There will likely be no refund. I would love to see you try to sue Blizzard though under that Australian law. Probably won’t go very far though. Seeing as they are giving plenty of notice.
Also why are you up in arms about being reminded to not be a jerk in game? Do you want to continue trying to bully other players?
Sounds like the thing to do is to just stop doing business in Australia if they can’t alter the terms.
Usually a business will advise you if you can get a refund based on ‘new requirements’ when it comes to subscriptions. There are laws around this in place in the United States so I don’t know about Australia. The other recourse are the courts I guess, but then there is the question of $$$. I’m not sure how much your prepaid sub is for, but personally I wouldn’t sue for 6 months worth or even a year’s which may amount to about $100? I don’t know, I do month by month.
I trust wow politicians over our real life overlords that have been throwing this country into disarray for the past 6 years.
This. If the EULA is enforceable and covers those topics, then there isn’t much you can do.
I don’t know enough about Australian law, but the core question is probably when does a change in an EULA previously agreed to impact the refund of a subscription. My assumption is that there would have to be some question around materiality in the change, but Blizzard’s EULA, like most contracts, has a severability clause that carves out anything that might be unenforceable while saving the rest of the agreement.
Folks don’t realize there’s always a ‘boilerplate’ line or two about the contract when it contains clauses that are in violation of local law.
Just like they can’t sell loot boxes in some nations because they care enough to protect it’s citizens from the predatory game design that takes advantage of a vulnerable population.
Anyways OP, did you pay with a credit card?
If so just contact your bank and get your money back. It’s even better if you used PayPal, they have a “no questions asked” pro-consumer policy
/thread
…but if you paid with something like Bnet balance, you might be out of luck
I’ve read that this is the fastest way to get your account locked.
Honestly that is a very poor thought exercise. It would not be technically possible under any Code of Conduct because it would be consider discrimination against Romanians. With so many anti discrimination laws out here there is no way something like this would stand. You would not even need to be Romanian or Australian to take Blizzard to task for it.
I also highly doubt Australian Consumer Law will give a refund of money because a person does not want to adhere to a revised code of conduct. This is the in game code of conduct we already have. The Social Contract is not that much different.
You can do that, but when you approve a payment, and receive the service you paid for, a charge back is fraud. It will cause the Bnet account to be locked in whole or in part until the money is paid back to Blizzard.
As for the original question. We have to accept the EULA to play Blizzard games. With that comes accepting the policies and codes of conduct.
The EULA already tells players what to do if they don’t agree to the terms.
IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, YOU ARE NOT PERMITTED TO INSTALL, COPY, OR USE THE BLIZZARD PLATFORM. IF YOU REJECT THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT WITHIN FOURTEEN (14) DAYS AFTER YOUR PURCHASE OF A GAME FROM BLIZZARD, YOU MAY CONTACT BLIZZARD THROUGH https://us.battle.net/support/en/ TO INQUIRE ABOUT A FULL REFUND OF THE PURCHASE PRICE OF THAT GAME. IF YOU PURCHASED A GAME AT RETAIL, YOUR RIGHT TO RETURN THE GAME IS SUBJECT TO THE RETAILER’S RETURN POLICY.
Within that - is also the clause that the terms can change. If you no longer agree to those terms, you don’t click AGREE.
The next step is to consult the refund policy page. A refund for a recently purchased sub can be processed if it meets the conditions.
The “Social Contract” does not outline new rules. It is a pop up to remind you of the rules you already agreed to. It is divided into two parts:
Part 1 = reminders about how to get along in an MMO. They are suggestions, like the tips on the loading screen. They are NOT enforceable. You will not get in trouble for not answering a question in chat or not stopping to help someone kill a mob. There are no report options for those things because they are not against the rules.
Part 2 = the rules on language and spam. Those are enforceable and have right click reporting options in game. Those are the same rules we have had since 2004 in one version or another.
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.
Now can we please agree that these rules have always been in place for WoW and that updates may refine phrasing, but not core content? If anything the rules are more lax now than that were then.
Why should this matter if you are a decent human being? I guess if one is NOT a decent person I could see this making them angry?
Changes nothing for me. Not sure why people are angry over it.
The stuff in the social contract is stuff that’s already in the TOS you signed up for no?
It’s blizzard projecting their behavior onto the playerbase as a distraction from said behavior lmao.
That’s what I assumed. Also they word more specific in this it seems. But regardless, I still don’t understand why people are upset over this unless they are toxic to people.
I can see your point but is it really that big a deal?
Seriously asking why people are angry/not happy with this.
They aren’t going far enough. All chat and communication must be removed from the game for player safety.
you want to be grandfathered into being able to be an ahole? 
i like your sense of humor!
I’m not sure either. It’s stuff that we should have been doing the entire time. You know, being nice, helping folks out, don’t be a meany head and say meany words in a way to hurt people.
Then they have been doing it since 2004. The rules for naming, language, etc in WoW have not substantially changed in 17 years.
Reality is though that poor behavior online has been an issue forever, and one various online communities have been trying to find solutions for.
I would wager the REMINDER they are putting out though is a bit of PR. Other game companies are also making their policies against poor behavior known. Seems to be a trend and that is fine.
Just so long as they actually enforce the rules more consistently. That would be nice.
Every player must be put into their own personal shard without interaction with other players. It’s really the only way to protect everyone from toxic behavior.