Battlenet Account Merger

[Crushar]

Anyone have a knowledgeable opinion on the pros and cons of an account merger beyond blizzard's PR release? Curently I don't have a battlenet account or play any games which require said account. My major concerns are functionality and account security.

[--Pete]

Hi,

Anyone have a knowledgeable opinion on the pros and cons of an account merger beyond blizzard's PR release? Curently I don't have a battlenet account or play any games which require said account. My major concerns are functionality and account security.

I may be totally wrong here, but I take it you mean sharing an account?

If not, just go on to the next post. If so, then there is little to say:

Pro: splits the cost. One person doesn't need a credit card.

Con: can't play with the person you share the account with. That person has complete access to your avatars. That person, through that access, has access to any guild banks, etc., that you have. It's (AFAIK) against the EULA and can get you banned if Blizz tumbles to it. It's probably not the kind of behavior we foster here, although there are some who seem to think that real life cheating is OK as long as you don't do it in game :wacko:

--Pete

[swirly]

Hi,
I may be totally wrong here, but I take it you mean sharing an account?

If not, just go on to the next post. If so, then there is little to say:

--Pete

http://www.battle.net/faq/index.html

There is a FAQ that talks some about what Crush is refering to.

edit: Specifically

Q: I play World of Warcraft using multiple accounts -- why should I merge all of them into the same Battle.net account?
A: One of our long-term goals for Battle.net is to introduce community and communication features that will make it beneficial for players to have all of the accounts and games they play associated with their own, single online identity. Merging all of your World of Warcraft accounts into one Battle.net account will enable you to take full advantage of these features in the future. We’ll have more information to share about our plans in the coming months.

[--Pete]

Hi,

There is a FAQ that talks some about what Crush is refering to.

Thanks. :unsure:Looks like I goofed . . . again.

--Pete

[RTM]

Anyone have a knowledgeable opinion on the pros and cons of an account merger beyond blizzard's PR release? Curently I don't have a battlenet account or play any games which require said account. My major concerns are functionality and account security.

I signed up for it last week and have been using it ever since. I did so because I have a bunch of old Blizzard games (D2, Warcraft 3) and plan on getting more in the future (Diablo 3), so it's nice to have all the CD keys and files available in one location in case I ever need to move PC's or reformat or whatever (which seems to happen a few times per year). Kind of the same concept as Steam, except with only Blizzard games.

Anyway, it does change the way you log on. Instead of using your normal account, you use the email address you signed up with. Kind of a pain if you don't check the 'Remember your account name' box. I also added 2 WoW accounts to my Battlenet account, so in addition you have to choose the account you want to use. Looking back I probably shouldn't have bothered, since the 2nd account is an old one from when my wife played. Again, this setting is remembered if you check the 'Remember your account name' box. Everything else is exactly the same.

They had some authentication problems with the service this past Friday which prevented me from raiding, so there are some bugs to be worked out yet. If you don't have a back catalog of Blizzard games floating around and/or don't care about beta testing future Blizzard games I probably wouldn't bother doing it at this point. Yeah that's right- you can automatically sign yourself up to beta test any future Blizzard releases. Entry is not guaranteed, of course.:)

[Iolair]

It's a handy thing, no doubt. I wouldn't personally use it, and would keep my accounts split up.

It's a security thing for me, I prefer to never re-use my passwords several places. So if one password gets stolen, the damages is confined to one place.

So I would prefer to keep my battle.net accounts separate and be able to have a unique password for each account.

As far as I know it is up to the user to decide whether to merge them or not, and that is a good thing. That way paranoid people like me, can keep my many passwords *grin*

[Crushar]

My concern revolved around account security. There have been some forum posts describing a scheme where your account info is stolen. The person stealing the account merges it with a battlenet account and supposedly your account is permanently stolen because the merger changes all of your personal information to the battlenet account information. Didn't see any blue ink on this issue and would only merge if this is a real issue.

I prefer the paranoid approach as well. Thanks for the responses.

[Mordekhuul]

You can pick up an authenticator token and associate it with the battle.net account just like you can your WoW account.

In fact, if you have an iPhone, you can download a free app from blizzard that acts as your security token and it is free.

[shoju]

If you want to do anything on the armory or official forums, you need a battle.net account. I didn't want to get one, but it seems that I had no choice.

[Chesspiece_face]

As far as I know it is up to the user to decide whether to merge them or not, and that is a good thing. That way paranoid people like me, can keep my many passwords *grin*

It is optional right now. This will change later when Diablo III and Starcraft II come out. In the future it will be required.