Serielley's Adventures in Gaming

In between customer calls and various projects involving spreadsheets, I received an email. At first, I laughed, thinking that a spam mail had gotten through Gmail’s filter and landed in my inbox. The subject line read: Turbine Account Security Notification. I opened the email knowing that it was just another phishing email, sent by goldfarmers halfway across the world. As I read though, that sinking feeling that people always talk about made itself known, slowly but surely. I checked the headers. I then went immediately to the Turbine Account login and tried in vain to log in for the next fifteen minutes trying every password combination I had ever used just to be sure.

My Lord of the Rings Online account had really been hacked. I couldn’t get in.

Since I couldn’t do anything about the situation at that exact moment in time, I stepped outside the office to clear my head, put my work face back on, and kept at it for the rest of the day.  I went on my guild’s forums and let my static group know what had happened, and there was instant empathy. It’s something that’s happened to a lot of people in the last few years, so the damage that can be done to an account is fairly well known, and our static group is just full of wonderful fellow human beings. When I got home, I immediately started following the directions the email provided. I ran every program I have in my arsenal to see if I was infected. Nothing. Checked my Firefox settings. AdBlock, NoScript, FlashBlock. Everything was turned on, working properly.

How did this happen? Weeks later, and I still don’t know. I never will, and that’s ok. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, and I have my account back now, thanks to two customer service reps at Turbine who were very helpful and patient over the phone. I wish I knew your names, but thank you!

This is Serielle, my level 65 Minstrel. I tried LOTRO at the urging of my husband, and I created Serielle to play with him as his pocket healer, heh. I really enjoy playing Serielle, since the Minstrel is both a healer and a really great damage dealer. They can hold their own pretty well, but are still pretty squishy. Plus, you can kill with music! Heal with music! Who wouldn’t love that? Also, PIMP HAT.

Seriwen, blog readers. Blog readers, Seriwen. I equally enjoy playing my Hunter. It’s addictive to have high DPS, the ability to travel where  ever you need to go, and be able to make campfires. Campfires rock!

I’ve been playing LOTRO since December of ’07, so almost three years now. I’ve put a lot of time into each of these characters. Serielle is my most complete character, with very decent (but not the best) gear, fully leveled crafting, and a lot of crap in her bank vault. I mean, really. There were things in there that I was keeping purely for sentimental value. My Minstrel class quest rewards, clothing items my husband had made me, all of the wood crafting materials I’d saved up… It was just pixels though. Those items weren’t “mine”, no matter how attached to them I was.

During the week that it took to get the account back, I went through a lot of different emotions, but after my initial reaction, I felt pretty zen about the whole situation. I knew exactly what would happen to my characters, so there wouldn’t be any surprises. First, they would send all of the gold to another account, then start stripping the character of items to sell on a vendor. If the thief were particularly malicious, they’d drop all of the character’s equipment. I knew that I’d be lucky to have anything left, and as luck would have it, I ended up with a lot more than I ever thought I would. All of my gear was intact, along with some other useful items that would allow me to get back what I had lost in a short amount of time, except for anything that was purely sentimental, of course.

Compared to others, I got off really easy. Some people have waited weeks to get their character back, and have had to spend as much time restoring lost items and gear. I know I was lucky. I didn’t lose anything physical, and technically the characters I’ve created aren’t mine, but belong to Turbine as any MMO character belongs to their respective creating companies. It all boils down to pixels and time, since that’s all that any game really is. It can be more than that though, and we really can feel strong attachment to those goofy looking polygons. Ultimately, our gaming is what we make of it, as is our connection to the characters we create.

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I’d like to thank OTG and the Sunday Night Chili and Beer group for all of the offers of assistance to replace missing items and the offer to run instances to get equipment back. I’ve said it before, but I’m lucky to hang out with yous guys.

The Sunday Night Chili and Beer group.  You can always count on us to deviate from the path to attack a troll!

That’s right, Squenix is now accepting applications for the Windows beta for XIV! Head over to this link: http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html and sign up today! You must have a valid Square Enix Account and/or Security Token in order to apply, and your application is good for all phases of the beta.

Remember, all beta participants will be required to consent to an NDA in order to participate, so if you get in, no sharing information!!!