World of Warcraftjust announced the Community Discords Program–a new way for Discord servers to bridge the gap between fan and developer–for its European community. However, joining this new program requiresWorld of Warcraftfans to accept a lengthy agreement with some shady provisions in it.
EU players can sign their Discord servers up for the Community Discord through a relatively simple process. Once a server is approved and added to the program, members can benefit from direct presence from Blizzard community managers on their Discord. These servers may also benefit from other intermittent rewards, such as support for events and giveaways, Dev Q&As, avenues to provide feedback, interviews, and even earlybeta access toWorld of Warcraftproducts in the future.
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That said, in order to join this program, fans must accept the Program Member Agreement. This contract is 16 pages worth of legal jargon one would normally expect from a ToS, but several questionable provisions can be found within the document. Program members must install bots and tracking software on their servers, which Blizzard reserves the right to use to scrape data and use it as they wish. Most concerningly, members of these servers can’t say anythingnegative about Blizzard or its products–a provision that doesn’t end if the agreement is terminated.
Were that not enough,World of Warcraftmembers who join this program also have to agree to never interface with any unions or similar guilds. Doing so results in a fine, plus “unlimited editing rights” on anything offered to the union. Considering the wording used in this provision, it seems clearBlizzard would attempt to punish players working with unionsfar more severely than the minimum $100 listed in it should players breach this part of the contract.
As one might imagine,players are not happy withWorld of Warcraft’s Discords Community Program.World of Warcraftfan and founder of the Acherus Death Knight community Magdalena vocally opposed the initiative, citing it as predatory and overly-controlling. They have no intention of joining the program, and encourage otherWorld of Warcraftcommunities to read the ToS closely before applying.
Interestingly enough, this program is currently only available for EuropeanWorld of Warcraftfans at press time. It remains to be seen if Blizzard will try to launch the Community Discords Program for fans in the US or other parts of the world. If it does, hopefullyWorld of Warcraftlistens to the community and removes these troubling provisions before trying to implement the program to fans worldwide.
World of Warcraftis available now on PC
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