Just a simple question; want to make sure it’s crystal clear and so far my searches haven’t come up with anything.
Love World of Warcraft, have a Steam Deck. I know it’s not officially supported and I’m not asking if it is or will be. What I am interested in is that if I can get WoW to work on a Steam Deck, is that a violation of the games ToS?
It was brought to my attention that downloading Destiny 2 IS a violation of that games ToS, and given that it runs through Battle Net, I’d really prefer not to go through the hassle of getting WoW up and running only to net my account a ban.
v. Cloud Computing: Use the Platform, including a Game, in connection with any unauthorized third-party “cloud computing” services, “cloud gaming” services, or any software or service designed to enable the unauthorized streaming or transmission of Game content from a third-party server to any device.
or
ix. Unauthorized Connections: Facilitate, create or maintain any unauthorized connection to the Platform including without limitation (i) any connection to any unauthorized server that emulates, or attempts to emulate, the Platform; and (ii) any connection using third-party programs or tools not expressly authorized by Blizzard.
Probably not something you should do unless they officially release the game for the Steam Deck.
I suppose the easiest thing to hinge on is how exactly you’ll be running the game through Steam Deck. Cloud computing is against the ToS. So is using software or hardware outside of a normal(ish?) computer rig to facilitate gameplay outside of the ordinary - just going by the same rules that multiboxers have to follow.
It seems like it runs aground too much in my opinion, to other ways of gameplay we’ve been warned against doing.
While I couldn’t find anything particular to Steam Deck, here is some information back when someone was trying get clarification for Steam Link.
I don’t think the Steam Deck has to do cloud computing at all. It’s literally a handheld PC. There is no emulations or anything like that. As long as Battle net works natively on Linux, you should just be able to install that and run the game just like you would on a normal PC.
Destiny 2 and Fortnite are banned from the system for now mainly due to the fact it runs Linux and not Windows. I do not know offhand if WoW is officially supported by Linux, but if it is, I would presume it would be fine.
All that said I have no insider info and don’t own a steam deck, so like others have said, maybe use at own risk until something official comes out!
Thanks for that. Yeah if WoW isn’t already officially supported on Linux I’d think it would fall into the same camp as Destiny 2 and others. Probably not worth the risk right now. If the Steam Deck becomes as popular as the initial hype predicted, we might very well get official Linux support!
I mainly wanted to clear up some confusion cause people were quoting articles about cloud gaming, game streaming, or emulations, none of which the Steam Deck is as far as I’m aware.
I wouldnt say never but thats wouldnt be a easy feat theyd need a whole different team to test it out and work out any bugs wow realy wasnt built for a tiny screen.
In fact I’m very positive Blizz has gone out of their way in the past to correct errors pertaining to Linux players, such as a overturning a lot of bans resulting from a ban wave that took a lot of innocent Linux users down with it.
IMO so long as the game is executed on your own hardware and not a third-party’s hardware, you should be good (but unsupported most likely).
My honest hope is to bait out an official, cut and dry, yes or no.
Like it’s totally cool if it’s unsupported. If the community exists for the game it’ll get rigged up and running.
I am just worried since other games on the same launcher have a zero tolerance for the hardware for some stupid reason. I have a lot of stuff and a lot of hours and I don’t really want them wasted if Blizzard decides to get a bug up its rear.
Honestly? If you would’ve read the topic that was linked above, you would’ve seen an official blue reply, basically commenting on the posts I have linked. Long story short, you’re not guaranteed a blue post, and the blues here cannot say yes or no for any particular third-party thing.
Im fairly certain you can get windows to run on a Steamdeck so, theoretically, you could run Blizzard games on it. I think you’ll run into issues playing but it should be technically possible.
Won’t happen for a third party product that Blizzard has no control over.
If Blizzard was to say it was benign today and tomorrow there is a change to it, no matter how many times Blizzard posts that it no longer approved, ten years from now, someone will point to the post saying it was benign as “proof” that it’s ok to use.
The best way to picture this is to ask, ‘Will steamdeck run WoW on its own?’ and since the answer is no, take that as a warning that it is not supported and could result in a possible account action.