Iran blocks Guild Wars, World of Warcraft and Battle.net

[garyopa]

Several other MMOs were also banned.



According to Blizzard, WoW and the Battle.net service were pulled from Iran due to applied US sanctions. However, as other MMOs are also affected, a BAN from the Iranian government applies too.

Blizzard has issued a response regarding the inability to access Battle.net or World of Warcraft servers from Iran.

Here's what they said:

“United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran,” reads the post. “Several of you have seen and cited the text in the Terms of Use which relates to these government-imposed sanctions.

“This week, Blizzard tightened up its procedures to ensure compliance with these laws, and players connecting from the affected nations are restricted from access to Blizzard games and services.

“This also prevents us from providing any refunds, credits, transfers, or other service options to accounts in these countries.”

Now, it looks like other MMO titles have also been taken offline in Iran including Guild Wars, RuneScape, Second Life, Dofus, Evony and Entropia Universe.

Additionally, several reports indicate that the "Islamic Revolution Game Designers Community" was just formed and decided to ban games that promote superstition, mythology, violence, and revealing clothing.

Iranian players are looking into workaround solutions to access their MMOs. For example, those who play the game in the country use virtual private networks in order to access it. While this is against Blizzard’s terms of service, it happens in other places as well and not just for playing World of Warcraft.

NEWS SOURCE #1: Iiran blocks Guild Wars World of Warcraft (via) JoyStiq
NEWS SOURCE #2: WoW and Battle.net service pulled from Iran due to US sanctions Blizzard (via) VG247

Our thanks to 'Gauss' for this news item!

[wewii]

Iranians can just get a VPN from anywhere other than the US.

That would be a pretty effective and simple solution. No US sanctions can touch that. Unless there is a billing component that also restricts them.