I disagree that it is a scam, and it's also great for credit card holders to avoid HUGE headaches.
I won't name names, but Pony Online Entertainment last year had some problem with their billing system that caused my credit card to get locked down due to suspected fraud. This became a very large problem as housing related bills that were charged to my card got declined. It took a solid day to get things ironed out, all from a problem that should never have happened in the first place.
Also, I believe that EVE Online actively encourages the trade of prepaid cards for in-game money, which is handy for anyone, not just people that do not have access to credit cards.
Prepaid cards for managing RMT (Real Money Transactions) in MMO's or other games is a nice idea as it allows for instant conversion from RMT to virtual money and can be traded in game for virtual cash or account play time.
If I were to start an MMO now, I'd include RMT and game cards in the business model, as these can add a lot of money to the bottom line and keep subscribers subscribed. I'd allow game cards to be bought and sold openly in the player market. Say player X wants in game money, so he buys X number of game cards from my game's online store using a credit card that he can then post on an in-game auction house for players to purchase using virtual money. Player X gets his virtual money, the purchaser gets account playtime and everyone walks away happy. Or perhaps a player want a secure method of using RMT to buy gear or virtual money in game; he or she can go down to local video game store and buy a game card or two and turn that into armor or virtual gold or whatever without the risk of exposing credit cards to questionable 3rd parties.
Bottom line is that this is a good idea and it can earn the developer of said game a pretty solid source of revenue outside the normal $15 monthy subscription.
Erm, how is my original post flamebait? It was merely a Carlinesque question about pre paid. Like pre heating an oven? How do you pre heat an oven? In the same token how do you pre pay for a game card? Pay for it via CC prior to picking it up, thus obviating the purpose?:)
I *do not* want a car powered by a wind turbine. Overhead power lines, OTHER wind powered cars, lack of go motion whilst in still air are but a few problems.
We've got to flex some of our engineering muscle in front of our Martian friends so they will less inclined to invade us. In this light, clearly this > bouncing beach ball delivery.
Maybe have an external speaker system that blasts Ride of the Valkyries during descent, too.
The Brits did something like that a few years ago...impromptu mission to study Mars surface via high energy impact. Beagle 2 was the name of the impact device.
I can't speak for the accuracy of MMOGCharts, but there's a huge doubt that EQ1 and EQ2 have 200k subs each. 125k for each game is a pretty good (albeit unsupported) number based upon the observations of myself and friends that still play EQ1. I played EQ2 for two years before I got sick of the SOEness of doing things and the rudderless sailing of the crew that worked on it...and apparently so did a lot of other people. My server went from 3 hardcore raiding guilds to zero, and some tops end guilds were so desperate for bodies that they were paying for server transfers. The exodus from EQ2 was so rapid it was shocking.
I can imagine that the problem of hacked accounts is *huge* and primarily a problem on the user's end. I'd wager a guess that Blizzard's largest demographic sometimes also engages in P2P/Warez in conjunction with poor security habits. Trojan-laden warez, account sharing, piss-poor passwords and wide-open PC's; users leave themselves wide open to getting their virtual goodies ransacked and run off with.
I played WoW for 4 months a few years ago and was surprised at the number of trojans packed in the executable installers of some popular UI mods.It wasn't a very clever(but it was effective)way of farming usernames and passwords. Considering the global reach and sheer numbers of people playing WoW, and the virtual goods for real life cash trade, I wouldn't be surprised to learn about WoW-specific trojans running around in the wild. Some people make it easy for the bad guys; using the same login details on WoW related forums as their actual wow account, to purchasing gold and other items from shady websites (good way of farming cc numbers, shady websites also use cc info to pay for their own account time, leading to charge backs and other hassles)to just flat out sharing their details willy-nilly with anyone half trusting.
And there's no evil in Blizzard charging two cups of coffee for an extra layer of protection. I'm sure they've spent oodles and oodles of cash in the past dealing with these issues, so there's nothing wrong with recouping past costs and helping to avoid a portion of future expenditures.
I would appreciate separate user names and passwords for account management and character login, too.
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I disagree that it is a scam, and it's also great for credit card holders to avoid HUGE headaches.
I won't name names, but Pony Online Entertainment last year had some problem with their billing system that caused my credit card to get locked down due to suspected fraud. This became a very large problem as housing related bills that were charged to my card got declined. It took a solid day to get things ironed out, all from a problem that should never have happened in the first place.
Also, I believe that EVE Online actively encourages the trade of prepaid cards for in-game money, which is handy for anyone, not just people that do not have access to credit cards.
Prepaid cards for managing RMT (Real Money Transactions) in MMO's or other games is a nice idea as it allows for instant conversion from RMT to virtual money and can be traded in game for virtual cash or account play time.
If I were to start an MMO now, I'd include RMT and game cards in the business model, as these can add a lot of money to the bottom line and keep subscribers subscribed. I'd allow game cards to be bought and sold openly in the player market. Say player X wants in game money, so he buys X number of game cards from my game's online store using a credit card that he can then post on an in-game auction house for players to purchase using virtual money. Player X gets his virtual money, the purchaser gets account playtime and everyone walks away happy. Or perhaps a player want a secure method of using RMT to buy gear or virtual money in game; he or she can go down to local video game store and buy a game card or two and turn that into armor or virtual gold or whatever without the risk of exposing credit cards to questionable 3rd parties.
Bottom line is that this is a good idea and it can earn the developer of said game a pretty solid source of revenue outside the normal $15 monthy subscription.
Erm, how is my original post flamebait? It was merely a Carlinesque question about pre paid. Like pre heating an oven? How do you pre heat an oven? In the same token how do you pre pay for a game card? Pay for it via CC prior to picking it up, thus obviating the purpose? :)
Pre paid? Does that mean someone already paid for them and they are free?
Sweet, now it's big sisters and a little daddy. :)
I *do not* want a car powered by a wind turbine. Overhead power lines, OTHER wind powered cars, lack of go motion whilst in still air are but a few problems.
We've got to flex some of our engineering muscle in front of our Martian friends so they will less inclined to invade us. In this light, clearly this > bouncing beach ball delivery.
Maybe have an external speaker system that blasts Ride of the Valkyries during descent, too.
Always a bad move basing a currency upon poorly made Italian cars.
Use another finger. You've got ten of them.
From there, ten toes.
The Brits did something like that a few years ago...impromptu mission to study Mars surface via high energy impact. Beagle 2 was the name of the impact device.
Wow, what a boring science mission.
I say we attack them instead and keep the planet for ourselves.
I gather that he spent a lot of time jacking into those lines!
Running the risk of getting modded down, here's the COS's viewpoint on the entire matter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
In Soviet Russia, the space program launched you!
Er, wait...
It's available for download on their main page. This seems to me that they really are releasing it to the public.
Nice bug.
Try pasting it from the clipboard...simple right click kills it.
Between 20-30 GB/month for $50.
They've also patented the color blue.
Why would an OS that prides itself on being free beg for subsidies?
I can't speak for the accuracy of MMOGCharts, but there's a huge doubt that EQ1 and EQ2 have 200k subs each. 125k for each game is a pretty good (albeit unsupported) number based upon the observations of myself and friends that still play EQ1. I played EQ2 for two years before I got sick of the SOEness of doing things and the rudderless sailing of the crew that worked on it...and apparently so did a lot of other people. My server went from 3 hardcore raiding guilds to zero, and some tops end guilds were so desperate for bodies that they were paying for server transfers. The exodus from EQ2 was so rapid it was shocking.
So, I'd wager 250k between the two.
I have isolated a compound in my lab. I call it the Politiquasicrystal. I have determined that it can bend the truth with no expenditure of energy.
I read the header as, "Wife swapping software to protect your privates."
Here's a copy on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_moia-oVI
The Earth should install Adobe Flash Player, then it would be completely silent unless aliens install the plug-in and the server isn't /.'d.
I can imagine that the problem of hacked accounts is *huge* and primarily a problem on the user's end. I'd wager a guess that Blizzard's largest demographic sometimes also engages in P2P/Warez in conjunction with poor security habits. Trojan-laden warez, account sharing, piss-poor passwords and wide-open PC's; users leave themselves wide open to getting their virtual goodies ransacked and run off with.
I played WoW for 4 months a few years ago and was surprised at the number of trojans packed in the executable installers of some popular UI mods.It wasn't a very clever(but it was effective)way of farming usernames and passwords. Considering the global reach and sheer numbers of people playing WoW, and the virtual goods for real life cash trade, I wouldn't be surprised to learn about WoW-specific trojans running around in the wild. Some people make it easy for the bad guys; using the same login details on WoW related forums as their actual wow account, to purchasing gold and other items from shady websites (good way of farming cc numbers, shady websites also use cc info to pay for their own account time, leading to charge backs and other hassles)to just flat out sharing their details willy-nilly with anyone half trusting.
And there's no evil in Blizzard charging two cups of coffee for an extra layer of protection. I'm sure they've spent oodles and oodles of cash in the past dealing with these issues, so there's nothing wrong with recouping past costs and helping to avoid a portion of future expenditures.
I would appreciate separate user names and passwords for account management and character login, too.
De-Mail works for me. ;)