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Some bad news from the country of Iran today. The recent reset has completely cut off Iranian users from World of Warcraft, Blizzard's master-stroke MMORPG.

One user, Staminal, quickly took to the forums trying to figure out just what went wrong. It didn't take long for the thread to quite literally explode, with hundreds of users stepping forward to announce they were having the same problem; they simply couldn't connect. Almost three weeks and ninety-seven pages later, a wild blue post appeared.

"Our team has been watching this thread closely, and we understand the desire for more information about this situation. Blizzard Entertainment cannot speak to any reports surrounding the Iranian government restricting games from its citizens," GM Ludlespor wrote. "What we can tell you is that United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran. Several of you have seen and cited this text in the Terms of Use, which relates to these government-imposed sanctions. This week, Blizzard tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with these laws, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from access to Blizzard games and services." 

It gets worse. As it so happens, all the players who already paid their monthly subscription fees… well, they aren't getting a refund.

"This (also) prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or service options to accounts in these countries, We apologize for any inconvenience this causes and will happily lift these restrictions as soon as US Law allows." 

Bad news for gamers, and just as bad for Blizzard, as it didn't take long for several of the affected parties to start blaming them for what happened, or saying that this was a planned, malicious act on their part; that they made the sales of Blizzard subscriptions knowing full well they were breaking the law. Either way, Iran's no longer connected to WoW.

Source: World of Warcraft forums

Nicholas Greene   FollowTech_Light A gamer at heart, Nick started writing when he was a child. He holds a BA in English, works as a freelancer, and loves every minute of it. One day, he hopes to net himself a career in game design - but that's something for the future.

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