Comments on: Blizzard Authenticator Ordered

By: aBiNeR

aBiNeR — Thu, 14 May 2009 16:50:57 +0000

Everything costs money. $7.06 cents (including shipping) more than covers the cost of the item plus the added level of security this device provides. I work for a Single Sign-On shop and one of our plug-ins supports smart cards and token keys.

Well worth the price.

By: awsome

awsome — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:43:56 +0000

awsome i got hacked 13times…and lockd my account and gave up on wow but ima buy this bin i got a new comp thanks for ur input

By: Ethic

Ethic — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:47:53 +0000

Little update for you then: No issues other than the little bit of time it takes to punch in the code every time you want to play. I even tested the removal of the FOB from the account to see how that works and it was simple. Sad to hear you are having problems getting one Steph!

By: Steph

Steph — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:33:10 +0000

I actually want to get one of these, but every time I go to the Blizz Store, they are sold out. Then, I see them on places like Ebay for a minimum of $45 plus shipping. I think people buy them out, then resell them for profit. I got my account hacked recently and I am not the type that would do anything to unsecure my home network or cause my account to be compromised. Luckily, I am not one that has thousands of gold or twenty five 80s, so it was caught really quick, I didn’t lose anything (except my calm because I couldn’t believe I could have actually gotten hacked) and I was back in game after about a day. It’s not just the people who don’t secure their account properly that get hacked…it’s a lot of us “normal” players.

Good to know that the FOB works for multiple accounts. I’ll get one to use for my husband and my son’s accounts on top of mine. Hope it has worked well for you so far.

By: Blizzard Authenticator Follow-up | Kill Ten Rats

Blizzard Authenticator Follow-up | Kill Ten Rats — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:00:29 +0000

[...] authenticator I ordered for my wife arrived recently and we set it up. It comes with a slip of paper with a web address to [...]

By: Chris F

Chris F — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:50:07 +0000

Good points Yunk. The 3-4% decline is actually far less if you considered the manufacturing cost instead of the sale cost, but yeah, they would definitely consider the extra revenue for the “lost” sales of the FOB.

More likely (after more thinking about it) it has less to do with cost and convenience than perception.

Account gets hacked currently, blame is on the hacker and player, Blizzard gets to play the “good” guy by reinstating items

FOBS introduced as mandatory, FOBS break down/get lost, Blizzard is the “bad” guy (for helping players secure their accounts) because of the inconveniences that will arise.

I could just imagine reading the forums now. Scary stuff.

Although, the mandatory-FOB on expansion would also help Blizzard temper account sales as it would be another barrier.

By: yunk

yunk — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:17:57 +0000

Chris F, probably because that’s still between 3 to 4% decline in revenue for that year per new subscriber (depending on pay schedule). Not to mention all the people that quit a few months, come back, and need a new fob cause they lost it – they’ll drive up costs too since either they won’t be paying until the fob arrives, or customers will demand overnight service for the new fob if they are paying, which probably costs more than the week of time Bliz can take to fix a hacked account.

Basically I think if it were more cost effective to send them out to everyone they’d be doing that already.

By: Chris F

Chris F — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:51:34 +0000

Bah hit submit too fast =) Besides my tongue in cheek response above, it really makes business sense on a couple levels.

The unit probably costs $2 to produce. Everytime an account is hacked (investigation, reinstating of items, black market value costs) it definitely costs more than that in staffing and opportunity costs. Blizzard should ship them with all of their new boxes (WOTLK would have been a good opportunity) as part of the box price.

After Hudson’s dad was hacked the first time they should have sent him one as a precautionary, and cost saving measure for the future =)

By: Chris F

Chris F — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 14:41:09 +0000

Guess my big question is, if it solves the bigger problem of hacked accounts effectively…

Why are they making you pay? How hard is it to just say “Hey, this guy has subbed for 7 months.. let’s take $1 off of each of those months and give this valued subscriber extra protection on an account we own and control anyway!”

Sheesh. Next thing you know they will be charging for haircuts.

By: Ethic

Ethic — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 04:59:52 +0000

@Ysharros: My understand is that you have to enter the number displayed on the device at each login, besides your normal password.