Azeryn
   |
Posted - 2008.10.20 10:32:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Baka Lakadaka
CCP are in this to make money, it's business, they're not in it to victimise people for making a complaint and would frown on any employee tarnishing their reputation, in the same way as any other business.
While everything you said in your post is how it should be, everybody who has been involved in MMORPG for a few years knows that in this businness things are a lot different.
You are basically loaned everything you use inside a virtual world (characters, game money, game assets, etc...) and you accept an EULA that basically states that the game manufacturer can decide at any time you are doing something wrong and ban you "just because". They can even refuse to tell you why they are banning you, stating that doing so they would help exploiters know how they can catch them.
Frankly I do not think there are many more businesses where the "paying customer" is more defenseless. You either "suck it up" or you just pass the time filing petition after petition. Even if your account is finally reinstated, it is going to take months, wich means your friends will either have forgotten about you, or their progress into the game will have opened a chasm between you and them, meaning you will not just "hop in" like nothing happened anyway.
Sure, a concerted campaign promoted by many dissatisfied customers could tarnish any game producer's reputation enough to cause a collapse of subscriptions, but in practice this has never happened, since most MMO gamers are too emo anyway, so nobody really listens to the many sad stories. Most of the sad stories are manufactured anyway, as a cover up for actual cheating that deserved a ban in the first place.
So no, I do not think a MMO player has the same chances of a customer of almost any other service out there. However, I also think that only a very small number of compliants are legitimate. If the OP thinks his friend has a solid case they should surely petition CCP through that email address: just do not get your hopes up, since even if you are right, they can still tell you "you are wrong" and in the end you will not be able to do anything about it.
|