First of all, the gym was an example of businesses that allow the public into their space. The same expectations apply to all these businesses. You trotted out the irrelevant point that WoW owns their games, you don’t. Once again, IT DOESN’T MATTER.
But back to gyms . . . gyms have members sign liability waivers, and it doesn’t matter. They could have you sign in blood and relinquish your first born. Legally that’s nothing more than toilet paper. They are still responsible for maintaining a safe environment and giving their customers access to what they paid for (which is more than just being allowed to walk into their building).
And YES, if a member of that gym sends you death threats through social media and you inform the gym, then they are legally required to take reasonable steps to ensure your safety - for instance revoking that person’s membership, contacting authorities etc.
Social media SHOULD be responsible for ensuring a safe environment, but because of section 230 of the CDA, they are not. (FYI, there are members of Congress seeking to overturn section 230.) There are no such protections for other businesses that allow you to use their facilities, whether they preemptively charge you or not. And that includes online games.
To recap:
- It’s irrelevant that you do not actually own the game.
- Blizzard DOES have a responsibility to take steps against any of their customers who threaten someone whether or not those threats happen in game.
- Blizzard CS is virtually nonexistent. Most of the CS you get through support are unqualified randos who reply with automated responses such as this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/overwatch2/comments/1c5iyox/blizzard_support_is_100_automated_and_has_no/#lightbox
.
They more often than not don’t even read your ticket, let alone address the problem:
https://tinyurl.com/3k87439p
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1f6lh0b/blizzard_support_is_a_joke/#lightbox
https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/1d7wbyy/does_this_happen_often_getting_a_ticket_response/#lightbox
https://www.reddit.com/r/classicwow/comments/1d5qqtc/i_opened_a_ticket_with_blizz_and_their_response/#lightbox
Often when submitting further tickets, you’re threatened with a ban if you continue to do so: https://tinyurl.com/krwsy4yk
When your problem IS resolved, it can take weeks or even months after scripted response after scripted response and threats of being banned, such as this guy:
https://imgur.com/a/unbanned-ZNEyQvY
None of this is okay. And if you think I’m “reaching” here, you really need to familiarize yourself with common law and consumer protection laws. CS is a joke. The way Blizzard maintains their game is a joke. The way they handle bots is a joke. And yes, businesses get away with this. Until they don’t.