Real ID Forums, or "Safe to Say 99% of Players Are Against It?"

If you haven't heard, Blizzard is planning to make future posts in the official Warcraft forums appear under your Real Name.

• Older posts will not be retroactively affected.
• You can choose to only go by your real name and not include your character name.
• Not posting on the forums is considered a viable option.
• Child controls will be available.

Most players hate this. There are over 1000 pages of posts per announcement thread ranting and raving about how awful this is for personal security, etc.

Ninjas are Now Scammers, or "Yeah! Screw You, Ninjas!"

The scamming policy was updated not too long ago to give players protection from people who intentionally defraud (i.e. lie to) others in order to ninja an item. We have exquisite clarifications from Vaneras, who cheerfully does not mince words.

If your group has made a clear statement on how loot is to be handled and someone breaks the agreement, you may report them under the revised scamming policy. (Punishments include taking away the ninja'd item and potentially a suspension or ban.)

From now on, to protect yourself, request that the loot rules be clearly stated before the item you want drops. If it is not clearly stated in-game and the master looter steals something, you cannot effectively report the situation as a scam.

Security Programs, or "When You're in Danger, What Do You Do?"

A month or two ago, my guild's forums had a keylogger in the advertisements. It downloaded through an exploit in Adobe Reader and everyone who went to our forums was in danger.

We have some serious computer guys -- men who work with computers for a living (and one who grew up a hacker, himself, though not of WoW) -- and this is what we were told to do.

1. Stop using Internet Explorer.
2. Download AVG Free.
3. Download Malwarebytes.
4. Download I-Hate-Keyloggers.
5. Don't run .exe files.
6. Replace Adobe Reader with Foxit.

Unauthorized Character Deletion, or "What To Do If Your Characters Get Smushed By IRL Baddies"

This hasn't happened to me, thank God, but it can happen to people who don't take proper security measures. I decided to look up what to do if it does happen to you and how "restored" restoration usually is.

Official Problem Notification

For us to be able to investigate your loss, please submit an in-game petition or send an email to WoWCharHelp@Blizzard.com with the following information:

• Account name
• Character names
• Realms the characters are on
• Level, class, and race of the characters
• Exact name of the items that were lost (if any)
• The time and date of the loss (as precisely as possible)
• How the items or characters were lost (if you know)

Scammies in Ur Jammies, or "If You Fall For It, You Deserve It?"

Scammer philosophy is interesting: "People are stupid. Whoever falls for stupid ideas, tricks, etc. should be punished." (In the comments here.)

In the Cinderella book Ella Enchanted, Ella talks to her father and an elderly suitor about punishments for robbery. Ella's father believes in harsh punishment, while the suitor believes in mercy.

Ella knows her father is an unscrupulous merchant so she asks him if it's still theft when someone is tricked out of their money or possessions. He replies no, it's not the same. If people aren't smart enough to hold onto their possessions, they don't deserve them.

Ella suggests that if a man doesn't have enough security to protect his home, he could also be accused of not being able to hold onto his possessions, and therefore doesn't deserve them.

Her father concedes the point.

Account Security, or "How To Keep Your Gold, Gear, and Sanity"

Something I've been wanting to talk about for a while has been how to keep your account from being hacked. We've discussed it before with some basic tips from my computer guys, but I think it's time for a refresher course.

1. Strong Password
2. AntiVirus and Firewall
3. Obscure Question
4. Authenticator
5. You