It seem like every few months Blizzard does something that invokes the back-lash of its gaming community. This time it’s over the Mist of Pandaria beta invites that were promised to those who purchased the one year Annual-Pass subscription for World of Warcraft.
It seems Blizzard originally promised Annual Pass holders beta access as the time of launch, but have since updated their site to say that beta invites will be staggered.
In the top right, we have the original advertisement and to the left we have the new one. The original advertisement under the “When do I get Diablo III and other exclusive benefits?” clearly states, “beta acess will go live with the beta launch“.
For further proof, players have cited a video from Blizzcon 2011 where in the opening ceremony, President and co-founder of Blizzard, Mike Morhaine, states, “guaranteed access into the next World of Warcraft expansion beta when it goes live.”
Well there you have it, pretty solid proof that Blizzard did indeed promise Annual Pass holders beta access from day one and have since reneged on it. Whether or not that language was used in the Term of Service or contact has yet to be determined, but at the very least, from the images above, this constitutes as false advertising.
Perhaps Blizzard did not expect the Annual Pass to be as big of a success as it was and realized they could not possibly give beta access to that large amount of players, but that’s really no excuse.
We’ll keep you updated once Blizzard responds.
Also, blizzard had stated in the conract of the AP that it was subject to change.
Well beside that, we did not got any mail about a change in the agreement ( Beta MOP) So the really lied about it, and beside that we did not got a change to re approve that nieuwe contract like the did it now. So overall they did F it uo bad this time.
I got this response from game master Quidopia, when i complained about not having beta access yet:
“Greetings ,
You are receiving this mail in response to the help petition which you submitted regarding your game issue.
I am afraid that you are mistaken, while the annual pass indeed quarantee’s access to the beta the invites are done in waves so you will have to wait for the email confirming your invite to the beta and then follow the instructions in that mail. :)
Regards,
English Game Master Team
Blizzard Europe”
I signed up for the Annual Pass during Blizzcon (right after Mike Morhaime’s announcement), so in my case Blizzard used false advertising and changed the agreement without even notifying me. But the worst thing is that i don’t have the option to cancel my subscription after they changed the contract.
Blizzard didn’t change their contract and there is a post from back in October that states that invites will be done in waves.
Wording of an advertisement is not a contract and is up to the person reading it to make a conclusion of its intentions.
The problem is, since one person says “OMG Blizzard changed the contract” others quickly followed suit.
If you had read the contract when you signed it, then you would have no reason to complain.
You got your mount and you have Diablo III sitting on your account, currently you are far ahead of people who didn’t sign up for the Annual Pass.
Sit down, shut up and wait your turn.
YOU WILL GET ACCESS.
No there was not a post in October saying it would be in waves. When asked about it at the press event the other week they even said then, they had no idea how they were going to let so many people into the beta.
Tankspot: “That brings up another question. Like I mentioned earlier, there was like a million people who signed up for the annual pass. How does that go into beta?”
J. Allen Brack : “Uhh, I don’t know today… but I will be smarter later as we figure that out and kind of decide and discuss exactly how we’re going to do that. It’s definitely going to be the largest beta we’ve ever done for any Warcraft expansion, so on one hand that’s very exciting, on the other hand… how do we get a million people in? I have no idea right now, so that’s definitely something we’re talking about. We’ll figure it out.”
THIS WAS A WEEK BEFORE IT WENT LIVE!
I know at least in the UK this counts as false advertising.
I think you’ll find there are over 10,000 players that think the same thing and was miss lead to believe we would get access when the beta went live.
I think the worst is that they have given no one any indication as to how frequent these invites are going out or how many, if 10,000 go out a day that’s 100 days that’s over 3 months i very much dought its 10,000 a day but it gives you an indication as to how long people may have to wait.
We may get invites as late as 2 weeks before launch.
Are we not meant to be in a beta testing the game which would have been tested by a previous 900,000 players lol.
The whole things a joke.
another damn case of who can QQ moar…..seriously the news sites that didn’t get an invite yet are more then fueling this whiny BS…..Your beta isn’t live which is why you don’t have the beta access yet…….so mister twist the words around, get off your high horse and edit this post to just have “me no beta yet” and the body be “QQ” because that’s all your doing….but i give you idiots props to making sure blizzard never does this again… I repeat YOUR BETA ISN’T LIVE YET WHICH IS WHY YOU DON’T HAVE BETA ACCESS…..other people’s beta is live and that’s why they are TESTING and not PLAYING the beta….btw i have an AP and i’m all for letting everyone know that i knew we weren’t getting in all at once…..and yes “terms and conditions are subject to change” which is why they changed it to better serve everyone that signed up for the AP because i’m damn sure i wouldn’t want 250,000 people on one of the 4 servers at any given time, would you ?
-quoted from another post i made on another news site-
“i’ve been saying this all along…..all this article is a QQ factory full of not reading what hey PAYED for…..i signed up for the AP for the mount and the free diablo 3..and the eventual beta invite would be nice so I could TEST the game and not just play it ahead of time….lets be honest people, if you were signing up for just the beta and tricked yourself into thinking that you were getting in first and not the other $75 worth of free incentives then you were headed for the QQ train anyway”
The big businesses are extremely smart any time they do a contract like the AP is is always going to be subject to change without notice. They legally are not required to give you notice if they decide something needs to be changed. Also as long as they change the advertisements at the same time they realized they could not possible do what the advertisements were saying they are in the clear because of the “Subject to Change without notice”. Quit whining and wait your turn just like everyone else.
@QQ first, I have no clue what QQ means. Seconds, this is a MMO gaming news site and as such, we report news. If tens of thousands of players are complaining about what they consider to be “false advertising”, that’s pretty significant and we’ll cover it. As for me personally, I’ve never played WoW and could care less about MOP or it’s beta. I’m just covering the news.
tens of thousands of players are complaining about what they consider to be whiny little noobs that need to rage quit so they can feel better or shut the hell up…..
simple google searches work wonders for people inquiring about certain word that they have no clue about, but as a gaming news site you should be well versed about the lingo that it entails….whether you play the game or not…
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=QQ
I seriously can’t believe you actually admitted to “I’ve never played WoW and could care less about MOP or it’s beta”
please please please….if you want to have any credibility as a mmo news journalist – red up on things and TRY to give a crap before posting an article or responding ignorantly to a comment.
/ragequit
@qq I’m to old to keep up with all the new gaming lingo and tend to game with players my own age, so it takes a little while before the new slang catches up to me.
As for my credibility for not having played WoW, you do realize there are hundreds of MMO games published to date. Are you really suggesting a writer must play every game before they publish a news article about it? This isn’t a review or an editorial, this is a news article about a community dispute.
I do love your /ragequit. I think I’ve played against you in League of Legends.
in other news – i can’t believe how many who have been on wow since day one, got the AP on day one, and have been in every other beta are still QQ and hopping on forums to complain that they weren’t first to receive the mop beta when maybe you know, it might be other people’s turn to receive a first?
“saying active ppl would get first inv was just bull!@#$.Active since 05 got ap and no inv GG.”
“I signed a contract granting me guaranteed access to the beta when is starts. When it starts does not mean 1 week after it starts, 1 month after it starts or even 1 year after it starts. It means when it starts!”
^^unfortunately for that guy….his beta hasn’t gone live yet…..but i’ve read about lots of people who have had their beta access turned live..
seriously people it’s all up to interpretation and the fact that some of you are crying lawsuit over this is appalling….you know you were going to play anyway, you were given incentives to play anyway, and the original terms and conditions clearly stated the changes may apply without prior notice….which so happens to be changing from “when it starts” to “in waves” due to the fact that the only have said amount of beta servers to use for the beta access and if the people who “been in all the other betas, but not now” should damn well know that….
QQ out
@Mike
i do not play LoL, but i hear its fun…
strictly a wowhead at heart after EQ got too stale
” No substitutions or cash equivalents. Offer subject to change without notice. No delay or omission by Blizzard Entertainment in exercising or enforcing any right or remedy contained in this offer shall operate as a waiver thereof or of any other legal right or remedy available to Blizzard Entertainment. ”
In English it says “you signed up to play wow for 12 months without cancelling, thanks, and if you play nice we might give you stuff”
Sorry but that is NOT the legal meaning of “Offer subject to change without notice”, this is:
The making of an offer is the first of three steps in the traditional process of forming a valid contract: an offer, an acceptance of the offer, and an exchange of consideration. (Consideration is the act of doing something or promising to do something that a person is not legally required to do, or the forbearance or the promise to forbear from doing something that he or she has the legal right to do.)
An offer is a communication that gives the listener the power to conclude a contract.
(…)
If a person rejects an offer, it is considered terminated. Likewise, if the recipient of an offer changes its terms, the original offer is terminated and a new offer is created. This new offer is called a counteroffer, and the original offerer may accept it.
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/offer
Please note that per Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 72 S. Ct. 205, 96 L. Ed. 183 (1952) contract clauses that “Shock the conscious of the court” are illgeal and unenforceable.
Actually the exact wording in the agreement was as such:
quote from Blizzard terms and Conditions for AP:
“Provided that you fulfill the requirements stated herein, Blizzard Entertainment will: (i) add a Tyrael’s Charger mount to your Account; (ii) upon the retail launch of Diablo III in your country of residence, add a standard edition Diablo III retail license to your Account, where you may download a standard edition version of Diablo III that corresponds with your country settings; and (iii) flag the Account so that you will automatically receive an invite to the beta test for the next World of Warcraft expansion product.”
As you will notice it says it will flag the account for the beta invite however it never says when. So they did not change anything but the advertisements and notified people through the forums that it was changed so Blizzard as broken no laws.
“I got diablo III and a mount, so I shut just shut up”. The whole, sole reason for me to sign up for the annual pass was the “guaranteed beta access”. I was promised this “when beta goes live”, which it is – but I still doesn’t have access. It’s really as simple as that, blizzard screwed us – again.
Calidad Compra en lnea Ralph Lauren Outlet en Liquidacin y Outlet Store. Usted puede encontrar los precios ms bajos en Ralph Lauren Port Palace Negro Floral Pillow Sham estndar. Es estar a la venta en lnea. Compra Ralph Lauren Port Palace Negro Floral Estndar Pillow Sham es seguro y rpido envo. Comprar ahora!