World of Warcraft at Ten Ton Hammer

Keeping your loot is part of the game in China...

In Part I of the Online Gaming in China series from ChinaJoy 2008, we took you inside a Shanghai Internet Cafe, which represents the nexus of MMO gaming in much of Asia.

Now, in Part II, we talk with Bill Pang, an executive for one of China's largest online games publishers, about the sophisticated measures Chinese gamers and publishers use in order to protect accounts and online identities. If you thought the Blizzard Authenticator was the beginning, read on to see where that nifty little device came from, and see how the future of online game security is evolving now in a corner of the globe you might least expect.

"To facilitate online purchases in the absence of direct access to credit or bank accounts, more than 90% of Chinese gamers purchase prepaid cards at their local Internet cafe or convenience store. Bill Pang explained that in addition to the prepaid cards, gamers can choose to buy a password matrix card, which has a grid on the back side of the card and a unique combination of numbers. You can bind one one of these cards to your account and configure the login system to ask you for the information randomly chosen from one of the cells every time, thereby adding an additional layer of security to your account."

Read the second part of our Online Gaming in China series right here at Ten Ton Hammer!