I am really sick of Free Trials needing credit cards...........

saturn1234

This is starting to drive me insane!!!!!

When I want to play a new mmorpg I need to literally BEG my mother to allow me to use her credit card, and do hours and hours of chores and sweat shop labor. So then I dont want to go through all that just to be dissappointed by a lame game......

There is no reason that a game company needs a credit card for a "X day free trial!!!". I mean what is the point other than to keep people like myself from ever trying the game....

I was just wondering if this bothers anyone else, I mean games like EQ2 and Ragnarok Online had nice and truely free trials, ones that had not credit cards needed at all, but why do some companies force you to put one in..ie Horizons DAOC, WOW, COH and many more.....

It makes me super sad....

Dinion

I just use a debit card. I think officially they do it to keep the same person from creating a billion free trial accounts, unoffically its so they can make a little cash if you go over the trial end date without cancelling .

Mysk

That, and probably to make sure that the person can actually pay for the account and isn't just freeloading.

Then again, most games support game cards. Hm. Well so much for THAT theory.

Elnator

I agree, but sulking about it is silly. Go open a bank account and get a damn debit card.

scaramoosh

I think it's kool

Why play the trial if you don't have a credit of debit card? They don't want to get people who can't play to play the trial and it gives you a warning in future that you have to pay for people who are stupid

 

The non full games don't need a credit card like trial of the ilse! Horizons doesn't need one too

mageborn

get one of those online credit cards. Get ur mum toput say £10 on a month for ur pocket money and then u can spend it on whatever u like.

Cillasi

The unfortunate fact is that when games don't require positive ID (i.e., credit card info, etc.) for free trials, they tend to end up with a lot of "snerts" (I guess the more modern term is "griefer" but "snert" covers more types of bad behavior) disrupting the game.  No company wants to invest the resources into banning free account after free account after free account because some snert keeps creating them only to cause trouble.  Some of the things snerts do are create "bad" names; clutter an area with corpses or other "garbage" so that players lag or disconnect trying to navigate through it (this was a real bad problem in EQ1); use bad language over wide area channels; harrass other players with private messages; exploit bugs...and the list goes on. 

It is inconvenient for us, but less annoying than the snerts who take advantage of the fact that no credit card is needed. 

ChrisMattern

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Originally posted by saturn1234

There is no reason that a game company needs a credit card for a "X day free trial!!!". I mean what is the point other than to keep people like myself from ever trying the game....

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If you keep in mind why the companies run free trials, the reason becomes obvious. Companies offer free trials to try and get people to become paying members; if someone uses a free trial but doesn't sign up, the company has spent money but gotten nothing in return. So they want to make it as likely as possible that the user of a free trial signs up. By requiring a credit card number, they accomplish two things: one, they assure themselves that the person taking the free trial *can* in fact pay for a subscription. Two, generally they make it so that it automatically rolls over into a paying subscription unless you cancel your account. This produces a much higher subscription rate than making the player do something at the end of the trial period to become a playing customer. But in order to do the automatic roll-over, they need your CC number up front.

Dekoth

The solution is really simple.

Go to Wallgreen's or any local large mall and purchase a Visa gift card can prob purchase it at more locations but thats just off the top of my head. You spend the majority of money on it on something you wanted anyhow, they usually require a min of $20. Leave a few bucks on it and then use it for activations. This honestly is smart practice for anyone not wanting to fling their credit card info carelessly around on the web.

LlamaLord

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Originally posted by Elnator

I agree, but sulking about it is silly. Go open a bank account and get a damn debit card.

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If hes a child or a young teenager how is he going to get a credit card? I know in my country they dont give credit cards to under 16 year olds he already said he had to use his mothers.

RemyVorender

It's just customer verification. If you can't provide a CC number than mostly likely you can't pay for the game after the trial is over.

U know they have pre-paid credit cards now? throw down $50 on one and voila! Get a paper route or something, i did that when i was 12...oh my god that was 16 years ago...where's my cane!

Unknown

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Originally posted by saturn1234

This is starting to drive me insane!!!!!

When I want to play a new mmorpg I need to literally BEG my mother to allow me to use her credit card, and do hours and hours of chores and sweat shop labor. So then I dont want to go through all that just to be dissappointed by a lame game......

   What is wrong with doing work for your mother?  She is teaching you to be an upstanding citizen. A plus to your community. Work is so much easier if you approach it with a positive attitude.

  Even if you are dissappointed by the mmorpg, you will still have gained the nice work ethic your mother is teaching you.

There is no reason that a game company needs a credit card for a "X day free trial!!!". I mean what is the point other than to keep people like myself from ever trying the game....

  1. Credit Cards are one of the easiest ways for buisnesses to get customers to pay for their products.

  2. Credit Cards are an easy way for companies to make sure whoever is paying for the account is old enough to legally make good on the payments. For example, if they accepted money from someone they knew for a fact was 12years old, the 12yr old could suddently refuse to pay and there would be absolutly nothing the company could do.

 3. CC exist as a form of customer service. It makes it easier to ban bad players. To enforce game policies.

I was just wondering if this bothers anyone else, I mean games like EQ2 and Ragnarok Online had nice and truely free trials, ones that had not credit cards needed at all, but why do some companies force you to put one in..ie Horizons DAOC, WOW, COH and many more.....

It makes me super sad....

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  Another reason companies want consumers to put in their CC numbers during the free trial, is to make it as easy as possible to get them to pay to play after the free trial is over.

 You have nothing to be sad about! How old are you anyway?

 It seems by your post, you would have no problem at all - IF your mother did not require you to do some chores/work in order to earn the use of her CC.

 Enjoy doing work for your mother and her allowing you to use her CC. She is teaching you to respect the CC. People who do not learn early to respect the CC get their life messed up later from getting sucked in by CC.

 --------------------------------

IMHO Anarchy Online has the most ways to pay for it. It accepts Money Order, COD, even Cash, as well as CC, Paypal, and more.

Elnator

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Originally posted by LlamaLord
Originally posted by Elnator
I agree, but sulking about it is silly. Go open a bank account and get a damn debit card.
If hes a child or a young teenager how is he going to get a credit card? I know in my country they dont give credit cards to under 16 year olds he already said he had to use his mothers.

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If he's a child or young teenager he needs parental consent to play them anyway, what's your point?

sidebuster

     I think they might be required by the ESRB in the US. Not sure though, but game companies have to put that age portal before you enter their site and search for M rated games demos and screenshots. I think www.activision.com requires you to use a CC.

Edit: Try clicking on a link to Doom3. They require you to enter your date of birth and a credit card number just for age verification.

LlamaLord

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Originally posted by Elnator




Originally posted by LlamaLord


Originally posted by Elnator
I agree, but sulking about it is silly. Go open a bank account and get a damn debit card.

If hes a child or a young teenager how is he going to get a credit card? I know in my country they dont give credit cards to under 16 year olds he already said he had to use his mothers.

If he's a child or young teenager he needs parental consent to play them anyway, what's your point?

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Not for every online game out there, whats your's then?

saturn1234

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Originally posted by Dekoth
The solution is really simple.
Go to Wallgreen's or any local large mall and purchase a Visa gift card can prob purchase it at more locations but thats just off the top of my head. You spend the majority of money on it on something you wanted anyhow, they usually require a min of $20. Leave a few bucks on it and then use it for activations. This honestly is smart practice for anyone not wanting to fling their credit card info carelessly around on the web.

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I did not realize these exist!!!

Do you need to be 18+ to get one? Otherwise I think I would have to get my mom to buy it anyways lol.

PS I dont mind working for the use of the credit cards if I have tried and know that I wil enjoy the game, but I think it is cheap marketing to force people to use their credit cards to "try" out a game in hopes that they might forget to cancel before the time runs out =(.

sleepyguyftl

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Originally posted by saturn1234
Originally posted by Dekoth
The solution is really simple.
Go to Wallgreen's or any local large mall and purchase a Visa gift card can prob purchase it at more locations but thats just off the top of my head. You spend the majority of money on it on something you wanted anyhow, they usually require a min of $20. Leave a few bucks on it and then use it for activations. This honestly is smart practice for anyone not wanting to fling their credit card info carelessly around on the web.

I did not realize these exist!!!

Do you need to be 18+ to get one? Otherwise I think I would have to get my mom to buy it anyways lol.

PS I dont mind working for the use of the credit cards if I have tried and know that I wil enjoy the game, but I think it is cheap marketing to force people to use their credit cards to "try" out a game in hopes that they might forget to cancel before the time runs out =(.

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You do not need to be 18 to get either and american express gift card or a visa gift card.

Laserwolf

I am pretty sure that anyone can get a checking account. I was with my younger sister the other day and she is 17. All they required from her was that she called our mother while she was getting her account so they could verify a few things with her. It took 10 minutes and within 2 weeks my sister had a debit card.

It takes about $100 to open an account but as soon as it is open you can drop down to $10 and repay whoever lent the $90. Then just deposit every so often if you want and use the debit card for online games.

If you don't have any kind of steady income(Job or allowance) just think of it as your MMORPG Beta card. Just remember to keep the account above $10 and not allow the free months to run over or you will be hit with a fee if you don't have enough in your account to cover the subscription cost.

Oh, and of course this all the from my local bank's policy. Other banks may be better or worse for your purposes.

Owyn

First off, about credit cards:

Most places in the USA require you to be 16+ to get a credit OR debit card. Many boost that to 18+. However, you can usually get either secured credit cards (where you hand them $X and they give you a credit card with that limit on the account - acts just like a credit card with a set limit) or prepaid cards (you hand the cashier $X and get a VISA card with $X on it that you can add to or throw out afterwards) much younger.

Now, about games. They actually did a study on this, a marketing survey. To find out whether they got more subscriptions by requiring a credit card, or by NOT requiring one, for a free trial. They found out that games not requiring a card got more people trying the game; but that games requiring a card got a higher percent of people continuing after the trial.

The net result was that the number of new players a game got was almost identical when comparing both methods. Because each free trial costs the company money (bandwidth for the download and gameplay), the financially efficient answer is to require credit cards. You get the same number of eventual ful subscribers, but less expense because less free trials are created. Therefore most games use this system.

On the ESRB: it's a *voluntary*, self-regulating body. Admittedly, most major retailers in the USA won't sell boxes not rated by the ESRB. But there is no federal requirement for games to be rated in the USA, nor is there any requirement for stores to check ages of customers who are buying those games (although some stores have their own policies requiring checks; there is just no law enforcing it). However, there IS a law in place in the USA regarding the submission of certain information for children under 13 over the internet. So companies which have online registration for their games generally at least ask a person's age.