WoW players in Ukraine hit with bans over Russia sanctions
BlizzardA World of Warcraft player in Ukraine believes they were banned from the game by Blizzard for living “close to a sanctioned region” of Russia after the company halted services in the country.
On March 6, Activision-Blizzard joined many other companies in the gaming world and halted sales in Russia.
Sanctions in the country also blocked microtransactions for Blizzard titles and came with a pledge to match employee donations to aid organizations.
Although Activision took the stance to side with the people of Ukraine over the current conflict, the move has been affecting some who were caught off-guard by the reach of the decision.
Blizzard EntertainmentWoW player in Ukraine’s account banned
Reddit user Corvius said they had been experiencing problems accessing their account over the last week. The user claims to be from Kramatorsk, a city close to the Russian border.
The proximity of their location must have grazed the sanctioned region since the ban extended to Corvius and their friends.
“The past week I had problems accessing Battle.net and tonight I and many other people got their Battle.net accounts banned. Nothing is in the mail, no way to contact support because you need to log in for it.”
Users in the comment section believe the ban could be based on players’ IP addresses.
Reddit user arfw said, “As I understood, your account is not banned. Blizz Customer Support explained that players from Luhansk, Donetsk and Crimea might have problems accessing the game, so it’s based on IP and it’s not a ban. Kramatorsk is in Donetsk Oblast, so yeah.”
Despite attempting to use a VPN, Corvius has yet to resolve the issue. They explained in their post how WoW has been helping them during these trying times and is reaching out for assistance.
“For me, World of Warcraft was one of the little things that kept me distracted from the horrors that are going on around me and now just because I live close to a sanctioned region, I lost it.”
It’s unclear if Blizzard can correct the issue and grant Corvius access to their account again as more players from the region report similar problems.