This is not a good idea. It's an added layer of inconvenience for those people intelligent enough to keep their accounts safe. One thing Blizzard could consider is requiring attaching an authenticator to continue playing on accounts that have been compromised, but requiring it for everyone is going way to far. I don't scam people, I can make enough money on my own, but I am still very much against this idea.

Sure GMs have a load to deal with now, but giving every kid dumb enough to give out his account info a small little tool to keep track of is not the smartest idea ever. Blizzard would have almost the same amount of problems dealing with kids who lost their authenticator and now aren't only missing their gold, but can't access their entire account.

Step 1. Include authenticator in cataclysm
Step 2. If your account gets hacked the only way to get reimbursed items/gear/guild bank is if you have authenticator attached to your account. NO EXCEPTIONS
Step 3. Watch people sign up for authenticator in flocks.

@ mrdonut125,

I don't really think intelligence correlates as directly as you suspect with whether or not your account will be hacked. I've seen it happen too many times to people who use all the standard recommended protections (don't visit naughty or questionable sites, regularly run adware and spyware detectors, browse with mozilla, use adblockers, run no script, etc).

As for the resolution of the account problems, this is still better from Blizzard's point of view. Since the authenticator prevents anyone (even an account thief) from taking any actions with an account if the authenticator is lost. The reverification process is largely placed on the user and is quite comprehensive. It even requires getting a notary public to acknowledge the persons identity- then mailing the raised seal document.

All that is required for Blizzard to do is mail an 'account recovery' form letter to the account holder and sit back and collect the information. Once the identity is sufficiently established, the authenticator can be removed from the account and a new one can be put in place.

On the other hand, restoring a character once actions have been taken (stripping gear, cleaning out guild banks, trading currency, violating the ToS) is rather difficult. It requires an investigation to prove that it was not the player that committed these acts. Then it requires going over data to find an appropriate restoration point. Finally there is a great deal of follow up required to ensure that the account is restored to it's proper state. And that is for only one character. What if the account thief changes more than one characters details? The amount of work quickly gets out of hand.

The authenticators will ABSOLUTELY save Blizzard many work hours dealing with account theft related issues. More fundamentally, they will protect authenticator holders from having asshats ruin their recreation time.

I'm not sure how you can justify calling this 'not a good idea'.