Guild Wars 2

There may be many about this same question but search didn’t work so i just wanted to ask everybodys opinion and ArenaNet/NCsoft statement to how are we going to get better secure for our accounts?
Is there in near future going to be mobile authenticator or normal authenticator in about 10€ prize or something? So many my friends accounts have been hacked and now those are used for gold spamming and other stupid things in the game… So please reply for this important question.
Cheers!

Authenticators (mobile or physical) are a Godsend in my opionion. Not only in the IT industry but in gaming. My WOW account was hacked once, then I “bought” the physical authenitcator (mobile wasn’t around then) and was very very happy. It can be free, or paid. Either way I would get one! I wish they would offer something like this. But since GW1 didn’t have it, sadly I don’t think GW2 wll.

It would take a significant outlay on ArenaNet’s part. With 2 million copies sold, they’d have to spend, realistically, around $5 million to have enough availability.

And then they’d have to overhaul their account authentication system. Which costs developer and QA manhours.

Then there’d be the inevitable bugs with the rollout of the new system, taking support manhours away from others who may need it more.

Even if they started this today, it’d be many months before you saw it. It’s not as easy as someone at ArenaNet picking up a phone, ordering a few million authenticator fobs, and then telling a junior DBA to add a column to a table in a database.

Don’t get me wrong: I’d like to see them too. But it’s just not realistic. Maybe in a year or so, but not right now.

I’m not a fan in the year 2012 of Authenticators. I think it’s on most peoples minds because of WoW. But there are things that are just as good, that don’t require HW or a Mobile Device.

See Steam authentication or see Dragon Nest authentication (which I like best).

Dragon Nest you have a User/Password and you have a pin # you create. You sign in User/Pass. In Game (and that is important) you enter your pin, but you do not type it. A 9-digit numpad is displayed on-screen. The numbers are in random order each time.

You click in your pin. It is virtually hack free. If a hacker got your user password, they would have to in 3-5 tried guess your pin #. Not gonna happen.

2-step verification in Gmail makes Anet’s email authentication good enough. But, I would love to see a mobile authenticator like Battle.net or SWTOR’s. Honestly, I don’t see why they didn’t have the option in the first place. It isn’t like these are a new thing. At least two MMOs have used them now, to great effect. I’ve never had a issue with either my Battle.net mobile authenticator or my SWTOR one.

Personally, I’d rather have the mobile authenticator then an on-screen number pad, but anything more secure than email verification is needed!