Guild Wars 2 Starter Guide (Social) and Problems

IGN has written a Guild Wars 2 starter guide for players with an emphasis on grouping, including information about overflow maps, whether you can a friend can play together regardless of race, drawing on the map, etc. Some tips are useful whether you play GW2 solo or with friends.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/guild-wars-2/Starter_Guide

Note that GW2 is having major problems.  Their servers are so full that they have temporarily suspended digital sales.  It does look like those who pre-purchased the game can still download it and play, however.  Here's a listing of the problem areas which include security issues.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/z3qqm/guild_wars_2_status_thursday_august_30/

Around 3,000 players have been permanently banned for buying mis-priced high level karma weapons in huge numbers and creating even higher level items from them.  GW2's developers are going to allow the permanently banned a second chance if they promise to get rid of these items.  They will be allowed back after a 72 hour ban but if you have the items in your inventory still, it's permanent ban time again.
http://www.pcgamer.com/2012/08/31/3000-guild-wars-2-players-permanently-banned-for-karma-exploit/

Here's more about account hacking.
http://www.videogamer.com/pc/guild_wars_2/news/guild_wars_2_accounts_hacked_as_ncsoft_warns_players_to_be_vigilant_3.html

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WOW: Using the Mobile Authenticator on Kindle Fire

Apparently Battle.net's mobile authenticator can be downloaded to the Kindle File.  The trick is that it is available via Google's Play site, not via Amazon's app store.  I have no idea if this works or not.
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3595675350?page=3

Here's another convoluted method which only works if you have an Android phone to download to.
http://www.tested.com/news/feature/3179-how-to-sideload-android-apps-on-the-amazon-kindle-fire-in-3-steps/

The easiest method is to use Getjar.com to put apps on your Kindle Fire but Battle.net mobile authenticator doesn't seem to be one of them.
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-kindle-fire-apps-2011-11?op=1

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Uplay: Ubisoft Security Risk

Ubisoft's UPlay service comes with a security risk.  Here're the details and now to remove the problem plug-in.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/30/psa-possible-security-risk-in-some-ubisoft-pc-games/

Here's the patch to fix UPlay.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/30/ubisoft-respond-to-uplay-security-drama/


Ubisoft says this was caused by a coding error.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/31/coding-error-caused-uplay-exploit/

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Rift Anthenticator for All Devices

Downloads of the authenticator for Android, iPhone and Windows phones.
http://www.riftgame.com/en/media/downloads/authenticator.php

Instructions
http://telarapedia.com/wiki/Authenticator

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Game Security (or Lack Thereof)

The Playstation 3's network problems are being written about all over the WWW.  Reading a few of these articles from my favorite sources led me to the website below which is all about game security.  It will be of interest to those with technical understanding but not so much for other gamers.
http://www.playnoevil.com/serendipity/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Rift: Mobile Authenticator for iPhones Available UPDATED

Looks like the mobile authenticator is now available for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touches.  Here is what you do after you download the free app from iTunes.
https://www.riftgame.com/en/products/authenticator.php

 Please note that the random number generated by the iPhone or iPod Touch (or Android phone) changes rapidly.  You only have a short amount of time to type in the letters/numbers before it changes to something else, which can be rough on folks with physical impairments.

UPDATE:  Here's a detailed essay on protecting yourself as a gamer from hackers.
http://www.riftsocial.com/prevent-hacking

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Rift: Mobile Authenticator Released for Droid Phones

Rift has just announced a mobile authenticator has been released for those with Android phones.  An iPhone authenticator is in the works.
http://rift.zam.com/story.html?story=25808

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Rift Security: Account Hacks

A Rift player discovered how to access accounts without any account information.
http://www.riftjunkies.com/2011/03/19/rift-junkies-not-the-source-of-account-hacks/

Apparently this security hole has been patched by Trion.
http://www.riftjunkies.com/2011/03/19/scott-hartsman-weekend-security-update/

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Rift Security: Coin Lock

The Solo MMO Player has been on vacation and was surprised to discover the new "coin lock" procedure (implemented March 17) had him locked out of Rift.  Here's the best summary I found about how it works.
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?122396-Update-on-Hacked-Accounts

Note that some sort of authenticator system is in the works.

Apparently the new coin lock system had problems.
http://forums.riftgame.com/showthread.php?129952-Coin-Lock-is-there..wait..no-it-s-not

So Rift updated (March 19) the coin lock system they implemented in such a way that everyone has to use an email code to get into their account. More information about how it all works here:
http://rift.ign.com/articles/news/7486/Coin-Lock-Update

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

My Favorite Phishing Email

The Solo MMO Player got this one today.  It's my favorite to date.  "Hope you can understand."  LOL

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Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2010 07:24:18 +0800
From: Blizzard Entertainment
Reply-To: noreply@battle.net
Subject: World of Warcraft: Cataclysm Christmas gifts £¡

Greetings,
Cataclysm has arrived,, we have to compare World of Warcraft major revision may cause the same to you hope you can understand! 85 new mount coming soon, World of Warcraft players who could be our lucky stars, we will be complimentary seat to the 5,000 new players. You can log Web site application, we will be lucky players randomly. Christmas is about the new mount will be distributed to lucky players.
Look for our registration site:

We will contact you with further instructions once we havein 48 hours of submitting this form, please resend it from the address listed above.
have any questions please contact Billing &
Account Services at 1-800-59-BLIZZARD
(1-800-592-5499 Mon-Fri, 8Am-8PM Pacific Time)

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc.

[phishing site address removed]

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Yet Another Phishing Scam (the Gawker Hack)

WOW player email boxes are crammed full of phishing emails pretending to be Blizzard warning about last weekend's Gawker hack and asking for a password reset,  but some of those emails are actually from Blizzard.  An example of the real thing is shown at Kotaku.  I imagine a visit to your Battle.net account will help you figure out what's real and what's fake if you used the same email address for Gawker and Blizzard accounts.
http://kotaku.com/5713494/warning-about-world-of-warcraft-phishing-scam

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

New Dial-In Authenticator UPDATED WITH REVIEW

Blizzard has come up with a third authenticator, the dial up authenticator.  Basically you give Blizzard a phone number.  You choose a pin and when you want to do something unusual, you call from that number, enter the pin number and get an authenticator security code like the ones that works on the smart phones or on the actual authenticator token.  It sounds very clunky to me but here are the details so you can decide for yourself.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=173490

A review.
http://www.isheepthings.com/blog/battle-net-dial-in-authenticator-review/

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Copyright Solo MMO Player at http://solommo.blogspot.com

Phishing Scams Increase

Gordon is seeing an alarming increase in phishing scams that look very real in his email In Box.  He is quite surprised that phishers have his email address since he is so security conscious, not realizing that Blizzard's internal security has been breached.
http://blog.weflyspitfires.com/2010/10/08/wow-phishing-scams-play-on-the-insecurities-they-caused/

The Solo MMO Player's email login, never used for anything except a login address to Battle.net, was breached long ago.

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Blizzard Announces an Online Hacked Account Form

Instead of emailing or calling Blizzard, now you are supposed to fill out a form on this website.  It looks like the personal information they will ask for to restore a hacked account will be even more insecure now.
http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/09/22/blizzard-announces-automated-account-recovery-form-for-hacked-ac/

More details.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=169026

I consider this as just another form of cost-cutting on Blizzard's part.  If I were hacked, I'd want a real person to talk to about the problem, not an online form.  Customer service this is not.

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Account Hacking Discussion

Tobold mentions the huge number of spamming/phishing emails he gets at his WOW account login/email address and states his opinion that most accounts are hacked by folks being phished or having their password guessed.  As usual, the Comments section is very interesting.
http://tobolds.blogspot.com/2010/08/wow-account-hacking.html

One of the sites mentioned in the Comments led me to this discussion of how to choose a strong password that "dictionary hacks" can't break.  I'm going to add the Securing WOW blog to the list of favorite links as it is full of helpful information for the security-conscious.
http://securingwow.blogspot.com/2010/05/suffer-mortals-as-your-pathetic.html

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Cataclysm Beta Uploader IMPORTANT UPDATE

There is a new launcher/uploader/downloader program that will be added to the Cataclysm Beta shortly.  It will arrive for all players when Cataclysm arrives this fall sometime.
http://www.wowhead.com/blog=165181

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR OCEANIA PLAYERS:  Apparently to test the beta of this program, you have to erase your Cataclysm beta and download everything all over again. Details here about how to avoid the broken download URL.

Remember to be very careful when you get an email list this as your WOW email address login is known to every spamner or con artist on the planet.
http://pwnwear.com/2010/08/05/new-launcherinstaller-available-for-beta/


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Example of an In-Game Phishing Email

In case you want to see what you need to be wary of.
http://wowalone.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-game-phishing-email.html

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Blizzard's Q&A About Real ID

The meat of the posting is that the ability to remove your real name from Real ID will hit about the time Starcraft II comes out, they are trying to come up with some sort of unique ID for the forums but there won't be a way to add a game name to Real ID inside the game.
http://kotaku.com/5589238/questions-and-answers-about-blizzards-real-id-plans

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Newest Email Scam: Free Sparkle Pony

WOW Insider reports the newest scam circulating is a fake offer of a Celestial Steed.  Those of us who wouldn't be caught dead on one of these are safe. Everyone else read this.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/13/new-scam-tries-to-give-you-a-free-celestial-steed/

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More Cataclysm Beta Invites About to Be Issued

WOW Insider reports more beta invitations about about to go out.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/12/cataclysm-beta-next-round-of-invites-going-out-soon/

I'm repeating the link to tips for sorting out the real invitation from the fake ones in your compromised email address used as your official WOW logon.
http://www.wow.com/2010/07/03/breakfast-topic-are-you-in-or-out/

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