WoW Authentication Key question

Puteq

My brother has an internet cafe just opened up, but one with PCs that play games too. I was going to install World of Warcraft on them, mainly since a lot of my mates play the game. However, rather than downloading GBs of data off the net, I decided to grab the CDs from one of my mates who has a subscription and the CDs for WoW and BC. However I just noticed that they have authentication keys with them. Now, the only time I have ever come across authentication keys on a game is when the producers dont want you installing it on your mates PCs and all that, and rightly so - but this is WoW, you cant play without a valid account anyway so I dont see the point? Wouldn't it be more in their interest to let people install away, knowing that only people with a trial a/c or valid subscription could avail of the install anyway? Why bother with authentication keys, and more importantly, if I install using these keys on a PC that lots of other people might log on to, will I be getting my mates account in some trouble, cos thats the last thing I want to do ?

Binomate

You'd want to watch that nobody installs a key logger on the machines. That seems to be a big source of how accounts get hijacked. As far as your problem, I don't recall there being an activation key. Are you sure that's not the account regestration key?

ZorbaTehZ

The keys in wow are only used for setting up accounts, you can't set up one if you don't have one. They don't work like, for example, the old Half-life Cd-keys where you couldn't connect to a server if someone else was using the same keys.
And if your mate isn't using one of those commercial games management programs for the lan-arena then you definitely need some serious stuff to try and combat key loggers et al. When one of my guildies got his account hacked, he was pretty much certain that it was from using one of the computers in one of his local lan-centers, hearing that I pretty much just stopped u8sing wow in lan-centers.

An aside, your avatar says Galway, might this be a new centre in Galway then?:)

Puteq

Yeah you pretty much say what i thought - I just dont see the point of the 'authentication key' in WoW considering you get your own username and password when you create an account and then you can play on any machine you like that has WoW installed.
But I am sure it is in fact an 'authentication key' that is on a sticker in the box, which is separate from the authentication credentials my mate uses when logging into WoW. But I guess if they are used for setting up accounts, then I should be able to install without using the keys hopefully, which is all I want for now anyway.

And ZorbaTehZ, I dont want to advertise what with it being against the rules and all, but in answer to your question, yes this is in Galway - but county Galway, not Galway city! Carraroe, about 25 miles West of the city if you feel like travelling or happen to live there. Cupantae.ie its called (cos its a cafe and LANing place in one). I'm sure if you ever made your way out there and popped your head in the door and say you were directed there by boards you'd get a few hours free play too :-)

PS I nearly forgot to say, yeah he has the proper management software and has his PCs protected up the wazoo so I would feel confident they would be quite safe to use.

Cuddlesworth

Puteq wrote:

- I just dont see the point of the 'authentication key' in WoW considering you get your own username and password when you create an account and then you can play on any machine you like that has WoW installed.

It's to prove you bought the game, otherwise its blizzard 50 quid down. Its not to authenticate the install, its to authenicate the money you paid for the game.

ZorbaTehZ

Puteq wrote:

And ZorbaTehZ, I dont want to advertise what with it being against the rules and all, but in answer to your question, yes this is in Galway - but county Galway, not Galway city! Carraroe, about 25 miles West of the city if you feel like travelling or happen to live there. Cupantae.ie its called (cos its a cafe and LANing place in one). I'm sure if you ever made your way out there and popped your head in the door and say you were directed there by boards you'd get a few hours free play too :-)

lol? I live out in that direction (Spiddal). Will be making an appearance soon. Good luck to you guys anyways.

Puteq

Puteq wrote:

I just dont see the point of the 'authentication key' in WoW considering you get your own username and password when you create an account and then you can play on any machine you like that has WoW installed.
But I am sure it is in fact an 'authentication key' that is on a sticker in the box, which is separate from the authentication credentials my mate uses when logging into WoW.

Just to give this story some kind of conclusion, I went ahead and installed WoW & BC today, and it didnt require any authentication key. They are on the box allright so i assume what i was seeing must be some kind of optional free trial key or something, but i didnt need to use them for installing the game

happy days!