an end. Well, the World of Warcraft, at least. At any rate, it looks like the Pet Store is here to stay. Besides, Blizzard has already been hawking in-game services for real money, so it's not as if these vanity pets are any different. I personally don't find anything wrong with these pets, and seeing the number of diminutive liches and kung fu pandas showing up all over Azeroth, it really seems like a lot of other people don't, either. Blizzard states that these items, similar to the TCG loot cards, are "purely cosmetic and just for fun." They say that they'd be loathe to introduce things that are "detrimental to the game and (detracts) from the gameplay experience for players who choose not to use the service." So that probably means no epic weapons or anything of the sort. How far does that go, though? Are heirloom items considered detrimental to the game? How about buying levels? Premades? I personally wouldn't mind paying a fair price to skip the painful leveling process (an attitude that might admittedly change during the Cataclysm). What's do you think is next for Blizzard? Armor dyes, perhaps? Vanity outfits such as the complete Brewfest set or gag items such as those found on the TCG? Titles? Now that the microtransactions gate has been opened, how far do you think Blizzard will go?
A WoW player's guide to microtransactions
Well Blizzard has finally done it. After charging only for out-of-game services like faction changes and character customization, with the release of in-game pets on the Blizzard store, they've finally moved on to selling virtual items for real money. And there's a word, dirty in the mouths of some, that's floating around that some of you may not have heard or understood before: microtransactions. We wouldn't blame you -- some of our own staff didn't even know what they were just a little while ago. But with the decision to sell in-game items for straight cash, Blizzard has entered the fascinating and treacherous world of microtransactions. And if you're going to follow them off into this world, you might as well at least know what they're all about. And so, we're here to help. Whether you've never heard of microtransactions before, you're convinced that they're the devil and that Blizzard has grown too greedy for their own good, or you can't wait to open up your wallet and get a Pandaren Monk to follow you around, let's take a second and look at the history of the microtransaction model, what it means that Blizzard made this decision, and what might happen to the game in the future.
BlizzCon online store now open
This year's BlizzCon 2009 is just a tad over two weeks away, running August 21st and 22nd. We're expecting lots of big announcements this year, and the WoW.com staff is preparing to cover the event from top to bottom. One nice thing about this year is that we won't be waiting in line for any of our merchandise, at least anything that has to do with the current games.Everything is available for the next 48 hours to be purchased through the Blizzard Store. If you have a ticket, the original ticket buyer with the Battle.net account must go into the store and order the items. If you don't have a ticket or are not the holder of the Battle.net account which purchased the ticket, you're probably going to have a hard time seeing them, so we've made a gallery of the item listing for your enjoyment.While there's a few things that are unique to BlizzCon in the store, there's nothing really amazing, in my opinion. What I really want is a poster or shirt of the next expansion, and I'm not surprised it isn't in there. So maybe there'll be a little line-standing time after all (assuming they announce it, of course).If the gallery images are too small, click the "High Res" button located in the upper right-hand corner of the image page and they'll appear at their normal size.Lovely Black Dress also has a nice listing of some of the items, including a collage. %Gallery-69469%
Authenticators back in stock at the Blizzard store
Good news for those of you who haven't yet been able to grab an authenticator -- the units are back in stock at the Blizzard store (for both the US and Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America, with the EU version available over on their store). The price remains a cheap $6.00, and this latest version features art from Starcraft II.Which, now that I think about it, pretty much confirms that it will work not only with World of Warcraft, but all Blizzard games going forward. Obviously, with Starcraft II not even in beta yet, hackers and scammers aren't exactly targeting it, but Blizzard is thinking ahead, so if you don't have the tech yet, now's your chance to pick it up (at least until they run out of stock again).And don't forget -- if you don't have an authenticator yet, but do have a compatible mobile phone, you can always pick up the Mobile Authenticator. Especially if you have an iPhone or an iPod touch, free is the way to go.
BlizzCon pre-sale starts Wednesday
If you were lucky enough to go to last year's BlizzCon, you'll know that the lines for the shop were insanely long. People stood for hours in them waiting to get their merchandise. That meant a lot of time away from all the rest of the exhibits, and a lot of frustration if you just gave up waiting in line for three hours.This year things are being done a bit differently, in that you'll be able to preorder all the stuff you want and have it shipped right to your home. There are a lot of special BlizzCon only items, so it's worth taking a lookThe pre-order online sale will begin this Wednesday at 10:01 a.m. PDT / 1:01 p.m. EDT. It will last for 48 hours, which means it ends on Friday at 10:01 a.m. PDT / 1:01 p.m. EDT. If you know what you want to buy before you get to BlizzCon, take advantage of this and do it now. I know that I'm going to pickup a poster I wanted.Because I really need to make my office more nerdy. Seriously.The announcement email and additional details after the break.
BlizzCon 2009 tickets go on sale May 16, first time streamed live via web
Tickets for BlizzCon 2009 will go on sale May 16th, Blizzard announced today on the event's official site. BlizzCon 2009 will be held on August 21st and 22nd in Anaheim, California, and the first block of tickets going on sale on May 16th will sell for $125 each through the official BlizzCon site. A second block of tickets will be sold beginning Saturday, May 30th. Blizzard has made upgrades to the Blizzard Store to deal with the impending ticket rush. Their press release states they'll have a "first-come, first-served queue system and a fixed time limit for completing purchases. Also, those interested in attending BlizzCon can simplify the purchase process by registering a Battle.net account at www.battle.net before ticket sales begin."
Authenticators back in stock in European Blizzard Store
We might still be waiting on Battle.net here in Europe and the free iPhone authenicator app, but don't worry. Those of you who are eager for your account to be even more secure are in luck. European Blue Ancilorn has posted on the official forums that the authenticator is finally back in stock in the European Blizzard store -- complete with a new look! So if you want/need one, head to the Blizzard store and get one before they're gone. What is €6.00/£4.80 for a little peace of mind?
Blizzard Authenticator (temporarily) gone from Blizzard Store
Update: And, of course, as this is posted, we are pointed in the direction of a thread on the Customer Service forums indicating that this is, indeed, an error. It's currently out of stock and should be displaying as such, but the item is simply not displaying at all instead. It will return when it's in stock. Thank you to those that pointed this out. Original Article: We held off on reporting this for a few days, just in case it were a glitch or accident on Blizzard's end (making a mountain out of a molehill makes us all look silly), but it's been this way for long enough that it's worth mentioning: The Authenticator is no longer in the Blizzard Store. Previous bookmarks and links to the item are broken, and searching for it yields nothing but broken dreams.Oddly, this happened in lockstep with the news that the Mobile Authenticator was available. Whether it was coincidental or intentional, we don't really now, but I think it's a pretty odd choice! It seems like an indication that they don't intend to stock them again. That's disappointing, to say the least. Blizzard hasn't pulled profit on either the Mobile or Physical authenticators, so I can understand wanting to cut costs by stopping production and distribution of the physical authenticators, if that is what they're doing. It's still disappointing, because I have serious doubts that everyone who wants/needs an authenticator has an iPhone/iTouch for the mobile app.No business, even one as successful as Blizzard, wants to sell something at a loss. Blizzard has made it clear that they don't want to charge for the opt-in authenticator service. From a purely financial view, I can see why they would pull it. As a player, I really wish they didn't.
Authenticators back in stock
For those of you who have been patiently waiting, trying to catch them in stock - good news! The Blizzard store is currently showing that there are authenticators back in stock for your ordering pleasure. As if that weren't awesome enough, it's not just the United States authenticators that are available and ready for purchase. It seems Blizzard has stocked up across the board as they're showing that the authenticator is available for Canada/Australia/Latin America/New Zealand, Europe and Korea as well. Let's hope this is the beginning of a trend where they're available everywhere more often. That said, your guess is as good as ours as to how long the current stock might last. (Read: probably not long if history is any indication.) So if you forgot to pick up a present for that WoW player in your life and are looking for a way out of the post-holiday doghouse (or just need one for yourself) head on over to the Blizzard store and get your authenticator ordered - quickly.Update: Looks like the Canadian ones are gone as of 7:26 PM. [Via the WoW LJ]
BlizzCon ticket lottery opt-in now available
If you're interested in trying for one of the 3,000 BlizzCon tickets being sold by lottery, and you had a Blizzard Account before the evening of August 12th, head over to the Blizzard Store now, as Opt-ins are open. You should able to put yourself in to the drawing on the Account Management page. The opt-in period will last until the evening of Sunday, August 24th, and you will have an equal chance of getting a ticket no matter when you sign up. After the Opt-in period is over, 1,500 accounts will be chosen at random for a chance to buy up to 2 tickets. Be sure your contact information is up to date so they can contact if you win. Good Luck, and we'll see you at BlizzCon! [Thanks for the forward, Jeff!]
How Blizzard mishandled the BlizzCon ticket situation
As you may or may not know, we here at WoW Insider are not an official Blizzard fansite. There are a few different reasons for that, but one of them is that within the Fansite Program Code of Conduct, there is a clause that states, "fansites should present content that is supportive of World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment." We don't disagree with that clause -- fansites are run by fans, and they should support Blizzard. But our status as an unofficial site leaves us completely free to talk indepth about situations where Blizzard has messed up big time. And as many players already know, the BlizzCon ticket sales process that took place earlier this week is definitely one of those situations.Blizzard is, of course, a game company. No one expects them to put on events like WWI and BlizzCon -- they do so to serve the community that's grown up around their games (and, let's be fair, market and advertise their products to the core of their fanbase). And the community loves those events, both hearing about and attending them. Which is why it was a surprise to no one (except maybe Blizzard themselves) that when the ticket sales kicked off Monday morning, it was a nightmare -- the site was hammered by fans trying desperately to buy tickets, the Failoc was a familiar sight, and within a few hours, even Blizzard.com's main site was down.Everyone could have predicted that there'd be problems like that -- when a fanbase of 11 million tries to buy 12,000 tickets, of course you're going to have technical problems. But Blizzard's mishandling of the situation didn't happen on Monday morning -- anyone can suffer from server outages. It happened over the next two days, days full of frustration, endless page refreshing, and a lack of useful communication from Blizzard about just what was happening.
The quest for BlizzCon tickets, day 2
We spent most of the day yesterday refreshing the ticket sales page for BlizzCon tix, and considering we came up short, we're going to go at it again today. A few people, including a few folks at WoW Insider, were able to make it through yesterday and buy tickets, but Blizzard closed the page down last night (posting the maintenance SCV, which you can see above) to keep people from refreshing the page all night, and that's where we stand now.Their offices in California opened up at 8am PST, just a few minutes ago, and they said that they'd be reopening ticket sales at the start of the business day today. Here's hoping we have better luck this time around. Updates will be posted after the jump as they come in.
Breaking: BlizzCon tickets on sale... kind of
It's Monday, August 11th, and that means that BlizzCon tickets are on sale. Except, they're really not. Blizzard's new Blizzard Store site is epic fail broken -- all most people are seeing is the "error has occured" screen above.Hopefully this isn't a preview of things to come. and hopefully Blizzard will figure out a fair way to get these tickets out (because right now, the site certainly isn't working). Expect more updates to this post as the process goes along.Update: Seems like a lot of people are making it to the credit card verification screen before things go bad, so it seems (seems) the fault may be with the credit card approvals, not necessarily Blizzard's site. Also, one big change from last year is that not only do you specify your WoW character during checkout, but they ask you to say your favorite Blizzard franchise, as well.Update 2: Alex here, seems the entire site is FUBAR pretty much. Definitely not a credit card thing. It won't even let me shop for books to add onto my order.We're liveblogging our quest for BlizzCon tickets -- lots more updates after the jump.
Blizzard Authenticator may or may not be for sale again
In what may or may not be good news today from the Blizzard Store, it looks like the Blizzard Authenticator was back on sale for a short time. It sold out rather early, and there was some rockiness with some orders, but it looks like Blizzard's at least trying to get back on track in delivering this extra layer of account security. Unfortunately, although it was showing as purchasable just an hour ago, it once again shows up as Sold Out currently. There's no word yet on whether they've fixed any problems with keeping the Authenticator in stock, so it may be that they simply got in one shipment and are waiting for another. Hopefully, that shipment comes soon and they can work out their stocking problems a little more permanently. Until then, I'd sit tight and wait a bit. At the least, you don't want to be like the poor folks tipster Aaron pointed out to us, who are bidding up to $93.00 for one on eBay. Thanks to everyone who sent us a heads up on this!
Authenticator ordering leads to unexplained refunds
We've already reported that the Blizzard Authenticator is sold out, but here's another twist to the story. WoW Insider reader Ryan told us that he placed his order last Monday, before the sell out was announced. However, instead of getting his Authenticator, he instead got an unexplained refund. With no other word from Blizzard, they simply canceled the order and refunded the money. He talked to a coworker who had also ordered the Authenticator and found that he had the same experience. As of yet, Blizzard has not explained the refund to him. It's likely that Ryan was simply unlucky enough to place his order after they'd sold out but before they'd officially announced it, but there's other somewhat unfortunate implications. If they're refunding his order instead of honoring it, it suggests that they don't expect to have any new Authenticators ready for quite some time.
Blizzard Authenticator to be introduced at the Worldwide Invitational
The problem with keyloggers and other methods of account theft has been well documented here at WoW Insider, and it seems like a constant problem. Even the most conscientious of players has fallen prey to it. However, at the Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard is introducing a little piece of hardware that could make those problems vanish. Say hello to the Blizzard Authenticator. The Authenticator is a small piece of hardware that you can associate with your World of Warcraft account. Once the Authenticator is associated with the account, you will need it to log on. Every time you log on, you press a button on the Authenticator to generate a six-digit code that you must input to log on. Since only you know the code, and it's generated apart from your computer at the time you're ready to log on, it will be safe from trojans, keyloggers, and other hacks. The Authenticator will be available at the WWI to start, then eventually at the Blizzard Store. The starting price being quoted by Blizzard is $6.50 -- a small price to pay for safety from a ransacked bank and naked server transferred characters, for many. Is this the big announcement though? It's possible, of course, but we like to think there's more in store at the WWI. Stay tuned here, and we'll let you know.
