Blizzard Sued over Battle.net Authentication

Blizzard is being sued over the Battle.net authentication used in multiple games including Diablo III. A class action suit led by plaintiff Benjamin Bell is seeking damages for "consumer fraud, unjust enrichment, negligence, breach of contract and bailment," claiming that Blizzard is "deceptively and unfairly" charging some users to secure their data from hackers.

Bell is specifically referring to Blizzard’s $6.50 keychain authenticators, alleging that Blizzard has made $26 million by selling them. The suit accuses Blizzard of unfairly requiring users to use Battle.net and says the company has continued to “negligently, deliberately, and/or recklessly fail to ensure that adequate, reasonable procedures safeguard the private information stored on this website.” Bell points to multiple hacking incidents -- including May’s Diablo III hacks -- as evidence that Blizzard failed to take "the legally required steps to alert" players.

Bell is seeking damages and an injunction to bar Blizzard from “tacking on” costs after games have already been purchased. He also seeks to stop Blizzard from requiring players to sign up for a Battle.net account.

We reached out to Blizzard about the suit and a spokesperson sent IGN the following statement:

"This suit is without merit and filled with patently false information, and we will vigorously defend ourselves through the appropriate legal channels.

We want to reiterate that we take the security of our players’ data very seriously, and we’re fully committed to defending our network infrastructure. We also recognize that the cyber-threat landscape is always evolving, and we’re constantly working to track the latest developments and make improvements to our defenses.

The suit’s claim that we didn’t properly notify players regarding the August 2012 security breach is not true. Not only did Blizzard act quickly to provide information to the public about the situation, we explained the actions we were taking and let players know how the incident affected them, including the fact that no names, credit card numbers, or other sensitive financial information was disclosed. You can read our letter to players and a comprehensive FAQ related to the situation on our website.

The suit also claims that the Battle.net Authenticator is required in order to maintain a minimal level of security on the player’s Battle.net account information that’s stored on Blizzard’s network systems. This claim is also completely untrue and apparently based on a misunderstanding of the Authenticator’s purpose. The Battle.net Authenticator is an optional tool that players can use to further protect their Battle.net accounts in the event that their login credentials are compromised outside of Blizzard’s network infrastructure. Available as a physical device or as a free app for iOS or Android devices, it offers players an added level of security against account-theft attempts that stem from sources such as phishing attacks, viruses packaged with seemingly harmless file downloads, and websites embedded with malicious code.

When a player attaches an Authenticator to his or her account, it means that logging in to Battle.net will require the use of a random code generated by the Authenticator in addition to the player’s login credentials. This helps our systems identify when it’s actually the player who is logging in and not someone who might have stolen the player’s credentials by means of one of the external theft measures mentioned above, or as a result of the player using the same account name and password on another website or service that was compromised. Considering that players are ultimately responsible for securing their own computers, and that the extra step required by the Authenticator is an added inconvenience during the log in process, we ultimately leave it up to the players to decide whether they want to add an Authenticator to their account. However, we always strongly encourage it, and we try to make it as easy as possible to do.

Many players have voiced strong approval for our security-related efforts. Blizzard deeply appreciates the outpouring of support it has received from its players related to the frivolous claims in this particular suit."

Source: Courthouse News

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Expansion Confirmed by Blizzard

Blizzard has confirmed that Diablo III will receive an expansion. During an earnings call for the third quarter of Activision Blizzard’s current fiscal year, Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime said that an expansion is currently planned, but no timeline is in place just yet for when it might be released. Morhaime noted that the quality of the expansion and its gameplay is the top priority, and both will be a “big factor” in driving the actual schedule of the release.

Elsewhere in the call, Activision Blizzard also mentioned that more than 10 million copies of Diablo III have been sold to date, expanding upon the number of players revealed in August. Activision CEO Bobby Kotick referred to “Blizzard’s record-shattering Diablo III sales” as one of the primary drivers for earnings so far this year, with Activision noting in a statement that Diablo III is “the #1 bestselling game in dollars and units on the PC in the U.S. and Europe” since its release in May.

Diablo III’s 1.0.5 patch was released last month.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Monster Power System Detailed

Blizzard has detailed the Monster Power feature coming to Diablo III. In patch 1.0.5, Blizzard will add the Monster Power system, which gives players “more control over how challenging enemies are in each difficulty setting,” similar to the “Player X” feature in Diablo II. Monster Power lets players adjust monster health and damage based on various power levels. The harder the enemy, the more bonuses to stats players will receive, plus more drops. Monster Power will be available beginning at level 1 in the Quest Selection window and can be adjusted separately within Normal, Nightmare, Hell and Inferno.

At launch, Monster Power will be available in solo and private multiplayer games. According to a post from Blizzard’s Stephanie Johnson on Diablo III’s official site, “Whenever you join a private multiplayer game, your hero will temporarily adopt the Monster Power level set by the party leader, and it will return to the previous setting you selected as soon as you leave the group.” Players won’t be able to adjust Monster Power in public games, but Blizzard is “looking into the possibility of adding that ability in the future.”

Adjusting Monster Power will offer “bonuses to experience, Magic Find, and Gold Find (which will stack above the 300% cap), and Blizzard showed off the difference between the bonuses in Normal, Nightmare and Hell versus those in Inferno. Inferno will offer increased bonuses, plus offer a chance for monsters to drop an additional bonus item.

“In Inferno at Monster Power 1 or greater, monsters in every Act will also be bumped up to level 63 and share the same high-end item drop rates,” Johnson explains. “This means that no matter which act you're progressing through, the monsters in that act will all have the same shot at dropping items level 61-63, including crafting recipes, Legendary items, and set items. While monsters in Inferno will all be level 63 at MP 1 through MP 10, their skills, abilities, and attributes will still vary from act to act. This means that certain Acts or Chapters may still be more difficult for you than others based on what monsters and Elite packs appear in each, but -- since the rewards will be identical across the entire difficulty -- where you choose to play is ultimately up to you and your personal play style.”

As for the philosophy behind adding the system, Johnson explains that “the intent of Monster Power is not necessarily to make the game ‘unbeatable,’ but to provide better ways for players to measure their progress as they become more powerful.” The team built the system around that idea, focusing on two areas.

The first is Monster Damage vs. Monster Health. Johnson explains that “with each Monster Power level there's a heavy emphasis on increased monster health rather than monster damage. This is because, in general, it's more fun to find ways to maximize your damage than it is to be forced into taking every available form of damage mitigation. We also didn't want to create situations where ‘hard to beat’ could become ‘impossible to beat’ because players couldn't survive long enough to make any progress.” The team tried testing scaling up monster damage but found that it made some fights more challenging in unfair ways or made it too easy for heroes to die after one hit. Increasing monster health, on the other hand, “allowed the game to scale up in difficulty more naturally and in a way that still felt manageable.”

The second area of focus is Efficiency. “By now, some players have reached a point where they can kill monsters so fast that even Inferno provides almost no challenge, and enemies die as soon as they appear on the screen,” Johnson wrote. “For these players, the bottleneck for efficient farming is actually the speed at which they can traverse the map rather than how well they can dispense with enemies.” Blizzard feels that Monster Power fixes this, as players can increase Monster Power for more of a challenge with better rewards. “Will some players be able to kill Diablo on Monster Power 10 as soon as 1.0.5 goes live? Absolutely,” Johnson writes. “Will that be the most efficient Monster Power level at which to farm items? For most, probably not. Monster Power allows each individual decide what that ‘sweet spot’ is for them.”

“In Diablo III, your character's power can grow by multiple orders of magnitude, but up until now there hasn't been a way for you to truly put that potency to the test,” Johnson concluded. “The Monster Power system provides a new outlet for high-powered heroes to truly see how far they've come and tangibly experience just how epic the gear they've collected is. Different players want different levels of challenge, and with Monster Power you'll be able to determine what the right level of challenge is for you. Whether you're in it for the guts, the glory, or simply the goodies, we're excited to offer players the opportunity to face the forces of evil on their own (possibly slightly insane) terms.”

Previously, Blizzard explained how patch 1.0.5 will reduce Inferno difficulty along with its changes to defensive skills and monster damage. For more on how patch 1.0.5 changes Diablo III, read our interview with senior technical game designer Wyatt Cheng and game director Jay Wilson about the patch’s two biggest features, plus when we can expect PVP to come to Diablo III.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following @garfep on Twitter or garfep on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo Meets Tower Defense in The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot

Judging from Diablo III's sales numbers, pointing, clicking, and looting are all clearly activities that gamers enjoy. For the just-announced hack-and-slasher A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, the developers at Ubisoft Montreal -- normally folks who spend their time crafting eight-figure-budgeted blockbusters that set you back $60 apiece -- have a rather simple question for you:

Would you like to point, click, and loot for free?

Such is the unique offer that Mighty Quest makes, though it's far more than a simple free-to-play Diablo clone. It's actually a two-sided affair of attacking and building. The former you're already quite familiar with from years spent playing Blizzard's devilishly successful franchise and its countless imitators. It even lifts Diablo III's interface almost exactly, with a health bar, mana bar, and four skill/attack slots. So it's the latter that sets Quest apart. On defense, you'll create your own dungeons using a handy level-creation tool, easily dragging, dropping, rotating, and populating challenging scenarios that other players will be faced with navigating and completing when they go into Attack mode. It's true that the team at Ubi Montreal will provide a batch of pre-baked scenarios for all to both traverse and study using either of the two included character classes (Knight and Archer), but the bulk of Quest's content generation will come from gamers themselves.

As in any good tower defense game, you won't simply be able to pile everything and the kitchen sink into your dungeon in Defend mode. You'll be on a budget, which both maintains competitive balance by keeping you from loading a room with every boss in the game simultaneously and prevents you from soaking up every drop of RAM from the PCs of your map's visitors. But you can add a healthy selection of monsters and trap-laden structures. Some of them are even themed, like a forge that featured flame-spewing ovens, which led to a final room guarded by a fire-breathing dragon named Mr. Firesly.

Interestingly, your character level and castle levels are separated. The idea is that you're meant to have to play the Defend mode in order to advance in it and unlock new and better fortifications and not simply rely on your offensive skills in order to hack-and-slash your way to an über-castle. And the longer players spend in your sanctuary of sadism, the more you'll be rewarded. In other words, the tougher you're able to make it on your fellow gamers, the better you'll be compensated. And you're asked to rate each castle you complete on a five-star scale, pushing the better designs to the top of the community's virtual bulletin board and earning gold for skilled builders. Better still, you're able to easily create bets with your friends. Challenge them, for instance, to get through the castle you just completed in under a certain amount of time, and bet the gold amount of your choice on it. To even the odds, you'll be able to set the character level for the both of you, so if you're level 20 but your pal is only 12, you can set it to 20 and give your buddy a taste of what's in store for him when he spends a bit more time with the game.

Fittingly, you'll see that, as the title indicates, A Mighty Quest for Epic Loot doesn't take itself too seriously. It's an intentionally tongue-in-cheek take on genre tropes, even if the core gameplay is plenty serious. Beta keys are starting to go out now, so you'll soon have the chance to judge for yourself if Mighty Quest is a laughing matter or not.

Ryan McCaffrey is the Executive Editor at IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Source : ign[dot]com

David Brevik And Blizzard Devs Clash Over Diablo III Criticism

A war of words has broken out between some current Blizzard employees and Blizzard North co-founder David Brevik after the latter revealed he was "a little sad" about how Diablo III turned out.

Brevik, who designed Diablo I and II but had no involvement in the third game in the franchise, was asked by IncGamers during Gamescom what he felt about Blizzard's latest dungeon crawler.

“

I am also a little happy, which I hate to say, it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light.

He responded, "I have very mixed emotions about it. On one hand I am sad that people haven’t enjoyed Diablo because it’s a love, a passion, and it's obvious people still have a giant love and passion for Diablo... That makes me feel great.

"I am sad because people are outraged and... some of the decisions they have made are not the decisions I would make, and there have been changes in philosophy and that hasn’t gone over very well...

"I am also a little happy... I hate to say, [but] it shows that the people that were involved in Diablo really did matter, and so I am happy that it has come to light that how talented that group was, how unique and special... when the people leave the game changes, and it shows how critical people are in this industry."

His comments provoked a Facebook status update by former Diablo 3 technical artist Chris Haga, which was quickly leapt on by other contributors to the game. In the post, Haga originally stated, "Suddenly I feel like I was just thrown under a bus," before more of the game's developers shared their views. Unfortunately, this exchange was then screenshotted and posted on Reddit. It's since been removed from there, but you can see it below:

One of the comments that has drawn the most attention is that of Diablo 3 game director Jay Wilson, who replied saying "F*** that loser". A number of other game developers took to Twitter last night to label his reaction as heavy-handed, considering Brevik's fairly mild comments about the current state of a franchise he helped create.

“

Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights.

Red 5 CEO and former Diablo II producer Mark Kern tweeted, "Gotta say, that Jay Wilson, never having been at Blizzard for D1 and D2 and never having met Dave Brevik, has no place to say what he did.

"Dave Brevik created 2 genre-busting, award winning, world-loved Diablo games. Jay Wilson has done ____ with Diablo 3. Fill in the blanks.

"Blizzard arrogance has reached new heights," he concluded.

Brevik is currently company president of Gazillion Entertainment, which is working on the upcoming Marvel Heroes. While the Diablo-style MMO has no estimated release date right now, it's been referred to in the past as "the spiritual successor" to Diablo II.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant. You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com

Monster Slaying in Van Helsing

Neocore’s The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing is an action-RPG that lets you use magic, swords and guns in a Diablo-style action role-playing game. The mechanics in this game should be familiar to genre fans, where the action is presented from an overhead view and you run around maps wiping out packs of enemies then scoop up the loot they drop.

Making kills earns you experience to level up and accumulate points. Some of these points can be used to boost Van Helsing’s primary attributes, and others go into a skill tree that’s split into three main branches: swords, guns and magic.

In addition to using points to power up individual skills, you’re able to learn individual modifiers that can be activated during a fight. Van Helsing builds a resource while he battles that can be used to trigger these multipliers, which then come into play the next time the skill they’re attached to is used. For example, Van Helsing can burn enemies with a fire carpet spell that spreads flame across the ground. If you have enough of the modifier resource available, you can activate a booster that dramatically expands the fire’s area of effect the next time it is cast.

Three modifiers can be activated at a time, adding a little bit more depth to the system as you consider whether you should activate three different multipliers or instead stack the same one three times to greatly enhance its effects. If Neocore adds a lot of useful variety with the modifiers, this could lead to some more interesting battles.

The item system allows for more customization, offering options to combine and break down certain items so you can enhance whatever statistics happen to support your build. In case even after all your skill and item tinkering you’re not powerful enough to cut past enemies, others can join your game, as there’s support for four-player cooperative play.

Whether or not The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing really catches on when its ready depends a lot of factors that aren’t really possible to assess in a short play session, but the basics certainly seem to be there. Enemy types also seem to have varied characteristics, as some will explode into poison clouds when killed and some are resistant to incoming damage from the front, forcing you to move around, stay active, and switch around weapon types. Neocore’s action-RPG is scheduled to be released sometime in the fourth quarter of 2012 for PC and Xbox Live Arcade.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo III Has More than 10 Million Players

In its second quarter earnings report today, Activision Blizzard confirmed that as of July, more than 10 million people have played Diablo III. This is up four million from the figures announced after the game’s launch and supports the game’s continued success at retail.

According to an Activision Blizzard earnings call that followed, the company said that Diablo III is the best-selling PC game of the first half of 2012 and once again reiterated that changes are coming to the game in the future. Elsewhere in the earnings report, Activision Blizzard also revealed that World of Warcraft subscriptions are down by more than one million.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Diablo 3 Exploit Creates Invincible Wizards

A new bug has been discovered in Diablo 3 that makes the Wizard Class invulnerable.

In a post on the official forums, user Doso explained how to become invincible by doing the following:

• Step 1: Select Teleport - Fracture. Bind it to a key


• Step 2: Select Archon, tested with Improved Archon


• Step 3: Hover your mouse over or near your charcter


• Step 4: Press Teleport


• Step 5: QUICKLY(!) Press Archon

Despite being uncovered yesterday, Blizzard has yet to respond to the situation other than by removing details of the exploit from the original post. A fair number of people have expressed their intent in the thread to make the most of Blizzard's mistake by farming Inferno difficulty, so it'll be interesting to see what the company does with loot obtained this way - especially given the existence of the Real Money Auction House.

Blizzard recently shared its feeling that the current endgame model for the title wasn't sustainable, and explained that it was looking into ways to amend this.

Cheers, Kotaku.

Luke Karmali is IGN's UK Editorial Assistant.  You too can revel in mediocrity by following him on IGN and on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com