In my last post, I discussed about Terms of Service and how games like wartune refuses to enforce portions of it.  Not too long after I posted that article, I came across this:

 I initially was quite annoyed and appalled that one of the top cashers in the European servers is deciding to throw in the towel on wartune.  By quitting, you will lose 100% of your investment.  I bet this person has spent over $100,000 on this game.  Course by quitting you wouldn't spend any more money since wartune keeps adding junk to the game that forces heavy cashers like this person to spend in order to keep staying far ahead.  Selling an account would be a logical choice to at least get some money back.

 

However, the TOS on R2 specifically states that you are not allowed to sell your account and share your password.  Since R2 rarely enforces sharing of passwords, I can see why this wartune character wants to sell their password.  If this person does sell their account, I believe that all of the players on the eastern server will be scammed assuming R2 completely ignores this. Let me explain.

 

Since everyone has to agree to follow the TOS/TOU when you start a game, I expect the game to fully enforce it.  If they don't, many people will get an unfair advantage or "cheat" to get ahead thus affecting other players.  It could affect them positively or negatively.

 

It is quite obvious that people that this person does multi-player activities would benefit the most.  In group arena, the team that this character is on would probably win most or all of the battles (while the losing team being scammed in this case by losing to someone who should be inactive).  In other multi-player activities, the team that this character would run probably would get much further and get better rewards than if they went with someone else.  Again, this benefits the team but puts a disadvantage to other players especially people from other servers (which I will attempt to explain shortly). 

 

Many disadvantages on the server this player would be as follows:

- If the character plays an activity that the whole server gets to play and the rewards are based on damage dealt; all other players WILL get less rewards as this scammer is taking in some of the rewards.

-This character would steal a rank in arena thus everyone else would be ranked less and get less rewards because of it

- In guild battle, if this character plays, the opponent guild would have a harder time winning their battle (or if they can win at all) thus getting a loss where they should have won and getting less rewards because of it. (This would benefit the guild this character would be on)

 

Many disadvantage from cross-server include:

-If opponents would run into this character in cross-server arena, they would have a loss instead of facing a different team

- If you would run into this character is battleground, you may end up being an opponent which if you would have to fight this character, you would probably lose instead of fighting someone else

- This character will take up one of the top spots in class wars taking someone else spot which all other players would have a lower ranking than they would otherwise have

- This player would take up a rank in sylph arena where everyone else would have a lower rank because of this character

 

Do you see my point as to how this will negatively affect other players?  It seems to me that I am the only one bothered by this.  You say that this is a "game?"  Why then do you invest money onto this game you hypocrite (or time but I should talk)?!?   So I hope I convinced you to stop paying for a "free to play" game until they offer superior customer service.

 

 



TOP reason why you shouldn't cash in "free to play" games, failure to fully enforce TOS/TOU

Anytime you start a new game or create an account, 100% of the time you will be required that you will  need to check off that you "have read and agreed to the Terms of Service & Private Policy" in order to play a game or use a service.  The issue I have with that is each time I am forced to follow the TOS, I will end up finding people abusing TOS which can affect my status of my character (generally put me behind) or illegal advertisement in the game. This post, I will elaborate on some of r2's terms of service says and provide some examples of how they are NOT enforcing their TOS.


"R2Games does not recognize the transfer of our Games accounts or R2Games accounts. You may not purchase, sell, gift or trade any account, or offer to purchase, sell, gift or trade any account, and any such attempt shall be null and void."

Really?  Please explain to me why this account that I have posted below has not been banned from the game or "null and void" which I am not exactly sure what this means (since this character is clearly trying to sell their account by naming one of their characters BuyMyToonPM).

 



If they claim they don't have evidence, bs.  I will claim someone who intentionally names any of their characters like this is enough circumstantial evidence that they want to sell their character.  Also, I did a quick google search and I found this website that lists characters that are trying to sell their account. 

"You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password and are responsible for any harm resulting from your disclosure, or authorization of the disclosure of your password or from any person's use of your password to gain access to your account or account name. At no time should you respond to an online request for a password other than in connection with the log-on process to the Services. Should it be determined that you did reveal your password to any third parties, R2Games reserves the right to disable the account."

I will admit, this is tricky to interpret but basically I interpret this as you are NOT allowed to give out or share your password to anyone else.  I see people on wartune share their accounts all the time.  I also have seen people give their accounts to other people when they quit or sell them.  This is one of the most easy TOS to enforce because your Internet service Provider (IP) number is tracked.  Let's say you are from Seattle, Washington and you share your password from someone that lives in New York, New York and that person logs in an hour after you logged off, the IP address from New York will show.  (If you seriously think that someone can travel from Seattle to New York in an hour, I would love to know how)  If this is happening constantly, the account needs to be flagged, suspended, and banned. 
I will make an argument that other players who agreed to the TOS are being scammed when people share passwords.  If someone else is running another person's account when the TOS states you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your password, you will probably run into them at some point either by taking resources where you would get more if that account wasn't there.   You also could run into that account by a player vs player event where if they are stronger than you, you will lose thus you will lose out on resources than by fighting another player.  Also, people who share passwords will be able to get more multi-player done than they otherwise would putting people who follow TOS at an unfair advantage.  This list can keep on going and going.

"You are not permitted under any circumstances or for any reason to cheat or utilize third-party applications or code in order to win at, or gain game points or items from any of our Games."

This rule is basically similar to password sharing except that you are using a bot to run your character.

"R2Games shall be entitled to file a claim for monetary compensation from anyone deemed to have violated these rules in any way.
You agree not to design, disseminate or use any third party programs designed to change any Game played on R2Games site, nor assist in the design of a third party program that changes any Game played on the site. You will be responsible for any damages to R2Games resulting from any of your use, dissemination or design of such programs, and you agree to pay R2Games liquidated damages in the sum of Hundred Thousand Dollars for each such program, or in the sum of One Thousand Dollars for each time you use a program."

You threaten people in your TOS that they must pay  $100,000 for liquidation damage but you refuse to enforce other portions of TOS?  Really?  Where is a lawyer!!!!?

"You may not:
1) Reverse-engineer, decompile or modify any of the game clients and use it in any way.
2) Exploit any cheats or errors which you find in our service. Any cheats or errors you discover must be reported immediately to us.
3) Attempt to access any other user's account.
4) Misuse any of our customer service facilities.
5) Deliberately enter false information into any of the forms on our website.
6) Encourage, or attempt to trick other players into breaking our rules."

Interesting.... attempt to access any other user's account is on here which basically another way of saying you are to keep your password confidential.  I also find interesting on exploiting any errors.  Sometimes someone may find an "error" and not realize that it is a game "error" or bug or when people find a game error, they won't fix it or ban people for abusing it (this happened multiple times to me on wartune where people using errors to get ahead on the game thus causing my character to lose out on resources)

"You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless R2Games, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, representatives, and third party providers to the site from and against all claims, losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms by you. R2Games reserves the right to assume, at its sole expense, the exclusive defense and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with R2Games in asserting any available defenses."

Nice double standard.... it seems you can't sue R2 for damages but boy they sure can come after you if you "damage" their service.  Where is a lawyer!!!!!!?


Since games like Wartune are "free to play" they should be doing everything in their power to fully enforce the TOS to get the best gaming experience possible to motivate you to buy game items or upgrade.... but they don't.  It's sad to see people constantly put up with their lack of enforcement while people still spend, spend, spend.  They are the real losers since they don't care that they are being scammed (or they could be scamming players at the same time).  Either way, always demand superior customer service before playing into a "free to play" game!!!!!

Even games that require monthly subscriptons fee's scam players

Apparently Blizzard has finally decided to ban accounts on the game World of Warcraft (WoW). My comment to blizzard..... how long have you known about this?   You allowed this crap to go on for HOW long?  You were scamming gamers that were PAYING a monthly subscription fee to play this game for how long?  I am utterly disgusted that blizzard allowed "cheaters" (I prefer to call them "TOS violators") to play s long as they did before they finally suspended cheater?

 I know people who was very impressed with blizzard's customer service.  Ever since I found out about this story, they lost their credibility.  I will admit that I have no idea how long these players was using bots to get ahead in their game but if they are banning over 100,000 accounts, I suspect that these bots have been going on for I beat over a year..... and they decide to act on it now?

I will at least give blizzard some credit for enforcing their TOS but because of this, I will encourage anyone who plays any game where paying cash to buy in-game currency and/or anyone who plays a game that require a monthly subscription fee SHOULD CONTACT A LAWYER to know what rights you have if your game that you are playing fails to enforce their Terms of Service to the fullest expect because I feel that it is a complete SCAM, and in a way, being the victim of Insider Trading.

In my opinion, blizzard should also go further and compensate any player who was affected by these bot either by giving refunds and/or game rewards that they lost because of the bots.  In order for players to play their game, they had to check off that they will agree and follow their Terms of Service!

Speaking of Terms of Service, I will definitely be discussing that more in-depth in a future post.