Digital Downloaders Stuck at Level 13
Posted 21 June 2012 by EllyOne of the nastier issues with 1.0.3 (don’t try to top that in the comments please. kthx) is starting the game but being locked into a level cap of 13. This is because the Digital Download basically starts you off on the Starter Edition which comes with that restriction. After 72 hours your game becomes the full version and you can play on.
This is however working as intended as it’s a precautionary measure as explained by Kaltonis:
The delay is no longer than three days, and is often much quicker than that. Hang tight. 
If it goes on longer you can contact customer support.
Update: Useful tip from the comments, which might help. If you’re locked up on this and you change your account password, it will allegedly refresh your account and free you to play normally.
They should make it clear to people (before they buy) that when they buy a digital download version they are getting a version that will be gimped for up to 3 days. I don’t recall reading anything about that when I preordered my digital download.
3 days isn’t so long that it warrants anything. It sucks but no more than a power outage.
Wait, what? You can level to 13 in a cpl of hours. Paying for a game then not being able to progress right away is downright shameful.
Purchasing a product and then not being allowed to use that product for more than 45 min before you get prevented from going further in it is ****ing bull****.
Can you be more of a fanboy?
Level 13 can be attained in a few hours, and then your level is stuck until 3 days have passed?
WTF is this s**t!?!
You are taking revenue that you could be giving to a store like gamestop, and giving it directly to blizzard instead.
There is nothing wrong with wanting to be able to use said product.
In fact its called truth in advertising, and its the law. Blizzard may not technically breaking those laws… but blizzards already been walking the line in other countries.
Its absolutely mind boggling how far fanbois will defend blizzard.
“3 days isn’t so long that it warrants anything.”
Really?! Its too much to ask blizzard to tell people they have a waiting period? No, its not. Just state your policy ahead of time, and if the consumer doesn’t agree with it, they can take that extra revenue that goes straight to blizzard, and walk their rear down to local shop.
I don’t know what sort of disclaimer they have in the fine print, but it certainly wasnt clear enough to enough people to make news.
I wonder if it would have been clear to bashioks mom that she could only play for an hour or so (per character) in that first 3 days.
Blizzard sure preaches design for the ‘casual’ gamer… to the point that they dumb the game down until a chimp could play it(ruining the item system in the process)… and yet when it comes to issues like money in their pocket they hide the most vital piece of information. (YOU CANT PLAY IT)
The same deal with the authenticator. Instead of implementing a steam guard or coin lock style system, they force anyone without a smart phone to purchase an authenticator. I wonder if the tool tip associated with setting up the authenticator was simple enough for bashioks mom.
In regards to not being able to play the game, a lie by omission is still a lie. At this point I think blizzards business practices are certainly hypocritical, bordering on unethical and I wouldn’t be surprised if they are violating truth in advertising laws at this point either.
Hmm that seems to be just the payment validation delay, that is the time between when a payment started and the time the banks etc complete it.
You get it with everything it just it normally instant, or a very short time period. I expect it that the degree of the delay depends on payment method and what bank the DLers are using.
This confusion could be avoided if they stated that until payment been approved/processed your only have a starter edition, and it may take up to 3 days.
Dunno this delay notes might be hidden in the Blizzard store Terms and conditions, 90%+ of people never read this stuff.
^ To Grumpy Old Wizard if you Pre-ordered 3+ days before release like I expect you did there be no need to state this, but it most likely part of the Blizzard store terms and conditions anyway.
What are you even talking about, when I have bought games from their online store it takes a minute or two then I can play. Are you actually suggesting we are goin backwards in technology?
No that was a weak attempt at defending this, almost paid poster-tier defense. :S
EDIT: In hindsight maybe there are countries with underdeveloped banking systems where it could take more time.
But I have never heard of this or experienced it myself. I am just too worried about each month another inconvenience is added (DRM, real-ID and now fullprize trials etc) to gaming.
And people are OK with these things, some even embrace them!
I don’t agree with it inconveniences being a good thing.
I got a a little too worked up now tho and didn’t mean it to accuse The Rockman for being a paid poster even tho it may have come off that way. Sorry.
Well, in fairness, they said they review it but we don’t know what that review entails. I highly doubt there’d be a three day period just to go over billing.
They do the same thing with WoW (although they tell you about it when you upgrade your game). I think, for WoW, it normally takes a few hours.
Box copy FTW
This is very odd. I’ve never had this type of experience buying a digital copy of a game. Should let people know who buy digital they are buying a potentially sub-standard version.
I agree that this is disturbing and there should be some sort of warning. If I were excited about buying and then got capped, I’d be angry. If I knew this was a possibility, I’d go buy it at a store.
You still can. You can play the starter edition and then upgrade with a retail boxed key, and it works fine. I don’t think the time-based limitation is on retail keys.
But yes, they should notify the player.
Are these people paying by cheque? Seriously, WTF.
lol… I dont’ know how online only can still be defended (hacks, bots, activation time, bugz,…) … but, then again, I’m not a fanboy.
P.S.:I’m sorry, but after a long day at work I needed this trolling.
I think for some reason they are experiencing high levels of cc fraud. Someone got our Amex number from work and charged 59.99 to Blizzard. There was only one other fraudulent charge, some music download place, and that was reversed.
Same here – also Amex. I’m 43 and it’s the first time I’ve ever had my CC info stolen. The thieves tried to buy 6 copies of the game (3 went through) and there were 2 charges to some free credit report-type service. Odd, huh?
All charges are being reversed by Amex.
you know, I’ve not really complained about anything that they have been doing. Nothing seems to bother me much. But there are things they are doing that I’m scratching my head over.
fine, they need time to fully authorize the card. Give full account unlock right away…if card authorization fails for some reason after that, relock it. WTF is so hard about that?
I have purchased quite a few games from steam. They have all allowed me immediate access. Steam doesn’t hold off for 3 days before letting me download. And I’m sure they deal with a much larger number of transactions than blizzard does.
This is definitely just a design/management decision and its a bad one.