Grunt 70

Hey all,

I'm a TGer since December but play mostly BF2 and COD2. My 14 yo son is into guildwars and played WOW for a short while last year. He gave it up because of the monthly fee. (what is that monthly fee anyhow?)

I'm posting to the board today because last night my son told me he had connected up with an online friend who gave him information about a free WOW server that was coming online soon. He described it to me and I have to say it sounded like somebody was going to create a hacked server that would allow people to play WOW w/o paying a fee.

I wanted to check in with the TG WOW community to get the skinny on this. "Sounds like stealing to me" I said to my son, and I continued by adding "doesn't the game maker have a strict policy on this kind of thing, banning accounts and all?" I told him no, he cant' do it, unless he writes the game developer an email asking if it's alright. He said he would but , you know how it goes.

Any thoughts are most welcome
Grunt70

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|TG-22nd|Grunt



"When force is necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with maneuver" - Leon Trotsky

Mateo

There are renegade/pirate servers for people that play on with cracked software. Highly illegal from a IP standpoint, and obviously not supported by Blizzard.

$15 per month gets you in the real game, assuming you already own the software.

Now that it's the only title I play, I can't say it isn't worth it.

Altor

I would love to have one of those servers to help figure out how to kill certain bosses. But oh well.

Grunt 70

Generally I'd agree to that--if my son was working and paying his own way....he's on the young side of14 and still sucking on the teat (mostly his mother's doing).

We bought him the game but I think when we bought it there was no charge to play each month...does that sound right...anyhow..thanks for the info...only help reinforce what I thought originally...I'll nix the pirated server action.

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|TG-22nd|Grunt



"When force is necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with maneuver" - Leon Trotsky

Iliana

He was probably using the free 2 week game card that comes with the game with you first buy it, after that there is a montly fee to play.

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Tarenth

Actually when you buy the game you get 30 days free to 'try it out' before subscribing. Afterwards it $14.99 per month of play or a slightly cheaper 'per month' payment with a charge every 3 months. Then there's the cheapest 'per month' with a yearly subscription, but if you can't afford the per month plan then the yearly is out of the question.

Private WoW servers are a somewhat gray area. If you use a private server to play around with the game and explore/test things out on your own then there isn't anything Blizzard will do to you. In fact, there are a number of exploration movies using private servers out that are perfectly legit. In fact, its GOOD for Blizzard to show such content because it stimulates player interest in such content.

However, if you have a private server and have other people play on it then you're in the area of pirating and felony charges. Blizzard WILL hit you hard. Best case senario the owner of the private server gets jail time and all participants get fined a fee equal to their time played at the worst payment rate (per hour). Worse case senario your son spends time in Juvi and you get a fine of up to $200,000 for pirating and the owner never sees the light of day and has debt going out both ways.

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Tonk

where do i go to get my own copy of the server program =D

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Apophis

There actually is no grey area with private servers. Running a private server is a violation of the DCMA and is illegal even if no one connects to it at all. One should always be careful when trying to make claims as to what a company will and will not "go after you for" when what you're doing is illegal.

The likelyhood of Blizzard slapping you with a DCMA suit is more likely if you're running an active server, but it's no more of a DCMA violation than running one for yourself to walk around on.

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Diplomacy is the art of saying "good doggie" while looking for a bigger stick.

Grunt 70

I can afford the 15 a month no problem. That's a pittance, but I want him to earn it himself so he'll appreciate it more...and he's not able to do that at the moment.

Thanks for all the input guys.

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|TG-22nd|Grunt



"When force is necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with maneuver" - Leon Trotsky

Dreadd

Have him do extra chores, like washing your cars or something, to earn his WoW time...

Quarath

The $15 month is also based on paying monthly if you pay 6 months at a time is't cheaper. I think mine come sto about $12.99 except my stupid state taxes me to play WOW which is complete BS I think. especially since I didn't find out till I was billed.

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sturmn

Wow that sucks

Grunt 70

Thanks for all the input guys...Im thinking it over.

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|TG-22nd|Grunt



"When force is necessary, it must be applied boldly, decisively, and completely. But one must know the limitations of force; one must know when to blend force with maneuver" - Leon Trotsky