TOG - The Older Gamers

Rohne · 5th August 2009, 07:20 PM

It appears Square Enix have an interesting way of collecting cash from players who take a break from FFXI, they charge you for the months not played if you want your account reinstated, but an annoyed gamer from San Francisco is taking them on in court and asking for multi million dollar compensation for the loss of her characters.

Full Story: $5 million Square Enix class action suit detailed - News at GameSpot

Reoh · 5th August 2009, 08:10 PM

They charge you for the months you didn't play, WTF?!

City of Heroes deleted my toons too.

Which is why I won't re-activate it again. Whats the point? Their loss of $ in the end.

Rohne · 5th August 2009, 10:02 PM

Yeh I had to read it twice to make sure i read it right.. never played a square enix game but apparently that's how it works lol.

Reoh · 5th August 2009, 11:53 PM

I'd be willing to bet that their EULA covered data and character loss and I'd be surprised if they won anything there given how fiercely most companies stress that all of what you play with in game is their property (its like leasing rather than purchasing). But that re-activation fee situation smells rather foul.

Ariya · 6th August 2009, 02:07 PM

Never even seen that in free to play games, it must be the fastest way for them to lose players. Don't they see that lots of people take up a game again after a big update but don't want to start their character all over again?

Reoh · 6th August 2009, 03:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ariya

Never even seen that in free to play games, it must be the fastest way for them to lose players. Don't they see that lots of people take up a game again after a big update but don't want to start their character all over again?

Most companies will keep the characters for many years, i've known some that commited to 2 years but actually hadn't ever purged anything under 5yrs of disuse. The having to pay the "Delinquent" months though, thats unheard of. Just hearing about that has turned me right off looking into their next game, double so for the 90day character deletion.

Bunni · 14th August 2009, 09:15 PM

Agreed. I'm not sure she has enough of a case to actually win but either way that's a pretty amazingly bad reactivation system. Seriously, having delinquent subscription fees to get your characters back? That's just dumb. I could maybe, maybe see a fixed reactivation fee but 2 years of back payments is just crazy.