MEMBER BLOG

So I have never been one for pay-as-you-play games.  The concept has kind of missed me.  However, when I played the trial subscription to the highly-to-annoyingly complicated Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game EVE Online I started to get it: this game requires constant maintenance, and therefore needs a constant flow of cash into the system.  So, after getting hooked, I naturally purchased a three month subscription for $39.00. 

It seemed like a deal to me.  I played it frequently, therefore paying a little more than ten dollars a month did not seem like too much of a waste.  So for about a month and a half I was a satisfied EVE player (customer?).

Then life came at me fast.  I not only stopped playing EVE Online due to lack of time but I quit playing games in general.  Assuming my account would just expire after the three month period, I ignored my account.  Deleted the game off of my PC.

Boy was I wrong.

Now, here I am, two days after EVE Online charged me another $39.00 for another three month subscription to a game I had completely forgotten about. 

I understand that a frequent player to an MMO would like to have their subscription automatically renewed for convenience.  But in this day and age, I am quite certain that technology is to the point that EVE Online could have clearly seen that I have not played the game in over a month.  I mean to automatically charge my credit card with no warning is a fat load of B.S. to me. Even if I was a constant player, a little notification would be nice.

Even my cell phone doesn't automatically charge me.

Now, maybe I'm wrong.  Maybe I could have set up my account so they would not automatically charge me.  But if there were such an option, it certainly was not clear enough to me or else I would not likely be in this predicament.  EVE Online doesn't even have telephone support!!

Am I the only one who is pissed at this obvious robbery?  I can't be the only victim of auto-pay, and I am willing to bet that EVE Online is not the only MMO that does this. 

I'm quite positive that there must have been some kind of language about this auto-pay in the contract I clicked to agree to, but a stronger disclaimer cannot be too much to ask for.