Section 1A talks about account sharing not being allowed unless they are a minor, does that mean if he is a minor we both can be logged in at the same time on a WoW1 and WoW2 licence? Or any other game for that matter? Say I was to play Hearthstone and he played WoW?
Correct-- the only permitted account sharing is between a child aged 13 or younger and their legal guardian.
Anything purchased and unlocked on that Blizzard Account can be used by those with permitted access, but no more. Your significant other, or any siblings you may have, for example. Just you and your child.
You cannot be logged into the same game license at the same time, ala both of you trying to play on WoW1 at the same time, but one of you can be WoW1 and the other can be WoW2, or you can definitely be playing two different games.
It may be worth your while to consider getting him his own Account and start it in your name, then when he comes of age, reach out to a game master and have them put it in his name after that; when it comes time for him to need to leave your account for his own, he would be starting over completely from scratch-- anything he spent time to unlock while sharing off your license will not transfer to a new account and license set up for him.
I cannot find anywhere that it states 13 or younger, the ToS just states minor, here in Australia the legal age is 18. He is 10 btw so that doesn’t really matter yet, but he also has special needs and may always be under my care even when he is classified as an adult, so that may be something I need to discuss with Blizzard when the time comes.
He is learning to use a keyboard and mouse at school, currently can use a controller for games, which works on WoW (macros are great and with scaling he won’t have to worry too much about what enemies to kill). So for now as long as he can run around and kill some boar, I can go with him and help him out, teach him more on how to use a keyboard and mouse that’s fine. Hand eye coordination and all that.
When he gets older and starts wanting to dungeon crawl and get collections sure, I may look at separating the accounts and start teaching him that side of life assuming the game is even around by than.
That is my mistake, yes-- I’m not sure what I was remembering regarding age 13. But once he passes into the age of consent, he will need to have an account of his own.
You’re welcome to see if you can come to some sort of agreement with Blizzard to bend their policy, but I wouldn’t put too much hope in an even compromise, though in eight years a lot has the potential to change.
For now, though, yes. You’re both in the clear. Give him my best!
Actually was staring at me right in the face. ToS section 1 A i. You may establish an Account only if: (i) you are a “natural person” and an adult in your country of residence.
So depending on what your country classifies as adult, 18 for Australia, but would that be 13, 16, 18 or 21 in the US?
The benefit of putting the account for your child under a different Battlenet is setting up parental controls. If you have their WoW license under your Battlenet, the parental controls would apply to your account as well as theirs.
You can also disable the in-game store on their account using the parental controls. It means they can’t accidentally buy something.
Without the password they cannot buy anything anyway, and my parental control would be simply sitting 2 feet from him while he plays. I don’t want to just limit his play time, I want to watch what he does and ensure he learns right and can ask questions as he goes while I am here to help if he gets stuck.
A parent OR guardian (which in this case, you’d end up being both) can share with one minor child.
Now, there are a few drawbacks to this you may want to consider vs. setting his own account up.
Parental controls impact everything - including you. There is no way to limit those to just one license or specific characters. Messages, on the same b.net he may very well see messages meant for you. Another consideration is security. Children tend to be a little more trusting and that can sometimes lead to security issues.
If you plan on him having his own license - just setup another Blizzard account in YOUR name, that would work as well and none of the above would really apply. All you need for that is another email address.
Giving your child their own account that you can monitor/parental control up will just make things far easier later on when they become of age and are no longer allowed to be on the same account as you.
The sharing part makes it harder when it comes time to transfer things and stuff gets left behind due to being bound to the specific account. Assuming they will still be playing that far into the future, their own account would be the ideal setup to keep in mind.
Yes but at the moment he is 10, there are a lot more benefits of him being on my account like heirlooms and the lack of needing to repair, an heirloom mount so he can mount from any level, a new allied race at level 20, the vendor mounts I have. There are more benefits early on for a child to use an established account than starting fresh.
True, but also the drawbacks as I pointed out above. If you will likely always be his guardian, this is a little different than a child that normally ages out of their parent’s account.
It is a little tricker to get both accounts on the same Blizzard account online at the same time, but it is perfectly doable.
What you can NOT do is say - petbattle if the other license logged on first.
You bring up very valid points. We throw these options out so you have all the information you need to make the best choice for you.
Sadly we have seen a lot of upset people when the bandaid is ripped off and they don’t have mounts, transmog, heirlooms etc. This is why people are recommending an entire new bnet and account. That is all.
Ultimately the choice is entirely yours. We just want to make sure you have the traditional cons to go with the pros.
What I want to know now is how to set it up using recruit a friend? I have 3 wow licences on my account now, when I try to upgrade from the starter it only gives me an option to upgrade to BfA.
I want to purchase the new game including Shadowlands with all the benefits that come with that. If I purchase the Shadowlands, than use my RAF link, will I be able to RAF onto the new purchase of Shadowlands?
Seems like a silly thing to get stuck up on but okay, yes that’s possible to start a new account that is already fully upgraded and not the base game.
That doesn’t at all change how RaF works, which is what I was referring to.