But we do pay money to Blizzard for access to those items. IDK about America but most sensible countries have consumer protections in place for when you are sold a product/service that does not do what you expected it to do.
Blizzard has also caused us to suffer financial loss, in the sense that we could have traded those items for gold > wow tokens > blizzard balance = real money (not cash, but real purchasing power you could use to buy real physical products from Blizzard).
Even in corporate hellscape America, everyone should be familiar with the concept of suing for damages, when someone elseās actions/negligence cause you to suffer losses, right?
I donāt bring this up because I believe Blizzard should calculate the exact dollar value of the payout to give each of us (though they could at least make some estimates, and I encourage it), but rather to demonstrate that this is not some small throwaway issue. The only reason it seems that way is because it seems like it only affects fake toys in a fantasy game. But those things are paid for and worth real money just like any other business transaction. Those fake toys are literally Blizzardās business.
Players affected by the Great Blizzard Bank Heist of 2024 have a few options to address the loss of their in-game assets:
Customer Support: The first step is usually to contact Blizzardās customer support. Players can file a ticket explaining their situation and request compensation for the lost items. While Blizzard has stated they canāt restore the lost items, they may offer in-game currency or other forms of compensation as a goodwill gesture.
Community Forums: Players can also voice their concerns on Blizzardās official forums or social media channels. Sometimes, collective feedback from the community can prompt the company to take additional actions.
Legal Action: Pursuing legal action is a more complex route. It would require proving that Blizzard was negligent or failed to provide adequate security measures, leading to the loss of data. This can be a lengthy and costly process, and the terms of service often include clauses that limit the companyās liability.
Class Action Lawsuits: If a significant number of players are affected, there might be potential for a class action lawsuit. This would involve multiple players coming together to file a lawsuit against Blizzard, seeking compensation for their losses.
Itās always a good idea to consult with a legal professional to understand the best course of action based on individual circumstances.
Itās worth noting, surely, that in-game gold can be used to buy game time. Therefore essentially the loss of items from vaults which could be converted into gold, could be converted into game time, giving it a real-world value. So someone, for example, who used their vault to make them gold for subs, and then lost the contents of that vault, may well have then had to pay real-world money instead - therefore it does have real-world implications.
Iām not sure this would hold but the US is probably pretty low on the consumer protection side of things. I donāt remember which data breach this got brought up with, unrelated to blizzard, but companies here arenāt even required to inform consumers that their data has been stolen for about several months after the initial breach. By then, thereās no telling whatās been compromised on an individual level, and even the usps goes by this.
And other games/services on blizzardās bnet via bnet balance conversion.
From a legal perspective, this may already fail because of the differences in each individual member. We all lost different values, values that actually need to be determined first.
A settlement should benefit all members equally, which it wonĀ“t if someone lost items worth 20$ and another 200$ and another 1000$.
I also doubt that someone would take the case to be fair, itĀ“s not a big enough case to make a career, nor is the outcome financially rewarding.
Even as a person of the law, you see a lot of wrongs and you still donĀ“t bring them to court, as you realize it is just not worth it in the end. ItĀ“s usually people with no experience in law, that run after each possible case, not knowing the work hours required and the minimal outcome of it.
Hereās my take on the situation. Blizzard like any company has a failsafe against potential lawsuits. Iām sure and I think a blue posted it. ToS covers this type of scenario. So donāt bother wasting your time is why they posted this clause. I do agree that virtual currency does hold a value. Just think about how many sites sell stuff for real money. Selling WoW goods 3rd party is a huge market. Most people not all do not see this as just a game. Itās a little more serious than that. They have spent many years gathering some of the stuff they lost and have every right to be upset. So the value of wow and their stuff is individual perception. Losing stuff because of the negligence of Blizzard is unacceptable. If you had a million dollars in bitcoins stored in a virtual vault, the company lost it, and their response is oh well you lose. Would that be acceptable? Same concept just different currencies. The value is relative based on the individual. Back to the lawsuit situation. A class action lawsuit could be possible if an attorney could find a way to negate ToS. Some pretty smart attornies out there and would love to take a chunk out of Blizzard. There are some that fish for businesses to start a class action suit. So itās not out of the question but remember companies like Blizzard have a team of top-notch attornies. I am positive they are in the background calling some of the shots and monitoring the situation. The best way to hit a company is to hit them in the pocketbook. As farfetched and hokey as it sounds a lawsuit is possible because this is a serious issue to many.
TOS does not get them out of hot water in countries with consumer protection laws like Australia. However, their potential liability would at most be something like expansion refunds.
This is irrelevant because one is a video game and the other is widely accepted as currency. Pixels in a silly game are not comparable to real life currency.
I think in a sense this is why they keep this forum open to monitor the situation. To see what others are saying and thinking so they arenāt left in the dark. Everyone is entitled to how they feel about what WoW means to them. All I am saying is pixels to you may not be just pixels to others. Perception is different from person to person. Iām not knocking anyone for their personal feelings regarding the game. Please leave it at that.
Greetings, adventurer! Thank you for being patient in awaiting our response. For context on the last reply,an automated reply is submittedwith generic troubleshooting steps that may help resolve some general issues to spare time to both the player and Game Mastersas we deal with other, more complex issues.
In this case, Iāll have to ask you to please submit a bug report on this issue, so that our developers are made aware and investigate more closely. Keep in mind that bug reports are not replied to, andonly the developers may decide on a potential course of action, if at all necessary.Customer Support currently has no workaround for this issue.
Thank you for contacting Blizzard Customer Support andfeel free to reach out to us again with another situation we can assist you with.Happy adventuring!
I doubt there is any legal recourse for players in this scenario. Itās just how it goes for company versus the player.
The one thing that does work is where you put your money. Iām going to cancel my sub and call it good. If I am back after my sub expires it will only ever be month by month.
Iāve finally hit that point where Iām over it. The community is overly unfriendly. The developers are milking time played metrics over fun. The blizzard monkey paw is always hidden with every new feature. I bet I have added more people to my forum and in-game ignore list in the last 6 months than I have over the last 20 years. If they didnāt mess up Wrath Classic I would find a way to stick around. I thought TWW was going to be good enough to keep me running awhile. The bugs have just been too many and the devs too irresponsible.
In the past games such as disney heroes and marvel avengers which had in-game purchases have shut down and were not required to refund since they were not tangible items. Paypal itself has simialr rules on buying in-game items and such they are not tangible items and disputes are not allowed. Rather sure this would be the same situation with purchasing with wow token.
Another example is Rift which is slowly circling the drain (Less then a few thousand players now) where everything is PTW and its quite clear when that game shuts down there will be no compensation. When they shut down servers you pretty much were told move your character or its gone.
