Blizzard: Authenticator Required for Diablo 3 RMAH

Using Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House will require an authenticator, says Blizzard.

Over the weekend, Blizzard said it updated the Terms of Use for Diablo 3's Real Money Auction House. It now states that players will be required to have a Battle.net Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator attached to their Battle.net account to use Battle.net Balance.

"For clarity, this means you’ll need to have an Authenticator to add to your balance via Battle.net Account Management or to send the proceeds of your real-money auction house sales to your Battle.net Balance," the company said in a forum sticky.

The news isn't surprising given recent reports of account hacking. Diablo 3 players have complained of missing gold and virtual items while others have watched the hacking in real-time. Blizzard has warned customers to use a more sophisticated password, to keep it original to Battle.net, and to use one of the two Battle.net authenticators in order to safeguard their account.

Blizzard said for those who previously added Battle.net Balance to their account prior to the change, they will be able to use it to make make eligible purchases on Battle.net and in the auction house without attaching an Authenticator. However, an Authenticator will be required to add to the balance in the future.

"While we understand that this creates an extra step for players during the login process, we believe this added layer of account protection will help foster a safer auction house environment for all of our players," the company said.

Blizzard's Real Money Auction House for Diablo 3 is slated to go live on Tuesday, June 12. It was originally set to launch one week after the game went retail, but was pushed back to May 29. So far the company seems to be on track for the June 12 launch.

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Top Comments

22

Darkerson , June 12, 2012 1:15 PM

crisan_tiberiu@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?

Well since the word Activision is in there, that should be self explanatory. Not enough money in the world to make them happy.
12

wiggers , June 12, 2012 5:30 PM

I remember the days when I could take a disc/disk/cartridge around to a friend's house, chuck it in their machine, turn it on and play it. Nowawdays after we buy a game we can then pay more money after we install additional software to increase security for our always-on internet connection to somehow get more out of the game. Call me old-fashioned, but the complexity required to actually PLAY a game these days must be detracting from the experience.
"Excessive lag... DANG! Kicked off"
"Server maintenance... DANG! I only had a 2 hours window tonight to play this"
"Busy mobile network.... DANG!" etc. etc.
12

Onus , June 12, 2012 4:58 PM

belardoWow.... really funny eh?Spend REAL money to buy virtual junk!

The irony here is that our "real" money is just paper, not backed by anything; money that's money just because the parasites say it is. Yes, I know the value of a dollar, it's ZILCH.

Other Comments

3

crisan_tiberiu , June 12, 2012 1:12 PM

@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?
22

Darkerson , June 12, 2012 1:15 PM

crisan_tiberiu@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?

Well since the word Activision is in there, that should be self explanatory. Not enough money in the world to make them happy.
8

anonymous@guest , June 12, 2012 1:16 PM

LOL u havent seen nothing yet! Just wait n give them time to come up with more ways to nickle n dime u
to death.
12

Eman25th , June 12, 2012 1:19 PM

Quote:
@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?

huhh? authenticator app for any phone is free, you can also call in for free and get your authentication code over the phone now. even if you do buy the little thumb drive authenticator for $6.50 (which i dont thing anyone buys anymore) its worth for not losing your account or possibly Your REAL hard earned money on the RMAH.

But yes they are gonna make a TON of money from the RMAH probably close to if not more than a small monthly fee.
5

anonymous@guest , June 12, 2012 1:22 PM

Well you are not forced to buy an physical Authenticator. Since it can be done on mobile devices too. Or my preferred one is WinAuth, its java-based and runs on the Computer. Best part about it, it automatically Copies the Code currently active so you can just paste it. And its in no way compromising your security. At last not as long as you PC is well secured.
What may not be the case for most users... But Since they offer Mobile Authenticator for Android and iOS it should be no Problem for anyone to get their hands on one.
-6

kartu , June 12, 2012 1:26 PM

DarkersonWell since the word Activision is in there, that should be self explanatory. Not enough money in the world to make them happy.

You do realize that it's a myth, don't you?
Blizzard was asking for more money left and right way before merger with activision.
Not to mention, they're still to autonomous companies.
0

wildkitten , June 12, 2012 1:27 PM

The question is, will they then turn around and cripple the authenticators useful like they did for logging into WoW by having it not ask if the system thinks your account is being logged in from the usual location? And yes, I know this can be disabled. The issue is the idiocy of this being implemented in the first place since no one asked for it. Not to mention, this "feature" was enabled by default and had to go into account management to have it ask every time a log in was done. When D3 was released, it again defaulted to being enabled so had to go into account management, again, and disable this useless feature.

And I guess the next question is this, since duping was only kept from happening for about 4 weeks, how many of the items on the RMAH will be legitimate?

Could Blizzard have been anymore unprepared for this games launch?
4

tomfreak , June 12, 2012 1:55 PM

lol at this rate they are gonna kill the whole franchise.
0

Flameout , June 12, 2012 2:22 PM

Tomfreaklol at this rate they are gonna kill the whole franchise.

don't you mean kill it more. it died when they decided to use an aesthetic that was contrary to its theme
4

crisan_tiberiu , June 12, 2012 2:40 PM

Eman25thhuhh? authenticator app for any phone is free, you can also call in for free and get your authentication code over the phone now. even if you do buy the little thumb drive authenticator for $6.50 (which i dont thing anyone buys anymore) its worth for not losing your account or possibly Your REAL hard earned money on the RMAH.But yes they are gonna make a TON of money from the RMAH probably close to if not more than a small monthly fee.

I have a Nokia 3110 as a phone. So you say i should upgrade to an android phone to get a free authenticator from Blizz? no ty, and yes, i am cheap i want a phone that i use it for talking, not to surf the net, not to play angry birds, not to log to facebook/twitter or run an authenticator for Diablo 3
11

belardo , June 12, 2012 2:41 PM

Wow.... really funny eh?

Spend REAL money to buy virtual junk!
12

Onus , June 12, 2012 4:58 PM

belardoWow.... really funny eh?Spend REAL money to buy virtual junk!

The irony here is that our "real" money is just paper, not backed by anything; money that's money just because the parasites say it is. Yes, I know the value of a dollar, it's ZILCH.
12

wiggers , June 12, 2012 5:30 PM

I remember the days when I could take a disc/disk/cartridge around to a friend's house, chuck it in their machine, turn it on and play it. Nowawdays after we buy a game we can then pay more money after we install additional software to increase security for our always-on internet connection to somehow get more out of the game. Call me old-fashioned, but the complexity required to actually PLAY a game these days must be detracting from the experience.
"Excessive lag... DANG! Kicked off"
"Server maintenance... DANG! I only had a 2 hours window tonight to play this"
"Busy mobile network.... DANG!" etc. etc.
10

anonymous@guest , June 12, 2012 5:31 PM

The real irony here is… that they were very transparent with everyone during the development cycle, yet people still bought the game. (Now they can only go around blog hopping with nerd rage).

How do you pay for something, knowing full well its many design flaws/expectations and hope Activision/Blizzard will come to their senses.

All the 8+ Million Diablo3 consumers have done, is solidify the fact that Activision/Blizzard can continue making radical design decisions… knowing the public will still fork out the cash.

Either don’t buy the game or shut up about it already.
0

Formata , June 12, 2012 5:44 PM

I stuttered a little and skipped frames while reading this... how about fixing your game before you try and get more money out of me. Unfortunately for me, my PC is newer than 3 years old so this game runs like a turd
0

PiraticaL , June 12, 2012 6:49 PM

Its a free app if you have a smart phone which most people already have so I don't see the big deal. I guess I can see where it might be inconvenient if you don't have a smart phone, but I still don't see a reason not to get the authenticator since they're not that expensive. Especially since you can use them on pretty much all the blizzard games.
5

aeurix , June 12, 2012 6:50 PM

I feel like Virtual Goods are the future-- credits exchangeable through 0's and 1's. Right now the dollar is not backed by anything, so any stones you can throw at the virtual blizzard currency you can also throw at the $USD. That you can put money into the online account, and more importantly, pull money from the account-- means it's a M1 money supply (readily exchangeable with "real currency").

The moral questions about buying goods to give you a leg up in the game.. I'm still questioning. If you buy the best gear, beat Diablo on Inferno, where do you go from there?
2

zachusaman , June 12, 2012 7:06 PM

crisan_tiberiu@ 60$ / game, Activision/Blizzard could have give every Diablo 3 buyer an authenticator... really, how hungry can they be for money?

the app is free on android...
0

nhat11 , June 12, 2012 7:49 PM

wiggersI remember the days when I could take a disc/disk/cartridge around to a friend's house, chuck it in their machine, turn it on and play it. Nowawdays after we buy a game we can then pay more money after we install additional software to increase security for our always-on internet connection to somehow get more out of the game. Call me old-fashioned, but the complexity required to actually PLAY a game these days must be detracting from the experience."Excessive lag... DANG! Kicked off""Server maintenance... DANG! I only had a 2 hours window tonight to play this""Busy mobile network.... DANG!" etc. etc.

You mean the cartridge that you have to blow in to make it work? Or the crappy lasers that broke on PS2s? Make sure to get your nostalgic glasses off before mention that.
4

grumpyfinn , June 12, 2012 8:03 PM

jtt283The irony here is that our "real" money is just paper, not backed by anything; money that's money just because the parasites say it is. Yes, I know the value of a dollar, it's ZILCH.

And the real, real irony is that US Dollar has 0% paper content, it just wouldn't sound good if we called it linen- or cotton-money

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