The Elder Scrolls Online Players Hit By Billing Bombshell

Iris Ophelia over at New World Notes feels that The Elder Scrolls Online is a good MMO, but not a good Elder Scrolls game. Iris didn’t enjoy the beta but since the game went live, she has very much enjoyed it, explaining that something changed :

The very first thing that I will tell you about my time with The Elder Scrolls Online is how much I absolutely hated it during the beta. Playing it was like a chore — gaming housework I had to do — and I just wasn’t having fun, full stop. The second thing I will tell you is that at some point, that changed. Since Head-Start access opened last week, I’ve spent every day eagerly anticipating the moment when my work is done and I’m free to play more. It’s hard to pin down exactly why I’ve done a complete 180, but I think it has something to do with adjusting my expectations.

Over at SLUniverse, Cristiano Midnight agrees with Iris regarding the beta to live game change over, saying : “After playing it for the past week, I have to admit I’ve been pleasantly surprised how much I enjoy it, as I hated the beta.

However, not everyone is having fun and feeling the love. One of the controversial aspects of The Elder Scrolls Online has been the subscription model, this is why it’s also known as The Elder Subscription Online, as a subscription only model is definitely not the way MMO’s are heading these days. However there’s another issue with the subscription, one that has players who have paid for the game and want to subscribe up in arms, as reported by Kotaku : Players Upset Over The Elder Scrolls Online’s Subscription System. This is different to people being upset about the existence of a subscription model, this is a tale of woe about how players who tried to subscribe after they had bought the game and found their pre-authorisation for a subscription payment method failed.

Let’s just rewind a little here, the game comes with 30 days of subscription, players have paid for this, and yet they can’t get in because their future subscription payment method, for a subscription that is not yet due, is failing. In some cases players admit that this is because they don’t have enough funds in their account to cover that next subscription payment, as one player explains in a heated forum thread :

So basically, because I only have about $12 in my bank (I’m between paydays), I’m not going to be able to play the game I ALREADY PAID FOR until next week when I have enough to cover the authorization?

What kind of nonsense is this!?

That is an extremely fair question. The forum thread has the usual features of a lot of heated forum threads, people not understanding the issue, people preaching to others, people getting annoyed about people preaching, people pointing to the TOS yadda yadda yadda, but amidst it all is what appears to be a very odd way of doing business. I have never known an MMO pre-authorise, even on a temporary basis, the full amount for the next subscription period.

The way it appears to be working is that in order to verify a payment method is valid, Zenimax are charging the full fee for the next subscription period and then returning the money. They are not taking the money in advance and keeping it, but they should not need to do this to verify a payment method.

Zenimax are aware of the issue and one of their moderators posted information, including :

We’ll work with you to ensure you have access to your included 30 days of game time.

Please ensure that you have attempted to enter payment information and had the transaction fail due to lack of funds before submitting a help request. We will get you into the game and playing as soon as possible.

People have reported that this has worked and that they’ve managed to be able to get into the game to enjoy the 30 days of subscription they purchased as part of the game. This all appears to be a very tawdry affair and is certainly leaving a bad taste, they really need to fix this.


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