
Blizzard has blocked the possibility to remove account - modinfo
https://twitter.com/Espsilverfire2/status/1182001007976423424
======
Someone1234
Even with recent events, I'm still leaning towards technical glitch(es).

We've recently used this exact process (to remove an authenticator), and it
was glitchy/problematic even before today, with a ton of people trying to use
it at once (and I assume Blizzard staff manually verifying IDs?) I suspect
Blizzard's verification system has imploded.

Kind of a similar thing happened when "WoW Classic" launched. The first 24-48
hours the whole ID recovery workflow was doing similar things/broken.

It is still on them to fix it, and people are still entitled to complain, this
post is more a remark on intent (purposely down Vs. just having a bad recovery
system). Although "It has sucked for a while" isn't a great defense anyway.

~~~
dx87
Normally I'd agree with you, but when we find out that companies like
Moviepass were locking active customer's accounts to save money, I'm not ready
to give Blizzard the benefit of the doubt.

~~~
soup10
I'd give old blizzard the benefit of the doubt, but there's obviously been a
ton of churn, management and culture changes over the years and its taken its
toll.

~~~
cbluth
The old blizzard is dead and gone. It's the new and improved activision
blizzard.

------
vymague
Just tried to delete my account. Same experience, needs to verify with a photo
ID. Kinda shady. I wonder if it violates any EU rules.

edit: Just to be clear. Like the link said, there were other authentication
methods, like SMS. Blizzard disabled the other ones on purpose.

~~~
ikiris
Normally I'd agree, but they added this due to the huge impact deletion has vs
the cost. This is pretty clearly an anti abuse system they added begrudgingly
due to real existing problems. I say this because its a _huge_ burden on them
to actually go through this process, so theres no way they chose to do it
lightly, or recently.

If you got hacked and didn't want this to happen, would you still feel the
same way?

~~~
xurias
Why even bother with an authenticator if they're not going to recognize it for
something like this? Why should I have to send them an ID? I tried deleting my
account multiple times and it still hasn't worked.

------
greenonions
This could be : 1\. A technical issue preventing people from deleting
accounts.

2\. An active decision being taken. The response to this from customers
motivated by the recent Hong Kong dustup is going to be sheer outrage.
Regardless of reality, it's certainly being interpreted as #2. Not a good look
for Blizzard.

~~~
smitty1e
Are we crawling toward some broader realization that corporate gaming and
liberty are a questionable mix?

------
chongli
There is still one more method: call your bank and have them issue a stop
payment on any charges from Blizzard. This is the nuclear option but it is an
option.

~~~
profmonocle
This is the account deletion flow. Cancelling a WoW subscription* is a
separate process, since you can have a Blizzard account without an active WoW
subscription.

(* I'm not sure if they have any other games with automatic recurring
payments, but if so I assume it works the same way.)

~~~
ct0
Yeah, canceling was rather easy. I was surprised how quickly I could stop the
recurring payments.

~~~
tgsovlerkhgsel
Make it easy, and you lose some revenue from customers who want out and could
be kept in against their will by making it too painful. However, the customers
are happy, and you gain their trust. This will make them much more willing to
give you their CC# the next time they're thinking about re-subscribing.

Make it hard, and you may keep a small fraction of these customers, but make
all of them hate you, make them hesitant to re-subscribe, and make a
significant fraction just go through alternative means (e.g. chargeback,
cancelling cards, letting a prepaid credit card run dry) that end up costing
more than that.

~~~
plorkyeran
Taking a break from the game for a while is also just a super normal thing to
do. It's a 15-year-old game and the people who have been continuously
subscribed for that entire time are going to be an infinitesimally small
portion. It's much more common to either just play for a few months when new
content comes out, or play continuously for a few years, get burned out on it,
then come back years later.

------
Shivetya
Last time I had a friend do this he was told any balance on his account was
forfeit, I wonder if this is still true?

------
EastSmith
No way this stay like this in EU

------
tgsovlerkhgsel
Most people will be too lazy, but hopefully some will start sending custom-
written GDPR deletion requests... which will require human processing.

------
allthetime
Isn't this a violation of the GDPR?

~~~
baroffoos
Technically the minimum required by the GDPR is that you can send them an
email and the company must comply within 30 days.

~~~
jiveturkey
It's one month, not 30 days (important distinction), and can more-or-less
arbitrarily be extended to 3 months. Also, it doesn't require that any
specific action be taken, just that the subject be informed within that time
period.

Most notably, nothing within the GDPR requires removal of an account, only (in
some cases) removal of Personal Data.

~~~
munk-a
Hilariously the fact that they ask for a photo ID suddenly raises the amount
of PII tied to your account by like 1000% - Blizzard knows very little of who
I am, but if I gave them my photo ID then they're suddenly quite
knowledgeable.

~~~
jiveturkey
Only if they retain the information. They can just throw it away after
"verification".

~~~
munk-a
They could - or their marketing department could get some C-level pressure put
on retaining it so they can try and "reactivate the potential customers"
later.

Similar to how Twitter sent out marketing to contact devices registered for
account recovery.

------
ubertoop
You know who else doesn't allow you to delete your account / post history?
HACKER NEWS!

~~~
rad_gruchalski
Just send an email to the moderator. It has been discussed many times here
before.

~~~
ubertoop
Who is the moderator? And how do I find them/their email? There isn't a user
search feature, as far as I can tell?

~~~
grzm
Note the Contact link in the footer: you can email the mods directly. In my
experience they're very responsive.

~~~
ubertoop
hn@ycombinator.com ???

and how do they verify that the email requesting an account be deleted, is
coming from the actual owner of that account?

~~~
grzm
Rather than ask random people on the forum, I suggest emailing the mods and
asking them directly. They're clearly authoritative in this regard.

------
not_a_cop75
Wow, Blizzard must be winning after this awful fiasco they started.

