Poor Iranian gamers
August 31st, 2012 at 11:13 am by David FarrarThe Herald reports:
They’ve vanquished elves, trolls, and all manner of magical monsters. But one select group of online gamers is facing an even more formidable foe: The US sanctions regime.
Iranian players of ”World of Warcraft,”; the massively popular online multiplayer franchise, have found themselves frozen out by Blizzard Activision Inc., the American company behind the game. Iranian role playing enthusiasts have spent much of the past week peppering Blizzard’s message board with complaints about how they weren’t able to log on to the service only to be told recently that US law was to blame.
“United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran,” the company said in an email sent to players last week and forwarded to The Associated Press late on Tuesday.
Now that’s a step too far. I’m all for sanctions which hurt the Government, but blocking poor Iranian gamers from WoW is just unfair.
Mind you, if there are enough of them, maybe this could be the spark that lights the revolution. They role the regime, so they can carry on with WoW!
August 31st, 2012 at 11:18 am
It’s the high-level raiding guilds who are the real victims of economic sanctions.
Will no one think of the troll shamans?!
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 11:19 am
I imagine it’s the financial restrictions on money transfers. It’s still possible to trade with Iran within the sanctions framework.
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 11:20 am
@ Ryan they’re probably all gold farmers anyway
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 11:27 am
Poor bastards. They so want to interact with big breasted barbarian female avatars – especially seeing as they never get to see the real thing.
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 11:30 am
Seems crazy. As you point out anything that could undermine that theocracy should be supported in fact encouraged.
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 11:36 am
@ Brian barbarians were from Everquest, you are showing your age.
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 5:14 pm
This will bring about the revolution, because now the geeks, nerds, and their kin are angry -and aren’t distracted by online gaming.
Vote:August 31st, 2012 at 5:24 pm
Blizzard Activision serves their content to Iranian government controlled ISPs, who provide it to their customers. On an international trade basis this is a B2B transaction, so subject to trade restrictions. I’d be interested to know what other services are blocked, or not blocked. Either way, the Iranian government is probably quite happy with the great satan’s self censorship
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