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Taking legal action against The Secret World
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Video games just have a depricating value, over time. The only legal recourse you might have is if you could find a discrepency between making payments, what is expected from those payments, and the End User Liscense Agreement (EULA), to which you undoubtedly clicked "I agree".
EULA doesn't always hold up, and there are some cases where the EULA was determined by a court to be unreasonable. The part about the agreeing user being only to take issue with the developer / publisher through a pre-determined dispute moderator is possibly the most challenged.
Honesly I think many people felt ripped off when they bought the Star Wars: The Old Republic Collectors Edition, which was initially very expensive ($150) and rare. EA then mass produced the same Collectors Edition and liquidated them, going as low as $20 at Best Buy and KMart. Big time rip off for those that bought early.
EA is kosher to bring up with this since it is the publisher for The Secret World, and potentially the buyer of Funcom. Don't like how things go down? Don't buy EA MMO's. Even their FIFA is riddled with bugs, but even then, they still do single player / light multiplayer games better. Their next SimCity might be a hit, and I really hope it won't be another EA trainwreck. As for their MMO's, they can keep them from now on, as far as I'm concerned, even if they are "only" the publisher, at first, heh.
Want a nice understanding of life? Try Spirit Science: "The Human History"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8NNHmV3QPw&feature=plcp
Recognize the voice? Yep sounds like Penny Arcade's Extra Credits.
What really is annoying about this all is not that poeple complain they are not getting what they payed for (because they still get that!), but that someone else get something they just want for themselves, because they simply feel entiteld to it. Anyhow let this be fought out in a court and see where it ends.
The entertainment of the gaming industry almost comes more from all the drama surrounding it the last few years then the games.
+1.
I admit I don't get the thread... Grandmasters didn't lost anything with this, it still is a great deal (on an another thread I said that maybe I'll buy one GM pack for myself in January)
And if the problem is that the game changed under us, well, as darkhalf357x wrote it's maybe sad and unfortunate, but not something to base a legal case on. I would've liked better as well, if Funcom chose to stay on the subscription route. On the other hand, maybe this b2p change will be a good thing on the long run.
Ps. the 30$ lolkids, on the beta and the trial weekends we already saw that they won't be a problem. They will leave
Agreed, in the first 1-2 months maybe we will see a lot of "what's the code at the church"-like comments on general... Disturbing? A bit. But I don't think it's enough for a legal case either.
If the OP wants to take legal action against Funcom, then I say 'Good luck!'
But all this 'Hey, look at me! Look at me! I'm suing Funcom! I'M SUING FUNCOM! Applaud me!' stuff is pointless.
Sometimes things in the digital world are difficult to grasp, but this isn't anything you can sue Funcom over.
Funcom sold you X, for Y and pledged to provide Z. Aslong as they provide Z you have no legal grounds to complain, atleast here in europe. EULAs do not even come into it. I mean obviously a company has the right to offer someone else a different contract than what you got. I can't even wrap my mind around the idea that you as a third person should have a right to intervene between a company and a new customer just because you bought from them once ...
If you think that you are somehow entitled to retroactive pricecuts ... how far back would that work? Can i buy a summerdress for my wife in june, and then demand the store pay me out the difference in the wintersale months later? If my mobile carrier releases a new package deal thats cheaper than what i got, can i demand he pay me out the difference even though im in the 24 month period?
I mean not even communist countries work like that ...
Hedonismbot: Your latest performance was as delectable as dipping my bottom over and over into a bath of the silkiest oils and creams.
Well I'm no lawyer, but I don't think people would have a case even if the same theater they went to decides to lower the price on the movie the very next day because they couldn't get all tickets sold at the old price. I mean if companies weren't allowed to adjust their prices ... I just can't wrap my mind around that notion. But I think it would probably be bad for the economy or something.
I see these kind of "I'm gonna sue this MMORPG if they don't refund my 10 dollars" kind of posts for every MMORPG ever released. How many have been successfully sued? In the only specific case I can recall, the courts upheld Blizzard's EULA. (that was pre WoW if I remember correctly) Regardless of the above, how many lawyers do you think would want to get on board with this kind of case? Unless you are willing to pay thousands of dollars to finance the suit they would have to take the case with the understanding that they would get 1/3 or more of total money recovered. In order to actually litigate the case, such a lawyer needs to put up their own financial warchest in order to pay litigation costs and salaries of those involved. This means that big cases like this are a huge risk. Do you really think they are going to jump all over this kind of thing?
Are you a Pavlovian Fish Biscuit Addict? Get Help Now!
I will play no more MMORPGs until somethign good comes out!
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120703/11345519566/eu-court-says-yes-you-can-resell-your-software-even-if-software-company-says-you-cant.shtml
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/07/03/crikey-eu-rules-you-can-resell-downloaded-games/
Here is your case. And here the law itself.
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/BJNR001950896.html#BJNR001950896BJNG023401377
So if its not allowed by EULA to prohibit the sale of the software, you can now imagine that most EULA in this point are not valid.
http://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/bgb/__308.html
"4. die Vereinbarung eines Rechts des Verwenders, die versprochene Leistung zu ändern oder von ihr abzuweichen, wenn nicht die Vereinbarung der Änderung oder Abweichung unter Berücksichtigung der Interessen des Verwenders für den anderen Vertragsteil zumutbar ist;"
is interesting for the TO. It means, EULA rules about changing the service are not valid, if they are not reasonable for the customer.
So there is no real white and black, what is reasonable changing the lifetime sub into the new system. i absolutely agree that the TO is a little bit too squeamish. but i am not a judge.
This is not how you take legal action.
To take legal action you need spare time, money and knowledge.
* Need money? Earn it or create a campaign to crowdsource it.
* Don't have spare time? Well, then don't bother.
* Don't have knowledge? Learn, study, ask for help/guidance or hire a professional.
Posting on forums about how some company is shit and how THIS IS NOT WHAT YOU PAID FOR isnt going to take you closer to sueing them. What will take you closer is actually talking to lawyers, friends or relatives or paying for consultations, actually reading stuff, asking correctly formulated questions (at least something like "guys I'm going to sue Fancom over this what can you advise me"). Then making your case and going to court.
Good luck if you actually do try to sue Funcom over this. I agree "no refunds" policy is ridiculous. If you paid for sub and there is no sub anymore, then you deserve to get your money back because the service you paid for is no longer provided. Whatever shit they word in their EULA, there are laws against that. There should be. Even in corrupted burocratic unfair Russia we have laws against such brainfuck. If you confused your customer deliberatly, like, selling him a sub, advertising it as a sub, but instead in small letters selling him thin air or some bullshit, then even if you signed a contract that said you're paying them for some "thin air" or basically nothing, if they advertised a sub, and you can prove it, then you win and can void the contract (and thus get a refund). Basically, intentionally misleading or confusing from one side is considered a valid legal reason to void the contract.
However, if you bought a "lifetime" sub, then I guess you cannot really ask for refund because you clearly paid for something different than a 'lifetime" sub. Because its common sense that no game lives forever, no service lives forever, and thus when you buy a "lifetime service" you sign in for multiple limits of liability and so on and so forth. And there is no real way to refund lifetime sub since you cannot say which part of it you consumed yet (unlike sub, where if you paid for 10 months and in 3 months they switched to B2P, you can say you consumed 3 months but demand 7 months refunded).
Seems simple to me, Funcom offer a refund for any customer that is dissatisfied with the new arrangement. This all boils down to customer satisfaction, legalities aside. The fact the customer is 'stitched up' with legal bs so that they sign away their rights is sort of immaterial. Call for Funcom to do the right thing. Refund any customer that is unhappy with the new arrangement. Surely even the people that are happy with the new arrangement should be able to support that course of action.
So ... lets sum up.
Before the shift a subsciption gave you:
1. Access to full game and updates
2. ..... thats it
After the shift you get:
1. Access to full game and updates
2. Spare points to spare on vanity items
3. Free xp potions that gives you a bonus compared to the xp gain you had before
4. Time Accelerator (Clickable item which increases experience gain for defeating monsters by 100% for 1 hour, 16 hour cool-down) Once again for one hour you can get double of exp you were getting before the bussiness model shift
To me you gained a lot of stuff and lost nothing. However the reason you started this thread and the reason people like you find changes such as this somehow threatening is you are a bunch of internet rednecks.
You simply cant bear the fact OTHER PEOPLE now have free access to something you paid for. For some reason this is such a big factor to you you feel the need to go on the internets and bitch about it.
I advice people like you to either stop for a minute and thinkabout their character traits or get prefisional help.
Evaluating your own life based on what other people have is simply not healthy.
There are times when one must ask themselves is it my passion that truly frightens you? Or your own?
Don't forget item of the month. Both subs and lifetimers are better off after the change. They are getting more for their money, not less.
Funcom is doing the right thing, for the long term survival of the game. If this allows them to keep the game going, keep adding new content, and attract new players to the game, it benefits everyone interested in the game, including subscribers and lifetimers.
I'm not usually one to quote the Bible, but folks might want to take a look at this one, as I think it's pretty applicable:
http://gracethrufaith.com/selah/parables/the-parable-of-the-workers-in-the-field/
Hahaha lifetime subscription for a funcom mmo, glorious
If these things really worked i would be roling in money form all the lawsuits i filed against every single MMO company out there for making changed to payment models.
Go ahead do it, i have been reading these posts for years now.
Here's the thing, what did you get for the grandmaster pack? Unlimited access to the game and some bonus items. You still have all that, what you paid for hasnt changed, other people are now, just getting some of what you paid for, for free (or heavily discounted if you count the box price). Its like buying a new game at a store, 7 months later, you find out the store is doing a massive sale or heavily discounting the game for like $10, you dont get to go back and ask for the difference.
Although i'm sure im going to get some person coming here saying they did just that, if you, your results are not typical.
You left out the 'h'. It's "prefishional" help. Prefishional help is when you don't eat enough fish, and lack the omega 3 fatty acids and b vitamins and it makes you grumpy. I would have thought the word would be "fishional", but the pre is because the help is arriving prior to the arrival of the fish.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
So I wonder what the answer was when you contacted Funcom about your issue??
Well I have asked in the past and I told 'Funcom do not do refunds'. But perhaps things have changed, then perhaps not.