Anyone have a problem with the requirement that you must sign-up for a subscription or purchase a game card in order to actually receive your "included" thirty days of game time?
Quite apart from the manipulative business practices that it reflects, is the very practical problem of what to do if you choose not to use a credit card and need more than eight days to decide whether the game is enjoyable enough to be worth paying for on a monthly basis. I'd like to be able to try the game out for thirty days--and thought I had paid for that amount of time, but it turns out that I have to give Bethesda/Zenimax my credit card info or actually buy a game time card in order to receive that thirty days. As is my right, I choose not to have my credit card information stored on their server. Frankly, I don't trust any of the on-line companies after narrowly escaping major financial losses from my association with Amazon, Chase and Citibank (all three have had their servers compromised within the past couple of years). That's three of the largest and richest businesses on earth and if they can't protect their customer's data, why should I expect a relatively small company like with Bethesda or Zenimax to do any better? I do not maintain credit cards any longer--what I have is a debit card tied to my bank account and giving access to ALL my money. At one time, I was able to maintain a special bank account just for use on-line, in which I deposited just enough to maintain a small balance and cover the charges that I knew would be made against it, but the banks did away with free accounts except with huge minimum balances or direct deposit--well I only get paid from one source on a regular basis, so I had to give up that dedicated on-line account. That leaves me with one card--tied to all my money. I would be foolish to trust my entire financial well-being to a game company. So, I choose to pay with game cards. So now, not only did I have to buy a fairly expensive game client, but in order to honestly give the game a chance, I have to spend another $15 on top of that and possibly end-up with thirty days of game time for a game I decide not to play.
I want to support the guild's move to a new game, but this move to ESO is not looking like a good one so far and being forced to buy extra time before I have a chance to fully appraise the game is making it even more difficult. Sorry to be so negative, everyone, but like most people, I really hate being pushed into things. If playing on-line games was my number one priority in life, then it wouldn't be a difficult decision, but these games are only a part of my life--and not the largest part--so I have to approach them in a different way than those of you who "live on-line" in MMPOGs.
This is as much a "vent" as anything, but if I suddenly seem to disappear from this game, at least I will have articulated ahead of time the reason for that disappearance.
