Please Get Authenticators

We always hear about it but never think it will touch our little world. Well, it does.What am I talking about?

Getting hacked.

It is the single worst thing that can happen to a WoW player 's account because you lose everything that you have invested in your hobby. On top of the time, gold, gear and other materials that is stolen; you lose the feeling of control, trust and good will.

No, I haven't been hacked but some people in my guild have and the ones that hit home were my 2 WoW friends, one I knew irl.

The worst part of it all is that the 2 WoW friends that got hacked, they really had no reason to have gotten hacked. They don't buy gold or surf the internet much. The only thing they didn't have were authenticators.

As targets, they were paydirt in the amount of damage the hacking caused them.

WoW friend #1 had just recently come back to the game and to welcome him back, me and my boyfriend had pooled all our unused Frost Emblems to buy Primordial Saronite in order to craft him ICC leggings and boots. We also crafted the ToC bracers, chest and Ulduar belt.

We didn't do this expecting anything in return but genuinely to help out, especially since he had quit the game when we were still trying to clear Naxx 25 so literally all his gear was only ilvl 200 and some blues. It just hurt a lot that after we spent the time to craft him the last item, he immediately got hacked.

WoW friend #2 is relatively new to the game (~1 year play time) and only has 1 level 80 character just like me. He takes it farther than me though and barely has any alts at all - maybe a bank alt. He is really, really rich and has a lot of valuable materials in his bank. If losing all his gold and own mats weren't bad enough (which is north of 100k in worth), he also had officer status in my bank alt's guild. So my alt bank was raped with all the herbs, gems, etc.

I'm not that mad about the guild bank to be honest. I'm just pissed that there are still gold sellers and whatnot that fucking do this for a living.

Think about it, their entire livelihood is based off of making your hobby that you do for fun not fun just so people that are lazy can buy gold.

In the WoW goldseller/hacker's world, everything that we do in WoW is worthless if it can not be converted into gold. Your titles, mount, pets, achievements are completely worthless. That is because to a gold seller, they don't care how much time you have invested in to your character.

They are out to ruin your hobby on purpose so they can make a buck out of you.

People need to start recognizing gold sellers for what they are - con men.

Yes, the poor farmers spend hours killing creatures for gold and get paid diddly squat but it is not the WoW gamer's fault for their life circumstances leading to their current predicament.

Stop encouraging gold sellers!

Report them. Don't buy from them (even reputable sites, which shouldn't be doing it anyway). Let anyone you know interested in doing so not to do it and why! The practice needs to be abolished!

Whew! Glad I got that off my chest.

Anyway, please please anyone without an authenticator - get one. I know that adding an authenticator adds an extra step in logging on but you get used to it rather quickly nor is it hack-proof but you are much safer that way.

Don't google for links without checking them first. Don't give out your login information easily, especially via email links. Make sure your computer is always up to date. Please take care of what sites you go to and what you download and make sure your computer is never compromised!

I hope that none of you ever get hacked but I feel so upset for my friends that did because if their accounts don't get completely restored, I can totally see them quitting. I wouldn't blame them either.

Please get an authenticator!