Password Idiot Ball and Guild Wars 2

Areanet has a  lot of issues with hacked accounts, which can be troubling no doubt. It's also had some odd management on its account log ins in the past, and in the old days of the original Guild Wars I had found myself on more than one occasion stumped at how to log in, how to get hold of someone to help fix the issue and ultimately even trouble finding the CD Key that was often necessary for this process. I have hardly any physical CDs with keys anymore, its just not something I do in the PC universe thanks to Steam and digital delivery in general. The idea of a CD key as a necessary requisite to resetting a password seems excessive, but maybe its necessary?

I was trying to get Guild Wars 2 set up for remote play on my laptop when I realized I couldn't remember  my password. To recover it I once again need a CD Key, attached to a disc and box that I may or may not still have, mostly likely buried deep in storage. Yay.

Still, GW2 customer service on a query reset my password. Problem solved! Not so fast, human meat space error is guaranteed to insure failure here.

First problem: they won't let me recycle any previously used passwords. I've only used a couple passwords to date, but when I tried to enter some passwords  previously to log on, passwords that were in sync with my "system" for such, it didn't recognize them....but it seems to have remembered them because I can't use any of them at all. I used quite a few (12) figuring maybe I had reset it to one of them at some point. I only show two previous changes on record, so that means at least 10 should be good, right? Apparently not. The system says they have been used previously...or were entered, at least. It remembered my attempts, not merely my actual passwords. Greaaaaat.

Their password reset also suggests the XKCD method, which is to link several conventional words together which our simply meat brains can easily recall but which sophisticated computers allegedly will never get. So guess what happens? I come up with one, and it works. I log in. Yay! I go to my laptop, easily remembered password in mind. It doesn't work. Whaaaa??? Somewhere in the space of two damned minutes I either forgot a portion of the password, or just as likely I mistyped it (twice) in the first place and am not correctly recalling it but not realizing what I typed is not what I entered.

So on the one hand: I get the idiot ball today because holy cow why didn't I write it down carefully before ever typing it in? On the other hand, Areanet's approach to security is infuriating and my ability to get into my account depends on my willingness to write down an elaborate password that is unrelated to any of my previously used password conventions; also, the willingness of the moderators at Areanet to give me a second chance. Ugh!!!!

All I wanted to do was play a bit of Guild Wars 2 on my lunch break. Is that too much to ask? Of my addled brain...and A-net's intense security protocols....I guess so.....

"In Ascalon we Call it the Idiot Log"

FOLLOW UP: Areanet kindly sent me another reset, and this time I thought long and hard about a decent password, wrote the sucker down, and then entered it. I may now pass the idiot ball on to another hapless soul in the interwebz.