Design Notes
April 03, 2013
Become HACKPROOF!
It's Time To Change Your Passwords
There have been a new round of brute force hacks going around trying to pry their way into accounts, so we are just about to increase our security again. This is a good time to talk about account security.
There are only 4 ways that someone can get into your account.
- You share it. If more than one person has access to your account then then chances of you losing the account are very high, even if it's your best friend, brother or sister. AQW accounts are free. They should just go make one.
- You give someone access. Maybe you saved your password at the cyber-cafe or library. Maybe you fell for some FREE ACs or FREE MEMBERSHIP site and entered your password when the fake site asked for it. Maybe you just have some brain disorder where you feel compelled to shout your passwords.
- You get a trojan or keylogger. It's not common but we've seen a few people make trainers or bots that will secretly install a small trojan on your system that will record your passwords (to AQW, e-mail, maybe even credit card numbers). It's one of the reasons we ask people not to bot.
- You have a rotten password and you get brute force hacked. This is the LEAST likely way to lose your account, currently but even so we are strengthening our counter measures. People can be pretty bad at making passwords and some hackers write programs that just try up to 1000 common passwords to see if they will work. Sometimes they do.
What is a GOOD Password?
It's pretty simple to make an unhackable password. Make it long (10 characters is good). Use numbers, letters AND special characters (!@#$%^&*). Use some capital letters and some lower case letters. Avoid ANYTHING that has anything to do with whatever you're making a password for
Examples:
- jyHhaI86K!43
- Tulip47fOOtball#belt
- 95cCiop!BLASTER
- !ThisWhaleIsNot35!
- I8u4brunchBUTiPuKeD12times
Alina Note: Do NOT use these examples as YOUR password, because they are easy to steal! Make up your own like them, but different! :)
What is a BAD Password?
Here are examples of passwords to avoid.
- Artix
- Artix123
- AQWRULES!
- 123123123
- 12345
- 54321
- qwerty
- ytrewq
- aaaaaa
- 111111
- secret
- password
- god
- love
- Ilove (your friends could easily hack you)
Alina Note: Do not use THESE examples as your password, because they are easier to steal! Make your passwords like the good examples in the previous section, but different! :)
What Else Can I do?
Avoid Scammers. Scammers are people who lie to you to try and get your information. They might threaten to hack you inf you don't give them your password (which is really stupid if you think about it). They might lie to you. They might say they will give you something like ACs or a Membership or they might say they want to trade.
Examples of scammers.
DougBigBoy1: Hey, I'm Artix. I'll make you a mod if you tell me your password
You: It says your name is "DougBigBoy1".
DougBigBoy1: Yeah, this is my secret Mod account.
You: XD You're an idiot. (report them)
LouisPhillipe1: Hello, I am the King of France. Want to trade accounts? I have Alpha Pirate.
You: (quick check on Wikipedia) France hasn't had a king since 1848. You're an idiot. (report them)
Remember that there are LOTS of scammers on FaceBook and Twitter too. Use THIS has a handy guide and remember that AE staff will NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
You should also make sure that your AQW e-mail is up to date and registered with us. If something DOES happen to your account it will make it a LOT easier for Player Support to put things right for you.
I've Already Been Hacked! WHAT DO?! WHAT DO?!
The Player Support team exists to help you with any and all account and/or payment issues.
April 06, 2012
We Are Not Ignoring You.
We're Not Ignoring You (unless you're just looking for attention)!
Artix Entertainment tries to set it self apart from other game companies in a lot of ways but one of the most important is how much we interact with you guys. Any of you who follow my Twitter or like our AQW Facebook Fan Page know this to be true.
We love talking to you and even when we don't love what we hear, we love that you care enough to tell us what you don't like and we try and fix it. Unfortunately, we are not always logged in to Twitter (we do sleep on occasion) and when we are, we all have a LOT of people talking to us (at this time I have 31,035 Twitter followers and Artix has nearly 47,000!) so If we don't reply to you it's probably because we either missed your Tweet or because we can't reply to every single Tweet.
Please try and understand that there is no way that we can answer every tweet, much less meet up with every single person who asks to meet us in-game. We would never have time for anything else.
Another thing to mention is that it is mostly the Devs who are on Twitter. Devs (or Game Developers) are the people who spend all week building each new release for you to play, and fixing the bugs that you have reported on the BUG FORUMS. We also have a lot of other jobs dealing with game development and community outreach. All that stuff takes up the entire week (which is why some releases come to you a little later than others) and our jobs don't leave time for much else. In the rare cases when we DO find ourselves with extra time, we make a Mid-Week release or work ahead on new functionality!
So you can see that we Developers keep pretty busy with our own stuff. That's why we have Moderators to help you and protect you in-game and Player Support to help you outside the game with account and payment issues.
Nythera, Zazul, Memet, Neveya & Lady Tomo make up the Player Support team. Their primary job is taking care of you and your account issues. They do a fantastic job and are often overlooked for all the effort that they put into making AE function.
These are the brave and tireless people who read all of your HELP MAIL so you should always GO HERE if you've been hacked or find yourself with a payment issue.
The Player Support team receives THOUSANDS of e-mails EVERY DAY and they read every single one of them, but with so much to do, they can get a little behind sometimes and can't reply to you instantly so if you have a problem, please be patient.
Reens, Stratos and their team of Moderators handle a lot of in-game issues. Everytime someone is using foul language or trying to scam or trade accounts, it is THESE heroes to quietly step in and take action to try and keep the game as fun as safe as they can, and many of these mods are volunteers. They are giving their own time to sort through reports for no reason other than they really CARE about making AQW a safe and fun place for everyone, but they need YOUR help.
If you see someone that they shouldn't be, click on their portrait and use the REPORT function to bring them to the attention of the Mods!
Let's Review:
- A Dev's Job is making the games.
- Player Support's job is taking care of account and payment issues.
- Moderators handle mutes and bans of in-game rule breakers.
Each team has their hands full. That is why we Dev's can't help you with your account or payment issues when you ask for help over Twitter. It's not because we don't want to, it's because it's not what we do and we literally CAN'T help you in most cases.
Telling the us DEV's over Twitter about your account issues is just about as useful as telling a bowl of soup to fix your broken TV.
It's the same reason that Doctors don't put out fires, Firefighters don't pick up your garbage and Waste Workers don't do open heart surgery. They each have their own job that keeps them quite busy.
If you are having account or payment issues the best thing you can do is head to the HELP PAGE and if you ask us for help over Twitter, that is why we direct you there instead of fixing your account.
Please understand that we really do want to help you (of COURSE we do... we WANT you to play AQW!) and we all do our very best to point you in the right direction to get you back on your feet as quickly as possible. :)
I DON'T WANT TO GET HACKED!
If you don't want to lose your account there are 5 simple things that you should do.
- Pick a VERY GOOD PASSWORD. Make it hard to guess, use letters AND numbers. Avoid simple or passwords like AAAAAAA, qwerty, asdasdasd, 12345, 54321, or your character's name.
- Never share your account with anyone (even your siblings or best friend).
- Never tell anyone your password, no matter who they say they are or what they promise you. There are TONS of fake Cyseros, Alinas, Artixs and other AE fake AE staff ALL OVER Facebook and Twitter. AE STAFF WILL NEVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
We don't need your password. We have access to all of your accounts right now. - Hook your AQW account up to your BATTLEON PORTAL account! If something ever does happen, it's an extra level of security and helps Player Support fix your up faster.
- Never use Hacks, Cheats or Bots. Many of these programs will secretly install a trojan virus called a KEYSTROKE LOGGER on your computer. This virus records everything that you type (passwords, credit card info, which websites you visit) and sends the information back to the creators.