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Woman sues Square Enix for $5,000,000 over FFXI character.
Artoria
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I have no words.
From
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6214710.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;4
Look I think SE policy about deleting your character when you quit and not being able to recover it when you come back is Bullshit but I don't think and MMO character is worth $5,000,000
From
http://www.gamespot.com/news/6214710.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=newstop&tag=newstop;title;4
5 million Square Enix class action suit detailed
Amended complaint reveals FFXI gamer is suing Japanese publisher for millions in "suffered damages" after her characters were deleted during two-year hiatus from MMORPG.
On June 22, a class action lawsuit was filed against Square Enix accusing the publisher of unfair business practices, false advertisements, and undisclosed fees related to its massively multiplayer online role-playing game Final Fantasy XI. The lead plaintiff, Esther Leong of San Francisco, filed the complaint on behalf of over 100,000 fellow MMORPG subscribers and demanded a payment in "excess of $5 million" from the game publisher. Now, in an amended complaint filed Monday, the plaintiff revealed the specifics behind the generalized accusations outlined in the June 22 document.
In the updated filing, Leong alleges that Square Enix failed to disclose all the fees associated with the
MMORPG at the time of its purchase. Specifically, the complaint states that the publisher fails to disclose that players must continuously pay a monthly subscription in order to retain their in-game characters. The document alleges that the label on the retail box, which forewarns "additional online fees required," is too vague to qualify as a full disclosure of the game's supplemental costs. Currently, Final Fantasy XI costs $12.95 a month to play.
The plaintiff also asserts that the publisher failed to disclose other subscription information at the time of purchase. Namely, Square Enix did not reveal to its subscribers that if they did not pay every month, then their characters and game key would be permanently unusable after 90 days without payment. Moreover, in order to save the account before that 90-day mark, players had to pay a reactivation fee and subscription fees for each unpaid month.
However, PlayOnline's current member agreement--which all subscribers must agree to--states that all players must pay the game's recurring subscription fee due at the beginning of each month. If users fail to foot the bill at that time, their accounts are deactivated and can only be brought back by paying "all delinquent subscription fees" and applicable reactivation fees. Additionally, the agreement asserts that Square Enix is not liable for any damages resulting from an inability to access PlayOnline, including the loss of data.
According to the same document, Leong began playing Final Fantasy XI in 2005 and was a subscriber until August 2007, when she took a break from the game. When she returned to the game in 2009, she found that her account was invalidated because she hadn't paid the monthly fees. She now considers in-game characters she lost "suffered damages" and is suing for multimillion-dollar compensation.
Final Fantasy XI was released in October 2003 in North America, reaching 500,000 users worldwide by January 2004 through its PlayOnline service. Currently available on the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, and PC, the game received its most recent expansion pack, A Moogle Kupo d'Etat, last month.
Look I think SE policy about deleting your character when you quit and not being able to recover it when you come back is Bullshit but I don't think and MMO character is worth $5,000,000
Artoria on
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It's a MMO. Of course you need to pay to play!
And along the legalese, it is written that you can lose your characters if you stop paying.
I don't see what the problem is, here.
I do agree that SE was stupid to not list their fees...
The Raid
The difference there is Blizzard used HUGE FUCKING LETTERS, whereas Square hid the detail in a 45-page long EULA. She's only suing because she was too lazy to read.
The Raid
The vast majority of MMOs are free to play with no monthly fee.
Of course they are usually unbalanced grindfests where the people who buy more in-game junk have a tremendous advantage over the moochers.
I know you weren't saying otherwise, just expounding.
It says they ARE required. Not that they may be required.
Also
Uh, because some women doesn't know how MMOs tend to work before purchase, and it isn't layed out front she's a "stupid bitch"?
Edit: Huh just noticed someone saying UO does it as well. Guess if it is common practise for me to pay for months I have not played I can add that to my list of reasons not to play MMOs.
The Raid
I would be pissed if my character was lost as well, though I don't plya MMOs so I really don't know much about them.
Although if I was going to stop playing for almost two years I would make damn well sure that my character could be saved before I did.
Does she have a complaint? Hell yeah.
Does it warrant a 5 million dollar lawsuit? Hell NO.
That's a lie. I reactivated my account on UO numerous times and I never had to pay the back fees. I left it for a year and when I came back I had to pay $10. Not $120.
They may as well have put fifty gaggilion pounds. There's no way in hell she expects to get that much (or the group she's supporting) money, nor I imagine do her lawyers. If the case goes further it'll get reduced to a more reasonable sum.
I didn't have to dig very far to find this text, bolded, in part 4.1 of the Ownership and Rights section of the PlayOnline Member Agreement.
https://secure.playonline.com/supportus/rule_polmember.html
YOU DO NOT OWN YOUR ACCOUNT OR CHARACTER OR HAVE ANY PROPERTY RIGHTS TO YOUR CHARACTER OR ITS VIRTUAL ASSETS. YOU MAY NOT SELL, RENT, OR REPRODUCE YOUR CHARACTER OR ITS VIRTUAL ASSETS FOR ANY COMMERCIAL PURPOSE.
And...jeez, it's repeated, also in bold, in Section 2 of the Final Fantasy XI User Agreement.
https://secure.playonline.com/supportus/rule_ff11user.html
She doesn't have a leg to stand on. I consider it a privilege that Blizzard stores my WoW character when I stop payment on my account, and when that character is ready to rock and roll when they release a new expansion.
However, the section of the EULA in contention is a bit vague, and it doesn't mention deleting your character, only that you might have to pay more to restart your account...a silly concept, but buyer beware.
Alright, let me change the wording a bit:
Does it warrant a lawsuit at all, no matter what the price tag? HELL NO!
The argument that "it wasn't made sufficiently clear at the time of purchase that this game was unplayable without continuous additional fees, and I feel I was mislead when purchasing it" is an argument worth making for a refund on the game.
edit: The "at the time of purchase" bit is key, here. Putting the EULA on a website doesn't help S-E in respect of this argument.
I quit FFXI back in March of '08 and only a few months ago resubbed my account (and promptly canceled again) and my character and all my stuff was still there. FFXI doesn't delete characters after 90 days inactivity, nor do you need to pay back subscription fees (if I'm reading that right)/
Back fees? I didn't see that part.
The Raid
Just a bunch of dumb.
Tofu wrote: Here be Littleboots, destroyer of threads and master of drunkposting.
Perhaps they worded it that way to cover their ass if your credit card is invalid?
The more I think about this...it's very fishy.
It was made clear as the post above with the link to the rules and regs shows. Even if they didn't read them or didn't know enough to read them, I say tough shit. Just because they didn't know that they had no property rights to their own characters doesn't make it right to sue the company.
If you leave for two years then come back an just expect your character to be there, you get what you deserve if it isn't. She, and the rest of them, should have made dame sure that their characters would still be there if they took a break.
I can't see how they wouldn't know that you can't play the game without paying the fee, it says it on the box.
PS3 Trophies
I know I played for long hours and put lots of effort into a character and If I lost my job and was unable to pay to play and my character got deleted or I was deployed over seas and came back after paying SE for years of play only to find my hard work deleted. Well I would be pissed off to say the least.
They made no effort in making ffxi easy to level or play. long hours of waiting on parties and skilling up weapons for days only to get a .02 weapon skill up or camping mobs only to have somebody in japan get it because the server there is a whole second faster then here that alone is almost ground to say hey that the hell. Then you deal with that stuff like any good person would because most of the other people are fun to be around and when you come back from what ever you had to deal with in life only to find your hard work gone deleted nothing lefter and they say well you can do all that again. I do not see a problem..
then you have not played the damn game.
unlock every job deal with skiling up and getting spells and getting teloports harsh players and that's just the start of it all.
hell the more I think on it 5 million is not enough.
I could never start another character that much I know.
The game has changed but the way it used to be once was enough.
I hope she wins.
They should give you the option to save your character on your own hard drive if they need the space.
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