Update: Account merging will go live one day later, on 9/26
Recently, we provided users the ability to merge their MTGSalvation account with a new or existing Twitch account. With Twitch account merging, we’re able to provide more streamlined account security, faster user support, and an easier log-in process. Now, we’d like to extend these benefits to all MTGSalvation users.
Starting on Sept 25th, all users will need to merge their MTGSalvation account with a new or existing Twitch account. If you’d like to merge your account before Sept 25th, you can do so here.
Merging your account into a Twitch account takes less than a minute, and you won’t lose any account data. Your display name, forum posts, and comments won’t be impacted at all. After merging accounts, you’ll simply log in using your Twitch credentials.
Have questions? Feel free to reach out to our support team here.
DEATH TO ANONYMITY!
Hasn't the Equifax thing or the Sony hacks demonstrated most companies don't give a rat's behind about security? This is all about tracking people for advertisement purposes.
For what it's worth, I work in the tracking infrastructure that you're lampooning. I can assure you that we have long since moved on from logins and other cookie-based identifiers. Everything is about devices now, since you can't delete your device ID. So don't worry about this merging. The stuff you're concerned about has already happened and was out of your control.
What if I don't care about extra security?
What if I'm always logged in?
I don't use Twitch. I don't even like Twitch. Why do I have to merge my Salvation account with a Twitch account all of a sudden? Molster says it's because it provides more streamlined account security, faster user support, and an easier log-in process, but this is still baffling to me. Easier log-in process? How much easier could logging in be? My home computer already logs me in automatically. Everywhere else... it's just a simple username/password system. How could that process possibly be made any easier?
Maybe this is a security thing, and admittedly I know absolutely nothing about security, but how does merging Salvation accounts to Twitch accounts make things more secure? And why Twitch of all things? Why now? What's the prerogative for this change? Maybe I'm just being some cranky, old man whose resistant to change regardless if it's for the better or not, but I honestly just don't understand why this even needs to happen. I don't want a Twitch account.
Curse = Twitch. Its a lot more secure to use one login system instead of the two we are using now across all our sites. Lets us keep user information a lot more secure and protected using the single login.
its no different than when a curse account was made for MTGS. a MTGS account is a cures account which can be used on all our sites. Now that we are a part of twitch, its now the same thing, but instead of a curse account, it is now a twitch account. This lets us just run a single user pool, which is a LOT more secure for users!
Having a central authorization for all accounts means you have one single system that you have to keep secure. Rather than trying to roll out updates across a multitude of sites and systems, you have one and only one that you can roll updates out to. Pretty much every server system and software has security updates on a regular basis. Being able to roll out these updates quickly is paramount to keeping user data secure. Central auth also gives you a dedicated server that is there only for the authorization. The more software you add to a system, the more potential security vulnerabilities you add. By dedicating the server, and keeping it separate, someone hacking any part of MTGSalvation, for instance, could no longer obtain any of your personal information. They'd have to hack the auth server specifically, which is garunteed to have less potential for being at all vulnerable.
As anyone who's seen the news lately - personal identifying information is a strong target for hackers and thieves. They can often use this information to access other sites, steal identities, etc.
Also, many people do frequent Twitch, or other gaming sites that are under the twitch/curse umbrella. Having separate sign ins for each site practically ensures the average user will be reusing passwords and credentials. This puts them in the habit of doing so, which is horrendous for security. If you limit the number of times they have to have a login, you increase the chances that they are using unique credentials.
1) The database/storage where they keep the MTGS account info stored is outdated, contains security vulnerabilities, and/or is outgrowing the max capacity. Instead of spending more money/time/people to update it, its easier/cheaper to make users create new Twitch accounts and then pull the relevant MTGS stuff (like posts, etc) into their existing Twitch database/account storage.
2) Maintenance costs. Its cheaper to have one account on a central database with flags that grant access to various websites than it is to maintain separate databases for all of the various websites.
I personally think it has less to do with making logins "more secure" than it does with money and easier maintenance/development.