Tribute – A Rumor of War

I seem to be missing most of the Tribute War.

Which is annoying, since the whole thing is happening practically in our front yard. The big battles in UMI-KK are only about a dozen jumps from the systems I consider “home” in null sec.

QPO is practically in our alliance’s front yard.

In fact, there was a flurry of corp and alliance wide messages this past weekend because because hostile forces made their way into one of the TNT held systems and put a cyno jammer into reinforce. There was a call to arms with a request for a full alliance ‘stand to’ in order to meet this threat.

And it took place on Monday at 17:00 EVE time, which is about the time I am sitting in my cube at the office thinking about what’s for lunch.

So while The Mittani dot Com has run a number of stories about the war, my own exposure has been limited.

I did get in a fleet last week that blew something up, and there was the titan loss in QPO.  But for the most part, a combination of life and Euro Time Zone battles has kept me out of the action.

Last night though, the stars seemed to align.  There was going to be a big timer related battle at UMI-KK, the system focus of much of the efforts over the last week.  And it was going to be in prime western US time.  Would I get in a fight?

More after the cut.

Blizzard – Really Serious About Commitment

The time is coming, the pandas will be upon us soon.

Also coming up shortly thereafter is the end of my annual pass commitment.

I signed on for a year of WoW.  I played for a few months.  I got my special mount.

And, most importantly I suppose, I got my “free” copy of Diablo III.

But I am not feeling it for the pandas.  Not specifically because of pandas.

I just have no enthusiasm at the moment for Azeroth.

I won’t foreswear it forever.  This blog clearly shows I am nostalgia driven at times, and Blizzard hasn’t managed to eradicate all of the nostalgia factors around WoW for me.

It is about time to unsubscribe.  Blizzard, however, has other ideas on the subject.

I cannot just run out on my commitment!

Unfortunately, by my reckoning, my commitment was complete a while ago.

I did the annual pass in two six month payments.  I made the second six month payment on my annual pass on April 23rd of this year.  At that point in time, I had paid for my year and was done as far as I was concerned.  I ought to be able to cancel my account to avoid running into the next billing cycle.  Even Blizzard seems to agree, in principle.  From their somewhat unhelpful (in this case) help files on the subject:

Once your billing cycle begins using the payment method you have chosen, it can not be reversed or refunded. You will still be able to access the account and characters for the duration of your pre-paid time. If you need to take a break from World of Warcraft and are using a credit card for payment you can cancel your subscription so that you will not be billed further.

Today though, Blizzard seems to be more interested in keeping unwilling subscribers.

To minimize the impact, I changed my billing options to monthly and opened a ticket to see what they have to say on the subject.

My account remains active for now.  Making me keep it active at this point probably makes it less likely that I will return at a future date.  Billing problems annoy me, and I have been known to hold a grudge.

Otherwise I have a 18 hour and 58 minute window in which to cancel my account on October 22nd.

I’d better set up a reminder.  Until then, I remain still subscribed.

Anybody else see something similar with their annual pass commitment?

[And you can see how Blizzard support handled my questions about this.]