Originally posted by Trionicus

I think we should all remember that beta is not a privilege, it's a courtesy we extend to companies. We spend our time to test their games for free. At some point in time it got reversed, now all of a sudden beta testing is a privilege. 

That would be true, if people didn't line up to play Beta. People would pay money just to play the beta, not prepurchase or preorder but just say here take my money and let me buy my way into beta.

Supply and demand, companies dont have to pull anyones leg to get them to try their beta.

Originally posted by AzurePrower

 

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Originally posted by MMOExposed

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Originally posted by Trionicus

 

I think we should all remember that beta is not a privilege, it's a courtesy we extend to companies. We spend our time to test their games for free. At some point in time it got reversed, now all of a sudden beta testing is a privilege. 

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 Well that argument goes both ways. It's a privilege that these companies get consumers money ahead of the release date in exchange for beta access. Seems like privileges on both sides. Why does only 1 side have say in this issue?

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This mentality is what is wrong with gamers these days.

Beta tests are meant to test games. Instead people think of it as a free early access. Games don't get tested and then people complain there are bugs after launch.

These beta weekends are nothing more than hype builders, incentives, and at most a stress test. Once companies learned people will get excited to play a beta, they realized they could use this to sell pre-orders. Companies still have serious beta testers, they just have a bunch of stress testers too.

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Originally posted by Ichmen
it makes sense though, as the sellers are not "offically supported" they can not prove the keys are real keys. much like people create keygens for games installers it might not be too hard to make "spoofed" keys for this too.

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Buying stolen goods is always a risky business.

"I understand that you are only doing your job and there is nothing you can do about the issue"

OK so why continue complaining?

"but is quite frankly its incredibily insulting to your customers.

The customers should not be punished for this."

So customers just handed over there cash without doing any research trying to save a few pesos and you think there wouldnt be any consequence? INTERESTING......

The internet is full of sharks.... and you just got bit son.....

I have to side with ArenaNet on this, isn't it incredibly insulting to them that you want to possibly pay less, and from a shady retailer? Yes, you SHOULD indeed be punished. the game is already free to play after you purchase the initial game.  Sorry man but I can't cry for you.

So... I am confused if only X and Y company get to sell their game, why is A and B company selling them as well and not being sued?

This was explained in detail last BE.

Apparently alot of the "cheaper" codes were codes bought from arenanets website with stolen credit card information. - As those credit card holders reported their information stolen and abused, arenanet was ultimately unable to recieve payment for those purchased codes.

This then meant Arenanet nulled those codes. - That means if you bought from an unauthorised retailer who got hold of codes purchased with stolen credit cards, you have now got an invalid code.

2 things to consider: Arenanet didnt get paid for the code you now have. 

and

You are much less likely to be able to get a refund from your shady - yet cheaper dealer. - that was a risk you took when you purchased from them to begin with.

Conclusion:

this is on you, not arenanet. - They gave you a list of places to purchase hazzle and risk free, and you chose to find yourself another vendor without that garantee.

Its very unfortunate to be cheated nomatter who does the con job on you. But in this case it was not Arenanet - and it is not a witch hunt against unauthorised dealers, but simply the conclusion that happens when someone reports a stolen credit card has been used to purchase codes originally.

lesson learned I hope. Stop bitching about Arenanet, its your own fault.

Originally posted by Drakxii

So... I am confused if only X and Y company get to sell their game, why is A and B company selling them as well and not being sued?

Selling your own property is not illegal. If you buy the game from store, it becomes yours, and you can sell it. If you sell it before installing it/creating account and agreeing to lisence agreements while doing that, you are not even bound by any lisence that would prevent the sale. NCSoft can't sue the parties who buy in bulks from authorized retailers and then resell because they aren't breaking any law or any contract.

Guys! I bought this game from a stall in a dark alleyway and I cant play the game online.  It had me do all kinds of weird things like copying a crack folder thing too! But I cant play online! The devs suck!

Sounds like a pretty straightforward scam, most likely the players whose keys don't work bought a 'key' from an 'e-retailer' probably a dodgy one they found online. Arenanet have stated who the authorised retailers are, so if you don't buy from that list, then it stands to reason their an 'unauthorised' retailer, and probably dodgy. I really don't see how Arenanet can possibly be the villians here, they did their best to warn players, and if the players ignored those warnings, then who is really at fault? perhaps this is a lesson that they needed to learn, 'if something is too good to be true, it probably isnt'

they say you can't scam an honest man, but i think thats mostly because scammers rely on peoples gullibility/greed etc. So to those who bought invalid keys, time to man up, its a lesson you needed to learn.

There where a bunch of threads in the TSW forum about allegedly "legitimate" key retailers, that sold scanned key from boxes for instance.

Some of those sites/sellers bougth their games with frauded credit cards, then selling them to customers. Some says "they are legit I got my key", other says "wait how come they got their keys in first place".

There is a reason to buy from a legitimate reseller.  This is only one of them. In the end you may end up supporting those that have stolen other peoples money, in the case of a credit card fraud. 

Arenanet have not given any examples from what sites these keys comes from?

This is just a way of saying that they can only promise that authorised sellers are doing what they should with selling their product. Do yourself a service use legitimate business, they are more expensive but "being ok" can cost more money.

Otherwise, complain to the store you got them from and see what happens...

Yeah, blame the producer of a product, not the dodgy scammer who abused your naivety and fooled you to buy faked or stolen "licenses" for that product for cheap money which where never valid to begin with .

Some poeple...

"fraudulent code" lol, how is this even possible? I thought the keys are unique? They should be. It's not that you can get a keygen for MMOs...
And where do people buy their keys from? Can you tell shops that sell those 'fraudulent codes'?

Originally posted by strangepower

Wow the sense of entitlement, you are given a set of parameters and cry when you overstep them and are penalized... someone really thinks they have more of a say than the company themselves whom they want to distribute with?

The world is being ruined by a generation of individuals who think the world revolves around them.

This. 

Originally posted by kartana

"fraudulent code" lol, how is this even possible? I thought the keys are unique? They should be. It's not that you can get a keygen for MMOs...
And where do people buy their keys from? Can you tell shops that sell those 'fraudulent codes'?

It's kind of hard perhaps, but I guess if you use the same reasoning that avoids you from paying $$$ for bricks on ebay...

What I am saying is that with common sense where you buy should be able to do ok.

If keys are not done by keygens then they got it from somewhere else ofcourse. But beta keys are not as important as retail keys, and it is not to far fetched that they can be generated.

Originally posted by strangepower

Wow the sense of entitlement, you are given a set of parameters and cry when you overstep them and are penalized... someone really thinks they have more of a say than the company themselves whom they want to distribute with?

The world is being ruined by a generation of individuals who think the world revolves around them.

+1

This thing has already been discussed here. Many people warned but as humans, we never learn until we see the problem with our own eyes and feel the pain with our own hearts. This has nothing with ArenaNet to do, but with all other companies, Anet just made it official.

It is also kinda popular, when you buy a game from no-official source, you kinda have 50/50 chance. If you want to take the risk for just 1-5 extra dollars, do it.

Well, I think they are blocking some legit retailers too...The 'buy from our authorized retailers' is BS btw! There are many many more legal retailers worldwide!

Would be really interesting to know what kind of keys they are blocking. Stolen? As I said before, you can't just generate a number and it magically works...

Originally posted by kartana

Well, I think they are blocking some legit retailers too...

-_-