Blizzard Cuts Off World of Warcraft in Iran

[Dr. Crawver]

Well that kinda sucks for those guys who lost it. While I understand why blizzard did it, still doesn't seem even close to fair.

 

[Tippy]

So Diablo 3 and Starcraft will also be unplayable from Iran, correct?

 

[Slycne]

But, you see people, America says it's wrong, and America IS international law. Those fucking punks who claim to be 'players' should have thought about it before they committed the crime of being born fucking Iranian. Godless bastards should have been born American like REAL people.

See also: Australia, Canada, India, Isreal, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and the European Union who all also employ varying degrees of sanctions against Iran.

 

[SextusMaximus]

The title is misleading.

Sorry I wasn't clear. How is it misleading?

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just people being obnoxious. The title says Blizzard cut Iran off from World of Warcraft, which is what happened. People are just being pissy that they did it under pressure from trade sanctions. They'd probably prefer you to be more politically radical and blame the American Government for the trade sanctions.

Chill out bro, the title suggests that it's Blizzard's fault, leading people to believe that Blizzard are in the wrong which may cause a severe case of premature unbdeserved arseholery in the thread, which could be avoided.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

On the bright side, it's both hilarious and a joy that Iranian players can just hop on a VPN and carry on playing with a big ol' FU to American/Iranian politics

It's no wonder Both America and Europe just keep on bringing in new bills trying to get control over the internet, when it will just keep allowing people freedoms that those in power don't like.

I'm total favour of them bypassing the trade sanctions too, as it wasn't the players who caused it, and it WAS the players who paid for it.

Because, as ever, SOPA/PIPA/ACTA and whatever they're naming it this month to try to sneak it into law, it's not about piracy, it's not about business, it's about locking down control on the last bastion of freedom that is the internet.

 

[llafnwod]

The title is misleading.

Sorry I wasn't clear. How is it misleading?

There's nothing wrong with it, it's just people being obnoxious. The title says Blizzard cut Iran off from World of Warcraft, which is what happened. People are just being pissy that they did it under pressure from trade sanctions. They'd probably prefer you to be more politically radical and blame the American Government for the trade sanctions.

Chill out bro, the title suggests that it's Blizzard's fault, leading people to believe that Blizzard are in the wrong which may cause a severe case of premature unbdeserved arseholery in the thread, which could be avoided.

It doesn't suggest that it's Blizzards fault, it says exactly what happened; Blizzard cut off access to World of Warcraft to people in Iran. A headline is there to grab someone's attention while the body of the article is there to fill in the information. The headline is not wrong, misleading, or anything else. Any premature asshattery can be ignored because it'd be obvious they didn't read the whole article. Claiming the headling is misleading is silly, even if it was their decision or from pressure of the economic sanction the fact is Blizzard cuts off Iranian players.

It is misleading, in the same way that an article titled "Celine Dion has a period EVERY MONTH!" is misleading. It is factually accurate, but the specific subject implies unique or unusual behavior when none exists. From the title alone it is reasonable to assume that Blizzard alone cut off WoW access in Iran for reasons of its own, whereas the actual situation is "U.S.-based company cuts off service to country under U.S. trade sanctions". I don't believe that the OP intentionally made the title misleading or sensational, but concatenating " Due to Sanctions" to the title would have avoided confusion.

 

[llafnwod]

It is misleading, in the same way that an article titled "Celine Dion has a period EVERY MONTH!" is misleading. It is factually accurate, but the specific subject implies unique or unusual behavior when none exists...

Bolded part please... If any part of your argument is false, your entire argument is false. It is factually accurate, any insinuation of wrong doing is on the part of the reader and it falls on them to read the article to understand what happened.

If you are honestly taking the position that it is impossible for a factually correct statement to be misleading, there is nothing worth discussing here.

 

[Baresark]

While I ultimately feel they are probably better off without WoW and other Blizzard games...

Trade sanctions are fucking stupid. They just strengthen a regime and have not ever resulted in people rising up to overthrow the government that is technically oppressing/causing their problem. The offending government is the last thing affected by sanctions. The people are the first. That is why they don't work.

US Government: "We don't like that regime, institute trade sanctions"
Iranian People: "Oh my, we're starving, what will we do?!?!"
Iranian Government: "We'll protect you. It's the US government's fault you are starving! Support us in whatever we do and we will do our best to provide food to you."
Iranian People: "OK, seeing as how we have no other choice besides starvation and desolation."
US Government: "I know it doesn't work, but I'm just gonna keep trying this anyway.... why doesn't this work?"

On a more serious note, Johann Norberg goes into large amounts of detail why these do not work in several of his published works. All of which I have read, just so people don't think I'm blowing off at the mouth here. Especially since there are people who will no doubt actually defend such things.