7r33 0 Report post Posted February 16, 2005 "I just purchased a used retail box of World of Warcraft. After reading the EULA in the manual and the Terms of Use, I expected to be up and playing quickly. I soon ran into a problem. I haven't even installed the software yet, since the first thing I have to do is go online and create a user account and then subscribe to play. Simple enough? I thought so too, until I tried entering the Authentication Key found on the CD case. This produced an error that my key had already been used. Note that it says 'already been used,' not 'currently in use.'" Note that section 3B in the EULA explicitly grants its users the ability to transfer the physical property and "all of your rights and obligations under the License Agreement", presumably including the Authentication Key which is needed when creating a new account. What Blizzard expressly disallows is the transfer of accounts, according to Section 1E of their Terms of Use, which is not at issue here. Apparently, Blizzard is allowing each Authentication Key to be used only once, preventing anyone with a used copy of the game from creating a new account. Is Blizzard violating the terms of their own EULA?"I have contacted Blizzard about this and have had a very interesting conversation with the Billing department, first by phone and then by email.They keep telling me they will not transfer an account. I keep telling them I do not want an account transferred, but want to create my own account. What appears to be the final answer is that 'an authentication key can only be used once, regardless of the number of owners.'This is not stated anywhere in the EULA or Terms of Use. If it is, I have been unable to find it, and *Blizzard has repeatedly ignored my request that they identify where in the EULA or Terms of Use this is stated.*I have the complete retail package, including the CD case with the Authentication Key. So what if it is has been used in the past? Whatever happened to the first-sale doctrine?At one point, the Blizzard representative likened my request to buying an empty milk jug and returning to the store to demand more milk for free so I can use the jug. This is an incredibly inept analogy. What Blizzard is doing is allowing only the original purchaser of the jug to buy a refill; anyone else who happens to buy or be given the jug is prohibited from buying more milk to put in it.Another item of interest is that the representative told me that they can not, for any reason, delete an account, not even at the account owner's request. The most they can do is to suspend the account. Unfortunately, that keeps a record of the Authentication Key in their system, preventing that key from ever being used again.While the EULA expressly permits permanent transfer of ownership of the game to another person, nowhere does either the EULA or the Terms of Use mention that such a transfer makes the game completely useless because Blizzard will not allow the new owner to use the game; the game cannot be played without an online account and a subscription to the service, and Blizzard will not even allow the account to be created.You might say the "easy" answer is to get the seller to give me the account info for the account he created. However, according to Blizzard's representative, not all of the original account information can be modified. In fact, enough would be unchangable that the original owner of the account would be able to regain control of the account at any time, should he desire to do so.I had no expectation that a used copy of the game would be such a problem. After all, even all of Blizzard's previous games (Warcraft 2, Starcraft, BroodWar) had keys that could be used and passed on while maintaining the reasonable restriction that only one instance of the key could be used at any one time. (I have never bought or played Warcraft 3, so I do not know about it.) In fact, I bought my copy of Starcraft used and never had any trouble with it.I am not trying to cheat Blizzard out of anything. I *want* to pay them for a monthly subscription so I can play the game, but they will not allow it solely because at some point in the past someone else has used what is now my copy of the game.So here's a warning to everyone out there; be very careful if you are thinking about buying a used copy of World of Warcraft. You may have a complete and legitimate set of all the game materials, but you will not be able to play it.For all the lawyers, and the many IANALs, out there, what do you think of the chances of a lawsuit succeeding to change Blizzard's stance on this? Would anyone else be interested in taking this on with me?"A question that comes to mind is whether the seller fulfilled all three parts of the Termination clause, section 5 of the EULA. If the seller failed to notify Blizzard of intention to terminate, it could be argued that the seller's licenses remain in effect and thus new license could not be given to the buyer of the used game. But one would hope Blizzard's customer service would at least make this clear to the buyer. -from slashdot.comHow do all you people out there that play WoW feel about this? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kristofer.hoch 0 Report post Posted February 17, 2005 -from slashdot.com How do all you people out there that play WoW feel about this? 51271[/snapback] Ouch, I don't like the no transfer of account, but you can transfer ownership of software/manuals thing. That isn't smart. I don't know what would be smart, but I know that isn't it. It is a damn good thing that I don't have to figure it out. Just my 2 coppers Kristofer Hoch ---------------- "Grind grind grind....DING....oh yeah." Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted January 18, 2008 I too bought a used game and am unable to create an account. I resent this fact and certainly regret that I bought the game; especially since I bought the game only so that I might play the WOW III game that I mistakenly bought first! I suppose I will just chalk it up as experience but as a result WOW will not be making a monthly profit off of me and I suppose numerous others as well. I certainly hope the company is found to be acting illegally.-dena Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KainRacure 0 Report post Posted January 28, 2008 Well, you could always go the private server route...And honestly I would not be surprised to learn that their is actually loads of people who play private servers because of this problem.And I believe that Blizzard most likely has purposefully done this to force people to buy the game from a retail outlet which would then trickle money off to Blizzard themselves.HOWEVER there is a bright side, Blizzard offers a free trial period for WoW (and TBC if you already have a WoW account) So check their fee trial and download the client and then play the game that way, when your trial is up just activate your account.Check out this site: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/new-siteALSO It would be worth looking into taking legal action, However I do not believe that there is any laws that protect consumers for online accounts. They legally have to allow the sale of the actual media between private parties but I believe that online gaming and subscriptions are too new to have laws that control abuses like this. But it never hurts to look into it. (please do not take my comments as law or any type of legal advice, contact a lawyer and see if maybe you could get a free consultation) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted February 2, 2008 WoW auth Key Wow Replying to 7r33 Did you buy this on the internet or from someone else other than a store brand new? Because someone could have used the key then sold it knowing its the most important thing in the whole damn box. -reply by Dustin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
iGuest 3 Report post Posted March 3, 2008 Replying to 7r33well duh. You may have payed for the game but not for the subscription. The game is 20$ and 15 of that is to pay your monthly subscription then 5 for the cd and box and ****. Of course they arnt gonna give youa 1 month subscription to a game, 1. You can download online, and 2 you could buy for .99 cents off ebay because its useless without the authentication key. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
apschizo 0 Report post Posted March 11, 2008 (edited) In all honesty, I've used the same version of w0w on all my computers (four to date) and never had a single problem with it. Therefore, Blizz must be taking some heavy doses of that WowCrack, or perhaps lacking in their daily intake of the WoWness, or perhaps I'm just really really lucky >.>My suggestion would be to use a free server. The best one I've found so far (all the idiots on main blizz angered me to the point of no return) would have to be http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ They update often, and have an awesome staff, plus they have fewer bugs than most free servers -curses ascent- you can also just google for "free wow servers" and come up with entire sites dedicated to listing and rating free servers. However, if you are dead set on using Blizzard, call customer support (don't e-mail them they are crap for online response) and request a new code, explain to them what happened and they should be willing to work something out for you.Also a note to Trap_Feedbacker, you can download fully functional versions of the game for free. You just have to know where to look. Notice from Kubi: Signing off in posts is not allowed. Please refer to our TOS. Use the signature feature in your control panel for this instead. Verbal warning issued. Edited March 11, 2008 by Kubi (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
