Kotaku: Illinois Law spurred by FFXI

[Rowe]

http://kotaku.com/5032004/illinois-l...llation-issues

http://www.alleyinsider.com/2008/7/f...ads-to-new-law


Yes FFXI cancelation is so complicated, that's the only reason I've been playing since before PS2 launch! I can't figure out how to cancel.

[Wizerd]

Rofl, wow. I thought it was really easy to cancel FFXI. If you cancel your IDs, you don't pay. And then beyond that, there's an option on POL to close out your POL account, isn't there? <_<

[Odesseiron]

You beat me to posting this. I was kinda wowed. Uhh.. just click cancel content ID.. and you're set at the next billing cycle. Not rocket science.

[Niiro]

People in Illinois are stupid.

[Turambar]

Posted 45 minutes before this thread in General Discussion, since it's not gameplay (or even necessarily FFXI) related.

Still a ridiculous story.

[Liseth]

I guess it could be confusing for someone with half a brain, or couldn't read...because that's all it takes to be able to understand how to cancel your account. I wonder what the average person's reading comprehension is these days...

[The Blackrose]

People in Illinois are stupid.

I second that. One of these days I want to make it my mission to see how many I can run off of I-43.

[Kaddisfly]

Just saw this was already posted in the Newbie section. Mods please remove this, thanks.

*Copy/Pasted from Kotaku*

Final Fantasy XI
Online Illinois Law Spurred By Final Fantasy XI Cancellation Issues

Canceling your subscription to Final Fantasy XI isn't easy. Illinois resident Alex Edwards found this out after playing the game for a few months. He couldn't cancel online, and no phone number was readily apparent. Eventually his parents got the number off their credit card statement and managed to cancel the account after being on hold for 45 minutes, but this wasn't good enough for Alex or his parents, one of which - Frank Edwards - is an alderman in Springfield, Illinois and a good friend of his local State Rep. To make a long story short, Illinois just passed a law that makes Final Fantasy XI illegal.

Well not FFXI specifically, but the amendment to the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act passed this week makes it an unlawful business practice to run an internet gaming service without some way of canceling the service online, without requiring customers to call a phone number or mail a letter. Hit the jump for the full synopsis of the law.

Provides that an Internet gaming service provider that provides service to a consumer, for home and personal use, for a stated term that is automatically renewed for another term unless a consumer cancels the service must give a consumer who is an Illinois resident: (1) a secure method at the Internet gaming service provider's web site that the consumer may use to cancel the service, which method shall not require the consumer to make a telephone call or send U.S. Postal Service mail to effectuate the cancellation; and (2) instructions that the consumer may follow to cancel the service at the Internet gaming service provider's web site.

Square Enix's course here is pretty clear. Cancel the accounts of anyone living in Illinois. That'll show em!

Haha

[Bugpop]

It can be argued that the Playonline viewer fulfills this requirement--that an online gaming company must provide a way of cancelling the service online. I don't see anything that would cause Illinois FFXI players to worry.

[Ashira]

It can be argued that the Playonline viewer fulfills this requirement--that an online gaming company must provide a way of cancelling the service online. I don't see anything that would cause Illinois FFXI players to worry.

The point is that the people in question were just retarded and couldn't figure out HOW to cancel, couldn't figure out how to read a FAQ, didn't see the phone # plastered all over the service/support pages on the POL site, and decided to complain to their representative, who then, because of a game that wouldn't even violate any of these laws, wasted the state govenment's time and money with the creation and whatnot of a bill and stuff to pass into law, when the thing that prompted it was user stupidity, not any fallacy on the part of the company. It's rather funny.

[The Blackrose]

The point is that the people in question were just retarded and couldn't figure out HOW to cancel, couldn't figure out how to read a FAQ, didn't see the phone # plastered all over the service/support pages on the POL site, and decided to complain to their representative, who then, because of a game that wouldn't even violate any of these laws and didn't bother to do his homework, wasted the state govenment's time and money with the creation and whatnot of a bill and stuff to pass into law, when the thing that prompted it was user stupidity, not any fallacy on the part of the company. It's rather funny.

Missed one little thing, although it's normally implied if the subject is a politican.

[Ashira]

I say we all write a few letters to editors of newspapers in Springfield or IL in general; I find it kinda funny.

Here:
http://service.sj-r.com/forms/letters.asp

:D

[Mizango]

Wow...

[Zosi]

Hate hate hate hate it when people use "online" to mean "on the web". It's perfectly possible to cancel "online". It's not possible to cancel via a web page. It's particularly stupid when you realize that you don't play FFXI via a web page, so it should be obvious even to retards from Illinois that there's more to "the Internet" and "online" than just web pages.

[Marcin]

lol, how stupid are people these days ;-;

[Seraph]

how i cancel for subscription

[Kaddisfly]

lol, how stupid are people these days ;-;

Stupid enough to begin making the news heh

[Spekkio]

perhaps a dumb question, but if SE doesn't have a presence in IL, would the law even affect them? it seems to me that if not, it's interstate commerce and IL laws would have a hard time attempting to assert themselves against SE. i'm not a lawyer though, so i could be completely off base on this.

[Mizango]

how i cancel for subscription

Pretty much summed it up lol.

[Pergo]

i merged both threads into the advanced one.