Final Fantasy 11 got one thing right. Billing.

Want to purge your game of the worst players that can be found? Deny access to people who are denied access to credit cards.

Requiring a credit card puts a huge kink in selling accounts, gold farming and makes it much more difficult for kids and young adults who still act like kids to get into the game.

What do anonymous game cards get you? RMT Gold Farmers, Bots, account trading and barrens chat.

Here's to hoping that the new billing system will require a credit card.

What about people that don't have credit cards? I dont have one. I'm a 29 years old. That would alienate me from a game I may want to play.  Would that be fair or good business practice?

Games arnt just for adults (unless stated on the box by an age cert), 

Originally posted by blondeh

What about people that don't have credit cards? I dont have one. I'm a 29 years old. That would alienate me from a game I may want to play.  Would that be fair or good business practice?

Games arnt just for adults (unless stated on the box by an age cert), 

Are you saying that you don't at least have a debit card?  I definitely understand dodging use of credit cards, but my debit card has always filled that gap for me.

 Oh yeh I have a debit card :) 

I don't have a credit card because I know I'd be deadly! I'd end up in debt no doubt about that. 

As much as I despise credit cards, the OP has a point. Forcing someone to leave a (legit) financial trail IS enough of a barrier to entry to get rid of most of those asswipes. Then again, having a decent roster of GMs online to oversee the game would do that too, and most MMOs don't even bother. They reap what they sow.

FFS, I've seen private servers staffed better - all it takes is to have enough GMs to fill your roster 24/7, and ban anyone who breaks the rules. This isn't rocket science, and we aren't in the 1990s.

Originally posted by blondeh

 Oh yeh I have a debit card :) 

I don't have a credit card because I know I'd be deadly! I'd end up in debt no doubt about that. 

Debit cards can be used in credit transactions. So you'd be able to still play, without requiring an actual credit card.

Sounds good on paper but in fact has no bearing at all on RMT.

It does however get rid of the MANY kids,albeit also alienates some mature players as well,so it is not a perfect system by any means.They utilize a task force and game logs and currency flags to catch RMT,it is a near fail safe system.They claim they are right on top of RMT before FFXIV releases ,i kind of believe them.

You will never completely get rid of them,that is a guarantee,they will always find a way around the system,but they have made it VERY tough for RMT.

The easy way to see how a game is handling it?Do a GOOGLE,FFXI gil is VERY expensive,hard to come by,where as Aion is literally giving away Kinah,WOW is also VERY cheap and makes rmt millions.This shows who is showing effort and who is not.

All you have to do is pay attention to the games you play,watch chat,read forums.When i played EQ2 and FFXI it was a very mature crowd ,of course there will always be some idiots,but not very evident in either game at all,like it WAS obvious in WOW.That massive influx of 10 million new gamers all seemed to join WOW,those were the players with no experience in game etiquette.Without a doubt there was no coincidence that when WOW players started game hopping because they were bored ,ALL other games became infested with childish chat and a childish community.

Like i said ,all you have to do is pay attention to what goes on around you,it is VERY easy to see.

I agree.

If you aren't responsible enough to have a debit/credit card, then you should be working on getting your life in order, not playing video games.

If you aren't old enough to have a debit/credit card, then your parents should know what you are doing. If they want/allow you to play then you'll be able to.

Really people? 

The possession of a credit card is honestly no ground for determining the moral worth of a person or a player. That idea is terrible. Lets punish a group of people who might have made a credit mistake back in the day from playing a game. While we are at it lets make it so people who have an IQ of under 120 can't breed. Or deny someone a job because they are over the age of 50. Or deny someone a mortgage because they are black. Or make it so if someone has a set of tits they have to dance around naked for the enjoyment of the men around them. And this is coming from the 27-year-old pasty white boy who has never been denied credit in his life.

Now go walk to the bathroom, look in the mirror is see the face of shame.

Originally posted by ic0n67

Really people? 

The possession of a credit card is honestly no ground for determining the moral worth of a person or a player. That idea is terrible. Lets punish a group of people who might have made a credit mistake back in the day from playing a game. While we are at it lets make it so people who have an IQ of under 120 can't breed. Or deny someone a job because they are over the age of 50. Or deny someone a mortgage because they are black. Or make it so if someone has a set of tits they have to dance around naked for the enjoyment of the men around them. And this is coming from the 27-year-old pasty white boy who has never been denied credit in his life.

Now go walk to the bathroom, look in the mirror is see the face of shame.

I'm pretty sure the OP is more going for credit/debit or probably even EFT vice pre-paid cards. Something so that if Gold Farmer Joe sets up an account and is caught, then you can ban his financial account from being used from payment in the future, thereby putting a large hurt on people that hide behind game-cards for anonimity.

Credit card is more of a US thing.

In Europe CCs are not much used because there is no need for them.

I live in western Europe and I never needed or wanted CC.

Why would I pay extra costs for something I dont need?

I can do electronic payments all over EU with my normal bank account card.

For purchases ouside EU and especialy US I use PayPal.

Originally posted by ic0n67

Really people? 

The possession of a credit card is honestly no ground for determining the moral worth of a person or a player. That idea is terrible. Lets punish a group of people who might have made a credit mistake back in the day from playing a game. While we are at it lets make it so people who have an IQ of under 120 can't breed. Or deny someone a job because they are over the age of 50. Or deny someone a mortgage because they are black. Or make it so if someone has a set of tits they have to dance around naked for the enjoyment of the men around them. And this is coming from the 27-year-old pasty white boy who has never been denied credit in his life.

Now go walk to the bathroom, look in the mirror is see the face of shame.

Referrencing debit cards again. Regardless of your credit, if you have a bank account (and opening a bank account doesn't require good credit), you can get a debit card. Debit cards are 100% compatible with credit transactions. Someone who's made past mistakes under this tidbit of knowledge is not denied any sort of access to a game requiring 'credit cards' (in essence, credit transactions if one can read properly between the lines). The rant of examples about discrimination wasn't warranted- we're not talking about bigotry or racism here. Discrimination in and of itself isn't a bad thing, and is used everyday by absolutely everyone on the planet.

With the exception of ic0n67, this is the most ignorant thread.

Okay let me start by saying the FFXI will at no time not allow you to pay with a credit card even if it was attached to a banned or a RMT account is doesent matter they do not check that far into it. i had one of my FFXI accounts banned for passing my 3rd black mark i made a new account about 2 months later with the same debit card and it worked just fine sooo at no point is your credit card/debit card banned from there system to there account the bank is the only one that can deny the purchase, if i can provide a valid credit card even if it was attached to a banned account i can still use it and saying removing time cards will help anything is stupid it just limits their player base and also a 15 year old can get a debit card with a parents co sign... i have had a debit card sense i was 16... So that would not stop all kids from joining the game and the others would probly just take or get mommy and daddy to pay for it.