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Reading through Jarulf's guide in his Battle.net commands, I've noticed that he references using account #'s instead of player names as a method of messaging someone. Having 10 accounts, and many friends that have the same, it would be incredibly convenient if this was still possible. However, the method Jarulf said to find you player number with (/whoami) no longer yields a number, though I trust that it did so at one point. Also, I don't know my own number, or anyone else's or if there is even still a way to track these. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience using these, or know a way to replicate the steps JG uses?
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Quote:Reading through Jarulf's guide in his Battle.net commands, I've noticed that he references using account #'s instead of player names as a method of messaging someone. Having 10 accounts, and many friends that have the same, it would be incredibly convenient if this was still possible. However, the method Jarulf said to find you player number with (/whoami) no longer yields a number, though I trust that it did so at one point. Also, I don't know my own number, or anyone else's or if there is even still a way to track these. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience using these, or know a way to replicate the steps JG uses?
Diablo doesn't use account numbers any more, which is really too bad considering that players could be online with any number of characters.
I lost a 4 digit account number (not because I was online earlier than others, but because I logged on after a patch that accidentally "reset" the numbers).
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
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10-22-2006, 06:01 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-22-2006, 06:01 PM by Jarulf.)
Quote:Reading through Jarulf's guide in his Battle.net commands, I've noticed that he references using account #'s instead of player names as a method of messaging someone. Having 10 accounts, and many friends that have the same, it would be incredibly convenient if this was still possible. However, the method Jarulf said to find you player number with (/whoami) no longer yields a number, though I trust that it did so at one point. Also, I don't know my own number, or anyone else's or if there is even still a way to track these. Does anyone have any knowledge or experience using these, or know a way to replicate the steps JG uses?
I can't help you out on how bnet works today, since I don't know it. The chapter on bnet in my Guide was only updated up until version 1.07 of the game (I think it should say so in the latest version at least). After that, I have stoped trying to keep up with updates to bnet.
There are three types of people in the world. Those who can count and those who can't.
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That's a shame, it would be very helpful for keeping track of the 5 or 6 people that I see regularly. Thanks for the quick replies though, both of you.
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Relatively useless fact:
Account numbers actually worked for all Blizzard games, up to the point where they were inexplicably removed. They were incredibly convenient...I do wonder why they were removed.
--me
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Quote:I do wonder why they were removed.
--me
Didn't their removal coincide with the introduction of the "friends list"?
Why can't we all just get along
--Pete
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Bleh. I'd prefer an account number list. D2 has it so that each player has an account name and a player name, but we don't have that convenience.
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Quote:Didn't their removal coincide with the introduction of the "friends list"?
Perhaps, but I seem to recall having account numbers on a friends list. 'Course, that was sooooo long ago that...
Damnit, I wanna be twelve again.
--me
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back in the day, in some lost forum i recall reading that someone said that by the account number there was an easy way to get access to otheres accounts.
i do not know if this is true.
...
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Account numbers did not provide any way to compromise a user's account, though their one-per-user nature did have some consequences (i.e. stalking non-friends is easier with them). Account numbers were retired in part because they were no longer meaningful. The rise of game-emulating clients led to an entire generation of bots which received a new number with every logon, causing a rapid spike in the numbers issued. The problem was exacerbated by users hoarding account numbers, which could then be used to quickly switch among several seemingly different identities.
Account numbers were great while they lasted, but they were not bound in any effective way, so they were easily abused. It would have been better if the number was derived from your cdkey, though that leaves open the issues of how to number non-keyed games (Diablo 1, and all sharewares) and how to assure multiple games receive the same account number (so you keep the same number when switching between Starcraft, Diablo 2, etc.).
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None of the things you mention make the purpose of using account numbers to find friends less meaningful. It only makes them less meaningful for uses that Blizzard never used them for in the first place. It would be nice to be able to do a /whois, and find the desired person regardless of what game they are playing. It is particularly troublesome in Diablo though, because each character has its own account. That makes it very hard to keep track of anyone. Friend list is useless if your friends are always making new characters with new names.
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Blizzard has a history of reacting to minor abuses by gutting the entire abused feature. It seems that is what they chose to do here. I agree that it was the wrong course. I am merely stating the deeper history behind the event.
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Funny, I still have the .reg file with my old Diablo key in it so I wouldn't lose it when I had to format the computer. Kind of amusing to see all the stuff I saved from my Diablo days.
Once b.net changed for Diablo II I really didn't ever get back on with it. Too much of a pain to find ANYONE to play with. As if it wasn't hard enough in the heyday of Starcraft...
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