I received this tip from a long time site reader, who read it in a private forum. The names are removed and this is strictly a rumor; we’re not saying it’s true, or that we think it’s true. Just read it and be entertained and/or amused.
I’ve lived in Austin for almost 2 years and Blizzard has a small outpost of operations here. I have made friends with some of the managers for Blizzard and found out the following:
When D3 comes out, Blizzard will be making major changes to battle.net. All players will have a universal battle.net account for all games. They will start selling a $6 key chain with a digital face that updates every 10 minutes or so with a new 11-digit number. That 11-digit number will be your password. This will make it nearly impossible to keylog or bruteforce accounts.
The programming that is going into D3 is totally different than D2. They are not updating from D2-D3 like they did from D1-D2. They are rehashing the entire underbelly of the game and using many of the things they’ve learned from WoW to make it more secure. Duping items is going to be impossible. The way it was explained to me was: “It’s going to be a game with WOW architecture but with a D2 skin.”
I asked, but don’t have any word on weather or not it will be pay-to-play. With security measures like the keychain-code, I’m sure it will be.
It is known that Blizzard has a huge customer service and internal support division in Austin. Also, during the various Diablo III panels at the WWI, the D3 team frequently remarked on the major structural changes coming to Battle.net with Starcraft 2, changes that Diablo 3 would be utilizing and adding to. And the Blizzard Authenticator is already in service for WoW. So it’s a reasonable rumor, so far as rumors go.
