World of Warcraft

❗Article Status Notice: This Article is a stub

---

This article is underdeveloped, and needs additional work to meet the wiki's Content Guidelines and be in line with our Mission Statement for comprehensive coverage of consumer protection issues. Learn more ▼

Issues may include:

• This article needs to be expanded to provide meaningful information
• This article requires additional verifiable evidence to demonstrate systemic impact
• More documentation is needed to establish how this reflects broader consumer protection concerns
• The connection between individual incidents and company-wide practices needs to be better established
• The article is simply too short, and lacks sufficient content

How you can help:

• Add documented examples with verifiable sources
• Provide evidence of similar incidents affecting other consumers
• Include relevant company policies or communications that demonstrate systemic practices
• Link to credible reporting that covers these issues
• Flesh out the article with relevant information

This notice will be removed once the article is sufficiently developed. Once you believe the article is ready to have its notice removed, visit the Discord (join here) and post to the #appeals channel, or mention its status on the article's talk page.

World of Warcraft

[[File:|200px]]

Basic Information
Release Year	2004
Product Type
In Production
Official Website	https://worldofwarcraft.blizzard.com/

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online game maintained by Activision Blizzard. Despite the product's critical acclaim since the 2000s, the treatment of the product has had a historically negative trend, facing anti-consumer affairs at the request of its publisher.

Consumer impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

• User Freedom
• User Privacy
• Business Model
• Market Control

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Incidents

This is a list of all consumer protection incidents related to this product. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the World of Warcraft category.

Real ID (July 2010)

• Real ID (July 2010): Real ID was a change introduced by Blizzard, where players would use their real first and last name when posting on WoW forums (instead of their preferred WoW character, as it was before). Initially announced as optional, it was quickly changed to obligatory, with Blizzard arguing it to be a vital step for reducing toxicity in gaming community. Community pushback was massive and united, with many citing privacy threats as the main concern. Blizzard initially tried to downplay the danger, even banning several people, but eventually buckled under the pressure. Then-CEO Mike Morhaime declared that, following user feedback, using Real ID to post on the forums would not be required.

See also

Link to relevant theme articles or products with similar incidents.

---

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.