RX Goals

These are some of the things that, if implemented, would give gamers the same basic rights as we would find in most other industries. Unrealistic? Perhaps. If the online gaming industry continues to grow at the rate it has, however, more customers will become aware of the glaring gaps between consumer protection laws and MMOG customer service.

• An independent and specialised Regulatory Body for MMOGs. Minimum SLAs and processes implemented to retain membership, or full refunds given to customers where standards are not met.
• GMs should not be part of the communities they have authority over. Employees cannot retain impartiality while gaming anonymously amongst the paying player base.
• Forum moderation to be consistent and guidelines upheld. Bullying, harassment, accusations, personal attacks should be dealt with swiftly and harshly. Equally, moderators and representatives should not patronise, mock or censor customers who have legitimate concerns.
• Customers should under no circumstances be threatened by representatives of the business. Anyone threatening a customer would (and should) expect to face disciplinary action in a professional environment.
• If a customer is unhappy with the responses (or lack of) from customer support, another channel needs to be in place for escalation and review.
• Reimbursement policy for excessive downtime, i.e. a minimum SLA on provision of service.
• Contents of expansions should be subject to similar legislation as that around false advertising, if advertised content is not available and working at release.
• Far greater transparency around bugs and exploit policy. e.g. visible lists of non-exploitable bugs, a commitment to fixing exploitable bugs within a set time frame, what degree of association will be interpreted as guilt, list of acceptable third party tools.