If you're interested in trying for one of the 3,000 BlizzCon tickets being sold by lottery, and you had a Blizzard Account before the evening of August 12th, head over to the Blizzard Store now, as Opt-ins are open.

You should able to put yourself in to the drawing on the Account Management page. The opt-in period will last until the evening of Sunday, August 24th, and you will have an equal chance of getting a ticket no matter when you sign up.

After the Opt-in period is over, 1,500 accounts will be chosen at random for a chance to buy up to 2 tickets. Be sure your contact information is up to date so they can contact if you win. Good Luck, and we'll see you at BlizzCon!

[Thanks for the forward, Jeff!]

As you may or may not know, we here at WoW Insider are not an official Blizzard fansite. There are a few different reasons for that, but one of them is that within the Fansite Program Code of Conduct, there is a clause that states, "fansites should present content that is supportive of World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment." We don't disagree with that clause -- fansites are run by fans, and they should support Blizzard. But our status as an unofficial site leaves us completely free to talk indepth about situations where Blizzard has messed up big time. And as many players already know, the BlizzCon ticket sales process that took place earlier this week is definitely one of those situations.

Blizzard is, of course, a game company. No one expects them to put on events like WWI and BlizzCon -- they do so to serve the community that's grown up around their games (and, let's be fair, market and advertise their products to the core of their fanbase). And the community loves those events, both hearing about and attending them. Which is why it was a surprise to no one (except maybe Blizzard themselves) that when the ticket sales kicked off Monday morning, it was a nightmare -- the site was hammered by fans trying desperately to buy tickets, the Failoc was a familiar sight, and within a few hours, even Blizzard.com's main site was down.

Everyone could have predicted that there'd be problems like that -- when a fanbase of 11 million tries to buy 12,000 tickets, of course you're going to have technical problems. But Blizzard's mishandling of the situation didn't happen on Monday morning -- anyone can suffer from server outages. It happened over the next two days, days full of frustration, endless page refreshing, and a lack of useful communication from Blizzard about just what was happening.

In what may or may not be good news today from the Blizzard Store, it looks like the Blizzard Authenticator was back on sale for a short time. It sold out rather early, and there was some rockiness with some orders, but it looks like Blizzard's at least trying to get back on track in delivering this extra layer of account security. Unfortunately, although it was showing as purchasable just an hour ago, it once again shows up as Sold Out currently.

There's no word yet on whether they've fixed any problems with keeping the Authenticator in stock, so it may be that they simply got in one shipment and are waiting for another. Hopefully, that shipment comes soon and they can work out their stocking problems a little more permanently. Until then, I'd sit tight and wait a bit. At the least, you don't want to be like the poor folks tipster Aaron pointed out to us, who are bidding up to $93.00 for one on eBay.

Thanks to everyone who sent us a heads up on this!

We've already reported that the Blizzard Authenticator is sold out, but here's another twist to the story. WoW Insider reader Ryan told us that he placed his order last Monday, before the sell out was announced.

However, instead of getting his Authenticator, he instead got an unexplained refund. With no other word from Blizzard, they simply canceled the order and refunded the money. He talked to a coworker who had also ordered the Authenticator and found that he had the same experience. As of yet, Blizzard has not explained the refund to him.

It's likely that Ryan was simply unlucky enough to place his order after they'd sold out but before they'd officially announced it, but there's other somewhat unfortunate implications. If they're refunding his order instead of honoring it, it suggests that they don't expect to have any new Authenticators ready for quite some time.

The problem with keyloggers and other methods of account theft has been well documented here at WoW Insider, and it seems like a constant problem. Even the most conscientious of players has fallen prey to it. However, at the Worldwide Invitational, Blizzard is introducing a little piece of hardware that could make those problems vanish. Say hello to the Blizzard Authenticator.

The Authenticator is a small piece of hardware that you can associate with your World of Warcraft account. Once the Authenticator is associated with the account, you will need it to log on. Every time you log on, you press a button on the Authenticator to generate a six-digit code that you must input to log on. Since only you know the code, and it's generated apart from your computer at the time you're ready to log on, it will be safe from trojans, keyloggers, and other hacks.

The Authenticator will be available at the WWI to start, then eventually at the Blizzard Store. The starting price being quoted by Blizzard is $6.50 -- a small price to pay for safety from a ransacked bank and naked server transferred characters, for many.

Is this the big announcement though? It's possible, of course, but we like to think there's more in store at the WWI. Stay tuned here, and we'll let you know.

The new and improved Blizzard store opened recently, and it's definitely worth a look. It has a very clean layout, making finding what you want pretty simple. They carry everything from the Blizzard games to the Warcraft action figures to WoW game time. Their apparel selection isn't very large due to that primarily being handled by Jinx, but the store is still worthwhile.

Plus, registering for the Blizzard store comes with another perk. You can register for the Beta Test lottery, which is a chance at being chosen for upcoming beta phases of various games. Wrath? Starcraft II perhaps? All of the above? Who knows! I've been considering getting into the WoW TCG, so if I get a shot at a beta test out of it, too... hey, why not?

Edit: The Blizzard EU store is not yet live, but I imagine it will be soon. Sorry, Europe!