I honestly think that Blizzard has the right idea. The vast majority of content is in the end-game; the number of things you can do at Level 80 far exceeds what you can accomplish (or even set out to do) prior to level 80. There are areas you can't even access without a flying mount (required level 77) and plenty of raid zones you can't even dream of without first hitting 80 and getting some better gear (or maybe having friends to carry your weaksauce along). Level 79 and 80 are worlds apart. It's always been like this - It was the same when the cap was 60, and the same when it was 70. It was the same in EverQuest and I'd bet good money that to varying degrees it's like this in most popular MMOs. Personally, I've already leveled 2 characters to 80 - I will take no joy in leveling a 3rd if I ever want a 3rd 80. Blizzard is just making my life easier - cutting the BS grind and giving you more freedom. I honestly don't feel like I am a vastly better player or that I am "better" than any other player simply because I had to level my toons "back in the day" before they did things like making mounts faster, easier to get, and letting you switch factions. The game exists to be enjoyed, Blizzard is simply making it easier to try different things without having to hassle with grinding money/levels/whatever just to try something new.

I actually work for Turbotax in the Technical Support Division. Actually to be specific I work for another company and they outsource their support through us. They do the same for many other offices through different companies, including outsourced Sales people in India, and an office in the Phillipines. Most chat agents are from India.

I've been using Turbotax over the past 5 months for roughly 600 hours and there's a few things I can say about the program. First and foremost, it's very rarely wrong. I've taken 2057 calls (On 2058 right now) and in all these I have seen 1 calculation error, and it was a number getting transferred between Federal and State incorrectly. Most calls fall into the following categories: Password resets, how-do-I-enter, where-is-this-number-coming-from, and Installation. We also get run of the mill save errors, questions about how to transfer information, and so on. Calls that are prefaced with "Your program is doing this wrong..." always make me roll my eyes, because as far as calculations go, the program is almost exclusively correct, and alleged calculation errors are actually a result of someone entering it in wrong. And its just a piece of software, really just a big calculator, and it's only as smart as the data that gets put into it. That being said, while it is wonderful in performing calculations correctly, it is very quirky when it comes to navigation and sometimes outright bizzare.

For example, once you've gone through the State portion, revisiting it at any point takes you straight to the end, without allowing you to review the information. If you want to change something, you need to get to a very specific page and click "Topic List", then "What's new for 2006. If you click on the topic named "State Interview", it completely skips to the end of the State Interview. Makes a lot of sense, eh? Also, checking certain boxes will generate certain forms or worksheets that will not be deleted if you go back and uncheck them, which causes the Error Check feature to freak out and tell you that you have 9000 errors because the form is blank. Also, due to the way Turbotax calls on some functions (namely XML) if it doesnt like your XML configuration, it will randomly give you errors and there's essentially no way you'll be able to use the Desktop version without reinstalling your OS or IE.

Online is more of the same, but with even more lovable "features". If you check one of those boxes that I mentioned above, and it generates a form, if it's in the state interview, there's no way to delete it; it's stuck there forever. You can delete the entire state and start again, or we can import the data into the Desktop version to remove it. Also, some pages simply refuse to load in either Firefox and IE. Short of ripping and fully reinstalling windows or drastically modifying internet settings (something most of the agents wouldn't even know how to do) the only option is to switch browsers. Simple fix, but it shouldn't be necessary.

This all being said, the bottom line is that Turbotax calculates things wonderfully but is lacking in most other areas. When this story 'broke', all of us agents were told basically to keep our mouths shut and if any customer had any questions beyond us telling them that we were fixing the issue, to foreward their request to the Corporate Office.

I've seen customers do some very retarded things, both in trying to access their account and enter or manipulate data. Is it possible that this was a one-time isolated incident? If someone was able to stumble on this information on accident, how hard would it be to do deliberately? The page with Vault access has been up for almost 5 months and this was only recently discovered, has it been abused before? I don't know the answers to these questions, but I don't get a fuzzy feeling thinking about them. People should know if their data was possibly compromised, but I don't blame them for trying to keep it quiet. In this day and age of information security and data protection, it's in their best interests to prevent everyone who efiled 75 million returns from knowing that doing so may expose their private information.

The "FAQ" that they created can be accessed somewhat easily by clicking on the "Your Data is Protected" button on the front page and then clicking on "Learn More". It's on the bottom of the page and doesn't really answer any questions. It's cleverly hidden enough to the point that you can find it, but you probably won't find it unless you go looking.

Take it as you will.

My advice is to avoid the Online version. It's functionally crippled compared to the desktop (No ability to manipulate the forms or worksheets - this is invalueable in troubleshooting alleged calculation issues) and while the online version will save your data in the vault, this apparently exposes your data unnecessarily. E-filed returns through the desktop version are simply handed off to the IRS and not retained by Intuit in any manner, only stored locally and with the IRS.