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VZBV - warning letter to ESO
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Fair enough, I was of the same mind until I read about Corporatism and the way our system works. Regulatory agencies are largely controlled by the same industrys they are supposedly regulating. It's a huge reason why corporations have such power here in the US. Don't mistake me saying federal regulatory agencies are bad with the idea I tihnk there shouldn't be regulation. Regulation can be handled by the market, as it is in many countries. In many cases government regulation actually makes problems worse as the punishment is usually a fine and not the market alternative of going out of business. Personally I think losing your livlihood is a much scarier consequence then a fine.
The idea of federal regulation is nice, like the idea of world peace. It's not what really goes on and it's no practical due to human nature.
First 30 days free.
Card Authorization.
Bug happened that accidentally fully charged people.
People were refunded.
Neck beards kept neck bearding.
Ah, I love online gaming....
...we aren't getting cheated... it's a sub game, like most worth while MMORPG's... that was clear from day one to anyone with a functioning brain stem.
This pretty much sums up the whole ordeal quite nicely, if a little bit passive aggressive lol.
Currently Playing: ESO and FFXIV
Have played: You name it
If you mention rose tinted glasses, you better be referring to Mitch Hedberg.
The nickle n dime method is a perfectly valid business model that pre-dates video games, the issue is that in video games, the game is usually designed to steer you towards making a payment, pretending it is necessary to play the game when in reality it is optional. It isn't the business model that needs regulating, it is how they communicate it to the consumer.
I also think it would be an interesting debate in the Senate about gaming addiction, I could imagine you'll have entertainment companies on one side saying it isn't addictive and pharmaceutical companies on the other side saying it is so they can peddle more drugs to combat it
Devs can't ignore the german speaking market, it is the second biggest in the world.
I was talking about such an association and consumers in general and not about the ESO case.
And when it comes to your "funcitoning brain stem", just read the official customer support forums there is huge thread about people having issues with the ESO subscription practice. There is also an already closed thread on these forums here. Personally I dont have issues and enjoy the game, but if so many people complain and some even write to a consumer protection association which starts an adhortatory letter, there has to be an issue.
And Germans are pretty nice people, I like them in my games.
From European viewpoint: VZBV complained that ESO's marketing information isn't accurate enough and/or clear enough.
I'm used to seeing information as requirement for free thinking people to make their decisions, and I think it defies logic how some (mostly Americans) seem to see demands of accurate and complete information as a threat to their freedom to decide.
EDIT: No personal insult meant. It's not just about ESO, but also about how people reacted when I tried to warn about Square Enix scamming people by omitting information about FF XIV's sub fee. As Finn I think some actions by companies are downright criminal, whereas Americans seem to think that people should just search the information themselves if it's not provided by companies /EDIT
The irony of the situation is that as an American I can say that the German consumers wouldn't be missing very much if the US game companies DID stop publishing there. At least the ones that are getting the infraction issues.
They should also go ahead and do this for every single p2p mmo out there
As every single one do this aswell
"It has potential"
-Second most used phrase on existence
"It sucks"
-Most used phrase on existence
Thank the gods it is getting to be a mercifully short list these days
.
"You'll never win an argument with an idiot because he is too stupid to recognize his own defeat." ~Anonymous
the fact you get 30 days free, highly indicates after those 30 days you have to pay more - if it was f2p it would say free to play - if its 30 days free then you pay more, if a customer doesnt understand that, they have no hope
the article says "hidden subscription" err wtf anyone who thinks ESO has a hidden subscription is just dumb
i was not forced to pay any extra money after i bought the game, and giving payment info to a subscription based game is to me no issue, if it is a issue to people to give payment info to a pay to play game then they should go play a f2p instead
some people just like to cause trouble and hope to get noticed, fame or money out of it
totally ridiculous and i hope zenimax just ignore this madness
I think that site is like a German version of UKs Watchdog - basically no power and where plenty of what they state is a issue is either made up, skewed or just plain wrong
Every single MMO I have ever played before that had a subscription required that I put my CC info in prior to being able to play. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I checked my account and I have received 30 days free time with my purchase and I have not had to pay any subscription fee yet. So yeah, why does anyone care about this?
Steam: Neph
ESO TOS says you have to cancel 30 days before your sub runs out, so for those of you who wanted your free 30 days you will end up paying for a month if they do not change their policy.
I never put my information in because I refuse to pay more money to get my FREE 30 days that came with the game.
I wish I would have canceled my pre order but thought I would go ahead and play for 30 days just to mess around in the game but can no even do that.
Those of you who keep defending this crap quit being such fanboys.
I work in the credit card payments industry and what ESO does is very standard.
Problem in Europe, is even with the vast regulatory bodies they have, they are behind in some facets of payment processing, even when they are ahead in things like EMV (Chip & PIN). Most European banks do not allow "AVS" (Address Verification) checks. These AVS checks are zero amount authorizations which are meant to check if the card is valid.
BTW, except in some corner cases, merchants are not allowed to charge your card ahead of the "delivery of goods". Shipment of the boxed copies of this game are an example: They cannot charge you for the full amount of the box when you preorder, only when it leaves their hands can they charge (some companies might charge you $5 or so for the "beta key" access etc). Same thing with subscriptions. While they can make you enter in valid payment information when you sign up, they cannot actually hit your card with the sub fee until you actually start your sub period. There are some exceptions to this, but in general, that's the rules.
Except... They don't.
Just bought FFXIV ARR a few weeks ago, playing my free month without entering any CC data just fine.
Even if "Everyone does it" was a valid legal defense (hint: It isn't), everyone doesn't do it. In fact it hasn't been the norm for quite a long time (probably in part because of the laws being cited here), if it ever really was, and certainly fuck ups on the level of Zeni's (Thread about this on their customer service forum is 77 pages and still growing, but I'm sure those are all "haters", right?) certainly haven't been.
Hey! Stop that "Making sense" nonsense right now! We don't take kindly to that kinda talk around here!
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It only makes sense if we actually wanna get another thread locked "by going there yet again".,..
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
The case is even published in the leading and biggest news magazine "Spiegel" aswell on other online news.
The issue is probably that you get forced buying a subscription to get your 30 days, which can be only canceled within 30 days.
I was searching a bit about more cases and this association did succeed with a decleration to cease and desist/lawsiut even against google, facebook, apple, VALVE, Blizzard Entertainment, Myspace, and a lot more ...
Ther reputation got probably some damage already with this.