probably a lot of cases where a dad and 2 kids started on the same account and by now they are all adults and they keep going that way… getting acheivs for whatever the others do, for free 
i may or may not know someone in that situation… must not be tempting to split from the account and start over losing everything… i get it.
maybe they shouldnt allow even your kids to share your account in the first place. those kids will be adults eventually and there’s no system in place to fix it.
Isn’t that ultimately their choice though? Why should Blizzard care about the petty squabbles between other people?
I completely understand why you and others are pushing against this. It’s a compromise of account security and it can lead to terrible outcomes for the people involved, should they come to a large disagreement or something else entirely petty.
However, that doesn’t mean it always will or always does lead to these kinds of outcomes. It also doesn’t mean that this desire to share in-game rewards is without merit, considering swathes cannot be obtained anymore.
So why not give players the choice then? Or, better yet, why not create a system where two Battle.net accounts can be linked with one another (a non-permanent link that can be safely detached) so that these players can share transmog, pets, toys, mounts, etc.
I imagine Blizzard doesn’t want to be drug into domestic drama.
Thank you so much! I was on mobile, and didn’t have it in me to search.
Technically they don’t allow people under 13 to play at all, but we won’t go there.
Are your last names the same? If so you can change the first name on it yourself without Blizzard’s help when he is 13. Otherwise, you will have to submit paperwork to have them change the name. That assumes in a few years the system is the same.
I am sorry, but we don’t own our Battlenet accounts either. That is in the EULA. We are the registered account holders who, as per the agreement, pay for a license to access the game - assuming we follow the rules we agreed to. Either of us can terminate that agreement at any time.
There is no ownership at all of anything related to our Bnets - which is why they don’t fall under any property laws with regard to court cases.
That is why it is no longer recommended. Now kids must be 13 to play and should be set up on their own Battlenet in their own name with the Parent setting up Parental Controls.
Because people waste Blizzard’s time with those petty squabbles, security compromises, etc. They have to set a line in the sand. That line is “no account sharing”. If people break those rules and things go south, that is on the person who broke the rules. Blizzard has no obligation to help.
They don’t really go LOOKING for people sharing in the same house. It is more that they won’t be fixing problems related to it - hence the rules in place to prevent it.
I see. I hadn’t considered that the rules aren’t just meant to prevent these kinds of problems, but they’re also meant to discourage people from doing it.
Still though, why isn’t there some sort of system to allow spouses or families to at least share transmog, mounts, pets, toys, etc? I’m talking about something that could be severed at any time if necessary, where both parties have their own characters, character achievements, etc but when a separation happens they both retain truly account-wide things like mounts or toys (regardless of which characters collected them). Am I wrong for thinking that would be a good idea?
If family members move away or spouses drift apart, I could see something like a sanctioned transfer, by Blizzard, being possible where the accounts involved maintain their collections without ripping one thing from another. I don’t think the idea is without merit, and I think that it could be quite beneficial to people who live together that simply want to share their cool things.
WoW is currently designed to be a Role Play Game - where YOU the player make decisions, put in work/time, and earn rewards like mounts, transmogs, achievements, etc. The intention is for a Battlenet account to represent the things one person (you) have purchased, earned, or otherwise gained access to.
The game was not desgined to be a team game for many to be represented by one Bnet account - much less to try to divide that up later.
Sadly allowing people to get things they don’t earn leads to all sorts of black market illicit sales shenanigans. It is one of the reasons things are locked to the Bnet account - and did not move between Bnets with char transfers. A long time ago people would try to sell rare things that way.
One Bnet account. One account holder. One set of Bnet bound rewards that stay with that Bnet permanently.
Dont wanna change topic but I sometimes read posts of family members inheriting their passed loved ones account, is this true? Like for example father dies, son inherits it.
That’s why I think that this is something that would require an identification of some kind in order to work. I think that it could possibly work if it requires the same IP address, but if people wanted to retain collections upon moving away then both parties would need to contact Blizzard.
Why couldn’t that work for at least some people? Emphasis on some, not necessarily all. It’s not like Blizzard’s own current systems benefit everyone all the time. That I can recognize.
And why would it be a bad thing to allow people to do this, going off of this hypothetically being able to work? What if a person is living with someone else and they both want to play the game, but one of them has a number of exclusive things that cannot be obtained anymore? Is it morally incorrect for them to want to share their things with the other person?
Again, I understand why things are the way they are. But what I’m pushing for here is a deconstruction of that – thinking outside the box and creating positive change that could benefit people in a situation like that. I don’t see why that’s wrong to do.
You say that WoW is an RPG where a singular player makes decisions, but it has always been a multiplayer game too. People form connections all the time and do things together all the time, that has always been the natural way to play games like WoW.
I don’t see the wrong in wanting to create a system where a tight-knit family or two people in a relationship can share their things, and then safely separate and still retain those things (so long as there’s a proper form of identification involved, so that account sellers can’t just have at it).
I will be blunt about this. $$$
It costs money to have staff perform an ID verification and separation service for accounts to combat the account sellers, in the scenario you described. They keep a lot of things simple because it helps cut down on customer service tickets, account theft, etc. Things that cause a lot of frustration for customers. It costs money to investigate and try to restore compromised accounts. It costs money and time to deal with tickets over who did what in an appeals situation.
I hear what you are saying and I think you fully understand why things are the way they are. I just don’t see Blizzard changing their entire game premise to do what you suggest.
If your goal is for other players to have cool things - they have other ways to get people rare or desired items. Like recolors in raids/achievements/quests/events. Like the Trading Post that offers a lot of things that were removed from game.
Things that are earned by player skill/work on the other hand they usually keep unique - so don’t expect to see something for world first or the most difficult raid level available any time soon, if ever.
They are not going to increase their workload to allow account sharing and all the ills that come with it, along with an ID verification service to let people separate accounts and clone bnet wide items. Just way too much of a cost without out a benefit - it would just open the door to so much abuse which means frustrated players.
That’s just awful. Talk about corporate greed. And your good with that? Probably why your green.
I did not give my opinion on it. I answered the person’s question about why I think Blizzard won’t allow account sharing, and account splitting to transfer/clone Bnet rewards.
Personally, I would not allow account sharing either. But my reasons have nothing to do with money, and everything to do with the impact on account holders. Other people don’t do nice things with accounts and the risks are way too high. The frustration and genuine grief over losing an account someone put years into is valid. Preventing that is important. I am green because I have been a Tech/Customer Support MVP for over a decade.
It is best not to assume that my personal choices match those of a corporation. Explaining how something works does not mean someone approves of it.
Edit - based on your own comments about Microsoft - you also understand how corporations work. I don’t assume you approve of that, just because you pointed it out to others.
Not under the current rules no.
Not anymore. As of TWW, characters can’t be moved to different battle.net accounts.
Meh, not really. I think the account ownership rules make sense as they are now.
When your son turns 13, you should be able to put in a ticket to have the account changed to his name and DOB.
They will likely require your ID and his birth certificate.
Agreed.
Again, sort of.
You own the License Key, this is immutable and protected by law. (I double checked this for the EU as well. It is true in the US and the EU, bare minimum.) If by “account” which is a nebulous term on its own right, you mean the games you play, yes. Those all belong to Blizzard.
If by “account” you mean the information used to verify you are the one accessing these things, no. This is important because this is what allows you to dispute EULA in court. It’s also what allows punishment of people who do not own said License Key for using your account.
Let me put it this way; were the account in its entirety the property of Blizzard, they would be under no obligations to handle your personal information responsibly.
That does not really hold up 
There are a ton of things in life that we don’t own, that we have to enter our Personally Identifiable Information to access. There are laws in the US, and in the state of California, that protect our PII. Failure to safeguard that personal information can result in penalties.
Giving someone, or a company, our name and address does not mean we own whatever we put our name on. Blizzard owns the Battlenet account. They are still required by law to protect our personal information used to access it.
Yes. This is one of the 3 or so reasons it is legal to sell an account, even if an EULA makes the account defunct if the sale is found out.
This is an important distinction to be aware of.
To be clear, I’m splitting hairs, but this is a bit of a continuation from another argument in a separate thread where “Blizzard owns your account” was used to explain that it was somehow illegal to sell an account. It is not, in the US and EU. It is perfectly legal, it’s just against Blizzard’s EULA, which gives them the right to deny access as they operate a service, and these games are not seen as a product.
Oh I don’t want to come across as someone actually expecting them to do any of this. Ultimately, I’m just saying I think it would be a good thing to have. Good things require hard work, and it’s not exactly like this kind of thing would be a common occurrence either in the grand scheme of things.
But on your point about rare or desirable items. That doesn’t really hit the nail on the problem I’m alluding to. I brought up exclusive items that, typically, are no longer obtainable. Things like an anniversary reward or an AOTC mount, for instance. Those aren’t rare items in my eyes, they’re “I was here at this time and did XYZ at this time” kind of items.
Honestly, I wouldn’t even be humoring any of these discussions at all if it wasn’t for the simple fact that exclusivity has been allowed to exist in WoW for as long as it has and for as large of a scale it is.
it would be nice if they had an option like steam where u can share your games played with people and they can play the games you have when you are not online. but since this isn’t an option its probably better to not share accounts. the key thing being that your credit card is tied to your account though bnet and can used without your consent.
No change. Spouses come and go, good epics and mounts are soulbound.
It is not legal to sell an account. Period. You don’t own your Battlenet account, or anything on it. You buy a license to access that account. Failure to uphold the terms of the agreement can result in termination of the access.
You can sell PHYSICAL items like CDs, user manuals, swag that comes with a game.
Have you even read the EULA?
Blizzard’s Ownership
With the sole exception of the Licensors’ Games, Blizzard is the owner or licensee of all right, title, and interest in and to the Platform, including the Games that are produced and developed by Blizzard (“Blizzard Games”), Custom Games derived from a Blizzard Game, Accounts, and all of the features and components thereof. The Platform may contain materials licensed by third-parties to Blizzard, and these third-parties may enforce their ownership rights against you in the event that you violate this Agreement. The following components of the Platform (which do not include content or components of the Licensors’ Games), are owned or licensed by Blizzard:
All virtual content appearing within the Platform, including the Blizzard Games, such as:
Visual Components: Locations, artwork, structural or landscape designs, animations, and audio-visual effects;
Narrations: Themes, concepts, stories, and storylines;
Characters: The names, likenesses, inventories, and catch phrases of Game characters;
Items: Virtual goods, such as digital cards, currency, potions, weapons, armor, wearable items, skins, sprays, pets, mounts, etc.;
All data and communications generated by, or occurring through, the Platform;
All sounds, musical compositions, recordings, and sound effects originating in the Platform;
All recordings, Game replays, or reenactments of in-game matches, battles, duels, etc.;
Computer code, including but not limited to “Applets” and source code;
Titles, methods of operation, software, related documentation, and all other original works of authorship contained in the Platform;
All Accounts, including the name of the Account and any Battle Tags associated with an Account. All use of an Account shall inure to Blizzard’s benefit. Blizzard does not recognize the transfer of Accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any Account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift, or trade any Account, and any such attempt shall be null and void and may result in the forfeiture of the Account;
All Moral Rights that relate to the Platform, including Custom Games derived from a Blizzard Game, such as the right of attribution, and the right to the integrity of certain original works of authorship; and
The right to create derivative works, and as part of this Agreement, you agree that you will not create any work based on the Platform, except as expressly set forth in this Agreement or otherwise by Blizzard in certain contest rules, Blizzard’s Fan Policies, or addenda to this Agreement.
You can’t sell what you don’t own. You have no legal ownership of your Battlenet account. Will Blizzard’s lawyers come after you for it? Likely not. Could someone else sue you for selling them an account you don’t own that gets closed? Fraud? Yes. Might not bother with the cost of legal fees, but they could.
Edit - just like you can’t sell a house you rent just because your personal information is on the lease.