An official and newly announced World of Warcraft community Discord program has faced swift backlash from fans over parts of its member agreement. The agreement requires users agree to not make negative statements about developer Blizzard. In addition, Discord servers participating in the program would be required to install tracking software, which Blizzard would be granted access to.

　　On paper, the community Discord program, which initially was only for European Discord communities, seemed like a no-brainer. By agreeing to the program member agreement, community Discords would receive various perks, including occasional developer Q&As and more official means to feedback to Blizzard to help make WoW a better experience.

　　You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

　　Click To Unmute

　　State Of Gaming Handhelds In 2023

　　How Lies of P Cracked the Souls GenreLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Ichiban Kasuga Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Chitose Fujinomiya Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Kazuma Kiryu Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Saeko Mukoda Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Eric Tomizawa Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Joongi Han Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Tianyou Zhao Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Seonhee Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Koichi Adachi Character Spotlight TrailerLike a Dragon: Infinite Wealth - Official Yu Nanba Character Spotlight Trailer

　　Share

　　LinkEmbed

　　Size:640 × 360480 × 270

　　Start at: End at: Autoplay Loop

　　Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

　　Sign up or Sign in now!

　　Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

　　This video has an invalid file format.

　　00:00:00

　　HTML5

　　Auto

　　Report a problem

　　Sorry, but you can't access this content!

Please enter your date of birth to view this video

　　By clicking 'enter', you agree to GameSpot's

　　Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

　　enter

　　Now Playing: World of Warcraft Dragonflight - Embers of Neltharion Launch Trailer

　　However, once potential Discord managers started reading the fine print, it became clear that joining the program would come with some serious downsides. Users would have to agree to a non-disparagement clause where members of the community would be banned from making "any disparaging or negative statements or representations, written or oral, about Blizzard…or Blizzard's products or servers, except as otherwise permitted by law." Community Discord managers were also alarmed by a requirement that Discord's joining the program would have to maintain tracking software "and grant Blizzard permissions (as instructed by Blizzard from time to time) to such software."

　　It didn't take long for community members to push back. Magdalena, the founder and admin of the long-running Acherus community Discord, stated that Acherus had "no intention of applying for or participating in the Warcraft Community Discord program." They also encouraged other Discord communities to follow suit.

　　"We also urge other, established Discord communities to give the program's Terms of Service a full read-though and understand the degree of control and ownership of your own communities that you'd be ceding by signing on. Tl;dr, this is a trap," Magdalena wrote on Twitter. "A bad one at that."

　　The list of approved servers participating in the program, which Blizzard stated on its official site that it would frequently update, is currently empty. Blizzard has since responded to criticisms of the program's member agreement, and stated that the company has read fan concerns and is currently re-reviewing the terms of the agreement.

　　"It is not our intention to control conversations on community Discord servers," Blizzard wrote in a forum post. "The intention is quite the opposite."

　　WoW: Dragonflight's latest content update, Embers of Neltharion, which introduces a new dragonriding zone, story quests, raids, and cross-faction guilds, is currently live. It is the first of two major WoW content updates planned for the MMORPG in 2023.

　　A History of World of Warcraft So Far

　　See More