I'm so sorry the green has to put up with this epic stupidity.

December 15, 2011 10:45 PM

Is there any way to reach a human being at Mojang support?

Previously I asked a question about Minecraft and hospitals, the green answered (thank you!) and a lovely mefite (who is fantastic and shall be unnamed unless he decides to be named?) hooked me up. Happily smelting ores kept me occupied and I did not end up shooting rubber bands at bedpans.

I'm now out of hospital (yay) and doing fine, but I am experiencing what doctors think is mild memory loss due to general anaesthesia. Random chunks of short-term memory close to my hospital stay are gone, and so are some older memories that my brain hasn't accessed recently. That's fine - no one's especially worried, there's no blacking out, etc, the cognitive symptoms should pass in a few months or so. But wait!

Yep - I can't remember my Minecraft password, which I set up almost right before hospital admission or the password to my gaming email. At all. Complete blank. I've tried multiple times to complete the Gmail email knowledge test, but since that email is an empty account only used to sign up for games and etc, there isn't any personalisation and not much data to be matched up. I also can't remember dates that they require - last login, etc. Passwords weren't automatically saved on my computer, either, so any recovery programs don't work. I did not write the passwords down - or at least I can't remember if I did or not, though my previous pattern is not to do so. The automated response will not allow me access. That's all right - I don't care especially about that account.

BUT MINECRAFT. Is there any way I can reach a real human being at Mojang to explain and get my account back? I've sent a support ticket in about three weeks ago with no response, and there's no way I can just reset my password because the reset email goes to the godforsaken lost Gmail account and *keysmash*.

tl;dr my brain sucks, I'm a complete idiot and lost access to both Minecraft account and email associated to that account. Is there any way past the automated Mojang support system so I can just enchant some goddamn pickaxes already?

posted by zennish to computers & internet (11 answers total)

Mojang has somewhat of a reputation for abysmal customer support... take a look at this thread and you'll see what you're in for. That said, it's important to remember that managing the password was your responsibility, so they technically don't have an obligation to fix this. They don't even have a way of being sure that you are the same person who bought the account. My strategy here would be to be courteous but use all the options available and use them repeatedly, often, until you at least get a response.
posted by crapmatic at 12:05 AM on December 16, 2011

If you're on twitter, Jeb and Notch are reasonably good at responding on there; maybe tweet them a link to this thread?
posted by inigo2 at 3:41 AM on December 16, 2011

If you can't get your password in a day or so, just memail and I'll gift you an account.
posted by empath at 5:02 AM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

If there's literally no way to differentiate your request from the request of somebody who's just trying to score a free account (i.e. no verifiable info AT ALL - email, password, identity questions, etc.), I think you may find this route tough going. Especially given Mojang's abysmal state of CS right now.

At times like this I usually do the internal calculation of (Time & Energy I'm Going To Have To Spend On This) vs. (Cost Of Another Purchase).
posted by Aquaman at 8:07 AM on December 16, 2011

Well, you know yourself (somewhat). You know some of your passwords (I hope). People are generally not that creative using passwords (ie, it's probably not random.)

Soooo... if you were creating a password for this today, what would it be? What were your old passwords? What password sounds interesting? Just make a list of like, 20, and try 3 at a time unless the system locks you out after (sometimes they do, but only for 24 hours, so then you could try again). In the future, consider an (idiosyncratic) system for password creation if you've got to be all secure and use different ones each time; alternatively use insecure ones for game/random stuff, maybe.
posted by reenka at 11:58 AM on December 16, 2011

inigo2: I don't tweet - I can set up a twitter, but if Mojang are worried about people trying to get an account, would a newly-created twitter be suspicious?

crapmatic: I realise that. It was my fault. Unfortunately, when shown evidence of my doing something/talking to someone, I literally cannot recall doing it at all. If I had written my passwords down (and I honestly may have, I'm very much second-guessing myself at this point), I don't think I would even recognise it as the password. Are the only options available the zendesk support system, then?

Aquaman: Mojang has no identity questions, just the password recovery option to email you the reset. I still have the gift code in my memail that the account's associated with, would that count? (Depressingly, it was easier to get back my banking passwords - yes, I forgot those too, it's not been good.)

empath: I already feel like a sack of shit for being so careless with a mefite's gift - please don't waste your money. And please don't be offended, I'm not disdaining your generosity, not one bit - I'm an idiot, my brain sucks, everything about this is frustrating and dumb and RRRRRGH. This account shouldn't go to waste, is what I mean.
posted by zennish at 12:11 PM on December 16, 2011

reenka: I've tried a list of 65 passwords and variations based on what I remember of my old patterns, even the goofy passwords like 'password' or '12345'. So far, no luck. I know I should know it, it's just... not there. Nothing feels familiar.
posted by zennish at 12:15 PM on December 16, 2011

If you're on twitter, Jeb and Notch are reasonably good at responding on there; maybe tweet them a link to this thread?

NOTE: Jeb's twitter is @jeb_ . WITH AN UNDERSCORE. If you want Minecraft support, please tweet @jeb_. NOT @jeb. @jeb is me, and I get eight zillion support requests and feature requests and what have you about minecraft every day, and presumably, @jeb_ never even sees these.
posted by jeb at 12:51 PM on December 16, 2011 [2 favorites]

I actually started a reddit thread about it, too.

They sometimes respond on there..
posted by empath at 1:09 PM on December 16, 2011

Okay, I don't know if it was this thread or the reddit thread (empath, THANK YOU) or just the support ticket going through, but Mojang contacted me, matched up the gift code associated with the account and it looks like I'll be getting my old account back (!!!!!!!!)

Guys, thank you. THANK YOU. All I wanted was a way to contact Mojang, and it happened.

And in case any redditors are reading this thread (hello!), in terms of proof of identity I have the last login timestamp taken from the lastlogin file stored in .minecraft, the approximate gift code redemption date and I believe the gift code's original buyer could attest to actually giving the code away. And yes, I'll be writing the password down, with a gigantic 'MINECRAFT' arrow pointing to it.
posted by zennish at 1:21 AM on December 17, 2011

good news :)
posted by empath at 5:47 AM on December 17, 2011