Hmmm. I guess some people are paranoid about what this can do.
I mean I guess someone can waste their time engineering an addon for the sole purpose of layering “I don’t agree” over the “I acknowledge the rules” button, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re confirming that you acknowledge the rule and can’t go “But I didn’t know!” if you get actioned for being a dingus.
Like many have said, these rules aren’t new, they’re just being presented in a way that one can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse.
This is ironically what you are doing in regards to being reminded not to be a jerk to others.
Being offended and taking it personally. Hence all your posts crying about it.
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.
Allow me to simply point to the Blizzard EULA, which is applied to EVERYTHING Blizzard, even just installing Battle.net, before you ever even purchase something from them.
I’ve bolded the more important bits.
Specifically the section on Alterations to the EULA, and Termination of the Agreement between Blizzard and yourself.
Alterations to the Platform.
Blizzard may change, modify, suspend, or discontinue any aspect of the Platform or Accounts at any time, including removing items, or revising the effectiveness of items in an effort to balance a Game. Blizzard may also impose limits on certain features or restrict your access to parts or all of the Platform or Accounts without notice or liability.
Termination:
Blizzard reserves the right to terminate this Agreement at any time for any reason, or for no reason, with or without notice to you. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most Account suspensions and terminations are the result of violations of this Agreement.
In the event of a termination of this Agreement, any right you may have had to any pre-purchased Game access or virtual goods, such as digital cards, currency, weapons, armor, wearable items, skins, sprays, pets, mounts, etc., are forfeit, and you agree and acknowledge that you are not entitled to any refund for any amounts which were pre-paid on your Account prior to any termination of this Agreement. In addition, you will not be able to use the Platform.
TL:DR : They can change the EULA you agree to at anytime, and if you don’t uninstall the products and stop using the platform, you automatically agree to the new updated EULA.
They can restrict your access to any part of their games or platforms in part or in whole at any time with no liability to themselves for doing so.
Finally, they can terminate your agreement ( read Account ) with them at any time, for any reason, or NO REASON.
This has been in place since Battle.net was a thing, ( read A LONG TIME AGO ) They have never had need to spell out any rules or regulations, nor give specifics reasons that would lead to punishments. They have been able to enforce any punishment they feel like, at any time, for any reason, since the dawn of Battle.net.
Thankyou for this and my point on Hatespeech still stands, Specifying terms are always better than a broad brush term like “hatespeech” that is subjective and abused by those that get easily offended one way or another.
Old CoC does have the “hateful” terminology in there so there is a correlation but no where near the Problematic “concept” that “hatespeech” people want it to be in order to alienate those that won’t see or believe in this concept.
But hey it’s a private company right…
No i still disagree and it’s not “refined phrasing”.
again thankyou for this.
I’ll continue walking that fine line around those eggshells until people learn to adult.