About this Site

Most of us take our basic consumer rights for granted - in the real world the 'customer is always right', and sometimes being dissatisfied is all the reason you need to get your money back. Any customer service standards a MMOG business may profess to have or aspire to, however, are subjective and immeasurable as they are currently answerable to no one.

A common assurance gamers are given is that "it would be bad for business" if they had poor customer service. As the majority of profit comes a high turnover of casual gamers who have limited exposure to customer service, nor invest the time for their virtual identity to become as important to them as a longer term customer, a MMOG business can push the boundaries far more than most before it impacts on profit or attracts the attention of new legislation. Visit any MMOG forum and lack of consumer rights isn't only accepted as par for the course, but even defended by some who apparently feel the EULA is fair.

In the unregulated industry of MMOGs, you waive all rights as you open or download the software you should have been informed is non-refundable. By opening the box you are also implicitly accepting the terms of use (EULA), which unless you've bothered to track down and read it first, may require 20% of your salary and the bi-annual sacrifice of a goat to use. Most EULAs are not quite so blatantly outrageous, but they will leave you, the customer, with far less rights than you might imagine.

Monthly subscriptions are equally non-refundable (often at 'sole discretion' of the company) if you feel the product you paid for is not as advertised, game changes nullify hours of your time in a single patch, or if you find yourself on the receiving end of a player scam.

The company may also suspend or ban your account without reimbursement, and are not legally obliged to provide justification, review decisions, provide any channel for escalation, or even communicate with the customer. True story.

Do gamers care about the service they receive in return for their monthly payments? Judging by the lack of legislation, and that gaming media focuses on eye candy, gameplay and how much pew pew you get for your buck - apparently not. It would appear we don't believe the money we spend on our gaming is worth the same as the money we spend on other products. Or that the time we invest in our hobby and our virtual identity is worth protecting.

For now, the core content of this site ('The Rimor Ten' section) explores some of the anecdotal evidence and customer communication in Funcom's game Anarchy Online. In particular the suspension of 10 gamers on August 13th '06 on the dimension Rimor, and subsequent handling of the incident both in private and on the official forums. The move had repercussions within the game and the community, but more importantly, it raised the debate around customer service and policy in MMOGs another notch.

Eventually the inevitable consequences and inconsistencies created by a lack of accountability for MMOG developers may kick enough of us up the backside to raise such noise that pressure for regulation becomes irresistible. EULAs in general are coming under increasing scrutiny as some argue they conflict with consumer law. Until legislation catches up with technology however, gamers are left with no form of appeal, redress, or occasionally, so much as a voice to protest.

That's why this site has been created.