Hi,
can anyone tell me what would be involved in making an account on a US server from the UK? I can never be online at European peak time, so I need a US account if I want to get involved in any kind of raiding, but it seems to be inordinately difficult to set up an account from here. From what I can tell having just researched a little bit, literally the only way is to buy the physical boxes of the US release of the game and all the expansion packs from the US and by some arcane and undisclosed process get them shipped here, because God knows Amazon.com won't ship to a third world backwater like the United Kingdom (it's not like I live 50 miles away from the third busiest airport on the planet or anything, Amazon...)
Is it really that difficult? I mean if I somehow got a US proxy shipping company to send me the amazon delivery it will end up taking about a month and costing £100+, versus £35 to buy the EU releases and get them the next day.
Is there no way to just pay to set up a new account online and digitally download the client? It seems ridiculous that it should be this convoluted, I've been playing SW:TOR the past few months and with that game it's a matter of one extra mouse click when you're picking a server...
I'd love to start playing WoW again, I haven't for years and I still consider it the best game I've ever played, but the main reason I stopped is that three quarters of Europe have gone to sleep by the time I can get online, if I can't get a US account there just isn't a lot of point. Please help :(
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Creating a US account from the UK?Follow
I would think that when you go to start up an account online, if you don't already have the box with the codes on the discs, they should let you pick where you want to have your account located. Although for that to work you might have to use a real US address. I'm not sure.
3 posts
Say what? Really? From what I've read I'm 100% certain (edit: well maybe 99%) that you need the US version of the game to make an account on a US server, so I couldn't buy the EU discs and just register on a US server.
But now you're telling me that even if I do go through the expense and hassle of getting the US release I'd need a US address to make an account?
This is ridiculous... I mean what year is this? This feels like something from the 1990's, you wouldn't think I was trying to register an account for the most successful game of all time at least half a decade after digital distribution became commonplace...
Ah well, thanks for the reply, guess I'll play Rift or something :(
Edited, Apr 3rd 2012 9:22pm by tomcat14
But now you're telling me that even if I do go through the expense and hassle of getting the US release I'd need a US address to make an account?
This is ridiculous... I mean what year is this? This feels like something from the 1990's, you wouldn't think I was trying to register an account for the most successful game of all time at least half a decade after digital distribution became commonplace...
Ah well, thanks for the reply, guess I'll play Rift or something :(
Edited, Apr 3rd 2012 9:22pm by tomcat14
Here's how I'm understanding what you and Pigtails are saying:
I think you're saying that you're worried that if you went and bought US CDs, and went through the hassle of buying/shipping them, you might STILL not be able to have a US account without a US address.
IF that is what you're saying, that's not what Pigtails meant.
What I got from Pigtails is that you do not need the CDs to create a WoW account - you can download the game online, and if you do that, without a box with codes, you MIGHT be able to pick your region, but it's also possible that the account would go to whatever region that your address was in. Pigtails isn't sure about that.
But IF you're saying that even buying/downloading the US version online is a hassle, and that you can't just go to the website and get an online version, then you might be right. I actually don't know how it works, because it's been a really long time since I started an account, and I don't remember how difficult it is to get different regional versions. I sort of assumed that if you downloaded it, you could either pick the region or they would decide based on address, as Pigtails described, but it's been too long for me to be sure of that.
Edited because I realized I wasn't sure what "hassle" you were talking about.
Edited, Apr 3rd 2012 10:19pm by Vesaera
I think you're saying that you're worried that if you went and bought US CDs, and went through the hassle of buying/shipping them, you might STILL not be able to have a US account without a US address.
IF that is what you're saying, that's not what Pigtails meant.
What I got from Pigtails is that you do not need the CDs to create a WoW account - you can download the game online, and if you do that, without a box with codes, you MIGHT be able to pick your region, but it's also possible that the account would go to whatever region that your address was in. Pigtails isn't sure about that.
But IF you're saying that even buying/downloading the US version online is a hassle, and that you can't just go to the website and get an online version, then you might be right. I actually don't know how it works, because it's been a really long time since I started an account, and I don't remember how difficult it is to get different regional versions. I sort of assumed that if you downloaded it, you could either pick the region or they would decide based on address, as Pigtails described, but it's been too long for me to be sure of that.
Edited because I realized I wasn't sure what "hassle" you were talking about.
Edited, Apr 3rd 2012 10:19pm by Vesaera
I found this: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/3424690099 doing a quick Google search. I can't vouch for its accuracy, but it seems that you can go to the US version of the Blizzard store (linked in that thread) and purchase a US license from the UK. I have a friend who moved from Canada to Scotland and has no issue playing on his US account, but it was purchased from Canada so that may not be relevant.
Edited, Apr 4th 2012 12:15am by Tellaria
Edited, Apr 4th 2012 12:15am by Tellaria
Vesaera hit the nail on the head. That was exactly what I was trying to say.
3 posts
Thanks very much to all for the replies :)
Your Google-fu is obviously far advanced of mine Tellaria, I was looking for something similar without success. I haven't managed to download it yet, but as far as I can tell I have just purchased a digital copy of the game from the us.blizzard.com store that should allow me to play on US servers! Just bought the battle chest for now, with Pandaria coming out the other two expansions might get a bit cheaper before I reach them, they're quite a bit more pricey than on Amazon, but still WAY cheaper than transatlantic shipping through a third party...
I'll report back if it all goes horribly wrong and I still can't access US servers so you can warn any that might follow, if I don't reply again assume all is well or I died of old age before the download finished.
Thanks again.
Your Google-fu is obviously far advanced of mine Tellaria, I was looking for something similar without success. I haven't managed to download it yet, but as far as I can tell I have just purchased a digital copy of the game from the us.blizzard.com store that should allow me to play on US servers! Just bought the battle chest for now, with Pandaria coming out the other two expansions might get a bit cheaper before I reach them, they're quite a bit more pricey than on Amazon, but still WAY cheaper than transatlantic shipping through a third party...
I'll report back if it all goes horribly wrong and I still can't access US servers so you can warn any that might follow, if I don't reply again assume all is well or I died of old age before the download finished.
Thanks again.
Trying to play on a US account in the UK is like dividing by zero.
Not really, but I had to say it.
Not really, but I had to say it.
tomcat14 wrote:
This is ridiculous... I mean what year is this? This feels like something from the 1990's, you wouldn't think I was trying to register an account for the most successful game of all time at least half a decade after digital distribution became commonplace...
You're supprised? Just look at how many youtube videos are being blocked if you happen to sit in the wrong region. No Hulu access from Europe. No Netflix,,,
And while you can work around that by paying for a VPN tunnel from one of the many providers, it's just not really feasible for gaming due to the added latency.
For simple access to the US Blizzard store, it shouldn't matter. Blackvpn.com sells VPN access for merely €5 a month, effectively giving you the precious US IP address to do whatever you want to be doing. If you're really into it, you could run your own Amazon EC2 VPN server. Micro Instances are free for an entire year if you're a new customer, and you can run them in whatever region you want. Only traffic is to be paid during that time.
What I'd be more worried about is how to pay for the sub. Veryfying a credit card's billing address can be a pain. Also, if Blizzard doesn't sanction this whole thing, you're at risk of violating some fancy TOS and might lose your account and everything you have invested in time or money at will...
It should be doable - I did it for a while several years ago (2006, I think). This is vague and not particularly helpful, but there's a file somewhere in your WoW folders that you'll need to modify slightly to access the US servers - I don't remember anymore what it is, but I'm sure you can find it. It's easy to do.
Paying for the sub shouldn't be a problem, either. I'm fairly sure I just used a UK credit card.
Of course, things might have changed in the last six years. If I have the time I'll see if I can dig up some more details.
Edit: I lied, turns out I had to register the account with a friend who lived in the US at the time. Though if you can now purchase an account through the online store, presumably you won't need to do that.
The file I used to have to edit was realmlist.wtf. No idea whether that's still applicable.
Edited, Apr 4th 2012 5:36am by Alestian
Paying for the sub shouldn't be a problem, either. I'm fairly sure I just used a UK credit card.
Of course, things might have changed in the last six years. If I have the time I'll see if I can dig up some more details.
Edit: I lied, turns out I had to register the account with a friend who lived in the US at the time. Though if you can now purchase an account through the online store, presumably you won't need to do that.
The file I used to have to edit was realmlist.wtf. No idea whether that's still applicable.
Edited, Apr 4th 2012 5:36am by Alestian
If it works the same way as what we have to do in China, you'll need to edit realmlist.wtf in your subfolder "data/enGB/realmlist.wtf
The corresponding file for the enUS version contains the following:
set realmlist us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com
set patchlist enUS.patch.battle.net:1119/patch
set realmlistbn ""
set portal us
As always, back up your original before making any modifications.
The corresponding file for the enUS version contains the following:
set realmlist us.logon.worldofwarcraft.com
set patchlist enUS.patch.battle.net:1119/patch
set realmlistbn ""
set portal us
As always, back up your original before making any modifications.
I wouldn't imagine Blizz would care that much about what region someone is physically living in versus what region they're playing in. It's not really that big of a deal. If by chance the OP did get banned or something, I would advise calling up their support line and explaining why he wanted a US account. Blizz has really highly rated customer service for a reason. They're really understanding people.
I think Rhode has it right, and if he doesn't perhaps Maz will pop in here because I know he knows whether it's right or not.
People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome. ~River Tam
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