With due respect, Mike is a great guy and thanks to his leadership for Guild Wars 2 being here today. However, the article addresses single account ownership only. If a player has multiple accounts, how is the Google Authenticator going to work if the player has one smart phone?
I too have authenticators [WoW & FFXIV] which a least in the case of WoW have actually prevented someone from abusing my account after my security information was compromised through what I thought was a harmless link posted on the official forums.
I think there is reasonable justification for these tools. It’s an added layer of security who’s costs are paid for by the player base through sales. They add an additional layer of security that will in the long run, without a doubt, save on costs associated with the man hours needed to address stolen account issues. In addition, this will in turn lead to faster response times for any and all other account issues because less resources are spent combating fraud.
It really sounds like a win/win, and I was hoping that like the FFXIV collector’s edition, one would have been included in either the Deluxe/Collector’s editions at launch. There is no better way to help secure accounts at launch. Mike O’Brien himself notes that many GW2 accounts were compromised right after launch as a result information acquired previously from other games and sources. If authenticators were available at launch it would served to substantially mitigate the problems they’re facing now. Which of course costs them time and money.
I would prefer a physical authenticator that can stay on my desk by the computer. My phone is usually downstairs with my purse and gets charged down there, plus it goes out and about with me so it could get stolen.
A dedicated keychain thing that I can tether to my desk mic would be perfect.
