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How to avoid automatic subscription renewal
As most of us know, WoW credit card subscription plans in the US and Europe are auto-renewing. If I sign up for one month at $14.99, as soon as that month is up, Blizzard immediately re-bills my credit card and signs me up for another month. This is problematic for some people, who may want to switch to a game card at the end of the month, or who simply might not want their cards to be automatically billed. Fortunately, there's an easy solution: cancel your account. Yep, just push that big red button (well, actually, it's a smallish grey button, but you get the idea). You'll still get to play until the time you've paid for runs out. And since Blizzard retains your character and account info indefinitely, you don't have to worry about your characters getting deleted. At the end of the time you've paid for, when you try to log in, you'll get a notice that your pre-paid time has been used up, at which point you can go on the web site and add whatever payment method you like. I've used this method many times myself. It's only a few extra clicks, and if you want to have more control over how you get billed, it's definitely worth considering, even if it does make the peons cry.
Account security mythbusting
So, you might have noticed the increased number of warnings and advice from Blizzard regarding account security lately. They've even popped up in the game itself, as a server message when you first log in. Needless to say, this has caused no dearth of consternation in the WoW community (read: people be trippin'). So, why the sudden notices? Has something changed? Has Blizzard lost their footing in the war against hackers and gold farmers? Is Blizzard in cahoots with them? What's this itchy pentagram-shaped rash I've developed?Now, there's a lot I can't talk about regarding this stuff, and certainly not for any sinister reason. It's a selfish reason, though, that being that I really like not getting sued. I can, however, use my experience and knowledge to bust or confirm some common account security myths. Ready? I'm a trained professional. Don't try this at home!
CCP re-launches Power of 2 EVE promotion, supporting multi-boxing
CCP is renewing its Power of 2 promotion for EVE Online. The promotion encourages multi-boxing by allowing existing subscribers to add a second account at the discounted rate of $49.95 for six months. After the six months expire, the account will switch to the normal $14.95 per month rate. Last time CCP gave players the option to sign the account up for another $49.95 deal after a while. No guarantee it'll do that this time, though.The promotional e-mail sent out by CCP says that the account can not only be used for training skills on two pilots at once (impossible with two pilots on the same account) but also for "extra firepower on missions" or "an extra hauler for miners." So, legitimized multi-boxing it is, then. Cool. EVE just has to be different in every way it can, doesn't it? It's a compulsion.The offer's available until October 10th, so you've got a while to mull it over.
Breakfast topic: Account count
I'm not sure how many World of Warcraft subscriptions are currently active. The popularity of the game skyrocketed and then seems to have leveled off. Player numbers have certainly been bolstered by the Recruit-a-Friend promotion. I'm not convinced that it has actually brought any new players into the game. I know several people who begun additional accounts under this new scheme, and a handful of players that have returned to the game. I'm sure there are some new rookies, but they're a fraction of the new accounts. I'm working on my third account. My friend with recruitment benefits and I have been soaring through the levels. I was planning on starting a third account come Wrath anyway, but now seems like as good of a time as any. %Poll-18683%
Wrath of the Lich King login screen
While we've had some fake Wrath of the Lich King login screens before, this one is the real deal. It's being reported on by numerous sites, and several people have confirmed its authenticity. The image itself is of a ice fortress. You can see the version, 3.0.1, along with the latest build number and date: July 15, 2008.Many people will notice that you have to sign in via an email address. This is part of a new system that Blizzard has put into place for the Wrath beta. Essentially, you'll have to create a new "Blizzard Account" to log into the beta. This account is separate from your retail WoW account, however you still have to have a retail WoW account and a beta key to get one. There's not a ton of information out on the new account system they are using for this, but when we have more information on it we'll post it.For now, enjoy your new login screen!
Common Sense: There is no beta hack
There has been a YouTube video that has been circulating around the internet lately claiming to show how to get into the Wrath of the Lich King beta via a backdoor security flaw. The video directs you to another site, which you then must enter your user name and password that you use to get into WoW. Surprise, surprise: this is nothing but another trick to steal your account.This video has been showing up in links around the WoW community lately just about as much as a certain great music video. This initially caught my attention when it was posted here in our comments a few times.Since the real beta signups are under way, and access to the beta is expected to begin any time, we were expecting and indeed seeing a large uptick in the number of beta scams. Be sure to protect yourself.
US registration for Wrath beta now open
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/WoW_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King_beta_registration_opens'; US accounts are now able to access the beta registration from https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account/beta-opt-in.html and opt-in for the Wrath of the Lich King beta. EU accounts saw this feature implemented a short time ago. It looks like the leak from the German Community Manager Gnorog is holding up to be true.Remember that when you opt in, you are not guaranteed a spot, and you will likely not get an email inviting you to the beta right away. Instead your name will go into a pool of players who will then be chosen for the beta. That's why they call it opting in.This is a good time to remain vigilant about email scams and other malicious programs that might try to get your user name, password, and other account information. Never share these with anyone other than official worldofwarcraft.com websites.If the beta invites do start going out soon, expect us at WoW Insider to let our friends and families know what's really important this holiday weekend: bringing everyone late breaking WotLK news, all while enjoying their finely cooked BBQ food. I'll take two burgers to go with jalapeno cheese and a Corona. %Gallery-5525% WoW Insider has the latest Wrath information for you including a list of the Death Knight spells, abilities and talents demo'd at last weekend's WWI in Paris, as well as complete write ups of all the Wrath WWI panels with analysis.
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.
AoC account registration begins for pre-order customers
Funcom has opened up Age of Conan account registration for customers who pre-ordered the game. This includes the Early Access service. For a $5 or €5 fee, all those who pre-ordered the game may gain access to the servers on May 17th, three days ahead of the North American launch and six days ahead of the European launch.Previously, Europeans who paid for Early Access could jump into the game on the 20th, but Funcom has announced that those folks may now begin play at the same time as Americans, so the 17th is the day for everyone now! Hopefully some of the performance issues will be resolved by then. It looks like they might be.[Via Ten Ton Hammer]
Playtime credit for Bloodlust realms
Playtime credits: they're not just for European realms anymore! Blizzard must have been reading the comment thread for my post on the Bloodlust battlegroup's problems yesterday because, clearly in direct response to the demands of commenters Todd and oniwah, they are issuing a one-day credit to the accounts of anyone with characters on the affected realms. Once more, those realms are: Aman'Thul, Barthilas, Blackrock, Caelestrasz, Dath'Remar, Dreadmaul, Frostmourne, Frostwolf, Khaz'goroth, Kil'Jaeden, Kilrogg, Nagrand, Ner'zhul, Proudmoore, Sen'Jin, Silver Hand, Thaurissan, Tichondrius, and Vek'nilash. So if you've got a character on one of those servers, perhaps $0.50 worth of playtime will help make up for your troubles. Did they ever fix the latency/disconnect issues, by the way?
Account thieves make mainstream news
Some determined hackers have gone to great lengths to steal MMO accounts. So much so that they've managed to get noticed by the mainstream news outlets. We guess that's what happens when you hack over 10,000 websites just to get your hands on somebody else's MMO account.Essentially, these guys hacked into thousands of websites and added a small amount of code that redirects users into an invisible attack from some China-based servers. Apparently if you've got your antivirus program of choice up-to-date you shouldn't worry. Although the article points out that some of these attacks are directed at ActiveX controls, so update that as well if you haven't recently.We all know how terrible it would be to have our accounts hacked into and stolen. Many of us spend hundreds of hours in our favorite worlds, which many of us also pay for through our credit cards. Strangely enough, Lord of the Rings Online is mentioned as one of the games targeted by the hackers.[via TenTonHammer]
Anti Keylogger Shield may offer some protection for your account
Hackers are getting more and more brazen lately, hiding various trojans and keyloggers not only in random forum links, but in ad banners and even in electronic devices. Even common sense avoidance of suspicious links and websites doesn't always seem to work anymore. Luckily, there are other tools you can use, such as the Noscript extension for the Firefox browser. Lifehacker reported on a new one yesterday as well: Anti Keylogger Shield for Windows. This freeware program purports to work not by blocking installation of keyloggers, but by preventing them from logging your keys once installed. Lifehacker tested it by loading a keylogger and reported that it seemed to work, at least in that case, as the keylogger's log file was completely empty. Of course, you probably shouldn't just install this program and go off clicking strange links willy nilly, but it does look like it could be one more line of defense in the ever escalating battle to protect your computer and your account from those who would steal it. Plus, it's free, so that's even better. [Thanks for the forward, DrDiesel!]
Another blow in the keylogging experience
Thank you all for the encouragement I received in response to my recent keylogging experience. As a whole the experience was just dreadful. As I mentioned on last week's WoW Insider Show podcast, I am still afraid every time I log in that I will get the "The information you have entered is not valid" error. For the most part things have settled down, but the fear remains. The worst part of the keylogging episode was that my Shaman was transferred from a PvP to PvE server. After about a week in limbo my beloved Tauren was returned to her proper place. I was extremely relieved. Unfortunately that's the only thing on my account that Blizzard was kind enough to restore. They refused to return any of my gear or gold and did nothing about the items ninjaed from the guild bank. I appealed their decision with several emails. Those appeals were ubiquitously denied despite logical arguments and heart-filled plights. I thought it was all over, for better or for worse. I got more bad news in my email box the other day:
Character copy up, for now [Updated]
Many of our readers will be happy to know that several people are reporting that the character transfer to the PTR is up and running. Our thanks to WoW Insider reader Jason for pointing this out to us.You can get on the PTR and learn to love patch 2.4 by heading over to the Account Management page on the main World of Warcraft site. When there, click on the "Test Realm Character Copy" button, and then on "Copy a Character". After you've asked Blizzard to copy your character over, come back and check about every hour to see if they've done it yet. Even though the wait time says four days, in my experience it has been substantially less.One last tip: if the button comes up gray, just hit refresh a few times.Good luck!Updated 1:15 p.m. EST: Screams of frustration can be heard around Azeroth as Blizzard plays dirty tricks with their character copy process. People are now having mixed results in getting their characters copied across. It might be that the queue is full again.
Breakfast Topic: Hacked
My first post on WoW Insider was about a friend of mine being hacked, this time it's about me. I woke yesterday and tried to copy a character over to the public test realm as I've been doing often lately. I got a password error. I tried to log into my account- same thing. My email had this happy little surprise for me: Hello Amanda, The character transfers listed below have been completed as of 2/14/2008. The character[s] listed will now appear in the new location and/or account selected and are immediately available for play! - <character> - Level 70 Tauren Shaman - now on realm: Blade's Edge.
Oh Noes!!!1!1!1one: I've been hax0red!
On Saturday night I noticed a guildie acting strangely. He kept switching between characters and wouldn't respond to tells from even his closest friends in the guild. Concerned about him, we gave him a call... on the phone, to see what was up. You guessed it, he was nowhere near his computer at the time. He went to log in and found his password was changed. Unfortunately, he had also forgotten the correct response to his secret question "What is your favorite activity?" The hacker kept running in and out of the Shadow Labyrinth. I checked the customer service forums and found that this was common behavior among hackers. Either there is an exploit in that instance, or hackers just really enjoy hanging out with Blackheart the Inciter. I'm leaning toward the latter.
Officers' Quarters: A dangerous gift
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.It's the holiday season, and for many players that means extended periods away from Azeroth as we spend more time with family and friends. If your characters are a critical part of your guild's success, you may be tempted to give another player access to your account so they can help the guild in your absence. It's a generous and noble gesture, but in the big picture it's a dangerous gift to give. I would urge everyone to be a Scrooge and keep your account info all to yourself. And this week's e-mail shows why:What do you do as a guild leader, when you have two or three different people in your guild that have, in the past, shared accounts, and then one leaves the guild in an ugly way? Or at all?Especially if one has guild bank access?I know that, technically, sharing accounts is against the EULA, but among young teens it seems fairly common . . . especially in raiding guilds, where if a raid is short a priest, JohnnyX may have access to another guildies' account so he can bring the AFK player's priest on.What do you do if one leaves? The other two accounts are mostly played by the owners . . . but if the toon comes online, but the player isn't on a voice chat application, how do you know it is REALLY the owner, and not the player that left? Worse yet, what if the player had been booted?Is it right to remove other people from a guild because they have shared their account with someone else?
Deutsch wins PlayStation advertising account
After having divorced itself from their 13-year advertising company TBWA/Chiat/Day, Sony Computer Entertainment America has now decided who to hand the $150 million advertising account to. Pitchers for the account included Publicis & Hal Riney, Publicis West, Grey, Deautsh, Young & Rubicam and JWT with Deutsch being the eventual winner. As a result, don't expect to see too many PS3 octopus adverts as we venture further into the new year. While this appears to be an America only deal, TBWA are still, as far as we know, in possession of the European advertising account. Hopefully SCEE will see the light, as SCEA has, and rid us of the dog-fluffing, ballet dancing adverts we've become so familiar with. At any rate, these are exciting times as we head into 2008. With all the 2007 titles having been released, things can only start improving for Sony and the PS3 from here on out.[Via Joystiq]
iPod Touch (does not) require iTunes account to use
If you're planning to run out and grab an iPod Touch from an Apple Store this weekend (they're on sale there now, doncha know), Deep Thought has an important tip before you go. Before you even get chance one to use your new gadget, you'll have to make an iTunes account you won't need one-- see Update below.Of course it's not that surprising when you think about it (since you'll need an account for the WiFi store for sure), but an account just to use the iPod Touch? A little strange, no? The Touch might not have a contract like the iPhone, but clearly Apple wants you to check in on the signup form before you get to play with your new iPod.Update: Well, maybe not. Our beloved commenters say this is just plain not true. When setting up the Touch, you can apparently skip making the account, and while obviously you need it for the WiFi store, you don't need it to just use the iPod. Thanks, guys!Update2: DT has posted a retraction as well. In his defense, as I said in the comments, the original statement that said an account was required came directly from an Apple PDF. Not all of us have the resources or the cash to buy or use one of these things as soon as they're released, but all of us are committed to letting you know about any pitfalls before you spend your hard-earned money on one. If you are planning on buying a Touch, enjoy it, account or not.[via MacBytes]
Beware of video scams
I'm sure you've read before about watching out for all sorts of scams -- after all, your World of Warcraft account information is valuable stuff, and plenty of thieves out there would be happy to get their hands on it. The latest technique of account theft that I've noticed is all over YouTube, in many videos offering to teach you how to hack World of Warcraft accounts for fun and profit. All of these videos suggest that Blizzard has some sort of account retrieval service that can be accessed by e-mailing a random address (often at Gmail or Hotmail) with your account name and password as well as the name of the account you wish to access. Then, the videos claim, all you have to do is wait for Blizzard to mail you the password of the target account!Of course, the entire thing is a scam. The people posting these videos just want to take your password and run. So be warned, everyone -- don't fall pray to greed, and don't give your password out to anyone, regardless of what they might promise you in return.
