August 09, 2010

Your Password

Dos and Don'ts For a Secure Password

Some of you have probably heard that a new hacking program has been released, and as usual it's claiming to be able to get past our defenses. Also, as usual, it's almost all talk.

I would explain exactly how it tried to brute force hack your password, and exactly why that won't work (unless you have a terrible password) but it strikes me as a bad idea to tell everybody exactly how our servers defenses work.

Zhoom has reassured us all that your accounts are safe unless you have a password that is easy to guess. So the best way to protect your account, is to change your password to something at least 8 letters long with both letters and numbers (as every good password should be)

If you want to add another layer of security to your account RIGHT NOW, head to the Master Account site and link your AQW account to your Battleon Master Account.

Unfortunately this hacker is managing to get some of our player's accounts, and we are locking them as he gets them, but he's only able to get the ones with very weak passwords. To quote Artix "our laywers and coders are on the case" trying to keep AQW safe and fun for you to play.

Now let's talk about your password...

A secure password is the safest way to guarentee that nobody will ever log into your account except you.

1. The FIRST and MOST IMPORTANT rules is to never tell anyone your password. AE staff will never ask for it. We dont need it. It says that as soon as you log in, every time you log in but we can't stress this enough.
   
   
2. Your password should never be your Character name. For example if yout character's name is BigFace123, your password should not also be BigFace123.
3. Your password should never be "password" or "secret".
4. Your password should never be "123456789", "987654321", "11111" or any string of numbers, even if the string of numbers is all mixed up and out of order, but ESPECIALLY not a string of numbers in order.
   
   
5. Your password should never be "aaaaa", "asdfghjkl", "qwerty", "abcdefg" or any really obvious string of letters.
   
   
6. Your password should never be your real name. Eventually you'll fight with a real-life friend and they will sell all your gear as revenge.
7. Your password should ALWAYS be as long as possible. I believe that AQW has a 25 character limit and I use all 25. That would literally take centuries to brute force hack, if we didn't stop a brute force attempt after several failed attempts.
8. Your password should ALWAYS have letters AND numbers in it and use punctuation if possible (which AQW passwords do allow), but avoid really obvious passwords like "AQW111"

A very long, very safe password is the best way to avoid ever getting hacked. For example, you KNOW hackers would love to get their hands on my account. You know they try to often, usually every day. I am here to tell you that NOBODY has EVER gotten into my AQW account. My first password was "7goforburnonmymark321mark!" and my current password is even better than that. I make a habit of changing them regularly.

Phrases like "go for burn on my mark" are still fairly predictable, so using random words that nobody would link to you is best. None of my passwords have ever had the words Sock or Yogurt in them.

If you think it would be a good idea you can go to manage, then click the CHANGE PASSWORD link on the side menu and change your password to a stronger one RIGHT NOW.

Oh and Beleen even made this super long picture that shows step-by-step instructions on how to create your NEW Password. I highly suggest checking it out. And no, it’s not in .derp format. CLICK HERE to see How To Change Your Password.

There Will Be Bludrut

Got a lot of complaints that Bludrut wasn't dropping enough Trophies this weekend. Minimal is in the file and raising the winning drop rate from 2-4 trophies to 2-10 trophies, depending on how hard you win.

Some people were complaining that the weapons are IMPOSSIBLE to get, which is, of course, false. They are just very very very hard to get. We wanted to add some inscentive for the people who like hard to acquire items. If it's too hard for you to get, don't get it.Still, raising the trophies should help those of you hardened and expert PvPers attain those juicy rewards before 2011.

A few people complained that the General was impossible to kill. After running a several PvP matches with you on several of my toons this weekend I can say that is PROBABLY because those folks didn't read Dumoose HOW TO for the map. You must kill the Brwalers AND the Restorers or the general will be very very hard to defeat. Once they are down, the entire team needs to focus on getting the general down because he is still the general and still pretty tough.

Friday The 13th is COMING!

This is it, this is what we have been spending most of our content development time on for the past few weeks. It is an event unlike anything we have ever released! Are you ready?

No, you're not.