Yes, there have been a ton of problems with hacked accounts in World of Warcraft, some of them due to power-leveling services, some due to talented hackers, and a few due to stupidity.

Yes, there have been attempts to combat the problem by Blizzard, with various levels of success.

Yes, there’s now a keyfob.

This means th-…wait a minute. A keyfob?!? According to the WarCry Network, you bet your sweet epic there’s a keyfob:

Designed to attach to a keychain, the lightweight and waterproof Blizzard® Authenticator is an electronic device that generates a six-digit security code at the press of a button. This code is unique, valid only once, and active for a limited time; it must be provided along with the account name and password when signing in to the World of Warcraft account linked to it.

Hoo-boy. While on the surface this seems like a good idea (and in many ways it is), let’s think of the negatives:

1. Keeping up with the damn thing.
2. Not breaking the damn thing.
3. This starting a trend, leading to trying to hide your NeoPets fob when the guys are coming over. “No, really…that’s my sister’s.”
4. This sentence being spoken out loud to you: “Okay, dear…I’ve hidden your little WoW-thingy. Do what I say if you ever want to play again.”
5. If it does become a trend, the Second Life users modding their fobs to look like penises and throwing them around other people’s houses could reach epidemic proportions.

As you can tell, while this looks to be a great idea, it’s does have the potential to create as many problems as it solves.

Either way, everything should come up whine and roses, though. Unless they switch concepts, and we all wind up with a WoW-Doggle.

Tags: fob, games, gaming, mmo, mmorpg, Second Life, World of Warcraft