X-13 Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Minecraft you can buy loads of skins, which classify as DLC. Each DLC comes to a total of around £50. So what ever else he bought was not on minecraft. Only on the Xbox version [which I forgot existed]. PC master race you can download them for free, IIRC.
CAM Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Hmmm... Not sure it is that simple. Management set up xbox live for her boy, and thought she'd only done it for one year. It auto renewed this year. She isn't stupid, no more or less IT literate than "a reasonable wo/man". However, she doesn't normally have anything to do with the console, and I suspect, failed to spot a tick box with a nested double/triple negative opt in/out clause. The boy failed to spot (or maybe he's too honest) that the card was still available on the account. How many subscriptions have we all got that we forget about? I had Netflix, FFXIV and WoW running for months on auto-renew but unused. Can't blame the companies and demand that unused subscription time back, it was me who screwed up and didn't cancel. We aren't talking about dodgy SMS joke of the day subscription services here (which pre-dates this furore anyway) but services that clearly tell you it is a monthly subscription.
localzuk Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Minecraft you can buy loads of skins, which classify as DLC. Each DLC comes to a total of around £50. So what ever else he bought was not on minecraft. You must be talking about XBOX Minecraft. In which case, that price is WAY off. The skin packs are $1.99 each. The total price for *all* the Minecraft skins, avatars, themes, add-ons etc... is about £50 total. So, I'm really at a loss as to how anyone can spend £1800 on Minecraft anything.
featured_spectre Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 That's what I meant. Everything including avatar stuff and skins and block skins etc comes to about £50. I just lumped it all in as DLC.
Garacesh Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) BBC News - Mother's anger as son racks up £4,000 FIFA 14 bill I read that as Samuel L. Jackson. Fifa, Mother's! Do you play it?! This is why I hate microtransactions* and I personally feel that companies purposely make this kind of thing possible because even if a single person doesn't try and claw it back, that's still a few grand in their pocket. And for the people that do get their money back, who cares? It's digital content. They didn't lose anything on physically making a product and shipping it. That being said, mum is still at fault for A) Having a card hooked up to the kid's account that B) Was a credit card and not a debit card and C) possibly not keeping an eye on her bill (although it says £1,000 in 24hours, it doesn't state about the other £3,000) * They ain't seeming so 'micro' any more, though.. Edited February 27, 2014 by Garacesh
CAM Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Credit card is safer as it has considerably more protection then a debit card. The chargeback would leave him with an XBL account that has a purchasing ban though (some services are outright bans). Mind you, before online taking your parent's credit card and using it to purchase stuff knowing you shouldn't (because let's be honest, there are enough warnings to know real money is being used and the kid knew full well it was not his card) the blame would have been on the kid and not the guy in the shop.
X-13 Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 So, I'm really at a loss as to how anyone can spend £1800 on Minecraft anything. It sounded like the initial purchase just kept going through over and over. It's £17.95, so it went through 100 times. [Could be the old "it's slow, so I'll click it again" syndrome.]
Garacesh Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Credit card is safer as it has considerably more protection then a debit card. The chargeback would leave him with an XBL account that has a purchasing ban though (some services are outright bans). Mind you, before online taking your parent's credit card and using it to purchase stuff knowing you shouldn't (because let's be honest, there are enough warnings to know real money is being used and the kid knew full well it was not his card) the blame would have been on the kid and not the guy in the shop. Credit card is considerably safer - if it's something you're actually wanting to purchase, and of considerable value, like a washing machine, or new PC. Shouldn't really have a credit card hooked up for purchases that are supposed to be £50 tops the majority of the time (this includes purchasing actual games) Realistically you're right though. There's (supposed to be) enough warning you're spending actual cash, so the kid must have known what he was doing. I'm of the opinion that CVV verification should be required on each purchase as a minimum, but that's just me.
AMLinington Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 I deliberately leave my WoW subscription running. I love the game and having to faff about reactivating it whenever I want to play is just a pain. I definitely think it is too easy for saved credentials to be used to make purchases - even on Ebay there is an auto-checkout on paypal and Amazon have 1-click. Which is fine if you are responsible but not so much if your device happens to fall into less discriminating hands. There should be more 'top up' schemes available so kids have to learn to budget - want that extra booster in candy crush or the ad-free version of Angry birds? Budget. Obvs there IS a top up scheme for Google Play but IIRC even if you top up the account you still need a card attached to it. Same as iTunes - to be able to add credit to an itunes account by redeeming gift cards, the account MUST have a bank card attached - it's wrong. I like the Verisign stuff on Visa cards but that only works on actual websites. Things like paypal have already got past that stage.
hardtailstar Posted February 27, 2014 Author Posted February 27, 2014 Obvs there IS a top up scheme for Google Play but IIRC even if you top up the account you still need a card attached to it. My google play account has two cards attached, one is my old card and the other is the new one, I once took off the new details as I was spending too much as its too easy to buy stuff. I could still activate the gift cards with my old card details. So I dont think the details need to work Just be there.
abillybob Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Sounds like Mr Bean trying to sing an anthem!Every time I see something like this, I sing this song in my head. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i1EG-MKy4so
abillybob Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Not until now. I thought it was just a song Troll's made and shoved it on youtube singing Trololololololol!You don't know Mr Trololo? Plus: The songs video is a bit really if you watch his mouth and listen to the sounds it's completely off, he's just smiling, his throat isn't even moving like he's singing looks bloomin' weird if you ask me. Edited February 27, 2014 by abillybob
Davit2005 Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) Bring back the simplicity of the games, that the only thing limiting what power/enhancements/garage/team/cars/etc. you get is your ability in the game not the green stuff in your pocket. It may be old fashioned thinking but are we fueling the development of these types of games by paying the extra money? Edited February 27, 2014 by Davit2005
gshaw Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) This is why I've ignored the next-gen consoles so far and leaning towards giving up on them completely - the games market is getting as bad (if not worse) than the music & films industry for ripping people off. Everything on these new consoles seems to be geared towards how much customers can get fleeced for, now you don't just buy the game but get stiffed for expansion packs and power-ups that leave those who refuse to buy them with a poorer experience. BF4 and "Premium" also really grates on me, comes to not shy of £100 to get maps and ability to connect to servers in a reasonable way, never mind the fact the game wasn't fit for purpose for nearly 6 months after release As someone on the EA forums was saying the other day Ultimate Team is basically under-age gambling, how they're allowed to get away with it sums up what a greedy and morally questionable bunch EA are. It does make me chuckle though when my bunch of freebies outplays one chock full of blue \ black player power-up cards Edited February 27, 2014 by gshaw
Sunnyknight Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Glad she got billed for it. If that kid doesn't have a 99% gold squad.... I'd urge him to buy more!!!
CAM Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Not until now. I thought it was just a song Troll's made and shoved it on youtube singing Trololololololol! Plus: The songs video is a bit really if you watch his mouth and listen to the sounds it's completely off, he's just smiling, his throat isn't even moving like he's singing looks bloomin' weird if you ask me. Eduard Khil Eduard Khil - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia If you listen carefully, there was a snippet of the song in the Sochi Opening Ceremony.
Guest Guest Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 (edited) I'm not sure why no one is putting any blame on the platform and games developers. They are there to make money, that is true, but they know exactly what they are doing. They are taking advantage of what are terrible holes in the payment system; it's all but forced upon you to add a credit card to the system, and then ridiculously easy to make purchases even if you are not the card holder. Even IOS which is probably the best system has a 15 minute grace on lockout. No other payment system I have come across allows you to make repeat purchases without access to the card details. Not only are they praying on the nieve parents but the vast majority of games now are based around extra DLC: therefore praying on the rivalry between kid (haha my team/character is better than yours). Not only that but some games such as Forza 5 are crippled unless you pay an extra £15 to unlock the cars so that you can play multiplayer (or you can finish the entire game first...). You pay £50+ for the game and then they want what is effectively a subscription to play that game you already own. We've got to remember this is a very recent business model (it's only became big in the last 3 or 4 years) so can we honestly blame parents, who likely have never played or heard of a computer game under this model? Edited February 27, 2014 by Guest
gshaw Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Spot on @j17sparky it's a rip-off, sadly the next generation of gamers (younger teens \ early 20's) raised on the Apple business model seem to think it's perfectly reasonable and that they should pay for all this extra stuff - I've actually seen someone say this on the EA forums, quite sad really how much control the publishers are wielding these days.
Sunnyknight Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 I'm not sure why no one is putting any blame on the platform and games developers. They are there to make money, that is true, but they know exactly what they are doing. They are taking advantage of what are terrible holes in the payment system; it's all but forced upon you to add a credit card to the system, and then ridiculously easy to make purchases even if you are not the card holder. Even IOS which is probably the best system has a 15 minute grace on lockout. No other payment system I have come across allows you to make repeat purchases without access to the card details. Not only are they praying on the nieve parents but the vast majority of games now are based around extra DLC: therefore praying on the rivalry between kid (haha my team/character is better than yours). Not only that but some games such as Forza 5 are crippled unless you pay an extra £15 to unlock the cars so that you can play multiplayer (or you can finish the entire game first...). You pay £50+ for the game and then they want what is effectively a subscription to play that game you already own. We've got to remember this is a very recent business model (it's only became big in the last 3 or 4 years) so can we honestly blame parents, who likely have never played or heard of a computer game under this model? Yes. Yes we can. Until kids are earning themselves... have their own bank account... they can shut their mouths and accept pre-paid cards for chores. When they get their own money and own accounts... let them piddle away their own money. Thats the only way they learn. If its your own money.... its your responsibility to look after it and the account.
Andrew_C Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 We've got to remember this is a very recent business model (it's only became big in the last 3 or 4 years) so can we honestly blame parents, who likely have never played or heard of a computer game under this model?And suffered sitting in a teenage boy's bedroom being gassed by Lynx, setting up the d@mned thing on an unfamiliar UI, with constant whining about "Is it working yet?" in yer ear'ole.
abillybob Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Erm just to point out my little brother is 13 and has a debit card by HSBC bank and so did I when I was his age. He uses that to put on his AppleID and PSN not my mum. He then just hand in his money to the bank each week and buys what he wants!
sted Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Erm just to point out my little brother is 13 and has a debit card by HSBC bank and so did I when I was his age. He uses that to put on his AppleID and PSN not my mum. He then just hand in his money to the bank each week and buys what he wants! i diddnt think you could have a debit card till 16?
Garacesh Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 Visa Electron cards are available for under 16's - or at least were when I was 15
pete Posted February 27, 2014 Posted February 27, 2014 I thought this was the same as one I was reading about this morning... [though, with the amount wrong.] Henry Tattersall: Boy, 13, 'stunned' by £420 Xbox bill hanged himself | Metro News *This one is possibly slightly wrong... He didn't "mistakenly" download the games. It was deliberate. Tasteful choice of accompanying picture in that article.
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