MMO GurL

Head on over and check it out! This is a segment I hope to be doing either weekly or bi-weekly called Ear to the Rift that will try to cover some of the current issues in the Rift community.

No you didn’t misread that -  I said just like dating!

I’ve found myself in a crazy situation where I really want to play both Rift and World of Warcraft. I’m wondering if it’s really possible to play both at the same time and why I’d even want to do so. While this may sound crude, I think it offers the perfect analogy as to how I feel about both games.

World of Warcraft is like that ex of yours who drives you crazy, but is really good in bed and knows all of the fiendish little things you like to do, but are too scared to bring up with a new partner! So you find yourself breaking up with WoW all the time because – well it drives you crazy and is a total nutcase – but it always reels you in with the good sex.

Now Rift is like that new person you meet that has the chance to be your future spouse. They haven’t done anything wrong to you – nothing to tarnish your relationship. They seem too good to be true almost and so you kind of get a little weary thinking that you may be getting your hopes up. In reality that makes you like them even more! They are full of potential!

You can see where I’m going with this. There’s something to be said for both: good and bad. But the way I feel about Rift and WoW, is that both have something that the other doesn’t have. When I play Rift, I feel like I’m missing a certain immersion that I get when I’m playing WoW. Maybe it’s all the time and experience I’ve had playing WoW that makes me feel more comfortable with it (like that ex). To me, WoW just seems more engaging and there is so much more nostalgia (murlocs, the onyxia wipe guy, jaraxxus songs, leeroy, roflmao, the internet is for porn, you no take candle, I could go on for awhile!).

Rift on the other hand has something that is completely new! Classes I have never tried before. Being able to have 2 classes on one character that I can switch back and forth to at will. Not having to level a totally new character again and again and again is a super plus. One of the things I like the most about Rift as silly as it may sound is AOE looting. When I am playing WoW I think, man, I wish I could AOE loot!

For now, until Rift does something to harm our relationship making it a less than desirable union, I will hold onto it. I’m still going to be banging my ex on the side though! I figure if this goes on for long enough $30 a month for subs isn’t THAT horrible and I can just look into making a schedule so one doesn’t find out about the other!

Can you handle two or more MMORPGs or is one clearly enough? What do you like about WoW and Rift?

Photo Edited by: Me , Original by: put that down

Here is Abigale’s latest response to the hacked accounts in Rift:

“We are aware that there are still issues with some of you being hacked. This is a top priority for us here at Trion and the team has been working to address the situation. As we posted last week, there have already been a number of updates put in place. We are also introducing another function that should make it into the game early this week.

Coin Lock

Users will be coin locked if they log in from a significantly different location. When their account is coin locked, they will be sent an email to the address that they have on their account (their login email) with a code to enter into the game.

Users will see the Coin Locked icon in the spot where their tutorial button shows up. Deactivating the tutorial tips will not turn off the Coin Locked button.

While in a Coin Locked status, users will have the following limitations:
• No access to the auction house
• No ability to SEND mail. Users can still receive and view mail as well as remove items from mail
• No ability to SELL to vendors. Users can still purchase items from vendors
• No ability to salvage, runebreak or destroy items
• No ability to trade
• Users can continue to play and gain coin and items, but cannot get rid of them.

If you are Coin Locked, simply click on the Coin Locked icon and enter the code found in your email from Trion.

If you log in and your account is coin locked, check your email! Someone may have logged in from another location with your account.

If you do not receive the email, please click on the Coin Locked icon and click the “Resend” button to have the email resent to you.

If you cannot access your email or you are otherwise unable to change your Coin Locked status, please contact Customer Service.

We’re also working on the addition of two-factor authentication at the login level, which will let you use an app or a cell phone as a way to ensure that you’re the one logging on. (You may have heard of this in other products as a SecurID or an Authenticator.) We’ll be sharing specifics on that as soon as we can as well.

If you have been hacked:

Contact Customer Support immediately. The CS Team is responding as quickly as possible to restore accounts for those who have been hit.

We assure you this matter is very important to us and we are doing everything we can to resolve your issues and safeguard your account.”

As a follow-up to my own hacked account issue; they have been restored. It took about 5 days total to get them back in working order. It would have been 3 days if they hadn’t messed up one of the restores. I haven’t had any problems since but I changed the email associated with the account and the password is now on lock down!

Source: Update on Hacked Accounts

Last night I was horribly violated… by a hacker. Tonight I was violated again… by a victim-bashing community.

To explain, last night my account got broken into. I’m not sure exactly how it happened. I will admit I didn’t have the most iron-clad password (still 9 mixed digits), but I know for a fact that I had no malware on my computer. The perpetrator not only stripped and sold all of the gear on my characters, but then deleted them.
 

I was online when they got onto my account and was booted to the log-in screen. I instantly changed my password and continually tried to get back on. I succeeded getting on as many as 30 times, but for only 2 seconds at a time. The hacker and I both logged onto a single naked character back and forth from totally different IPs and none of this was even noticed by Trion’s securities.

My husband was on playing with me when this happened and he submitted a ticket online for me. I submitted a ticket through Trion’s website. I also remade my characters to temporarily hold my their names and submitted a ticket online. This happened at 12:00am yesterday and at 5:00pm today I still hadn’t heard a single response.

Frustrated, I called Trion and was told that there had been many hacked accounts. I asked how long it would take and what I could expect. The agent told me that she didn’t know what they would do, but that they would probably restore the characters; that it would be within 24 hours. I reminded her that I had already waited 18 hours from the first ticket I submitted.

She couldn’t even find my original tickets. Is this not a little weird? Three tickets and she couldn’t find a single one? So, if I had not called, would I have ever gotten a response? Especially considering this announcement I found where Trion says that “Hacked Accounts” are their highest priority.

�

 

A full 25 hours later and I have still not heard a single thing about the status of my account. This leaves a really sour taste in my mouth about the game I’ve come to love over the past couple of weeks: Rift.

To make things worse – I decided to visit the forums to see if other people had this problem and mainly to see what had been done to resolve it. I want my three 25+ characters back! What I saw was sickening: more than half the community bashing the victims of hacking.

I normally like to stay unbiased when I write a formal article like this, but I’m going to let it rip. These people make me sick! These are the types of people who say that women deserve to get raped. Theft is theft and it is NEVER right. The person stealing whatever is not theirs is to blame; NOT the victim!

Check this out to see what I mean. There is a lot more where this comes from all over the general discussion section on Rift’s official forums.

What I really want to know is why Rift’s community staff is not policing these posts? They are outright attacks and libel against members of the community. What’s better yet is that these self proclaimed “tech-savvy” computer specialists (totally sarcastic right there) say that if you had any common sense on security that you could keep yourself from being hacked. So since you don’t take the time to protect yourself, well than, it’s your own fault.

No Really! That’s what they are saying! See! Oh and because it’s because! Last time I checked consoles weren’t 99% secure either.

Then we have those who deduct with their IMMENSE critical thinking skills that there are only two ways that this could have happened to a victim, oh and , IT’S ALL THEIR FAULT!

My husband is and has been a support technician lead dealing with phone and DSL for 8 years; he brings the technical know-how to the table. He did a thorough scan of my computer last night and nothing at all was on it. That’s probably because he set up up all my anti-ware and firewalls. If anything were to make it onto my computer, it wouldn’t be long before it was found as I run scans myself at least every week.

This is beside the point though. The point is that I am very tech savvy – I was writing HTML for websites when I was 13 back in the 90′s when nobody knew how to do it! And what I don’t know, my husband makes up for; yet I STILL got hacked. What’s worse is I’m left to deal with a completely unresponsive company that has done nothing to make me feel any comfort about the outcome of my account or the safety of my characters coming back to me in tact. On top of that – while I’m already feeling completely violated – I get told that it’s my fault.

Thirty-seven hours later and I still haven’t heard a thing.

In closing, I’d love to see Trion give these bad little kids on the forum a good spanking with a nice hard ruler. I’d also like for them to give the poor people who have had their solace ripped apart by nasty, thieving cretins a little peace of mind by letting them know what to expect and how long they can expect to be expecting it. I understand that they are busy, but sometimes giving the dog a little bit of the bone is all it needs to feel better.

Could Trion be doing better with support? And what do you think makes so many cold-hearted gamers roam the forums in search of victims to bash?

Photo by: Paskal

Sources: Seriously Trion, it takes 48 hours to roll back a hacked account???�
For those that are blind: Trion responds about account hacking
For the Hacker Apologists: Why do you defend them?
A Message from Trion customer support
Damn morons who got hacked

Since I spent most of my day working on a video that ended up having a screwy aspect ratio, I didn’t get as much time to play Rift as I had wanted to. I did get to play a tad though and got to 21 on my warrior. I’m having a bit of a soul identity crisis though as I can’t decide whether I want to go with the all out bust ‘em up build of a Champion or the pain in the assness of a Reaver that doesn’t die. Ho hum…they are both so totally different as well that it would probably take me awhile to be able to remember both sets of key bindings. I’m not sure – I might just stay with Champion because at least I know it – and I do some nice damage as well.

Tomorrow maybe I’ll spend some time with the Reaver soul and see if I can make it work for me. For now, it’s 3:30am and I need to get some sleep or else I’m going to be a zombie tomorrow.

Here is a new video – the first in a very long time!

I don’t know how I missed this coming in, but even though it’s about 10 days late – here it is.