@Juju_beans if you are unaware what GDPR, look it up. It's a GOOD thing. Means companies cant do what they like with your data, and if they do they can get hit with massive fines.

If a game has decent revenue (thank you crown crates) it should easily be able to manage GDPR compliance.

Ragnarok shutting business due to GDPR means something else going on.

Already all companies storing your email etc need you to reconfirm TOS. So its a big reduction in SPAM and means the scandals like facebook recently should be lessened..

Don't worry that our 'man' is encroaching on our liberty, it's in our interest.

Juju_beans wrote: »

Gee with all these European countries clamping down on this and that you guys might end up not being able to play anything online except what your government deems "safe for you".

Online games have been around for decades upon decades with no issues. What gives that now they are deemed "bad" and need government intervention on behalf fo the gamers ?

I agree when it comes to innate nanny state issues, like the recent lootbox one, or Australia's stupid censorship laws, or the free speech problems. But this is an actual good thing that helps liberty of the many.

It protects user data and stops companies mining and selling certain types of data from you without your knowledge just because you clicked the TOS. It was less of a problem before because, 1) The internet is relatively new, so not much precedent has been shown on how far companies could actually go, which leads into... 2) Less people realized the true power of data collection. The wake up call for most was snowden showing how the US/UK govt could hold data of an entire country.

ak_pvp wrote: »

Juju_beans wrote: »

Gee with all these European countries clamping down on this and that you guys might end up not being able to play anything online except what your government deems "safe for you".

Online games have been around for decades upon decades with no issues. What gives that now they are deemed "bad" and need government intervention on behalf fo the gamers ?

I agree when it comes to innate nanny state issues, like the recent lootbox one, or Australia's stupid censorship laws, or the free speech problems. But this is an actual good thing that helps liberty of the many.

It protects user data and stops companies mining and selling certain types of data from you without your knowledge just because you clicked the TOS. It was less of a problem before because, 1) The internet is relatively new, so not much precedent has been shown on how far companies could actually go, which leads into... 2) Less people realized the true power of data collection. The wake up call for most was snowden showing how the US/UK govt could hold data of an entire country.

Not to mention Facebook and Cambridge Analytica !

As for the US - net neutrality, anyone?

This is probably the reason for the EULA/TOS changes we had to accept a short while ago

I'm pretty sure all it will mean is having to accept an updated TOS and maybe re-register for the mailing list. As other people have said the new GDPR (general data protection regulations) are actually a good thing for customers, and should have minimal impact on an MMO.

In simple terms all it means is you have to explicitly opt in to being contacted, and it has to be clear what you're agreeing to. No more "check this box if you don't not wish to be excluded from not hearing about special offers" hidden at the bottom of the page where leaving it unchecked means they and anyone they give your details to can spam you forever more.

It also means when you do give your details to companies they can only use it for the reason/s you originally gave it. So if you get an e-ticket to an event you aren't automatically signing up to be spammed with adverts for everything else the company does - unless you say it's ok they cannot email you anything except your ticket and essential information about the event.

There is some "behind the scenes" stuff companies need to do too, like making sure people's data is kept in a secure location (which can be literally as simple as "the door is always locked when no one's in here" or encryption for online data) and new rules on how soon any lost/stolen data needs to be reported. But even that's not a major problem.

I work for an organisation with data on upwards of a million people going back decades and the biggest problem we've had is getting people (both staff and the customers who actually do want us to contact them) to read the information and getting some staff to accept that they finally need to make a decision on which boxes of old records they actually need.

ZOS will need to get players to agree to their data being held and used for identification and sending notifications about the game, and it might limit them doing things like randomly sending surveys (unless they ask people to agree to that), but there's no reason they wouldn't be able to keep running the game.

Edit: And they've already done that. Just checked and I've got an email asking me to agree to getting emails, and as someone else said EU players had to accept an updated TOS recently.

Another reason it's a good thing is because the fact that companies are having to contact you and refresh your consent for their holding your personal information means that you have an opportunity and prompt to check whether you actually want to maintain contact with them. I've already looked at one notification sent to me and deliberately not completed their convoluted consent procedure (which involved creating an account with another company through whom I could consent to the original company holding my data!) as I realised that really don't need them any more. It's an effective tidy-up operation on both sides!

There really is no relevance to being denied content, however. If a company is closing down services rather than do the minimum necessary to comply with these regulations then it tells you a lot more about the company than it does about the regulations.