Hello,
I made a post about this quite a while back on a few other big WoW forums where it gained pretty high traction and was unanimously agreed upon (rare on forums as im sure you all know) where I pointed out that in 2022, gaming is vastly different to back in 2004. I have lots of friends groups from the US despite being from the EU, and want to be able to play with both my EU friends and US friends in game without being expected to pay double subscriptions at a massive $30USD per month. Its very common for to have global friend bases now days with the internet and gaming being so interconnected and its flat out dated that WoW has had this issue recently.
There is no reason that with our subscription being tied to our battle.net account, that access to WoW in any region cant be granted with a single, World of Warcraft subscription.
I skipped returning for the entirety of Shadowlands for this reason, as I cannot justify paying 2 subs, and I didnt want to pick just one group to play with, so I skipped WoW entirely. It also prevented my US friends from returning to the game, and some of that group from trying WoW for the first time.
What is the news on this matter, I noticed that I now see my US friends in battle.net without having to switch between regions, they all show up in a single friends list, and I remember reading a blue post mentioning this sort of issue above well over a year ago.
Im 100% down to return to WoW for Dragonflight but only if this issue gets sorted out, otherwise me, and them, will just not play again.
Appreciate any info on this 
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No each needs its own subscription that hasnt changed and probably wont sorry to say IF u feel a change needs to be made post again in general or ingame suggestion feature.
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Real shame.
If it wont be changed I am just done with WoW, real shame coming from someone who played all the RTS games and all of WoWâs xpacs in some form. Incredibly outdated really, its like having to purchase COD and only being able to play with people from the region you bought it in.
I cant post in general as I dont have a subscription and its not an in game feature so it dosent make sense to post there, this is the only place I can post that makes any sense.
Cheers though.
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You can log into any toon under 20 and submit it I think this is more due to legality then anything else.
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Ahh interesting, I might install WoW log in and then post in General then, thank you for letting me know that is potentially possible.
Perhaps, but as a game dev myself theres no excuse, its 2022, they need to figure it out and make it happen instead of make the legality âour problemâ. As the paying sub thats not my problem, all games have to deal with legality issues regarding region but they make it work, WoW needs to do the same.
Im not trying to come across as bitter or anything, but ive played warcraft games for over 20 years, Im super into them, but if Im expected to pay $30 to be able to play with all of my friends it just isnt happening and ill move on from Blizzard games. I didnt play any of Shadowlands bar the first two weeks and the first few days of BfA for the same reason. 2 whole expacs waiting for a better deal is a long time, I dont want to lose interest but theres nothing drawing me back in. Being able to play with ALL of my friends would be the incentive I want to join back.
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Theres alot of legal mumbo jumbo alot of different laws that dont apply to non MMO that MMO are subjected nothing is as easy as we think it is.
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Thats definitely not true, there isnt much difference between an MMO and a multiplayer FPS game from a legal POV, aside from the fact that the majority of MMOâs have global subscriptions.
Again, not my problem, WoW is nearly 20 years old, its about time they got around the problems they have and make the game more accessible and give the community the ability to connect outside of our home regions.
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They wonât explain exactly what it is, but it is a mix of different laws and the way that the game was made. Blizzard has said that it was something that they absolutely wish they could do, and have done with other Blizzard games. It probably has something to do with the base code as well.
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Yes. And when it was made there was no cross-region connectivity. The way the licenses and realms were created didnât allow for it. There are also some region-based laws that affect it.
The problem is that the regions are made so that they canât connect. The regions even share realm names because they didnât connect.
Suggestions belong in a Community forum, not Customer Support. If you donât have an active license, you can submit feedback from within the game.
At a recent BlizzCon Ion Hazzikostas was asked about being able to move characters between EU and NA licenses. He said that it wasnât as easy as player think it is. If it was that easy they would have already done it.
It is no different than if you had two EU or two NA accounts. You would need a subscription to both to level beyond level 20.
Both me.
If it were possible there would be a Wowhead page on it. There would be a News article on Blizzardâs site about it. There would be articles on game sites about it.
Is it never going to happen? Who knows? We not only got Classic realms, but progression Classic realms too. For many years we were told never about those. Is it likely going to happen in the near future? Never say never but I doubt it would happen in the near future.
Blizzard has never offered a blanket, single subscription to access all WoW licenses. If it is something you would like to see you would need to make that suggestion too.
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I just dont buy that, im a dev myself and I dont see why in game features would have any connection to your subscription status. All you need to do is fix up the log in procedure to look at the account subscription status.
Whether that is that they dont have the time (not a priority for them) or that they just cant be bothered, nobody can know, but I just dont buy it.
Again I also dont buy the laws thing, again, at its core an MMO is no different to a multiplayer FPS in the eyes of legal systems.
I know the log in servers will definitely need to be modified if thats what you mean by âthe way that the game was made.â that is definitely correct, but thats really not a major change, no more than making your battle.net friends list global instead of regional.
The only thing that I can see slowing them down is regarding sub fee differences and taxation, eg if my EU sub fee was cheaper or incurred less tax and thus US players could purchase their sub in a different country. They really just need to globalise the system, the only challenge is when looking at poorer countries.
Thereâs a lot of speculation here, about a topic that goes back very far. Itâs not something I have all the answers to so Iâm going to avoid further speculation on the many reasons.
All I can say is that at this time World of Warcraft does not support Global Play. Subscriptions are still region based, as are your individual WOW licenses. This is not something Customer Support is able to change, nor would Customer Support be able to share any plans that havenât been publicly announced by the game team. I understand you made this post in hopes of receiving an update on this topic. Iâm sorry, but weâre not able to provide you with that.
Normally, for a feedback topic such as this I would move it to a more appropriate forum category - such as General Discussion. However, a subscription is required in order to post on other sections of the forums, so I wonât be moving this topic since that wouldnât help you either.
If youâd like to provide feedback about this to the game team, the best course of action then would be to use the in-game feedback form provided. As Darthwraith mentioned earlier, you can log into characters up to level 20 without having an active subscription and that should allow you to access the in-game feedback form.
I hope we do see you in Dragonflight, but if you decide not to return due to subscription costs I understand and I wish you the best regardless!
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