Canceling 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 canceling 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.
Provides that an Internet gaming service provider that provides service to a consumer, for home and personal use, for a stated term that is automatically renewed for another term unless a consumer cancels the service must give a consumer who is an Illinois resident: (1) a secure method at the Internet gaming service provider's web site that the consumer may use to cancel the service, which method shall not require the consumer to make a telephone call or send U.S. Postal Service mail to effectuate the cancellation; and (2) instructions that the consumer may follow to cancel the service at the Internet gaming service provider's web site.
Square Enix's course here is pretty clear. Cancel the accounts of anyone living in Illinois. That'll show em! Online Fantasy Game's Absurd Cancellation Policy Leads To New Law [Silicon Alley Insider via Game Politics]