June, 2008
How about a WoW mobile phone authenticator?
Today, Blizzard announced the Blizzard Authenticator. It's a hardware "token" that would provide a second level of security to your WoW account if you choose to participate and purchase the device. Check their FAQ for more information. It's basically an RSA SecurID token or something very similar.
Blizzard recognizes that better account security means implementing more factors into authenticating that the person logging into the account is really the owner of that account. The introduction of the Blizzard Authenticator is really a step in the right direction. We are all currently using a single factor authentication scheme (i.e. passwords). This device along with your account password introduces two-factor authentication. The more factors the better (there are three). The third factor may be a little hard for Blizzard to implement at this time; biometric (e.g. fingerprint, voice, retinal pattern, or DNA).
However I'm wondering if Blizzard can't implement something similar without asking people to spend an additional $6.50 for this hardware device. How many of you have a mobile phone? Do you always have your phone with you? Would you be less inclined to lose or forget the location of your mobile phone than this device?
So why can't Blizzard set up a means for us to use our mobile phone as an second factor authentication? Imagine that you log into your account as you usually would, but then another box appears for you to enter a number sent to your mobile phone. It's similar to the way the Blizzard Authenticator would work, so why not use our mobile phones?
I hear that Blizzard are already testing something like this idea in Taiwan but I have yet to verify that. I'm sure Blizzard has put a lot of thought into this and have determined that this was the better solution for now. So what do you all think, can your mobile phone act as your second factor authenticator?
Disclosure or TMI followup
This is a follow up to my previous post about being up front when joining a guild that I dual-box two of my alts.
I continued my search for a new guild. After the last experience with my last GM "interview" I thought I would take a different approach. Just not say anything about multi-boxing until it was asked. There are a lot of new guilds on the realm I'm currently on, so it was easy to find guilds that were recruiting. I thought perhaps I'd get Nyquist and Zaley into a new leveling guild and look for a raiding or more established guild for Ziv.
I spoke with the leaders of this newly formed guild that was recruiting. I was impressed by their maturity and philosophy about how they want their guild to be. I told them that I'm leveling two alts and looking for a guild for them. I signed up Nyquist and asked if I could have Zaley in the guild as well. They said sure.
So I hopped over to Zaley's computer and sent a whisper the person I was talking with for an invite. Once invited and the "Zaley has joined the guild" showed up in guild chat, the person I was talking to asked if I am playing two accounts at the same time. Apparently he noticed that Nyquist didn't log off. I sent a whisper and told him yes.
We had a small conversation about it and since he and his wife play WoW (his wife is the GM) that he's actually tried to run the two accounts at once but was too much trouble. So he understood why I would have two accounts, and how I would be able to run two of them at the same time. I told him that I just wanted to be sure he and the GM knew that I dual box. They were cool with it.
So my opinion is that one should fully disclose that they dual box at least to the GM, and if it's TMI, then they are just unaware of what dual boxing really is and should just move on.
Full disclosure or TMI?
I dual box when I am running Nyquist and Zaley, or Savik and Zerp. I admit it and I have no problem telling people I do if they ask. However I am evaluating whether I should be the first to bring it up, or just wait until people notice and ask.
The reason this has come up was because a couple days ago I was looking to see if I could join a guild. I was actually looking for a raiding guild for Ziv, but I also thought about finding a leveling guild for Nyqist and Zaley.
When guilds are recruiting and I am interested in them, I ask a lot of question. I ask what kind of guild it is and what the long term goal of the guild is. I ask about rules and ranks, as well as their alt policy. I ask how many people are in the guild and the level ranges. During this time I usually tell them about my main and my in-game experience. Usually during this rather lengthy "interview" I am able to assess whether it may an guild I'm interested in or not.
The other day, I was speaking to the GM of a guild that was recruiting. I had gone through my usual suite of questions and was ready to ask for an invite. But before I did that I asked the GM how they felt about multi-boxing. The GM asked what that was and I told him one person controlling two accounts simultaneously. He replied, that he didn't really mind, but proceeded to ask about it.
After a long discussion about this, the GM seemed to have lost interest in inviting me. Even though I had explained that dual boxing was not against Blizzard's ToS or EULA, I think he was afraid of his guild being associated with a multi-boxer. I suppose it's expected for people to be ignorant of multi-boxers, which brings me to the question.
Full disclosure or not? Is bringing up that I multi-box too much information (TMI) or not?
About
Background
I've been playing World of Warcraft since March of 2006. After spending some time with different class and race configurations, I finally settled on having an Alliance faction Night Elf Hunter, named Ziv. I leveled him to 49 until I had to take a work related hiatus from playing between June-October. I finally got him to 60 that December. When the Burning Crusade came out I immediately brought him to Outlands and finally reached level 70 in March, 2007. Since then he's practically done all the quests in the Outlands and has done some end game raiding through the 10-man Karazhan, and Zul'Aman, and has been ready to progress through the 25-man raids.
Though I would enjoy progressing through the 25-man raid content, my schedule is such that I can't during the prime raiding times and I have yet to find a guild that raids when I am able to devote the time to raiding. So in the meantime I settled into doing dailies, 5-man instances, and on occassion a few PVP battlegrounds. It started to get monotonous and the challenges of the normal game started to wane.
I've started up a few different alts to try something new, but it was hard for me to break away from my main and devote the time to leveling any of them. However, my favored alt was a level 19 twink Human holy priest (Mizkai) and playing Warsong Gulch with her helped break up the monotony of the daily grind. I've enjoyed playing a healing class and thought about leveling one to 70. I started with a Draenei priest (Zaley) and leveled in the Draenei starting area until level 20. I then wanted to try out a Paladin, so I rolled a Dwarf paladin (Nyquist) and got him to level 20 as well. I couldn't decide which of those two I wanted to take all the way to 70. I'd prefer to bring them both to 70 actually as I enjoyed what each class brought to the game. I knew it would take some time to level one all the way to 70 let alone two. I was thinking about doing the alt/rested leveling dance between the two, but then I got an idea. Can I level both at the same time?
Multi-boxing
My first experience with the concept of multi-boxing in WoW was a time I was in the Eye of the Storm battleground. I went to check out the type of defense a particular tower had, and upon getting there I saw five shaman, or was it one shaman? The reason for the confusion was because they all looked exactly alike, and all had what appeared to be the same name. At first I thought it was a glitch, but then I heard a 'crackle', saw a bolt of lightning, and I was dead. Welcome to multi-boxing.
The idea of multi-boxing is not new, and it's simple in concept, but somewhat tricky to implement effectively. Basically it's playing two or more accounts simultaneously. There are numerous web resources on multi-boxing (WoWWiki, Dual-Boxing.com, V-boxing), and there are multiple reasons why people do so. Mine are to level two more characters that I think I want to play in the end-game, as well as reinvigorate the gameplay and challenge in WoW.
The Blog
So this is really a platform for me to share my experiences with the World of Wardcraft and the challenges of dual boxing alts. It's also a means for me to express some ideas and on occasion some stream of thought rants.
Characters
See my Armory Profiles page
Tems
Since I'm dual-boxing two at once, it was only natural to create teams. See here as well as the Teams page.
Someone noticed
Early this morning while I was questing in Stranglethorn Vale, someone had noticed that I was dual boxing.
I was working on a quest in the Kurzen compound in the northeast gathering Jungle Remedy when someone asked if they could join the group. I let them join and we proceeded to go through the compound gathering the quest items. I had Zaley on auto follow and as I had Nyquist engage and tank the mobs, I pulled Zaley back to do any healing if needed;. After each dead mob, I put Zaley back on auto follow and we continued on.
When we were finished with the quest objective, the person who joined our group asked if I was one person playing two characters. I told him that I was, and he said he figured I might be because of the auto follow in between killing each mob. He actually thought it was pretty cool and wondered how I was doing it. I told him two accounts and two laptop computers.
I've grouped with people before but none had ever asked if I was dual boxing. Either they didn't know or just never mentioned it. I get asked to group on occasion especially if there is competition for limited quest objectives. I'm getting better with running the two independently during a fight but since I'm using two separate keyboards, I have to use auto follow.
World of World of Warcraft
This video is absolutely hilarious. World of World of Warcraft, is this Blizz's new game? Watch it to the end (through the ending advertisement), as there is some bonus content there.
Horde side rendezvous
Following the starting area quests to level 5, I brought the Undead priest, Zerp, over to Silvermoon City for a rendezvous with his new BFF, Savik. Here's a picture of the two as they begin their journey.
Two more bubbles
I've created two new characters, an Undead priest named Zerp, and a Blood Elf paladin named Savik.
Since I can't immediately start running them simultaneously, I'll need to level each one in their respective starting area until at least level 5. At that point I'll be able to bring one over from the other area. So time to get each one through their introductory quests.
Ding 29
Nyquist and Zaley dinged 29 today. Having dual-boxed these two from level 20 to 29 in Ashenvale and Elwynn Forest, I think I've finally started to get the hang of playing two different characters on two different computers. I'm not great at it yet, but I'm a little better at it than when I first began. I've learned a few things along the way and have had to adjust as both learned new talents, spells, and skills.
I'm thinking about having Nyquist and Zaley get some rested XP, so I've been contemplating either playing my main, Ziv, or maybe start another set of double bubbles - Horde side. I've only briefly played a Horde character and not for very long. It wasn't that I didn't like playing the Horde side, it was that I was still leveling my main, Ziv, so didn't really care to play an alt at that time. So this is actually a real good time to start on the Horde side and see what it's all about.
Alliance side rendezvous
Today I finally got Nyquist to level 20 and am moving him over to Auberdine to rendezvous with Zaley. Having individually leveled the two in their respective starting areas to level 20, it's time to bring them together and start this dual boxing foray that I've decided to myself into. I could have started doing this at a much earlier level or even from the very beginning, but honestly it didn't hit me to try dual boxing until Zaley was already at level 20. That is when I rolled up Nyquist. Besides, I wanted a Dranei priest and a Dwarf paladin.
