The Queue: Keeping it classy
by Alex Ziebart 
Mar 9th 2010 at 2:00PM
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today.
We haven't kicked off The Queue with reading music in awhile, so let's change that. Once upon a time I posted some Rhett and Link for you, an internet-based musical comedy duo, and people seemed to enjoy it. So here's more! Behold, the T-Shirt War. T-Shirt War was actually my second choice behind the far more hilarious Butt Drugs, but perhaps Butt Drugs aren't as safe for work. Still, funny stuff. Butt Drugs.
The Queue is actually a bit short today, since a majority of the questions we've been receiving require rolling bones and gazing into a crystal ball to answer. If you have a non-Cataclysm question for us, please ask in the comments below!
busuan asked...
"Why is there almost no sound effect for a warrior's shouts? In Diablo II, the similar shouts come with awesome sound effects. But in WoW, warrior shouts merely generate a visual cue. If Blizzard though effect were annoying to other people, they could have restricted the effects as self-only."
Shouts do have a sound effect. The problem is that after years of shouting like that, warriors have nearly lost their voices, so it just comes out as a light rasp. The sound effect is there, honest. It's just not very loud or intimidating.
Avan asked...
"My authenticator just came in today. What will I have to do in the future if the battery dies?"
You'll need to contact Billing/Support and supply various bits of information to prove that you're actually the owner of the account trying to remove the authenticator legitimately. The serial number on the back of the authenticator at the very least. However, the battery life on the authenticator is 5-7 years, so that's probably not even a concern. Who knows if you'll even be playing WoW at that point.
Beruza asked...
"Does fall damage scale higher with level and/or gear? And if so, why would you take more damage at a higher level and gear?"
Falling damage is very simple. It's a percentage of your max health. No matter what level you are, you can't freefall from the highest mountain in Azeroth and survive. No matter how good your gear is, leaping off of the World Tree is still going to leave you as little more than a bloodstain in the grass. It makes sense in that way, and it also stops you from deciding jumping off of really tall things is a valid method of travel. That would be kind of absurd. Far more absurd than flying astride a draconic construct made of bones.
Admittedly, it is pretty funny for a big burly protection warrior in full plate armor, shield and sword at hand, to take seven thousand damage because they tripped on a rock.
Smokimus asked...
"Will they be wiping honor with patch 3.3.3?"
They haven't said they will be, a patch has never wiped honor before, and I see no reason why they would. It would be rather arbitrary and senseless.
Have questions about the World of Warcraft? The WoW.com crew is here with The Queue, our daily Q&A column! Leave your questions in the comments and we'll do our best to answer 'em!Filed under: The Queue
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Scooba Mar 9th 2010 2:08PM
Why hasn't Blizzard done anything in-game to help prevent gold hackers? Couldn't there be an in-game pin # or security question to gain gold access? Why do we all walk around with all our gold in our bags? Why not be able to put it in a "lockbox" or even the option of a time lock? If keylogging is the problem then maybe a puzzle type of lock? Where is my Undercity ATM Card???
Teagan Mar 9th 2010 2:11PM
I've actually wondered why blizzard doesn't require passwords and authenticators to be enter by on screen keyboards/keypads like so many korean games do.
Cephas Mar 9th 2010 2:17PM
Wait, you want to stop hackers from taking people's gold after getting into their accounts? Why bother doing that when you can just try to keep them out of people's accounts?
tatsumasa Mar 9th 2010 2:32PM
i know, huh?! they should come up with some sort of device to where you have to physically get a number from it before you can actually access the account at all. it would be a way of authenticating that you are the person accessing your account. now they just need a clever name...
Scooba Mar 9th 2010 2:50PM
I'm just saying, with the recent reports of authenticators getting hacked, that another fail safe wouldn't hurt. Right now, hacker's only hurdle is getting logged on, you give them another hurdle and it makes it harder for them, they have to charge more for gold, people buy less, etc. Also, the pin couldn't be keylogged if it was an on screen numberpad you had to click. Hackers have to act fast and I think it wouldn't be too much a burden. What if repairs and vendors, or even the AH, could "withdrawal" your gold from your "bank account". Then you wouldn't need to carry that much gold.
tatsumasa Mar 9th 2010 3:15PM
you do realize that your gold isn't physically anywhere in the game right? it's not in your bags. it just shows up there unless you get an addon that puts that number somewhere else. splitting your money up means that it would first have to be somewhere, so blizzard would have to program in that place for it to be. then they'd have to program the place for you to put your other portion of it, as well as code vendors to recognize where your money is.
furthermore, keyloggers, or rather the people that make them do keep track of mouse movements. they know what buttons you're clicking on. if you think about what is actually taking place, you'd understand why your suggestion wouldn't work. thanks for bringing all this up though, because now maybe some other people who thought the same thing but didn't speak up will understand.
Oriflame Mar 9th 2010 3:22PM
Just a side note: on screen number pads do not prevent key logging. There are numerous approaches hackers currently use to circumvent this type of control on banking sites. (screen scraping, memory sniffing, etc)
I actually wish I could get an authenticator for my bank account - 6 bucks is a deal for my wow account, but I'd pay 50 to have it for my bank... you know, where I keep my for reals golds.
Croe Mar 9th 2010 3:23PM
There is a very simple fail safe that can be easily implemented.
When someone logs on, a screen comes up and asks: Are you a hacker?
If you type yes, it says: "Shame on you. What would your mother think?" and gives you a link to turn yourself into Blizzard. (That is, tell Blizzard that you are a hacker and not become Blizzard yourself, which would be a more complicated matter.)
If you type no, it says: "You must be the rightful owner of this account." and lets you in.
This may rely on people's honesty, but I'm sure that gold farmers are nothing if not honest.
Suzaku Mar 9th 2010 3:32PM
Authenticators weren't getting "hacked", as far as I know. They were getting keylogged. A trojan was released that would intercept authenticator codes and then send an incorrect code to the server, giving the programmer a chance to use the intercepted code while it was still active.
Which is just further proof that account security requires more than just buying an authenticator. You have to avoid unsafe websites, suspicious downloads, and keep your anti-virus software up to day.
Shrike Mar 9th 2010 3:43PM
@Scooba:
There are *absolutely no* legitimate reports of authenticators being hacked. It's not possible without a whole lot more effort than it takes to hack unauthenticatored accounts, which is why hackers focus on those. The only report of an exploit involving an authenticatored account involved a Man-in-the-Middle attack, which is a failure of security on the part of the user, not on the part of the authenticator.
Scooba Mar 9th 2010 3:56PM
Word. I swear by my authenticator. I guess there will never be a way to keep people from scam e-mails and bad judgement.
NEW COMMENT: When will Blizz make Authenticators mandatory? lol ;)
toxicityj Mar 9th 2010 4:24PM
I think Teagan's ideas a good one. I know maple story has this. It's a little annoying, but the added safety of nearly wiping out keylogging issues by having to click in your password (with the on-screen keyboard randomizing the key locations to avoid logging the clicks accurately) plus an authenticator would be insane. Plus those without an authenticator will still get a boost to safety.
xandrence Mar 9th 2010 4:56PM
@Shrike:
That's like saying there have been no confirmed reports of anybody ever getting their account hacked period. The people stealing account info are not hacking into Blizzards site to get it...they rely on the user to make some sort of mistake such as downloading malware, or logging into a fake site. Accounts with authenticators are getting "hacked" or (exploited if you prefer) in the same sort of way that accounts without them are. Granted it's a more complicated, but in the end it's the same principal.
jason.reagan Mar 9th 2010 5:49PM
its not the same way, that would be like saying someone that breaks your car window to steal your car in the middle of the night is the same as the guy that comes up and knocks you out after you after you open the door. They are 2 totally different class of attacks
Sehvekah Mar 9th 2010 6:18PM
No jason, they really are the exact same type of attack. The difference is that, with an authenticator in place it becomes very time sensitive(they've only got about 30 seconds to log in and start cleaning you out), and the keylogger used to pull it off is a slight bit more complex. But otherwise it's the same thing they've been doing for years.
dick Mar 11th 2010 6:46AM
What would be nice is a virtual keyboard at either the login as an extra safety or indeed ingame for bank access for example...
A popup with a virtual keyboard or a collection of symbols that you could use would make it hard for loggers. Mouse movement is much much harder to og than keystrokes, especially considering ppl run at different reolutions or popup not always being in the same spot on-screen.
Matt P Mar 9th 2010 2:10PM
Why do all of WoW.com's links load in the same window? I know constantly having new windows or tabs for links can annoying readers, but it seems silly to have a joke link (linking to Penny Arcade's GIF theory comic, for instance) take you away from the site.
Ostentaneous Mar 9th 2010 2:16PM
ctr+click or middle click your mouse will open it up in a new tab in most browsers.
Nextweek Mar 10th 2010 3:30AM
Because that was the way the web was designed to work. Constant new windows would slow down your browser. Admittedly I have about 20 tabs open currently, but thats my preference and I get to make that choice. Do it your way and every website would take that control away.
You have a back button and a history if you get lost.
Speedmonkay Mar 9th 2010 3:27PM
Or you can right click the link and choose open in new window or new tab.