so i was wondering is this contract legally binding and what do they mean exactly by “punishment” am i going to have legal issues if they decide or someone in this video game decides a post/chat/comment is deemed hateful/mean?
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You’ll get banned, not arrested and thrown in jail.
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It’s so that if someone asks a question, everyone else in chat has to research to find the answer, and if anyone doesn’t they’ll ban you.
Probably.
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Go ahead. Activision has tons of lawyers at the ready for frivolous lawsuits.
wiggles toes
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Yes you’re gonno have to hire a legal team just to play WoW now
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Heck no. The first part is a suggestion on how to get along in an MMO. Not enforceable. There are no report options for “did not answer my question”. Same as the tips on the loading screen.
The stuff we have to follow is the same since you started playing in Vanilla. From the CS forums
To be clear, everyone is already expected to follow the In-game Code of Conduct in Blizzard games. The Social Contract you’re referring to is simply an in-game presentation and a reminder of the existing rules and recommendations for player behavior.
P.S. You have always been reasonably polite when I have interacted with you going back to the start.
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im typing this from prison no its not legally binding they just ban u i think
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What’s all this chatter over the contact thing lol
We agreed to it whenever we made our accs
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well ik agreed to certain conditions but its all very vague to me and id like to know some things and see what people have to say about before i go and agree to anything on the internet.
Buddy you already skipped reading the tos and clicked agree
This is the same thing
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It was already covered in more broad terms in the TOS, that’s why certain words made people go bye bye.
This is just putting it a bit more plainly.
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They typed you up something in plain English to refer you to when you complain about your vacation for using 15 insults when you should have just calmly said what you think went wrong.
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people are blowing this whole social contract out of proportion lol, they are their terms and services. You agree to play the game without being a douche, in return you don’t get banned for being said douche. Why does it seem like it’s so hard for people to accept something to be civil in a video game…
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Show me where exactly. I see nothing of the words, “Hate Speach” in the TOS.
You don’t have TOS and have not for years. You have been bound by the EULA which references the game code of conduct.
Hate/hateful speech goes back to game release in 2004.
Original User Manual from 2004 https://bnetcmsus-a.akamaihd.net/cms/template_resource/LO0VQ46XB1281555957773363.pdf - which has the EULA at the end. It points to the requirements for accepting Terms of Use with the website for it. I selected the first archived Wayback Machine TOU for WoW from 2004. I have copied out the relevant sections for you. Yes, it included hateful names and speech.
https://web.archive.org/web/20041217101250/http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/legal/termsofuse.shtml
- World of Warcraft Rules of Conduct.
As with all things, World of Warcraft is governed by certain rules of conduct that must be adhered to by all users of World of Warcraft. It is your responsibility to know, understand and abide by these rules of conduct. The following rules are not meant to be “exhaustive,” and Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to determine what conduct it considers to be outside the spirit of the game and to take such disciplinary measures as it sees fit. Blizzard Entertainment reserves the right to add to or amend this list of rules at any time, and you are responsible for checking these Terms of Use for any newly amended or posted rules each time that you log on.
A. Rules Related to User Names.
Each user will select a user name for his or her character, or allow the World of Warcraft software to select the name for him or her. Additionally, users may form “guilds” and such guilds will be required to choose a name for the guild. When you choose a user name, create a guild, or otherwise create a label that can be seen by other players of World of Warcraft, you must abide by the following guidelines as well as the rules of common decency. If Blizzard Entertainment, in its sole discretion, finds such a label to be offensive, it reserves the right to change the name, remove the label and corresponding chat room, and/or suspend your use of World of Warcraft.
In particular, you may not use:
Names of another person with the intent to impersonate that person;
Names which incorporate ‘swear’ words or which are otherwise offensive, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable;
Names subject to the rights of any other person without authorization;
Names of popular culture or media personalities;
Names that are trademarks, or registered trademarks of Blizzard Entertainment or other companies);
Names of religious deities or figures;
Names of characters from Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft products, including character names from the Warcraft series of novels; or
Names related to drugs, narcotics, or criminal activity, including references to drug substances; or
Name comprised of partial or complete sentences (e.g., “Inyourface”, “Welovebeef”, etc);
Names comprised of pure gibberish (eg, “Asdfasdf”, “Jjxccm”, “Hvlldrm”);
Names that refer to pop culture icons or personas (e.g. “Britneyspears”, “Austinpowers”, “Batman”)
Names that utilize “Leet” or “Dudespeak” (e.g., “Roflcopter”, “xxnewbxx”, “Roxxoryou”)
Name that incorporate titles. The term “Titles” as used herein shall include ‘rank’ titles (e.g. , “CorporalTed,” or “GeneralVlad”) and/or fantasy titles (e.g., “KingMike”, “LordSanchez”)
Additionally, you may not use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the name restrictions listed above, nor can you have a “first” and “last” name that, when combined, violate the above name restrictions.
B. Rules Related to “Chat” and Interaction With Other Users.
Communicating with other Users and Blizzard Entertainment representatives is an integral part of World of Warcraft and is referred to in this document as “Chat.” Your Chats may be subject to review, modification, and deletion without notice by Blizzard Entertainment. Additionally, you hereby acknowledge that Blizzard Entertainment is under no obligation to monitor Chat and you engage in Chat at your own risk. When engaging in Chat in World of Warcraft, or otherwise utilizing World of Warcraft, you may not:
(i) Transmit or post sexually explicit images or other content or language which in the sole discretion of Blizzard Entertainment is deemed to be offensive; nor shall you transmit any unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable content or language, nor may you use a misspelling or an alternative spelling to circumvent the content and language restrictions listed above;
(ii) Carry out any action with a disruptive effect, such as cause the Chat screen to “scroll” faster than other users are able to type to it, including setting up macros with large amounts of text that, when used, can have a disruptive effect on the normal flow of Chat;
(iii) Disrupt the normal flow of dialogue in Chat or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users, individuals or entities, including, but not limited to, posting “Spam” messages on World of Warcraft (“Spam” messages as used in this document include, but are not limited to, any effort to use a computer or other electronic device to post an unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertisement to World of Warcraft);
(iv) “Spam” by posting or sending more than one unsolicited message or piece of mail to a single address or in a chat area;
(v) Communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on the World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft;
(vi) Use bots or other automated techniques to collect information or communicate or post any user’s personal information in or on World of Warcraft, or websites or forums related to World of Warcraft or Blizzard Entertainment
(vii) Harass, threaten, stalk, embarrass or cause distress, unwanted attention or discomfort to another user of World of Warcraft or other person or entity; or
(viii) Cheat during game play, including but not limited to modification of the game program files.
(ix) Participate in any action that, in the opinion of Blizzard Entertainment results in an authorized user of World of Warcraft being "scammed " or ‘defrauded’ out of gold, weapons, armor, or any other items that he/she has earned through authorized game play in World of Warcraft.
Welcome to WoW!
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Meanwhile, in Florida…
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Not yet you wont 
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You… are a strange fella.
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Just don’t be a jerk and you have nothing to worry about.
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Right, so they spelled it out for people to make it more plain to see.
They did not specifically use the term “hate speech” previously but it’s better at getting the point across than the big legal document. So they have both now to make it clear for anyone who might think about using that type of language.