What About Credit Card Authorization?

Atsushi · Post by **Atsushi** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 3:51 pm

One of the outlining issues with Silk Road Online (SRO) comes from a complaint about immature, childish players, Real Money Traders (RMTers) who sell characters, gold, power level services and Bots. These are things that plague most MMORPG’s no matter where you go, however it is in a larger abundance in SRO because it is free. I’ve seen both arguments about how it should be made Pay to Play (p2p) or keep it Free to Play (f2p). And although I do agree with both sides, I have to say as a person that plays multiple MMORPG’s that I wouldn’t p2p SRO.

So how can you properly enforce account bans, ban bots and players that break rules or overall harassing to other players? If they just ban the account, they just simply re-register a new account, use a bot to powerlevel and be back to full status in a week or so.

What about Credit Card Authorizations?

SRO continues to be Free to Play but when you register a new account, it requires you to use a Credit Card/Debit Card for account verification. Just have it set to allow 1-3 accounts per credit card number. This is something that websites have used as a security measure and means to verify people 18 years and older (it doesn't mean they have to be 18 to play, just means they'll need to get their parents credit card for authorization). It also gives them a means to ban an account. There is no charge made on the credit card so it is free, it is just used to verify.

Now if someone breaks a rule by botting, RMTing, harassing, etc then they can ban the account. The user can’t just re-register a new free account unless he provides another new Credit Card/Debit number.

Keep in mind this would not completely solve the issues 100%. As RMTers, Bots and harassing players exist on all other MMORPGs. This will just help reduce a lot of them and make it harder for them to simply just creating a new account. So there wouldn’t be any real change to the current system, it still remains free, people can still purchase silk… But it just gives an easier way to regulate accounts and actually control access better.

//:Protocol · Post by **//:Protocol** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:10 pm

No, because I am not 18.

I disagree with this idea.

Fadex · Post by **Fadex** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:33 pm

sorry but, I didnt even finish reading, THIS SUX imo.

People above 18 should be busy with either school or fulltime job, not playing these games omg. (no massive personal attack

)

Whats wrong with selling and buying characters, thats what I like about this game and many other games: you dont have to be addicted to have a lvl 6x account, U can jsut make someone else AND yourself happy by buying.

Ohyeah, im not 18, thats why I dun agree.

NO PA NO PA ITS NOT A PA.

Blyth · Post by **Blyth** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:36 pm

After a half year i will support this idea

Atsushi · Post by **Atsushi** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 4:46 pm

Just so you know it doesn't mean that only 18+ year olds can play. It is very easy for someone to ask and get their parent's credit card for authorization, as long they know no charges are being made. There are many people under 18+ playing pay to play MMORPGs and have been for years. This doesn't remove younger people from playing.

WrEcK · Post by **WrEcK** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:22 pm

I have a feeling it would create problems...Or maybe it won't.

Anh_Hung_Rom · Post by **Anh_Hung_Rom** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:27 pm

I appreciate you take the time to think of this idea. However, generally parents don't like their children playing games, so it's not easy at all getting their CC #'s. Beside, some countries don't have CCs.
Also, I don't feel safe with JoyMax holding my CC#.

Atsushi · Post by **Atsushi** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 5:55 pm

Anh_Hung_Rom wrote:I appreciate you take the time to think of this idea. However, generally parents don't like their children playing games, so it's not easy at all getting their CC #'s. Beside, some countries don't have CCs.
Also, I don't feel safe with JoyMax holding my CC#.

That isn't necessarily true, actually it isn't true in a lot of cases. For example EQ, CoH/CoX, WoW, RFO have quite a few children playing the games and they all require pay to play. A lot of them have gamers as parents, like my children but the majority of them are paying for their own games. Some months they can't pay so they've canceled their account for a month or so. In all cases though they've needed their parents CC #.

I completely understand about not wanting a company not holding your CC# information though. I wouldn't want that either. They wouldn't actually hold the information. With a verification check, you put in the CC# and when you hit submit it just verifies it. It doesn't actually retain the information as no charge is placed on the account.

Drift · Post by **Drift** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:50 am

I don't agree with this idea at all.

Not every adult have credit cards. For whatever the reason is.

Stallowned · Post by **Stallowned** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:59 am

I think it's a good idea...
Well the concept is good, maybe not credit cards, maybe by phone or ID number or something.. I dnno. But as has been said a lot of countries not everyone has a credit card, so it wouldn't really be fair to them.

Belgarath · Post by **Belgarath** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:14 am

Drift wrote:I don't agree with this idea at all.

Not every adult have credit cards. For whatever the reason is.

Exactly, not everyone has a credit card. So what if people that didn't have one wanted to play? SOL, eh?

waldo · Post by **waldo** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:25 am

I am under 18 and my mother hates games so no she would not validate my account for me. I would much rather play in these conditions.

PlaneWhore · Post by **PlaneWhore** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 2:30 am

Atsushi wrote:Just so you know it doesn't mean that only 18+ year olds can play. It is very easy for someone to ask and get their parent's credit card for authorization, as long they know no charges are being made. There are many people under 18+ playing pay to play MMORPGs and have been for years. This doesn't remove younger people from playing.

It's not easy for all people. Some people's parents wouldn't believe that their cards were'nt going to be charged or that their child wasn't signing up for a porn site. It is very hard for some people to get their parents to allow them access to a credit card for any reason whatsoever, so i disagree.

Atsushi · Post by **Atsushi** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 4:12 am

PlaneWhore wrote:It's not easy for all people. Some people's parents wouldn't believe that their cards were'nt going to be charged or that their child wasn't signing up for a porn site. It is very hard for some people to get their parents to allow them access to a credit card for any reason whatsoever, so i disagree.

Well most parents wouldn't just give their child the credit card number. They would just sign up and register the account for them.

diablo12708 wrote:Exactly, not everyone has a credit card. So what if people that didn't have one wanted to play? SOL, eh?

You can use a Debit Card number, even a checking account number. You can also do a guest sign-up where it sends it to an email, so it would limit one account per email after filling out some information.

There just has to be some method to filter or limit the accounts a person can sign up for, otherwise banning means nothing. Just sign up a new account, use a bot and back in action again with little downtime.