Project Lore

Ever since Blizzard went about the process of remaking Battle.net the company has kindly asked players to merge their World of Warcraft accounts with Battle.net.  As many of you may know, Battle.net is being completely revamped as the catch all account service for all of Blizzard's online-enabled products (WoW, Warcraft RTS,Diablos, StarCraft).  Version 2.0 of the system is supposed to launch alongside StarCraft II, a title that is now expected in the first half of 2010.

To date, Blizzard has been enticing players to merge their accounts.  Claiming it'll make logging in easier, give you faster access for spamming for BlizzCon 2009 tickets, win Warcraft III games on its own and even make one immune to H1N1.  Yesterday the company stopped asking politely.  Now it's outright bribery.

Or is it?

The information that Heartbourne revealed yesterday has since been modified, the mentions of a penguin pet and the firm date since removed.  It's unlikely that Blizzard will back down.  After all, if the company did, it would have a mob of vanity pet lovers charging the building.  With Heartbourne and I at the helm.

It's not like Blizzard to hand out a specific date to something.  Let alone do so and then take it back, but that's exactly what has happened.  We'll likely hear more about the pending merger requirement in the near future.

I merged my WoW account long ago and haven't had a single issue.  There's been problems on and off, mostly login issues, but they have never affected me (/me knocks on skull).  How many of you have merged and joined the Big Brother system powered by Blizzard?  For those of you that haven't, is it out of laziness, or are you actually scared of bad things happening?

Actually, Tobold just pointed something out to me.  By forcing us to use an e-mail account instead of an original login name, there's a good chance that your friends/family will now know your login name.  Worse yet, it'll be easier for nefarious beings to find it as well.  He explains his worries about the lower security via BNet merger here.

*Note*

I logged in during lunchtime and the launcher confirmed that all accounts must be merged to Battle.net by November 12, as previously reported.  Penguin will indeed be the reward for complying (to continue to pay Blizzard money).