Guild Wars 2 developers ArenaNet are taking security very seriously within their games, and after having asked all members to change their password, they’re now making it compulsory for all players of the MMO to do so.
ArenaNet recently introduced a system that automatically disabled passwords that they had found hackers to be using for their accounts, thus blocking the usage of literally millions of password. So those users who made their accounts before this blacklist was introduced are now going to have to change their passwords starting February 7th, although ArenaNet encourages that you start doing so now.
“When you change your password, the system won’t allow you to pick your previous password, or any password that we’ve seen tested against any existing or non-existent account,” said ArenaNet on the official GW2 blog. “Thus, after changing your password, you’ll be confident that your new password is unique within Guild Wars 2. However, your password only stays unique if you then don’t use it for other games and web sites, so please, if you value the security of your account, use your password exclusively for Guild Wars 2.”
So there you go, people. If you play Guild Wars 2, you should probably change your passwords right about now.