There has been a lot of controversy regarding this change. While I understand why Blizzard did this in that it does make my life easier as a player not to have to put in my authenticator code every single time I log in, I believe this was a mistake for 2 reasons.

1) This change *seems* to have been made without consulting the users that have authenticators. I say 'seems to have' because I don't recall a forum post about this change. It also doesn't appear to have been put out in a patch notice. If I am wrong about that, please let me know.

2) While we could go into the argument about whether or not an authenticator provides any real protection in an online world, I would say that is irrelevant. It's not whether it does, but the perception by the user base that have an authenticator is that it does provide added protection.


I was hacked about 2 years ago. I have never used a gold farming service or a character leveling service. My guild lost things, I lost everything in my inventory. At the time, I was just getting back into the game and had logged quite a few hours so I had some pretty good equipment. Blizzard was able to put everything back in, but I felt violated. Yes, yes it's just a game and blah blah blah, but it meant that someone had access to my account.

The day I was hacked, I contacted Blizzard and purchased an authenticator and I felt safe, in that at least now regardless of where I was, or what computer I was on I would be able to login and know nobody else had the ability to log in without my keyfob.

The changes to the authentication system were done without my consent. While this is Blizzards property we are playing with (if you look at the ULA, it says basically that anything we are using in game is the property of Blizzard), I still felt safe to come on and play. With the changes that have been done to the authentication system, I *feel* that some of that security is gone. Again, this is Perception vs. Reality, and my perception(s) of security have changed.

I'm not upset that Blizzard is attempting to make my gaming experience easier. I am upset with them for not allowing me the choice to make that decision for myself.

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