What was the purpose of Battle.net

#0 - June 9, 2010, 1:06 a.m.

I know Battle.net's main purpose is obviously $, as this quote below from a Blizzard poster in August of '09 explains how it makes promoting their products easier ... it's right there.

* Yes, there are other reasons; which are also listed below in the quote.

Nathaera -

Q u o t e:
Q: What are the benefits of creating and using a Battle.net Account?
A: The new Battle.net Account allows you to log in to World of Warcraft, manage purchases at the online Blizzard Store, keep track of CD keys for your Blizzard Entertainment games, access our websites (such as the World of Warcraft Armory), opt in to upcoming beta tests, and more using a single login -- just your email address and a password. In the future, we plan to add more features, including tools to make it easier for friends to communicate between games and to help bring our community of players closer together.

* Now, as I read that specific thread there are numerous posts from the community of gamers being a little unsure of having

Q u o t e:
a single login -- just your email address and a password.

Ever since Battle.net became mandatory, gold spam and account theft have sky rocketed ... yeah, I realize more people play World of Warcraft now ... but that isn't any excuse for the huge increase of illegal activity on accounts.

* Sure, you can now buy an authenticator or get the free app on your cell phone ... but the thing I find even more ironic is ever since those came out, gold spam and account theft have increased!

- So now that I'm done rambling, I guess my overall question is ... why have all these "security" measures been taken when they've done nothing but increased account violation/hacking? I also don't get why we use our email address to log in, I just find that with the plain old account names and passwords my account was much more safe. I do realize account trading/theft and gold selling/buying have existed on MMO's since they were first created, but it has only gotten worse in regards to World of Warcraft.

Zarhym

#70 - June 9, 2010, 3:10 a.m.

Q u o t e:
- So now that I'm done rambling, I guess my overall question is ... why have all these "security" measures been taken when they've done nothing but increased account violation/hacking?

I don't think you'd find a satisfactory answer to this question. In fact, there really isn't an answer to the question because it's based on a false premise.

Battle.net accounts provide the opportunity for a whole host of new functionality, including the Real ID feature coming soon. That said, protecting your account information today is just as important as it was five years ago.

Zarhym

#84 - June 9, 2010, 3:21 a.m.

Q u o t e:

Real I.D which uses our email address which will be compromised and more hacking incoming.

This just gets better and better.

Wasn't it blizzard all those years that said we would never use email's, passwords associated with an account to others in game or on the internet or phone?, yet we are going to have to share our email to use the I.D function?.

No, we didn't say that, but what we're saying now is don't share your email address with anyone you don't trust. The Real ID system isn't going to allow your email address to be compromised, much less make it inevitable as can be inferred from your first sentence. Again, don't share your email address with anyone you don't know and don't accept Real ID requests from people you don't know.

Using your email address alone, a hacker does not have the necessary information to compromise your account. If you're well-informed about securing your account, you shouldn't have to worry about someone knowing your email address.

Zarhym

#87 - June 9, 2010, 3:23 a.m.

Q u o t e:

Friends tend to betray friends in games, especially this one. So, I'm not exactly wrong on this issue. It will be abused I can guarantee that.

If you believe that about your friends, I suggest not giving them your password and authenticator code then. Also, block them from your Real ID friends list.

Zarhym

#91 - June 9, 2010, 3:26 a.m.

Q u o t e:
I hope it works out well, I like the idea but I just see problems with it, I may be right I may be wrong. I'm not bashing blizzard for creating it, I just see problems or other ways of phishing for it, friends betraying one another etc. you get the picture hopefully. To each is own.

As others have suggested, if you're that skeptical about the Real ID feature you should probably use it extremely sparingly. You are ultimately in control of the information you give out. That has never changed.