A kid in suburban Chicago boosted a credit card and bought some games and virtual currency online. When the cops showed up to ask some questions, they found his folks’, uh, “Victory Garden”. More »
Alcopops are a huge concern for fear-addled parents, because they’re sweet, alcoholic, and a gateway drug to total douche behaviour. So Illinois is taking a courageous stand by banning alcopop ads from video games.
Cancelling your subscription to Final Fantasy XI isn’t easy. Illinois resident Alex Edwards found this out after playing the game for a few months. He couldn’t cancel online, and no phone number was readily apparent. Eventually his parents got the number off their credit card statement and managed to cancel the account after being on hold for 45 minutes, but this wasn’t good enough for Alex or his parents, one of which – Frank Edwards – is an alderman in Springfield, Illinois and a good friend of his local State Rep. To make a long story short, Illinois just passed a law that makes Final Fantasy XI illegal.
Well not FFXI specifically, but the amendment to the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act passed this week makes it an unlawful business practice to run an internet gaming service without some way of cancelling the service online, without requiring customers to call a phone number or mail a letter. Hit the jump for the full synopsis of the law.
