NOTICE: NWN Authentication Server Down

[Legacy_Aaryn Flynn]

               Due to the recent hacking of our legacy NWN servers we have disabled the NWN master server which manages game authentication. We are currently retooling our NWN authentication process and will have a new server up as soon as possible.

We appreciate your patience while we make these improvements to our systems.

Aaryn Flynn
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               So let me get this straight. People are going to buy NWN or NWN2 and they won't be able to install it?

I'm just plain disappointed in all of you.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Wil SilverHeart]

               I bet you would be more disappointed if your credit card info got hacked and you had 1000's of dollars charged to it?

 But I'm just guessing.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               Not likely. They don't have my CC#. But point well taken. Bio is handling this situation as well as can be expected.

And just to prevent a bunch of panicked late night phone calls to local banks... the hacked servers didn't contain your CC#s. They DID contain emails, usernames, and passwords. As long as you don't have a paypal account using the same login info you used on the old Bio site your money is probably safe.

Still, Bio came clean and took steps almost as soon as they realized what had happened. There was no denial or attempt to cover anything up.

They are to be applauded for that.

I'm still disappointed with them.

If the old forums were still up I could point to anti-DRM rants in several of my old posts. THIS is why. DRM never has a significant impact on piracy, and it always winds up hurting honest users. There is no legitimate reason for these games to require online authentication. Both games have been hacked for years. This outage won't bother the game pirates one dot. You can still download both games via torrent and play them right out of the box. But honest people buying NWN2 off Ebay or Steam are about to have a VERY unpleasant initial experience with NWN. Refunds will be demanded. Potential players will be irretrievably alienated.

Bio made a choice to ignore our pleas and decided to implement online authentication. In so doing they assumed the responsibility of making sure the authentication process remained secure. This means spending money. It means buying new software, keeping everything patched daily, and from time to time investing in new hardware and paying people to migrate data to the new servers. They failed to live up to this responsibility.

The best possible fix for Bios authentication issues would be to permanently disable online authentication for both games. Any piracy protection this procedure may have offered the game back in the days of yore is long gone. In reality their online authentication procedures were rendered obsolete before either game was even released. All it's doing now, as many of us have warned for years, is punishing honest customers for buying games.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par UrkOfGreyhawk, 24 juin 2011 - 04:41 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Elhanan]

               As long as I do not have to authenticate each time, I reckon I am fine with the attempt at security.

And thanks to Bioware for the caution!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_appleyum]

               Out of curiosity

Our investigation shows that information
such as user names, encrypted passwords, email addresses, mailing
addresses, names, phone numbers, CD keys and birth dates from
accounts on the system may have been compromised

Would the new authentication server address that?
               
               

               

                     Modifié par appleyum, 24 juin 2011 - 04:35 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_Registermonkey]

               So the email I just got from bioware is genuine, it's asking me to reset my password?
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lord Sullivan]

               

UrkOfGreyhawk wrote...

Not likely. They don't have my CC#. But point well taken. Bio is handling this situation as well as can be expected.

And just to prevent a bunch of panicked late night phone calls to local banks... the hacked servers didn't contain your CC#s. They DID contain emails, usernames, and passwords. As long as you don't have a paypal account using the same login info you used on the old Bio site your money is probably safe.

Still, Bio came clean and took steps almost as soon as they realized what had happened. There was no denial or attempt to cover anything up.

They are to be applauded for that.

I'm still disappointed with them.

If the old forums were still up I could point to anti-DRM rants in several of my old posts. THIS is why. DRM always winds up hurting honest users. There is no legitimate reason for these games to require online authentication. Both games have been hacked for years. This outage won't bother the game pirates one dot. You can still download both games via torrent and play them right out of the box. But honest people buying NWN2 off Ebay or Steam are about to have a VERY unpleasant initial experience with NWN. Refunds will be demanded. Potential players will be irretrievably alienated.

Bio made a choice to ignore our pleas and decided to implement online authentication. In so doing they assumed the responsibility of making sure the authentication process remained secure. They failed.

The best possible fix for Bios authentication issues would be to permanently disable online authentication for both games. Any piracy protection this procedure may have offered the game back in the days of yore is long gone. In reality their online authentication procedures were rendered obsolete before either game was even released. All it's doing now, as many of us have warned for years, is punishing honest customers for buying games.

Hey I'm with you on the whole DRM debacle BUT!!... you're mistaken as far as NWN is concerned.

1- NWN requires online authentication for only 2 things which is to help online play have a way to ban
players with the "Public Key" created I suppose by the "Master Server" that you otherwise can't do
if the server is down(but can still play online if the module you're accessing does not require authentication) and
finally it's to authenticate the extra modules that were purchasable/downloadable (not the 2 expansions) for a
while from the old Bioware website.

2- NWN does not have DRM nor Securom CD Check since Patch version 1.66 which is quite a while ago.

So, just wanted to let you know that you're slightly misinformed on this one.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lord Sullivan]

               

Registermonkey wrote...

So the email I just got from bioware is genuine, it's asking me to reset my password?

You got an E-Mail?... lucky you, I was just forced to change my password because of
comming to this website, did Login only to find out I was locked out with a "Login Faillure"
message with "Incorrect Password" as a reason.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_UrkOfGreyhawk]

               And of course, you need them to install the game. GoG.com has disabled this requirement, thank God. NWN doesn't have enough new customers to be pissing them off.

NWN2 is a different story. If Bio can't get that server up and running before the weekend we're about to ****** off a lot of steam buyers.

Registermonkey wrote...

So the email I just got from bioware is genuine, it's asking me to reset my password?

Yes. That email was on the level. Once the nwn.bioware.com site reopens you'll find the password to your account has been changed.
               
               

               

                     Modifié par UrkOfGreyhawk, 24 juin 2011 - 04:49 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_alizrak]

               I wouldn't dare to click on the link so I looked for every other Forgot Password option on all my EA games. Took a while before I got a reset email. '> I do remember making a NWN account long time ago, but I was sure it wasn't linked to this account. :/ Anywaaay.... seems like things are fixed for me.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_Lord Sullivan]

               

UrkOfGreyhawk wrote...

And of course, you need them to install the game. GoG.com has disabled this requirement, thank God. NWN doesn't have enough new customers to be pissing them off.

NWN2 is a different story. If Bio can't get that server up and running before the weekend we're about to ****** off a lot of steam buyers.

I'm not sure I'm following you... are you talking about the CD Keys you enter when installing the game?

Well, while the Old website gave you the opportunity to save them in your account, it has nothing to do
with the authentication process. I'll also add that I kept my CD Keys in a safe place here at home as
everyone should do with all their games that they keep and will play any time in the futur.

P.S. If I understand correctly, no one from EA\\Bioware has said that both the Old Website and The Authentication
server will be down from now and foverer, it's apparently only a temporary situation as far as we all know at the
moment.

P.S. #2 - You do NOT need to be connected online to install the game and the expensions
               
               

               

                     Modifié par Lord Sullivan, 24 juin 2011 - 05:12 .
                     
                  

            

[Legacy_OldTimeRadio]

               Thanks for the update and please keep us posted!
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_PlasmaJohn]

               

UrkOfGreyhawk wrote...

And of course, you need them to install the game.

Yes, you need keys to install the game, but even if the mothership is inaccessible the install will continue.  From what I understand, GoG includes a common set of keys in their install so the the game bypasses the key entry screen.  The only NWN players this affected are those playing on multiplayer servers and only those servers that have enabled the option to only allow players on while the Master Server is responding.

As an NWN server operator, we depend on the Master Server authentication to ensure that the people logging in are entitled to the characters in their servervault.
               
               

               
            

[Legacy_SuperFly_2000]

               

OldTimeRadio wrote...
Thanks for the update and please keep us posted!

Saying the same.

Also thanks for still bothering with an ancient game that only old farts like me and some others play.... '>