Just because it's a normal practice (e.g. things like this happen all over America every single day) doesn't make it right. Just because the system exists that makes it possible for a few to reap incredible rewards doesn't mean it's right. THAT is how EA is some kind of 'bad guy' Although I DID say they are no more greedy than most other corporations ('EA =! greed any more...) in my second sentence.
I totally agree. I'm just hoping the authenticators will do a decent job (I realize nothing is hackproof). I think most hacks happen because people are not careful. I've had a Steam account since they first began, in 2004, and have never had a problem, but you read the forums and hundreds if not thousands of people have been hacked/hijacked. Never had my D2 account hacked. Never had any social network account hacked, game account, bank account...(now that I've jinxed myself...), because of common sense. I won't explain it here as it's posted all over the internet about how to keep stuff relatively safe (again, nothing and no one is hack proof).
Unfortunately, many people simply don't follow those rules. One of many examples: entering passwords at public access points (e.g. Starbucks) where people might actually be watching and/or the network itself being unsecure!
well, 1988 could be considered 'recently' if one looks at it relative to the beginning of time, or even when history was first recorded, but otherwise, no, most software has been only 'rented', not 'owned' for decades.
You're probably right as it's all about PR. 6.5 million copies sold in the first week, if even 10% of those were hacked, one could describe that as an 'extremely small' percentage...but that's 650,000 accounts! Let's hope it wasn't, and won't ever, be anywhere near that number.
Why shouldn't there be a real currency AH option? Blizzard knows people will pay cash for in-game items, as they did for D2 in the hundreds of dollars! It's their game, why shouldn't they get a cut of their players' profit, also (e.g. transaction fees)? I don't understand how having such an option means 'Blizzard was hell bent on giving them a reason to be hacked'. There's no reason anyone should be hacked, (criminal activity notwithstanding, and most times not even then).
Extremely small percentage or not, it's still a problem and I've little doubt Blizzard is working on the problem, though why it happened in the first place is a little puzzling, especially within the first week of release. As GpVon stated, Blizzard isn't going to admit there's a security issue of significant magnitude as that could be detrimental to their reputation and company as a whole. I just ordered 3 authenticators for myself and my kids, which I should NOT have to do, but wth, they're cheap and it's probably a good idea (assumming the hackers aren't able to easily bypass that extra layer of security now or at a later date). At least Blizzard is picking up the cost of shipping them next day air as the entire cost of each device is only $6.50.
Of course they're laying off part of the team, how many are needed to keep the game going in the first place? EA =! greed any more than any other corporation = greed. It's a business whose intent is to turn a profit. Unfortunately, (or vice versa, depending on your view), a small percentage of a corporation (e.g. the top brass) are paid an obscenely higher percentage of those profits than the rest of the employees who work for that business. Most of EA are employees like you and me, not the filthy rich top execs.
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