Comments on: Online Predators

By: Andy Love

Andy Love — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:06:22 +0000

oh and by the way…I can’t find their phone number, online chat won’t work saying there is a problem with my authentication, same with the email…
so basically I’ve got no way to contact them and the bank said they can only cancel my card and make a new one…and then they’d have to open an investigation against fraud that MIGHT NOT get my money back…and apparently this has been going since NOVEMBER when in my acc it says in big bold letters that my membership to SWGalaxies is CLOSED.
UGH!

By: Andy Love

Andy Love — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 15:43:06 +0000

HAH! Thanx for the info…I just had THE SAME problem as you when 9.49 pounds was being deliberately taken out of my account by “Soe Subscriptions”.
Thing is I didn’t even know the thing was on direct debit and the bank advised me to try to talk to SOE first…
I hope I can solve this bearing in mind that as it happened to you, they’ve been taking money out of my acc since november…and my account is not activated anymore…go figure?

By: sean

sean — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 12:14:35 +0000

These horror stories of inactive subscriptions are one of the main reasons why I’m such a big fan of Virtual Asset Purchase games (ie, f2p games).

I might end up spending far more in a month on these games than I would on a subscription game (I frequently do), but every transaction has to be authorised by me.

The subscription model is basically the same thing as the gym membership: the profit comes from all those people who don’t take advantage of what they’re paying for. And that’s always struck me as somewhat fraudulent.

By: Kast

Kast — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:56:59 +0000

Thanks for reminding me to cancel my CoH subscription.

By: Garth

Garth — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 10:54:13 +0000

That producers letter was fantastic reading – thanks!

By: Nimic

Nimic — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 05:00:50 +0000

This reminds me…

*goes to cancel his WoW subscription*

By: StolenName

StolenName — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 04:54:57 +0000

Wow. I don’t even pay for XBL :| (though that’s cause I sweet-talked a Microsoft rep for a Gold subscription to enter the CoD4 beta … wierd huh?). So no, no gaming horror stories here.

Except that I actually bought a PS3 on release day…

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 03:36:27 +0000

No PC gamer in their right mind will pay for a GfW Live account, simply because

a) Few people will want to play against console owners anyway
b) Other programs do the same sort of thing, better and for free (although admittedly with advertising attached)

By: DigitalSignalX

DigitalSignalX — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 22:59:06 +0000

Should allowing yourself to be billed 11 months for a game you’re not playing count as runner up?

By: Devin

Devin — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:06:47 +0000

No matter how many times I tell my bank that yes, every three months some guys in Iceland charge my credit card forty bucks, they still bust out with some fraud prevention bullshit and call me at the crack of dawn every time my EVE subscription re-ups. For me, that’s a pain in the ass, but perhaps you’d like to join my bank? You wouldn’t have to call fraud on SOE, they’d call you up and ask if you wanted to.

By: Asif

Asif — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 19:36:45 +0000

The system that MMOs have been using was perfected by gyms and various fitness clubs years ago. Many people who have gym memberships don’t actually go. They hope in the back of their heads that they will, if not today, then tomorrow. This distant hope goes on indefinitely, while money continues leaving their bank account, until they die from collapsed lungs under the crushing weight of their man-boobs.

MMOs function similarly. Some vague hope keeps players funneling money, even once they’ve completely lost interest in the game. Somewhere in the back of their minds they’re thinking that one day they’ll become inspired enough to hop back onto the gaming equivalent of a treadmill, doing a lot of work but not really going any where. It’s sort of simultaneously romantic and retarded, like when two people at in an assisted living home kiss.

I guess, in both cases, some subset of each population (gym members and MMO subscribers) are going to end up needing an oxygen tank to get up the stairs, mainly due to cases of chronic huge-ass.

I haven’t had any financial horrors with MMOs but I have had minor issues with a gym. I moved to a different area and forgot to cancel my membership. Now that I think about it, I still haven’t cancelled. Thanks RPS! If I don’t forget in the next five minutes, I will definitely get around to canceling my membership to a gym I live 40 miles away from!

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 18:28:27 +0000

Most MMOs will hang onto your account data for ages without you being active, so there’s really no point paying for an account just to maintain your character’s existence. (As a corollary, if they *didn’t*, I’d probably immediately drop the game and never, ever play again – I ain’t repeating entire swathes of gameplay just ’cause I’m easily distracted.)

Yes, I know they talk about getting rid of your account after six months or whatever. As best as I’ve ever been able to determine, that’s just to give themselves the *option* of deleting your data if they need to. Most people will never have it happen.