It’s fun to joke about issues such as your billing system imploding and taking a couple hundred dollars per person with it, but at the end of the day we really need to get down to brass tacks and remind ourselves of those who are being affected by this incident, to whom this is anything but funny. People who may miss payments on houses, credit cards, insurance, and more during the refund process. People who may be living paycheck to paycheck who needed that hundred dollars to buy groceries. People who were hit by major overdraft fees, who now have to explain the situation to their bank and, hopefully, get the fees reversed. Yes, it was the fault of the billing company, and no this was not Mythic’s doing, but Mythic will pay the price for it. When the inevitable lawsuits begin over players whose banks refused to refund overdraft fees, it will be Mythic they will target.
One thing I have always talked about with MMOs is that unlike other genres of video games, MMOs truly transcend the boundary between video games and “real life.” They are not only an investment of time and money, but our personalities. We put great care into creating and then molding our creation to meet our vision, and enter a world where many of us can feel safe from everyday life. When an event like this occurs, we lose our attachment, and our bond with our characters and the world is shaken to its knees.
Right now, Mythic should be operating under the impression that all trust is gone. When they step into the proverbial room, it is not their “friends” they are talking to, but an unruly gang of bikers swinging bats and wielding pistols, who are going to need a lot more than a Jack and a couple free games of pool before their nerves are calmed.
A lawsuit, at this point, is almost inevitable. A mass exodus? Absolutely in the cards, from both Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online players. The players who were affected are likely not going to stick around, and those who were not affected will likely not want to chance it happening again. Mythic’s response to this is going to be crucial to their current and future operations. A simple sorry and a free month is not going to put people at ease. Mythic is going to be obligated to pay back any overdraft fees that banks refuse to refund.
While we’re on the topic of off-color jokes, as an avid Mortal Online fan I had to laugh at this comment:
“If it had been Star Vault making the account error, they would have simply replied with “Your carebear bank account just can’t handle our hardcore billing system. Go back to WoW, noob!”
-Hypothetical, satirical view on what Star Vault might have said.
More on the Mythic self-nuking billing system as it appears.
MMO Fallout 