Companies who delete toons are morons, from a business standpoint. Player Toons are the one major incentive for old players to return to a previously played game. If they are certain to be destroyed, well then that is that, and they won't be back. I have yet to return to a game I've quit and not found my character intact.
games I've quit and returned to (longer then 3 months):
FFXI
WoW
UO
EQ2
EVE
MxO
SWG
DDO
I've played more, but they do not qualify for this thread, not because my toon was erase, but because i've not yet canceled em.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone www.spankybus.com -3d Artist & Compositor -Writer -Professional Amature
just canceled my account today and get this message "You have successfully canceled your The Lord of the Rings Online™ subscription. We are sad to see you go, but you can come back again in the future, but you may lose your existing characters."
I have not seen a company even attempt to do this in a VERY long time. Very bad decision on Turbine's part
Then don't cancel, Turbine offered a founder's special that you would lose to if you cancel as well, Its only 9.95 a month for founders. Turbine is just looking for loyality for a very good game.
SOE has just raised their price for to 29.95 for their Station Pass for all of their games which is the cost of 2 subs of just about any other well know premium MMO out there and who has the time to play more then 2 MMOs at one time. I will enjoy my 9.95 a month game , but why did you cancel in the first place?
I'm sorry but this is an extremely poor business decision. The only MMO to ever formally delete inactive characters was FFXI. Deleting inactive toons, or threatening to delete them is a horrible business decision on so many levels. For one, knowing your character is still there will make it a huge incentive to come back and check the game out again later on. One poster mentioned that a game should tell you they will never delete your toon, and that is the wiser business model. There's been a few times I've gone back to older games I have quit because I knew my character was still intact.
If your worried about character names then chances are your name is unoriginal, and bastardizing the spelling looks absolutely silly. How many times have you seen Legoloass, Legolaz, Legollas, Leggolas, Leggos. Most serious gamers who quit an MMO still continue to follow the changes they make afterwards to see if its worth coming back. Delete their old characters and it makes people more bitter like a bad break up with the person who got dumped threatening to put sugar in your gas tank.
Unfriendly companies will always do what unfriendly companies does the best: treating their customers poorly.
Anyways the truth of it is they said MAY not WILL.If you missed it then that's your problem.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
That is a very stupid move on their part. Some people have to quit the game due to financial issues or military obligations. A lot of people would probably not return in their characters were gone. Seems like a bad idea.
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
------------------------------ You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
Now I have quit a LOT of mmos, and I have also returned to them after various time frames, sometimes more then 2 years since cancellation, I have never had my characters deleted, except for diablo2, and thats not really an MMO.
Some games have made "cleanups" meaning they delete all lvl 1 characters that hasnt been played for over a year or something like that, this has happened once or twice.
But, in all them games, ranging from most AAA titles to obscure asian and indie titles I have never NOT seen the message that they can and will delete my character if they need to after a set time frame, usually 6 months to a year after cancellation.
Most if not all gives you at least 6 months.
But I have yet to enocunter this ever happening.
If you are new to the MMO genre this message may be startling, but take comfort in that everyone tells you that they may, and no one, that I am aware of, actually does it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
just canceled my account today and get this message "You have successfully canceled your The Lord of the Rings Online™ subscription. We are sad to see you go, but you can come back again in the future, but you may lose your existing characters."
I have not seen a company even attempt to do this in a VERY long time. Very bad decision on Turbine's part
This is a standard disclaimer in all of Turbine's games. It is also almost an industry standard. Except Final Fantasy XI. There you have a three month period to resubscribe or you /will/ lose your avatars.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." Robin Williams
Ya they all do it, dont flip out over it. You canceled, so why would you care about the characters? Like others have said, its only a possibility they will be deleted, they say that just to cover their behinds.
Current: Puzzle Pirates Waiting: SWTOR,Aion, CO Played: AC, WoW, SB, EVE
That is a very stupid move on their part. Some people have to quit the game due to financial issues or military obligations. A lot of people would probably not return in their characters were gone. Seems like a bad idea.
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
The phone company doesn't save your phone number if you cancel. So if you didn't get the same phone number you just wouldn't have a phone? You used a really poor example. WILL and MAY are two completely different words. I can't believe you guys don't realize its just a disclaimer if something does happen to your characters.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
Since we're using big letters, I like how no one mentioned EQ2. People are saying 'blank is the ONLY mmo that deletes chars'. SOE deleted my account for only about 4 months inactivity. Max lvl is 60, and I was all the way to 25 and 20. Sucks for them, since I was planning on starting up again for a couple of months.
I have never seen a company say you may lose yorur toons. Actually i have seen company's come out and say you will NEVER lose your toons.
I know for a fact EQ said that (i.e., you may lose all of your characters, we won't guarantee them if you're not subbed), but they are usually all still there when I resubb. I did lose all of my toons on one server about two years ago, in between subs, but my toons on other servers were still there (and are still to this day as far as I know).
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
Anarchy Online for one states on the webpage after you cancel that they will hold your toons for 3 months. But they have never had any wipes of higher level toons (outside of beta, maybe). Every time they do a character wipe (which is not often), they wipe toons that are level 5 and under that have not been accessed for 6 months or more. If you log in those toons after the announcement ( and they always make the announcement far in advance), the sytstem takes them off the delete list.
Do you realize how many people start new toons, then for whatever reason decide they don't want to play anymore, leaving those unused toons to clog the database, as well as making names unavailable to new players who may get some use from them? Any game that has free trials will have thousands of unused accounts/toons just from people trying on the trial and leaving.
All mmo companies have that rule in their ToS it covers server wipes or removal of inactive accounts. the main thing to remember is even if you pay money the account and characters are not yours they belong to the company whos server your playing on. basicly your renting server space to hold the data for the character.
The characters are ours....We pay for the software, they give you a Key even...They are ours...yes they have the right to delete them if I dont play anymore, but I have never seen it happen...I went back to UO after 10years and my guys were still there. No gear on them, but they were there.
I have never seen a company say you may lose yorur toons. Actually i have seen company's come out and say you will NEVER lose your toons.
For Christ's sake people, start reading the EULA before you just click it. Every mmorpg I have ever played (and there have been many) has stated this in their EULA.
The characters are ours....We pay for the software, they give you a Key even...They are ours...yes they have the right to delete them if I dont play anymore, but I have never seen it happen...I went back to UO after 10years and my guys were still there. No gear on them, but they were there.
Please read above. You obviously do not read the EULA. You do not own any piece of software you think you buy. You are "borrowing" the software. You actually own one license to use the software, not the software itself. Honestly, how much intelligence does it take to read the damned thing? You do understand that a piece of software can have a EULA that states "we are installing xxx spyware on your system to catch your personal information" and if you happen to click accept and install that software, their ass is clear of any legal repercussions because you accepted the agreement.
I think that Ichmen is correct. The software or developing house own everything that is hosted on their servers, you only own the rights to access that char or toon. You have no legal rights or claims to any char or toon you create on a hosted game (IE any MMO)
As a dozen others have said this is standard practice. Turbine is just being sure to be up front with their notice on the issue. It is highly unlikely that they ever would delete any toons, even more so if they were past level 15 or so, but still you agreed when you accepted the TOS that they could do this. Hell the characters aren't even yours to begin with. And if you are not a paying customer they have every right to purge them if they get a wild hair to do so. If you don't like that you better stick to single player games where you can back up your characters to CD.
Learn2MMO.
-------------------------------- Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
That is a very stupid move on their part. Some people have to quit the game due to financial issues or military obligations. A lot of people would probably not return in their characters were gone. Seems like a bad idea.
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
The phone company doesn't save your phone number if you cancel. So if you didn't get the same phone number you just wouldn't have a phone? You used a really poor example. WILL and MAY are two completely different words. I can't believe you guys don't realize its just a disclaimer if something does happen to your characters.
I mean keep the Phone turned on turbo and payed for.. Just like you leave a account active and payed for.
And ofcourse Will and May are two different words, newsflash "we understand that". Its the fact that THEY MAY wipe your characters that is the problem.
------------------------------ You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
Originally posted by iduums just canceled my account today and get this message "You have successfully canceled your The Lord of the Rings Online subscription. We are sad to see you go, but you can come back again in the future, but you may lose your existing characters."
I have not seen a company even attempt to do this in a VERY long time. Very bad decision on Turbine's part
First off several other companies say the same thing. Even EQ1 said that back in the day. That being said, if you want the character forever, you shoulda bought the lifetime account.
ALL companies reserve the right to erase your characters after a period of time, usually 90 days. Most of them never do and some of them do it quite regularly. They will usually send you an e-mail informing you that "all characters not played since xx/xx/xx will be deleted 30 days from the date of this notice" or something similar.
Losing your characters is a risk you take whenever you close an mmo account indefinitely. However, there was one notorious example a year or two back where the company deleted not only your characters, but your entire account after 30 days, which meant that if you subsequently decided to play again, you had to buy the box again. It then came out that there were two different ways to "cancel" and the second way would preserve your account, but maybe not your characters.
Comments
Also has been stated read the TOS its in them ALL, however its rarely done.
Another thing, just cause they say the might doesnt mean they will, turbine has yet to do it... so relax tin foil friends!
games I've quit and returned to (longer then 3 months):
FFXI
WoW
UO
EQ2
EVE
MxO
SWG
DDO
I've played more, but they do not qualify for this thread, not because my toon was erase, but because i've not yet canceled em.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature
Then don't cancel, Turbine offered a founder's special that you would lose to if you cancel as well, Its only 9.95 a month for founders. Turbine is just looking for loyality for a very good game.
SOE has just raised their price for to 29.95 for their Station Pass for all of their games which is the cost of 2 subs of just about any other well know premium MMO out there and who has the time to play more then 2 MMOs at one time. I will enjoy my 9.95 a month game , but why did you cancel in the first place?
I'm sorry but this is an extremely poor business decision. The only MMO to ever formally delete inactive characters was FFXI. Deleting inactive toons, or threatening to delete them is a horrible business decision on so many levels. For one, knowing your character is still there will make it a huge incentive to come back and check the game out again later on. One poster mentioned that a game should tell you they will never delete your toon, and that is the wiser business model. There's been a few times I've gone back to older games I have quit because I knew my character was still intact.
If your worried about character names then chances are your name is unoriginal, and bastardizing the spelling looks absolutely silly. How many times have you seen Legoloass, Legolaz, Legollas, Leggolas, Leggos. Most serious gamers who quit an MMO still continue to follow the changes they make afterwards to see if its worth coming back. Delete their old characters and it makes people more bitter like a bad break up with the person who got dumped threatening to put sugar in your gas tank.
Unfriendly companies will always do what unfriendly companies does the best: treating their customers poorly.
Anyways the truth of it is they said MAY not WILL.If you missed it then that's your problem.In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
------------------------------
You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
<----darksupremacy
Now I have quit a LOT of mmos, and I have also returned to them after various time frames, sometimes more then 2 years since cancellation, I have never had my characters deleted, except for diablo2, and thats not really an MMO.
Some games have made "cleanups" meaning they delete all lvl 1 characters that hasnt been played for over a year or something like that, this has happened once or twice.
But, in all them games, ranging from most AAA titles to obscure asian and indie titles I have never NOT seen the message that they can and will delete my character if they need to after a set time frame, usually 6 months to a year after cancellation.
Most if not all gives you at least 6 months.
But I have yet to enocunter this ever happening.
If you are new to the MMO genre this message may be startling, but take comfort in that everyone tells you that they may, and no one, that I am aware of, actually does it.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: Puzzle Pirates
Waiting: SWTOR,Aion, CO
Played: AC, WoW, SB, EVE
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
The phone company doesn't save your phone number if you cancel. So if you didn't get the same phone number you just wouldn't have a phone? You used a really poor example. WILL and MAY are two completely different words. I can't believe you guys don't realize its just a disclaimer if something does happen to your characters.In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
I don't want to write this, and you don't want to read it. But now it's too late for both of us.
Anarchy Online for one states on the webpage after you cancel that they will hold your toons for 3 months. But they have never had any wipes of higher level toons (outside of beta, maybe). Every time they do a character wipe (which is not often), they wipe toons that are level 5 and under that have not been accessed for 6 months or more. If you log in those toons after the announcement ( and they always make the announcement far in advance), the sytstem takes them off the delete list.
Do you realize how many people start new toons, then for whatever reason decide they don't want to play anymore, leaving those unused toons to clog the database, as well as making names unavailable to new players who may get some use from them? Any game that has free trials will have thousands of unused accounts/toons just from people trying on the trial and leaving.
@seabass2003 - you should just give up, these tard karts just don't get it.
OK people Turbine never said they will delete accounts.
The characters are ours....We pay for the software, they give you a Key even...They are ours...yes they have the right to delete them if I dont play anymore, but I have never seen it happen...I went back to UO after 10years and my guys were still there. No gear on them, but they were there.Learn2MMO.
--------------------------------
Currently Playing: Guild Wars 2 and Path of Exile
Quit: Eden Eternal, Wakfu, DDO, STO, DCUO, Sword 2, Atlantica Online, LOTRO, SWTOR, RIFT, Earthrise, FFXIV, RoM, Allods Online, GA,WAR,CO,V:SoH,POTBS,TR,COH/COV, WOW, DDO,AL, EQ, Eve, L2, AA, Mx0, SWG, SoR, AO, RFO, DAoC, and others.
www.twitter.com/mlwhitt
www.michaelwhitt.com
/agreed
Some of us actually have a life which dictates that we cannot play a freaking game for several months at a time (sometimes more). And just like I would not keep the phone on at a house that im not currently living at, im not going to pay month for a game that I will not be logging into.
This is just another reason for me not to try this game, as if it didn't have a multitude of others already.
The phone company doesn't save your phone number if you cancel. So if you didn't get the same phone number you just wouldn't have a phone? You used a really poor example. WILL and MAY are two completely different words. I can't believe you guys don't realize its just a disclaimer if something does happen to your characters.I mean keep the Phone turned on turbo and payed for.. Just like you leave a account active and payed for.
And ofcourse Will and May are two different words, newsflash "we understand that". Its the fact that THEY MAY wipe your characters that is the problem.
------------------------------
You see, every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with their surrounding environment, but you humans do not. You spread to an area, and you multiply, and you multiply, until every natural resource is consumed. The only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet.-Mr.Smith
First off several other companies say the same thing. Even EQ1 said that back in the day. That being said, if you want the character forever, you shoulda bought the lifetime account.
http://www.greycouncil.org/
ALL companies reserve the right to erase your characters after a period of time, usually 90 days. Most of them never do and some of them do it quite regularly. They will usually send you an e-mail informing you that "all characters not played since xx/xx/xx will be deleted 30 days from the date of this notice" or something similar.
Losing your characters is a risk you take whenever you close an mmo account indefinitely. However, there was one notorious example a year or two back where the company deleted not only your characters, but your entire account after 30 days, which meant that if you subsequently decided to play again, you had to buy the box again. It then came out that there were two different ways to "cancel" and the second way would preserve your account, but maybe not your characters.
Just make sure you know the rules.