Yup… Not that ive been banned or anything
Lol
@Vivikaide:
Do consider that not all statements that are lengthy and encourage critical thinking are conspiracy theory. Sometimes it’s worth while to give the brain a good shaking. As a sword wants for a whetstone, a mind will want for a book after all.
@Rhielle
But that’s not the truth. I never once made that premise, I simply pointed out that the potential was there. Indeed, if one bothers to look through my post I actually was pretty heavy handed in my praise of Blizzard for how they’ve handled things to date. I never have said “I will not do this”, because quite likely I will do this. At this point in time, and as I said earlier: “It’s smart for Blizzard to do this, and it’s cost effective.”
@Wryn:
This isn’t the topic I’m interested in, and anyone who has half a brain-cell should of been aware of that fact… 20 years ago? I mean come on now. More humorous is that you are trying to bait me with a statement such as that.
@Steaksammich:
What is your basis for having such a personal understanding of my income? What information do you have on my spending, that tells you I am too poor to buy a Smartphone? Perhaps you know my real name also?! Egads! I’m in trouble!! Whimsy aside, I’ll be waiting for that proof quite a while I think. If anything, I suspect I spend altogether too much money on character services. 
the trend of athentication being app based?
right? how dare they.
looks at my bank, google, heck even yahoo mail… all using app based authenticators. those cretins.
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Seriously.
But it’s the loss of obsolete mmo authenticators that made the scales fall from OPs eyes. Sure.
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I don’t know what this has to do with anything. I never implied you said anything about Blizzard at all. None of that was even in my post. Did you even read it? 
Right after you remove your tinfoil hat
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I’m not trying to bait you, I simply think it’s cute that you’re concerned with privacy issues surrounding WoW AUTHENTICATORS, of all things.
Oh, and also that you spell “cell phone” as “Cell-Phone.” It’s cute. You cute. 
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Been using mine since Cata
You really think they’re trying to get you to buy phones to sell Diablo? It couldn’t possibly be because they just aren’t selling?
Smart phones, having information at your fingertips is the future… Just like that ‘fad’ back in the 80’s that would never amount to anything (personal computers)… The smart phone that I carry is 120 times more powerful than the computer that powered the Apollo 11 flight and they will continue to get more powerful with more memory as the technology improves.
So you can bury your head in the sand and attempt to avoid and get left behind, or you can become a late adopter and figure out where the world is headed.
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Again that was not what I said. I merely point out that as we as a society gravitate to using Smart-Phones as a medium, we, and the companies that must rely on them to do business; in a rapidly expanding business world become beholden to the people who create such software and devices.
This is one major reason that while I see the logic in discontinuing the physical authenticator, I also lament the fact that it will make Blizzard even more beholden to other agencies and companies to do business; and us as individuals in turn as we do business with Blizzard.
Thus it becomes a very worthwhile question of asking “As businesses evolve, how much do we as individuals cede to those companies we patronize? And how much in turn must those companies (Blizzard in this case), cede to those that create said software? My point is that as it becomes the norm, how do we collectively ensure that such things do not shift from convenience to necessity?”
Because on the day it becomes a necessity, it becomes something that cannot and should not be able to be terminated on a moment’s notice. If you don’t see the merit in such a point being made, then there is little more one can say on the subject that won’t be summarily dismissed because of what amounts not even disagreement; but rather a lack of interest on the subject.
Anyways, I’m going to pause from replying for a while. But this has been a fruitful dialogue for the most part, and I appreciate everyone who read and replied to it. Even those who leveled baseless claims at me personally, rather than attacking the argument.
@Zachaios:
Strangely I remember being able to play Warcraft II by calling my cousin’s home up for Multi-player. I don’t know what you imply by my “Bad-self”, but I can only assume you are now accusing me of wrong-think or some other purely semantic driven nonsense with your statement.
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I read, then read some more, then skimmed, then scrolled … then just stopped.
Holy guacamole.
The part I stopped at was where you stated something about “growing up in the 80’s and 90’s” then Steam and Blizz blocking you etc.
There’s a huge difference I’d like to make for you here. As someone also who grew up during these years, you’re leaving out one huge part of the equation which we didn’t have back then … the internet.
Yes, you could play with said cartridge without disruption; however, the only multiplayer aspect we had was another wired controller plugged into the machine.
The “services” you’re ranting about which they can block rely solely on the internet.
Once a SINGLE player game is downloaded, you can play it to your hearts content … without disruption.
Also, when you sign up for an account, WITH THE INTERNET, you agree to their terms of service. You can opt to not agree to them and not make an account. All without spending a single penny.
I’ve got a feeling this is going to fall on deaf ears, but I figure it needed to be said.
Carry on with your bad self though. 
Fruitful how? Wasting time?
If you don’t want the public to comment, you should probably avoid public forums.
By the way, while you keep spelling it like this, you are not coming off as an intellectual.
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Why not post in the existing thread about this?
It’s not some grand conspiracy, just a progression of technology.
Can you imagine the outrage if they increased the price to cover costs instead?
Pretty sure they were selling at a loss already.
Man , I vastly prefer physical RNG dongles myself, I have one for WoW still going strong, and had one for SWTOR. It crapped out and BW no longer makes them.
That being said - It’s an expense to the company, and handing that off to a VPN/Handshake app saves so much money, I can’t really fault them for it. I would PREFER continuing to use a dongle, but whatevs.
Now, regarding your thesis OP:
Ship sailed a looong time ago. Even with a physical authenticator, you’re still just renting out your character and data from Blizz. The shift to mobile apps only for account authentication isn’t the red flag you’re making it out to be, IMO; it’s more of an industry trend.
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Alright one more.
I have no issue with those companies doing so, until they suspend access to my ability to use them for being what as Zachaios calls “my bad self”, which I must assume is due to him believing me to be engaged in “wrong-think”. As I said before also, it has nothing to do with WoW; but everything to do with something like paying utilities, or using apps to shop online etc.
That in and of itself is a slippery slope as now we’re basically saying it’s alright to deprive a individual of basic necessities to conduct themselves in the real world, because they dared to question a matter? That sentiment in and of itself makes the discussion a worthwhile one to have I believe.
Anyways, have a great day everyone. ^^
Edit:
@Krystella
Once again you miss the mark because in your haste to attack the person, and not the argument you showcase you have nothing of substance to say and only offer angry barbs and baits. Thus I must once again showcase your ignorance on the subject.
It may not have anything to do with the game “WoW” but as the Blue who discussed the subject earlier stated, it has every right to be discussed on the General Forums. And since it has everything to do with the decision to stop selling the authenticators, I have posted my concerns.
You really need to start putting more effort into your attempts to Troll this thread and go play the game if you have nothing better to do. Alternatively you can abuse the Report Post function and try to get it removed if you can, but I don’t believe it meets any of the criteria for that. Plus I’ll contest it at every step to ensure that if you do abuse the Report Post function you are held to account for that.
So why don’t you just leave the thread for others to have legitimate dialogue in, if you have nothing better to do than make sweeping generalizations. Just food for thought my friend.
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It’s hard to tell from this distance… Are you frothing at the mouth, or merely drooling?
Your posts aren’t making a lot of sense.
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That is some incredibly well founded logic. Truly I am staggered by your intellectual capacity and humble myself before your superior argument. I will make a note to remember to wipe the drool from my mouth. Thank you for your canny insight.