by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

UPDATE: An additional confirmation on the forums has been released.

Official confirmation has come down about the thank-you gift that some players have started receiving today. In addition, some of our BlizzPro contributors have received the email confirming the gift from Blizzard, which should look like this:

The support article (reproduced below) delineates that the people receiving the gift are folks who created a WoW account within two months of the game’s launch AND maintained a constant account (whether via a sub or game time cards) for all ten years since.

The rumblings over social media right now are filled with people who are either rejoicing that they’ve received the gift, or people who are upset that some circumstance (financial hardship, military deployment, house burned down, etc.) caused a lapse in their subscription and hence disqualified them from the gift.

Personal viewpoint (direct your complaints @unlimitedblack) is that the cut-off is justified. If Blizzard didn’t cut it off there, or provided other caveats that would have allowed more people to receive the gift, the cost to produce them could have ballooned out of control. When presented with the choice of “give a few people a small token of appreciation” or “give no one anything for free because we can’t afford to do it” I’m okay with them doing the former. And I say this as someone who was a year late to WoW and is far outside the qualifying window.

A lucky few people were fortunate enough to get the game in the very early days and stick through it for ten years. This is a small thank-you to those people. Even as someone who volunteers a lot of time generating content for a fansite, I’m okay not receiving this gift, because I love this game for the game itself and the community I’ve discovered around it. I don’t feel like I can ask for more than that.

Pics Fans Sent Us

Good friend of the site, David Juiliano sent us these pictures

Our awesome Twitter fan @Malvenue tweeted us these pictures of the unboxing

Read the support article below for the official word.

As a way to thank our most loyal World of Warcraft players, we are sending a physical gift to players that have stuck with us since the very beginning. Eligible players have received an email at their registered Battle.net email address. If you did not receive an email, your account does not qualify for this gift.

These gifts have been sent to the physical address associated with eligible Battle.net accounts. To be eligible for this gift, a player must have created a World of Warcraft account within 60 days of the game launching in the NA or EU regions, and maintained their subscription or game time for all ten years.

Eligible players in the North American region, along with eligible Oceanic players, have been sent tracking information for the gift. Eligible players in Europe will receive tracking information when their gift ships later this month. If the shipping address on that email is incorrect, you will need to contact us with your updated information.