Playstation Credit Card: New Arbitration Rules, Late Fees, and Your Personal Info


Do you have a Playstation credit card? Keep reading.

Those of you who have Playstation credit cards will be getting an email shortly that you will most likely throw out because it says “important information about changes to your Playstation Card Account” and who ever pays attention to that boring garbage? Thankfully you have me, budding lawyer, to read the boring documents for you. You might also have opened the mail because it was sent by Comenity Bank, and they have nothing to do with the Playstation credit card. Well they didn’t anyway.

Comenity Bank is taking over Playstation’s credit card from Capital One, maybe because of that massive data breach. This all goes into effect in November 2019. Comenity is a brand under Alliance Data Card Services and used to be known as World Financial Capital Bank and World Financial Network [National] Bank. You may remember them because in 2011 company executives were called in to testify to Congress about a data breach.

So what does this change mean for you, you savvy handsome consumer? Well it means that your Capital One card is going away as of November 9 when it will be shut off and fully replaced with the new Playstation card. It also means that your Capital One Premium Access is going away. You will of course need to update your automatic payments as your new card will have different numbers and expiration dates. Paperless billing will need to be reset.

Those of you worried that you might need to sue Comenity Bank at some point in the future should be aware that while Capital One did not have forced arbitration, Comenity Bank absolutely does. Comenity won’t demand arbitration for small claims court lawsuits. Thankfully you have the right to reject the arbitration provision. Unfortunately it isn’t as easy as logging in and clicking a button. Thankfully it’s a lot easier than you may think. You don’t even need to consult an attorney.

Just fill out this Madlib with your information:

Your name
Your Address
Your Phone Number

Comenity Bank
PO Box 182422
Columbus Ohio, 43218-2422

To whom it may concern,

I, [insert name], reject the agreement to arbitrate as is my right in section C(1) of the Arbitration and Jury Waiver of the Dispute Resolution Provisions of the terms of service. Please confirm receipt of this letter and update my account accordingly.

[First name, last name]
[Account Number(s)]
[Billing Address]
[Signature]

Thank you,
[Your name]

Important to note is that you must sign the paper otherwise it is not binding. If there are multiple people on the card, they must all sign. It must also be sent within 30 calendar days after you receive notice that you have a right to reject the arbitration provision. In other words, when you receive this letter you probably threw out. Mail your notice here:

Comenity Bank
PO Box 182422
Columbus Ohio, 43218-2422

So why would you opt to arbitrate instead? Wellllllllll Comenity does have a provision that any arbitration hearing must take place in a location reasonably convenient to you. Comenity will also pay any and all fees of the arbitration including the arbitrator, reasonable attorneys fees and expert fees if you prevail, if it is required to enforce the arbitration, or if the law requires it. If you lose, you’re on your own which granted is probably still cheaper than a trial. It still should be noted that rejecting the arbitration agreement does not mean you lose the right to arbitration. But by not rejecting it, you definitely lose your right to a jury trial.

In regard to your personal information, Comenity Bank can and will share personal information and you can’t opt out of all of it. For example Comenity uses your personal data for processing transactions, reporting to credit bureaus, offering their own products to you, joint marketing with other financial institutions, and providing affiliates with information about your transactions and experiences. You can’t opt out of any of that.

You can opt out of information being provided to affiliates regarding “information about your creditworthiness” as well as information allowing affiliates and nonaffiliates to market to you. In order to limit your sharing, call 1-800-220-1181 (or 1-877-287-5012, the notice isn’t clear). For Capital One crossovers, you have 30 days until Comenity starts sharing your details. If you cancel your card without opting out, they will still share your info.

Finally the provisions are changing regarding late fees. For most people the late fee on the Playstation Credit Card should be $35. Under Comenity the late fee will be $29 for the first occurrence and then $40 for any subsequent occurrences within six billing periods.

So if you have a Playstation credit card, keep an eye on your mail. You’re going to need to get that rejection letter in in a timely manner otherwise you will lose your right to a jury trial.

Black Desert Sees Second Major Update


Pearly Abyss this week launched the second major update for Black Desert on Playstation 4.

The update introduces Awakening status for all ten classes, as well as two new classes and a new region. Awakening is a feature that permanently boosts a character’s power and allows them to unlock new skills and abilities. The two new classes being added are the Lahn and Ninja while the new region accessible to players is the Valencia desert region.

More information can be found at the official website.

Gamestop Recalls Fallout 76 Helmet Due To Mold Exposure


You didn’t think the Fallout 76…fallout was over, did you? From broken promises to broken mechanics, broken merchandise, and overall just an embarrassment to Bethesda, Fallout 76 continues its trek down “how can this get worse” avenue with the latest news this week. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has posted a recall notice for Fallout 76’s T-51b Power Armor helmet. Forget a low quality canvas bag, how about a $150 helmet that could (theoretically) kill you?

Yes, Gamestop is recalling the T-51b collector power armor helmet due to concerns of mold being present in the fabric inserts.

“Mold can be present on the fabric insert inside the helmet, posing a risk of respiratory or other infections in individuals with compromised immune systems, damaged lungs or an allergy to mold.”

The CPSC notes that there have been no reported incidents/injuries related to the product at this time. Owners of the helmet are being urged to stop playing with it and immediately call Gamestop in order to procure a refund. Gamestop is apparently reaching out to all known customers so you might be getting a phone call within the next couple of weeks.

Source: CPSC

ArcheAge Unchained Gets Chained To An October Delay


ArcheAge Unchained is all set to launch on September 30, by which I mean it is all set to launch on October 15.

The delay was announced just a couple of days ago on Gamigo’s stream and sent out some PR emails afterward confirming that the buy to play sidestep will indeed be delayed until mid next month.

“The gamigo group announces that the release date of the anticipated Online-MMORPG ArcheAge: Unchained has been moved to October 15th, 2019. The German publisher intends to prolong the Quality Assurance phase to ensure the in-game mechanics are fairly balanced and that new features, such as the ArchePass, are implemented properly. The decision is based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback from the community, which had a strong influence on the development of ArcheAge: Unchained since its announcement.”

Those of you who really don’t want to watch the livestream can just read the cliffnotes here. There are some interesting points such as Gamigo taking a much harder stand on gold buyers as well as mod users in Unchained (which begs the question on why they aren’t taking a stand on the standard servers).

ArcheAge Unchained is a buy to play side-project being launched by Gamigo. It promises to remove the pay to win aspects that are in the live version of ArcheAge and the two games will run side-by-side.

Column: Planetside Arena and the Friday Night Whatevers


It’s Friday night! I’m playing a few rounds of H1Z1 to get my anger on before throwing my Gamefly rental of Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a good weekend film to watch.

I’m going to tell you my wonderful readers what I told Daybreak before Planetside Arena launched into Early Access this week: It’s a neat concept that definitely has something going for it, but your biggest struggle is going to be convincing people to play it. What I didn’t tell them because I didn’t want to seem to blunt or immediately burn bridges with the new PR people (the old ones stopped talking to me) is that they have an uphill battle for two reasons: First, they are Daybreak Game Company. Second, it’s a free to play battle royale game.

I’ll be frank; Daybreak Game Company doesn’t have a great reputation as far as battle royale games go considering how badly they managed to mess up Z1 Battle Royale and H1Z1 and grasp failure from the hands of market dominance in both cases. There are a lot of people still very angry about Daybreak’s continued mismanagement of the PS4 H1Z1 and I should know. I’m one of them. Expect an H1Z1 season 5 roundup at some point in the future. Actually Daybreak doesn’t have a great reputation period. It just seems like large swaths of people that they’ve come across have come away feeling burned in one way or another. Everquest players, Planetside players, H1Z1 players, the ones hanging on to those games that shut down like ten years ago. All of them. Daybreak couldn’t have a lower public perception if John Smedley was still employed and inviting people to DDOS the servers again.

Second; it’s a free to play battle royale game in a market full to the brim. Sure, Planetside Arena has massive battles with upwards of 300 people. Is it filling them up? Nah. We’re in the opening Friday night and the game is having trouble keeping above 700 people concurrently. There are over 1,300 people playing Planetside 2, nearly double the amount in Planetside Arena and one of those games is seven years old while the other should be getting its early access launch rush. Over on the Twitch side of things, Planetside Arena has 434 viewers as of this publishing. You know what has more? H1Z1. So people aren’t playing and they aren’t really interested in watching and again, we’re in weekend #1.

And ultimately Planetside Arena isn’t even that bad of a game, which is why I’m sitting here typing about it at nearly 1am on a Saturday when I could be doing weekend stuff like sleeping. My big fear with Planetside Arena is that it would release to a shrug and a “whatever,” and that appears to be exactly what is happening. Who knows, maybe Daybreak can pull it around and convince people to actually play the game. They haven’t managed it with the streamers, but after all this is just weekend #1 and who ever said you only get one chance at a launch?

Oh right.

Play Funcom’s Conan Threesome Free Over The Weekend


If you’ve ever wanted to play all three of Funcom’s Conan games and not have to pay anything for the privilege, you’re in luck. Starting September 19 and running through September 23, you can download Conan Exiles and Conan Unconquered. You can also play Age of Conan which was already free to play, but just pretend that it’s one of those play now keep forever deals that you can play whenever and also keep.

So if your taste is MMO, tower defense, or survival sandbox, you’re in for a treat this weekend.

Planetside Arena Launches On Steam


Planetside Arena is here. The battle royale spinoff by Daybreak Game Company launched today, September 19, 2019 and is available completely free to play.

Early Access launches with squad mode (12 player teams) and teams mode (3 players per team) with matches up to 300 players. The main call of Planetside Arena, the gargantuan massive clash mode, will be available in Q2 2020 when the game fully launches and will feature matches of up to 1,000 people. Hopefully the Daybreak team can keep the ball rolling until that time.

Check it out at the link below.

Source: Steam

Steam Library Beta Shows Life After Clickbait Spam


The new visual update for Steam is here! Well the beta is, anyhow. You can download the beta by going to your settings and opting into the beta branch of the Steam client. It’s very simple and doesn’t require any external downloads unlike the previous trick to get ahold of the early version.

The new Steam is all about ease of use. Click on any game and you’ll see all sorts of information provided by the developer. See your achievements, your trading cards, DLC releases, timed events. Anything your heart desires and more that you might have had to navigate through multiple windows to find before is now in one easy place. What isn’t there? The clickbait spam.

One big complaint that users have had of the Steam News section for each game is that Valve thought people really wanted to see clickbait spam from bloggers like Rock, Paper, Shotgun, PC Gamer, etc. It’s basically a glorified RSS feed that pulls stories based on certain websites that Valve trusts (for some reason) tagging their articles with the games in question. The result? An embarrassing deluge of articles that have little if anything to do with the game they are tagged in.

Well those of you unhappy with Valve’s handling of the Steam News will be glad to know that the clickbait spam newsfeed is officially gone as of the new library. It will be interesting to see how the traffic to the websites is affected once they are no longer getting free advertising on a massive platform for their clickbait.

Guild Wars 2: The Icebrood Saga Prologue Is Here


Today marks the launch of the next phase in the Guild Wars 2 living story. The prologue sets up the story for season five and introduces a new cast of characters for the Pact Commander to meet as they investigate a new threat.

The Icebrood Saga is a totally new story in the world of Guild Wars 2. After Season Four’s thrilling conclusion in which Dragon’s Watch finally defeated Kralkatorrik, elder dragon of Crystal and Fury, it is a time of great celebration. But a shadow of dread grows over the festivities as whispers from the Far Shiverpeaks indicate Jormag, another of Tyria’s elder dragons, is emerging from its slumber and luring charr and norn warriors under its thrall. A new cast of characters take center stage as the Pact Commander and crew investigate the looming conflict that threatens the world’s snowy reaches.