(no subject)

[camrogers]

Morning before last Drew phones me at 8am. He's just gotten through Customs, having landed back in Melbourne from six weeks in Germany, Jersey, Luxembourg and the UK.

First thing he wants to know is do I have a new computer yet. Talk about priorities.

Told him I didn't. Fact is I hadn't noticed. The Eee is doing me fine and I don't miss gaming that much.

Last night I'd just gotten to sleep and my phone rings. It's Drew. A friend of his had some heavy crap go down with his family and he has to move back to Sri Lanka after seven years. Not good. Doesn't know when he'll be back, and he's already been stabbed once over there. The point of this, though, is that he's selling a 4-month-old gaming rig, optimised, at a reduced price. I said sure, I'd take it.

I suppose this is the other side of the Butterfly Effect. Something explodes in Sri Lanka, a family is thrown into turmoil, and somewhere in Melbourne I start playing World of Warcraft again.*


*: God help me I better not.

Comments

[greylock]

and somewhere in Melbourne I start playing World of Warcraft again.*

You know you will. Or something like it. You've just pre-committed to some sort of time suck.

Are you writing on the Eee? Those things are teeny unless you use a standalone USB keyboard. Or are a top notch typist.

[camrogers]

I've written everything on the Eee. The keyboard took no getting used to at all.

RE time-suck. Maybe. It'll make photo-editing a hell of a lot easier, I'll be able to use Photoshop again, and the screen is a decent size. The other thing is I've gotten better at working through checklists, so I do achieve things. There is a 360 in my room, and that doesn't get used that much. Book's half-done.

Gaming, for me, is like what tarot cards used to be: the degree to which I use is proportional to the number of things I want relief or escape from.

[thorfinn]

*ponder* What was your toon's name on Proudmoore? Furian? Because I've seen it logged in a bit... If that's your toon and that's not you logging in, then your Blizz account has been taken over by someone.

[camrogers]

Oh FFS.

You're the second person to say that.

Do you know much about how hacking an account is done? I haven't given out any info on the account. Haven't even spoken of it for 2 years.

[thorfinn]

A lot of different ways.

http://sea.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?locale=en_SG&articleId=179

is probably your best reference on the subject. Even if you don't plan to play the game any more, I recommend you retrieve the account and secure it.

[camrogers]

Yeah, will do. *sigh*

[belegdel]

You know, this is the 4th inactive account I've heard of being hacked. Some of the them *years* inactive.

Methinks either Blizzard's account reactivation system has holes, or they're being brute-forced and Blizzard is oblivious.

[ashamel]

Based on the activity feed on wowarmory, someone started using it a bit over a week ago, after a break of 14 months.

(Am also on Proudmoore, for better or worse.)

[camrogers]

That's so weird. And it's been longer than 14 months, I'm pretty sure.

Tried logging into the account using what I'm pretty sure was the password and had no luck. Wondering if the whole Battle.net thing is fuxxoring it for me, or has something to do with it.

The other thing is, my account is tied to a defunct email address, so I can't reset the password that way either.

Not sure what my recourse is. He said speaking as though he has any plans to use that toon ever again.

[ashamel]

Sounds like it would be better to just ignore it completely, especially now people you know will be aware it's not you.

[camrogers]

I guess. I mean, I'd kinda like to know I still have him. At some point I may want to step back in. besides, it's *mine.*

He said stamping his feet.

[ashamel]

The way you write about WoW doesn't make me think you'll enjoy wrestling with Blizzard over account ownership.

But I understand the urge to do it anyway. Not sure I can advise either way, if only to avoid enabling...