Currently online Internet Game Companies such as Electronic Arts have approximately 18 million paying subribers total over the entire group of companies. Recently I lost about 5000$ this way.
The purchaser of these games, and the players of these games, seem to have no rights of any kind. And yet what they create while playing these games, their game accounts and characters can be worth many 1000's of dollars. Please go to Ebay, under Video Games, Internet Games and review some of the 10's of 1000's of auctions for these items there. Or do an Ebay search for "worlds of warcraft".
Not only can a person buy a game account on Ebay, but they are easily victimized because, again, apparently they have no rights as consumers. For instance, recently I watched a person spend over 1700$ for a game account for Eve-online, a CCPgames.com company. Two weeks after taking over this account CCP informed the person, "we have noticed that your billing information has changed. All transfer of CCP games are against our terms of service. Your account, and all your other accounts, are hearby permanently banned".
So the peson loses everything he paid for and all their other accounts as well, in this case worth a total of over 10,000$ on Ebay. Ebay ALLOWS these sales. Myself I lost a total of 4 accounts all permanently banned for buying an account on Ebay, but I never did. Those account took 3 years to create.
Secondly, in several cases I am aware of personally, people who never did buy anything on Ebay were sent the same message above by Eve-online. It was some kind of error. At that point you have no rights to appeal. There is nothing you can do but write then and call them, all of which goes completely ignored.
Now CCP operates internationally, with offices in the UK, Singapore, China and Iceland. This "rip off" of consumers are world wide and would be a possible large class action. And the companies are multi-million dollar corporations.
I am just hoping someone will help me with this as I feel it is a neglected area of consumer law, and it is important because of the large sums of cash involved. It is also important because some people put years of their lives in the account creation, some people play 10 hours a day for years (usually handicapped and disabled folks who are trapped at home), and then some punk at one of these games decides you don't deserve your account anymore, and you have no rights at all. There have been well known and documented suicides related to this, as silly as that sounds, it means that much to some people.
Yes, the game company owns the entire game and all rights to it. But as a paying customer you have some expectation of at least being treated fairly. Also, the item you purchased makes implied promises on the container it comes it. For instance Eve-online says "oo00o0o you can manage space stations and fly titans" etc. But what they don't tell you is it would literally take 2 to 3 years of work to get to that point AND during that period if they even think you did something wrong they ban you with no right of appeal. Another example is Ultima Online, a very large game by EA, that they still sell at retail, but they fail to mention the fact that its a dead and dying game, and you can spend all day in it and not see another soul.
It's time internet gaming customers had a few rights. And I'm willing to start this process and put my money where my mouth is if I can find someone to help me.
The purchaser of these games, and the players of these games, seem to have no rights of any kind. And yet what they create while playing these games, their game accounts and characters can be worth many 1000's of dollars. Please go to Ebay, under Video Games, Internet Games and review some of the 10's of 1000's of auctions for these items there. Or do an Ebay search for "worlds of warcraft".
Not only can a person buy a game account on Ebay, but they are easily victimized because, again, apparently they have no rights as consumers. For instance, recently I watched a person spend over 1700$ for a game account for Eve-online, a CCPgames.com company. Two weeks after taking over this account CCP informed the person, "we have noticed that your billing information has changed. All transfer of CCP games are against our terms of service. Your account, and all your other accounts, are hearby permanently banned".
So the peson loses everything he paid for and all their other accounts as well, in this case worth a total of over 10,000$ on Ebay. Ebay ALLOWS these sales. Myself I lost a total of 4 accounts all permanently banned for buying an account on Ebay, but I never did. Those account took 3 years to create.
Secondly, in several cases I am aware of personally, people who never did buy anything on Ebay were sent the same message above by Eve-online. It was some kind of error. At that point you have no rights to appeal. There is nothing you can do but write then and call them, all of which goes completely ignored.
Now CCP operates internationally, with offices in the UK, Singapore, China and Iceland. This "rip off" of consumers are world wide and would be a possible large class action. And the companies are multi-million dollar corporations.
I am just hoping someone will help me with this as I feel it is a neglected area of consumer law, and it is important because of the large sums of cash involved. It is also important because some people put years of their lives in the account creation, some people play 10 hours a day for years (usually handicapped and disabled folks who are trapped at home), and then some punk at one of these games decides you don't deserve your account anymore, and you have no rights at all. There have been well known and documented suicides related to this, as silly as that sounds, it means that much to some people.
Yes, the game company owns the entire game and all rights to it. But as a paying customer you have some expectation of at least being treated fairly. Also, the item you purchased makes implied promises on the container it comes it. For instance Eve-online says "oo00o0o you can manage space stations and fly titans" etc. But what they don't tell you is it would literally take 2 to 3 years of work to get to that point AND during that period if they even think you did something wrong they ban you with no right of appeal. Another example is Ultima Online, a very large game by EA, that they still sell at retail, but they fail to mention the fact that its a dead and dying game, and you can spend all day in it and not see another soul.
It's time internet gaming customers had a few rights. And I'm willing to start this process and put my money where my mouth is if I can find someone to help me.
