Blizzard Reminds Us Rules Apply to Everyone
In case you hadn’t heard, a couple of popular World of Warcraft streamers had their accounts banned recently. Reckful and Sodah were banned for account sharing. They were both using someone else’s account. Reckful was using a viewer’s account live on a stream, with thousands of people watching! That’s pretty much doing this:
I mean, come on, really? Breaking the rules publicly, and then expecting no repercussions? It truly amazes me how much people expect special treatment because of who they are, or who they know. It’s a genuine surprise to them when someone explains they should expect to suffer any consequences for knowingly breaking the rules. WTF??? When you hit ‘I agree’ to those Terms of Service, you are officially in Blizzard’s world. They can ban you for looking at them funny. Heck, they can ban you for logging in. It’s their world.
I’ll also add this old forum thread I found, specifically about Reckful and account sharing. So not only was this not a one time thing, but it has been going on for a long time. The reaction was mixed back then. A more recent Reddit thread about it was refreshingly supportive of the ban overall. Be sure to check out the video linked to the Reddit thread too. It has some WoW arena ‘celebrities’ advocating account sharing.
I’d also like to share this particularly insightful comment from Reddit. I don’t know how it got downvoted, because this perfectly sums up the entire affair. There is some colorful language, but you can click the image if you want to see it in all it’s unheralded glory.
Account Ban Aftermath
And so, Reckful and Sodah are handling this more poorly than could be fathomed. They posted a picture on twitter of them celebrating their ban with ice cream sundaes. Next they started crying to Blizzard customer service about it. Blizzard actually responded with more information than I think Reckful expected. It’s all kind of pathetic, really. If you want your account back, posting pictures of yourself celebrating, and then trying to call out Blizzard on twitter, are not the first two steps you should take. But, there’s always one guarantee where the ban hammer is involved. This time is no different.