Blizzard/Activision security breach - personal account information stolen

[Martimus]

I read an article long about the time that D3 launched about how they were working on D3 in the early 2000s, only 'Corporate' wanted them to go in a different direction. So a bunch of the programmers left the company. Not sure how much of that was hype, but I agree 100% that the game we got was based strongly on the "Pay to win" model. And that quite a lot of the 'Fun' elements from D2 were altered to fit into that model, making the game significantly less fun to play.

Those people went on to make Hellgate London and Torchlight. I found HG:L to be one of the worst games I ever played though.

 

[thespyder]

Those people went on to make Hellgate London and Torchlight. I found HG:L to be one of the worst games I ever played though.

I never played Hellgate: London. But Torchlight was loads of fun. Nor am I saying that the game they were making (The original D3) would have been any good. Merely that the game that came out was not as much fun as it should have been and had a heavy focus on 'Pay to win' through the auction house. Add to that the mass exodus and the 'Story' that it was directly related to unfavorable direction from the head office. Plus the final content being severely lacking, and I am more inclined to believe that they left because of the 'New' direction of the project.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I don't even recall setting any pw reset questions. Anyone know how to change these?

 

[Grooveriding]

I read an article long about the time that D3 launched about how they were working on D3 in the early 2000s, only 'Corporate' wanted them to go in a different direction. So a bunch of the programmers left the company. Not sure how much of that was hype, but I agree 100% that the game we got was based strongly on the "Pay to win" model. And that quite a lot of the 'Fun' elements from D2 were altered to fit into that model, making the game significantly less fun to play.

Diablo was created by Blizzard North, formerly Condor. A company Blizzard bought and brought into their fold when Condor was developing Diablo. This team made Diablo, Diablo 2 and the Lord of Destruction expansion set. To really set the proper context, these are the people that created the Diablo universe and made the games. It was their 'baby' so to speak. Diablo came from Blizzard North. There are some myths that Blizzard actually changed their direction to make Diablo what it was, related to the initial production of Diablo 1 being based around a claymation animated game, which was true. But, it was Blizzard North who went away from that direction to an action based RPG with the gothic setting we knew as Diablo before this travesty called Diablo 3 was released.

Their plan following Diablo 2/LOD was for Diablo 3 to be an MMO, not an ARPG. They felt it was their natural evolution from D2/LOD. Blizzard's parent company, Vivendi, was not happy with this direction and the rumour is that they demanded an ARPG for the 3rd instalment. Some think this is because they were concerned another MMO from Blizzard would take full optics off WoW, a reasonable guess. Blizzard North refused to capitulate and in 2003 the key players of Blizzard North quit. The main players; Max & Erich Schaeffer, David Brevik and a former Blizzard Irvine staff/Diablo, D2 & LOD producer - Bill Roper - were part of this exodus. These were the chief players who helped craft the original Diablo games and expansion.

They went on to make Hellgate: London with EA as their publisher. Their budget ran out and EA made them release as it was. Game turned out very poorly. Flagship Studios, the company they formed under, was dissolved after the game tanked.

Later in 2005, the rest of the remaining Blizzard North team quit from Blizzard and went their separate ways, part of this last exodus was Matt Uelmen, the composer responsible for the epic music in the original Diablo games. The last examples of his work at Blizzard is the entirety of The Burning Crusade soundtrack.

There are some leaked 'alpha' shots of what is referred to as 'Blizzard North's Diablo 3'. These shots are actually from what was being worked on after the first quit in 2003 up to 2005 when the rest quit. The guess is that they couldn't make it work and many of the Blizzard North team left were disillusioned with it.

At that point after 2005 to 2006 Blizzard moved a bunch of World of Warcraft developers and hired on a few new people, such as Jay Wilson and a couple others, to work on a new Diablo 3.

Just a quick bit of history to enlighten The reason Diablo 3 sucks as badly as it does is because of this parting of ways in 2003. The actual Diablo people had nothing to do with Diablo 3, it's the work of World of Warcraft developers with a serious case of failure up their backside. While I personally would of enjoyed yet another ARPG for Diablo 3 from the original team, considering how bad the actual Diablo 3 is that the WoW developers released, I would of much rather had the Blizzard North Diablo 3 MMO.

This is a good article that gives some more detail on what is so wrong with the Diablo 3 development team : http://www.gamefront.com/why-im-afraid-to-review-diablo-3/

First thing out of my mouth when World of Warcraft was revealed was 'Why not World of Diablo for fuck's sake' So I am a bit biased.

 

[manko]

I don't even recall setting any pw reset questions. Anyone know how to change these?

The security notice and FAQ says that they will be sending out emails with instructions on how to reset your questions. I don't think you can do it in the standard account settings.

 

[Aikouka]

They went on to make Hellgate: London with EA as their publisher. Their budget ran out and EA made them release as it was. Game turned out very poorly. Flagship Studios, the company they formed under, was dissolved after the game tanked.

In my opinion, what's most unfortunate is that most people tend to forget about Flagship's better venture: Mythos. If I remember correctly, it never saw a full release, but I played the beta (or whatever it was), and it was fun.

Mythos pretty much lead into Torchlight.

 

[thespyder]

...snip... et. all.

Thanks for that recap. That was the essence of what I had read before, though in a lot more detail than I would have remembered. Thanks for that.

And I agree. I would have preferred that something that was really an off shoot of Diablo 2 were to be created instead of the money grab that is Diablo 3. Diablo 1 and 2, I literally spent MONTHS (Hundreds of hours) playing over the subsequent years since release. D2 is without a doubt one of my all time favorites and I still have it loaded on my PC at home.

Diablo 3, I have played maybe 20 hours all tolled. And really have no drive or interest in playing further. Just not that great a game. it is flat. Where in 2, you wanted or needed to get that next stash of items or to that next level, there isn't that in Diablo 3. The characters have very little differentiation. The loot is lack luster. And they try very hard to push you towards "Pay to win" model and the auction houses. Plus it just feels so formula and predictable. Familiar, but blander than D2. Like you really want a juicy stake but end up with a McDonalds burger instead.

 

[thespyder]

The security notice and FAQ says that they will be sending out emails with instructions on how to reset your questions. I don't think you can do it in the standard account settings.

LOL. Didn't they say that email accounts were among the things that the hackers got access to? So is the 'Set up your new password' from Blizzard? or from the hackers?

 

[manko]

LOL. Didn't they say that email accounts were among the things that the hackers got access to? So is the 'Set up your new password' from Blizzard? or from the hackers?

Yes, that's why I already changed my email.

 

[Grooveriding]

It appears the consequences of their security breach are starting to be realized. Huge mass account hacks of battle.net accounts are taking place

https://twitter.com/BlizzardCS

Check your accounts.

 

[Dumac]

It appears the consequences of their security breach are starting to be realized. Huge mass account hacks of battle.net accounts are taking place

https://twitter.com/BlizzardCS

Check your accounts.

Came to post this.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

As soon I heard the news I went and redid all the passwords and answers to my gaming accounts, email accounts and bank/pay pal accounts. I also made sure to add to some non-alpha numeric characters and used the maximum amount of characters for my passwords and answers to "secret questions" to make it more difficult to crack/hack my accounts. /crossesfingers

 

[Aikouka]

Hm, luckily when I had my iPhone 4S replaced, I simply switched back to my old phone's serial number. So, I just switched back to the new one's serial. Good thing I wrote it down.

 

[SLU Aequitas]

If you start getting emails about illegal activities on your account--likely a phishing attempt. Reset everything after getting the email, using the website, NOT any links in the email.

 

[manko]

So, do they have instructions for resetting your secret questions yet? I changed everything else, but I didn't see a way to do that.

 

[Grooveriding]

So, do they have instructions for resetting your secret questions yet? I changed everything else, but I didn't see a way to do that.

When I logged into my account to remove my payment information it prompted me automatically on the password page to also change my secret question.

 

[manko]

When I logged into my account to remove my payment information it prompted me automatically on the password page to also change my secret question.

Thanks, I had another look and just got the prompt to change it. Here are the links and it sounds like you can only change it once.

(Once you're logged in to Battle net, append these to the URL.)

/account/management/security/security-action-info.html

/account/management/security/reset-sqa.html