Warlord's Deathwheel Is a Legal Issue and Will Never Return Thanks to FOMO Language (IANAL)

Community General Discussion
1

Targeting the specific legal concern regarding the Warlord Deathwheel, I’m sticking my well-searched IANAL opinion on why we’ll never see it below. Feel free to dice it up into pieces, but I got tired of simply reading “hurp durp cuz legal reasons” on the forums and decided to research it myself since nobody else bothered trying to cite specifics after 8 years.

This is the closest I can find that explains what happened and why, as not-a-lawyer, I believe we’ll never see this become obtainable again in the game, and also explains why Daisy/Bananas are still obtainable even though they too were part of a limited-time contest:

Not a lawyer, my well-researched opinion below

Here we go, starting with an official statement by Blizzard:

This language screams “urgent urgent must act now!” and any reasonable person would perceive a sense of urgency. Remember this is tied to a contest (potentially a sweepstakes) as well. These elements are key to my opinion.

California code that looks applicable given the nature of the contest:

https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/business-and-professions-code/bpc-sect-17539-15.html

Notice that no sense of urgency is conveyed for the Alliance mount, nor is there any statement made that the Deathwheel will be available after the end of the time period.

We have an articulated reasonable sense of urgency for the Horde chopper. The Alliance mount is not mentioned and therefore is not articulated as an urgent matter. The abhorrent FOMO language got Blizzard into this mess.

Contrast this to the Daisy announcement, archived at

Notice how additional terms are specified to make it clear that the “prizes” will still be obtainable, thereby eliminating any reasonable sense of urgency.

tldr; Blizzard’s absurdly-written FOMO language legally barred them from offering the Deathwheel outside of the announced period, but they can still offer Daisy and Bananas for sale because they made it clear that you could still obtain them in-game, etc. after a specified date. Blizzard can absolutely offer the Deathwheel again if they want to face the legal ramifications for it, which has a <0% chance of happening.

P:S: They clearly learned their lesson but screwed over the Horde in the process. Shame on you Blizzard for being such a loose cannon with FOMO language.

P.S.x2: If anyone is able to find any portion of the law that defines an expiration period for the limited-time mess, feel free to post it here. Otherwise I think we’re just huffing a lot of air against a brick wall at this point thanks to a combination of California law and Blizzard’s overzealous usage of FOMO language that legally bars them from offering it again, both free of charge or paid.

9 Likes
2

Special events are special events and items should not return. This is like me going to play FF14 and demanding I’m able to get everything from previous events no longer available. That’s not how this works.

16 Likes
3

Did…did you even read the thread? The post explains what I believe is the legal reasoning for it to never return. You responded to something that’s not even in this thread.

14 Likes
4

Why didn’t you just post this in the thread that’s already up?

9 Likes
6

I didnt get it cuz I didnt want it. If they bring it in game again, I still wont get it because I still dont want it. If you really wanted it that bad you should have gotten it when it was available to get.

2 Likes
7

And yet the Blue post was specifically linked in the last thread. :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

6 Likes
8

The blue post that essentially said “hurp durp legal reasons”?

The point of this thread was to point out specifics and use it as a reference so we could actually understand what the heck happened and to stop asking for it since it’s fruitless.

8 Likes
9

We don’t have the contract. We know nothing.

5 Likes
10

Which is why I cited a specific California code! Tada!

10 Likes
12

As I said in the previous thread, could Blizzard not just color swap a few bits, rearrange a spike or two and call it a new mount? The “Warlord’s Deathwheel” may be tied up in legality but what about the “Warmonger’s Murdercycle?” (Already trademarked, back off it’s mine!)

1 Like
13

I don’t know the details of that so I don’t even want to try to accurately answer that at the moment.

I suspect that if there was a sense of urgency tied to any promotional prizes and it was conveyed as a contest or sweepstakes of some sort, then yes. If it wasn’t in a contest or sweepstakes format, then probably not? But I don’t know the details of it.

14

Which may be irrelevant. Because not everything goes by California law, as per EULA. And specific contracts can supersede it.

15

If it can be argued it’s materially different then perhaps? I know at this point I’m not even going to participate in any efforts to bring it back simply because it’s apparent (to me at least) what the specific legal concern is, which removes any clouds that I previously had.

I’m all for railing on Blizzard to bring back FOMO products where able, but when a specific legal issue becomes clear to me and it makes sense, then I stop caring at that point.

16

Just because there was urgency at the time to claim the prize does not mean it can not be offered again.

“Open a savings account by Feb 1st and get a free toaster”

Can give away as many toasters as you like. In that promotion, or a later one.

1 Like
17

What do they call it IANAL?

18

If a bank held a voting contest or a sweepstakes to determine which toaster would be free with accounts, then you’d have an argument.

1 Like
19

We need this mount.

1 Like
20

We gotta beat the case.

1 Like
21

Good luck with that. My understanding (although not entirely close to certain so I didn’t post it) is that the legal penalty=12 month period of not being able to offer any contests, etc… There is no way that is happening. We just need to let this mount go at this point. I could find no evidence of any sunset period.

22

Reusing old mounts and rebranding them as “new and improved” is definitely within Blizzard’s wheelhouse. I just dunno how uniquely different the mount would have to be before it’s “legal.” In my mind it’s the only way Horde is gunna see anything close to the Deathwheel again.

1 Like