Sunday 13 January 2002

Pic of the day: Never again shall I walk the ramp up to Prydwen Keep, see the familiar faces and names, and mingle with the new ones. Its doors are closed to me now, barred by locks stronger than iron ...

Exiled from Camelot

I really enjoyed the online role playing game, Dark Age of Camelot. It just got better, as I gradually learned my way about the capital city and the surrounding lands in Albion. (There are two other realms, but I just had to concentrate on the one I liked best.) Day by day my insight grew: I heard of new quests, new items, new places. I explored, and followed others who knew the place. Eventually I started to help other new players: Showing them around, telling them how to do things, teaching them basic strategy when fighting different types of monsters.

And then the free 1 month trial ended. Actually, it ended while I was online. The computer crashed (yes, this happens irritatingly often, approximately once every hour or two, but it seems to be just me). When I logged back on, I was presented with "billing info". I had already decided days ago that I would continue to play - the price is quite reasonable, only the phone costs give reason to pause. I filled in name, credit card number, and expiration date. The program checked for a few second, then declined my credit card. I checked every letter and digit. I typed it again. I tried to type my name with all caps and not. I tried another card that I don't usually use online. Nothing helped. I was exiled from Camelot forever.

I did not even get to say goodbye, and pass on my asterite staff and Robe of the Risen.

***

Nor is this the first time my Norwegian credit card is rejected in the USA. Neither PayPal nor iBill will accept it. Consequently I can not get a paid account on LiveJournal, and not on Crosswinds.net where I have my archives. This makes a difference to those of my readers who don't have Opera: They are likely to be plagued by irritating and barely decent pop-ups whenever they read my older archives, unless they have turned off Javascript completely. It is also a chore for me: I have to transfer files by opening a window for each file, pointing and clicking. With a paid account I could use FTP, which would demand like 3 command lines for each months. The files are in a uniform format: di[yy][mm][dd].[html/jpg] so "mput di0112*.*" would send all files for December 2001. My wrist would thank me, but the credit card validator says "no thank you".

Of course there is never any hint of WHY the card is rejected. I guess this makes sense if you assume that I have swiped the card from someone's pocket. My suspicion is that they compare it to the name and address I use when I order the product. On the card, my name is in all caps, while I usually call myself Magnus Itland when I order things, not MAGNUS ITLAND which seems a bit too self-important... And it probably does not help that my address has the Norwegian letter Ø in it.

But the strange thing is that online bookstores greedily accept the same card. I have bought online books from both Barnes & Noble and mostly from Fictionwise.com, and they never uttered a word in protest, despite being American. I also once bought a game from Sierra Online with my credit card. The game arrived months later, or at least too late by some weeks, but there was no refusal of my credit card. I have also used it in a bookstore and a florist here in Norway. Works like a charm.

As a rule of thumb, I guess, the more hobbyist a company is, the less likely it is to accept my credit card. (Or even VISA card.) I guess some people just haven't got along to hire proficient economists yet. That is just too bad for their chances of staying afloat in these times. In this Dark Age of Dotcom.

***

For me, it's kinda disappointing that I won't be able to play anymore. Sure, I get more time for other things. But I was starting to get to know and be known. As I've said before, it isn't a romantic game; but there is a kind of comraderie. You get to know people in a way when you spend an evening together at the forge or out in the field battling giant spiders and the ever popular bears. Not to mention raising a newbie from confused hatchling to self-confident paladin. Oh well.

I guess I could still play EverQuest. That game is now owned by Sony, and I bet they really really like credit cards regardless of where in the world they come from. On the other hand, I had this long string of mishaps, up to and including serious illness, dogging me when I tried to get started with EverQuest. Not to mention the numerous throwaway comments on DAoC to the effect that "EQ sucks." "EQ really sucks." Reviewers have also generally favored DAoC, so I suspect it would at best be a long step backward.

A more likely course of action would be to hunt for the January issue of "PC Gamers", whatever that might be. It has the client for the beta test of DAoC Europe. Based on the same game engine, DAoC-E has new graphics and support three languages (English, French and German) so far, possibly more in the future. All rights to the European version have been bought by a French company, and the guys down there have a lot more experience with handling different nationalities and different character sets than Americans have - perhaps I might even be able to play the finished game. Or at least a free month. (Dark Age of Europe, eh, Dark Age of Camelot - Europe, is scheduled for February.)

In conclusion, I think the free month was surely worth what I paid for it.