News: Blizzard bans World of Warcraft and Battle.net in Iran due to US sanctions

News

Blizzard bans World of Warcraft and Battle.net in Iran due to US sanctions
Posted: 25.08.2012 16:44 by JonahFalcon	Comments: 55
Gamers in Iran will be disappointed to find they can no longer access World of Warcraft and Battle.net, thanks to US sanctions and trade restrictions. The games weren't released in Iran, but gamers in the country have accessed the game via virtual private networks. According to Blizzard in a post, “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 the 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. “This also prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts in these countries.” Other games which have been knocked offline include Guild Wars, RuneScape, Second Life, Dofus, Evony and Entropia Universe. Stay tuned. Source: VG247 Related games: World of Warcraft (PC), Diablo III (PC), StarCraft 2: Wings of Liberty (PC), Guild Wars (PC), Dofus (PC), Second Life (PC)

Comments

By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 25, 2012

OK, this is just plain stupid. Why do Iranian people have to suffer these sanctions when their government sure as hell ain't gonna feel them?

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 25, 2012

Punishing the liberal people of Iran is one of the dumbest thing you can do :(.

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 25, 2012

Iran hasn't attacked any countries in centuries...

By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 25, 2012

...while the US attacked many countries all in the name of Democracy.

By jak12000 (SI Newbie) on Aug 25, 2012

it has nothing to do with attacking other countries.The Iran-Iraq war took years and the iraq got annihilated by the US in 2 weeks so attacking is not really an Option.

Instead the Situation in the Middle East is a cold war between Saudi Arabia and Iran and their allies and any shot against the people of one of them is a win for the other.

sorry for my English.

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Aug 25, 2012

Wow,this is unbelievably stupid O_o... i don`t want to live on this planet anymore...

By Gale47 (SI Core) on Aug 25, 2012

Hah. Dumb Blizzard.
This is some sort of discrimination, in a manner.

By danfreeman (SI Core) on Aug 25, 2012

This isn`t blizz fault,it`s the US,can they even do this? Is this really legal?

By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 25, 2012

Um, it's legal, and Blizzard aren't dumb, it's just that the US sanctions put a huge amount of pressure on them.

By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Aug 25, 2012

Iranian gamers will find a way to host private servers.

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 25, 2012

millions of wow private servers alreay on that idd tho US needs to solve its own problems instead of "trying" to help others

besides look at the other games that went off its not blizzard alone and the companies are prolly recieving gov pressure that they have to do this otherwise no reason but to turn down profit for those companies

also this has been degreed by the us goverment and these companies that are situated in the us have to oblige to this in anycase so yeah legal...

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 27, 2012

It still dumb. Punishing the liberal part of the population of Iran is dumb no matter how many times I look at it. It is just simply dumb.

What does the US gain from this? Cutting down on somebodies liberties in the name of spreading liberties? Again, simply dumb.

Unless spreading of liberty and democracy is just a PR stunt, wink wink.

By unsilviu (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

I remember this quote from the delegate of Libya at an MUN conference: "Have care, or the US might bring democracy to your country too"

All things considered, Iran isn't a nice place to live. President Ahmadinejad is only a figurehead for the real religious rulers. Doing this only affects the people that might otherwise be sympathetic to them.
But it's not liberals, but gamers that are affected, gamers can also be conservatives :P

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

In our world yes, in Iran not so much. Conservative in Iran is something else than a conservative in the west. Conservative in EU is something else than conservative in the US.

By their standards someone that indulges in western culture this much can not really be a conservative. So a gamer in Iran is basically a liberal, not necessary by our standards but probably by theirs.

I could be wrong but that's how I see the situation in Iran.

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

US gains his lil influence thats it... depriving a country from trade and economic income has advantages over long term prices become steeper,black market will go rampage and everything will recieve less budgeting including the military the advantage the us gets? are unhappy people and a weaker military thus easier to invade if it has to come to that... + we aren't in the time era anymore where one could go into mercantalism to restore an economy....

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

@jak12000: Centuries is a long period. And they have half a dozen neighbors. So I would still say that in their geographic region they weren't the aggressors for a long time. A peaceful nation? Though mistreating their own people from what I hear on the news. It's a hot war thorn region and I wouldn't really feel safer if they had a nuke. But they wouldn't be the only country in the region that has it.

Historically, Iran/Persia did want to annihilate us. They started the war and advance to the west. Thank god we had greece/macedonians next to them to withstand and eventually beat them. That was too long ago of course. But subconsciously, we still see the region as a treat. But then we got Rome (we get to play it soon!), crusades... Let he who is free of sin throw the first nuke.

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

that is if someone is free of sin even if they own a nuke how are they planning to get past the Patriot defences? and even so launching a nuke is scuicide as you can rest assure that the entire world will turn on the launcher of such weapons i still think WMD have their use just not something on our own planet for the moment...

By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

Nuclear weapons are a deterrent. US doesn't want Iran to have nukes as that would screw up their plans to invade Iran for their oil.

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

Don't those nukes go off if a patriot missile hits them?

By jak12000 (SI Newbie) on Aug 26, 2012

"mistreating there own people" that is as understatement to say the least.

we have a lot of Iranians here in kuwait .. and the stories of what theire government do to theme is unimaginable.
they ran from their country just to have a fair life here in kuwait . although it is not their home, and what they tell us is that being a Sunni give you a special treatment , you can get more years in prisons for the same crime the Shi'ite person did , they hanged a Sunni person in the street just becouse he was reading Quran in Arabic not Persion.

The US must be afraid of Iranian hackers, I've heared some of them used a Nuke MG in Battlefield 3.

By nocutius (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

There's no such thing as a nuke defense yet, some things work in the right conditions but for example if USA an Russia decided to nuke each other out of existence there's still no defense against that. Besides common sense of course.

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

well look it up tho the PATRIOT missile defence system is an ABM(anti-ballistic missile system) which included ICBMs im not sure on their range but they could be meant for long range take outs even so do no think a nuke warhead just explodes that easily tho their is a risk yes true..

By SiyaenSokol (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

This is incredibly stupid... good heavens, I am shocked by what I see.

By afrasiab (I just got here) on Aug 26, 2012

The sanctions applied is toward Iranian people, while US government is supposed to pressure the Iranian government cause they call themselves guardians of human rights and they love every human being in the planet, but the problem they have is actually with some of the governments, not the indivitual residence of those specific countries. So this is against what they yell, another minus point for US reputation and along with it, Blizzard.
for all of you friends , we are all people just like all of you ..
I saw someone said this is a cold warr between iran and arabia...actually this cold warr is between us and russia+chaina did ever thinked, why russia and chaina are covering syria by any means... this is middle east, with wast of economic and startegic situations .thaye are fighting each other cuse they want its benefits .iran gov sells oil to chaina and russia for 30% real price, this is when our people are sufferin from many inside inhibitions and now from out side and fighting with poverty injustice... did u think poor people of afghnistan actually can made such organised and armed terorristic group like alghaede and taliban .they couldnt survive for all this years without suporrt from colonialismers... people are always innocent, this all are just political games .
can one of u just name 1 iranian terrorist?actually our beloved king Cyrus II of Persia was the first one who talked about democracy he saved many nations from slavery( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrus_the_Great)
we need to be free from our arabian gov an return to our good days...

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

well you can't blame Blizzard for being enforced to do what their gov said + read the other games blizzard ain't the only one...

as for the US gov they don't love their peeps only their money they are looking on their own interests as is likely every nations goverment only their are ones being more aggressive at it then others and then you have those who care for their people and others and those then want to care only for themselves...

as for terrorists i know none and as for all everyone could be a terrorist it doesn't always have to be someone arabian might aswell be an European or an US citizen...

By afrasiab (I just got here) on Aug 26, 2012

MR,Jack 12000 Im surprised how false are you like most of your arabian brothers..
why should u say such lie(they hanged a Sunni person in the street just becouse he was reading Quran in Arabic not Persion.)I wonder I never saw just 1 simple quran in persian in iran, actually our gov believes its a sin to read quran in any language but arabic. In addition to this I must mention most of our people are dont care about islam (shiaa or soni) , actually islam ruind our country , culture etc. your arabian brothers rush to our countery, slaughter our innocent people and now u are blaming us!!
go read this and be silence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babak_Khorramdin)PLZ READ DEATH PART..
your brothers also made war againist whole europe and slaughters them aswell!
and now we should pay for your damn activities .GO READ A BOOK instead just eating ... and the last thing that u should know .. our gov and leaders are your brothern .look at his name ( seied ali alkhameney) is that a persian name?

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 26, 2012

Lets be carefull here we don't want to start a fight afrasiab...

By djole381 (SI Elite) on Aug 26, 2012

Yes, this is not the place for such arguments afrasiab. If you want to continue, then move the discussion to PM.

By jak12000 (SI Newbie) on Aug 27, 2012

Mr. afrasiab .. I think that you are living in another world , are you ? .. when did Iran even thought of making friends with arabs ? when thay invaded Ahwaz ? Or when they attacked Saudi Arabia with Air Planes.. look man , we live in this place and we all know the heat between Arabs and Persion , even Shiite Persians take Islam as a cover to hate Arab Sunnies , that becouse Islam destroyed their Persion Civilization .. and now , we see Iranian warriors in Syria fighting with the Dictator Al-Assad , Islam didn't ruined your country , Shiism did , Islam and Sharia , If used the right way , believe me it will solve all the man problems , even Saudi Arabia isn't using Sharia the wright way ..

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 27, 2012

Once again we see the ugliness of religious debate and political agendas enter gaming in our discussions. Deep breath everyone, step back and just address the topic please....and be courteous. We all have strong feelings one way or another about what is happening, by whom and to whom but this is not the place for it. Leave the heat at the door and play nice.

As to a game, or game access as it is here becoming a casualty in the Cold War that is still going on....well it's shameful but inevitable. A game, or access to it is a commodity and therefore will be part of embargoes and sanctions. It is unfortunate and sad, however unavoidable.

Personally I believe it is a poor decision by Blizzard to use it's "game" as a political tool but we gamers can rise above such nonsense. No matter your religion nor your political/national affiliation we should all as gamers be affronted by this and embargo Blizzard.

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 27, 2012

Surely not a decision made by Blizzard. They had to do it. Why would a company based on making money cut itself off of a nation worth of customers. There is no way they did this by their own decision.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 27, 2012

Unfortunately big gaming companies carry the potential to enforce political agendas by their very corporate structural makeup. They may indeed be "pressured", howver they cannot be legally forced to undertake such action. After all, they supposedly own their IP's.
No, Blizzard is silently supporting a political decision and I will continue to maintain it is shaemful of them to do so.

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 27, 2012

Iran is under international sanctions. Not sure how far it extends but I'm sure USA is a part of countries that support it. So it is not company decision to stop trading with a country, but they're forced to one way or the other. Or I'm sure there are huge penalties to suffer. So I'm still going to say that taking out a country worth of customers is not in any company vocabulary as even words themselves.

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 27, 2012

You have a valid point Kres, however I in turn point to Google and it's behaviour in China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as an example of the power held by companies with vested interests in government.
Blizzard could set an example, rising above such actions and cop the fines if they can ever be legally enforced. Their popularity with gamers would soar, unless they are more concerned with their own home-base audience with their political views influenced heavily by the media.

If gamers got behind Blizzard, ignored their own political, religious and ethnic biases (and racism, unfortunately more alive and more evil than ever) the Governments might have to take notice.
Basically that videogaming is international, gamers are all the same and above the politics of countries and regions. Lofty ideals you might think, but we may be the last hope for a rational world.

*whew* too much for this old brain at 3am....

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 27, 2012

yes why don't some of the gov system work? my brother says this simple because were Humans... and their is no argue their all our problems is usually created by our own kind

anyways my brother political vieuws are his own im a bit more communistic without the nationalism part tho :p i feel like everyone should be equal and be treated so,free healthcare,free homes and so on a system that won't work anyways but its an ideal at least i can hope for

my brother feels it should be more of a technocracy where people with knowledge n wisdom forms the goverment and not someone the people vote on that will make a mess of things or so in his point of view

now i looked it up and blizzard HQ is in the US now idk if blizz decided this on their or if the US gov made them too but it happened and their isn't much we can do unless some revolt happens in the US...

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Aug 27, 2012

Viva la revolucion!

By jak12000 (SI Newbie) on Aug 27, 2012

Sorry for that I got carried away i shouldn't have spoken out of the subject.
As for Iranian gamers i am sure they will bounce back they are a strong people.

By lichlord (SI Core) on Aug 27, 2012

its why these discussions are rather dangerous to conduct it happens to even the best of us at some point

By Kres (SI Elite) on Aug 27, 2012

Oh Google. Ok forgot about that. Mhm