Yes it seems they where banned for having the radio on while in the car, that was the last thing they where doing before the account was banned. They where talking to each other over the radio and ustream banned them for having the radio on. Again the only reason they would do that is if they where still pissed that Giant Bomb moved their Thursday Night Throwdown to Justin.tv and Whiskey Media no longer using their website to host their live events.
Even if you agree with policy #1 you cannot agree with the second policy of removing the games you have paid FULL RETAIL PRICE for from the service. I can't see anyone agreeing with both of these policies. Normally companies want you to resubscribe to their service by keeping the value of your account intact, for example every MMO I have ever bought still wants me to resubscribe and asks me about once a year to do so saying my character is still waiting for me.
Why would anyone buy a game from Onlive with policies that say they have no right of ownership over the games they have paid full retail price for and that those games will be deleted along with their account if they unsubscribe for awhile. Who would agree to the policy that they can and will remove the game you paid good money for from the service after a few years?
Even if you can agree with Policy #1, where all of your games and account is deleted if you are unsubscribed for 12 months, you still can't agree with the games that you have bought at full retail price being removed from the Onlive service sometime after 3 years have passed. I mean you bought the game, but on Onlive you don't actually own it even though you are paying the exact same amount as retail and they will eventually remove the game from their servers when people stop buying it and the server hosting it becomes unprofitable.
Two dirty policies where recently revealed when Onlive put the Terms of Service and the expanded FAQ on their website a couple days ago to anyone that read them. These are practices that I believe every gamer should know before spending any money buying games from Onlive.
I have used spoiler tags to make the post easier to read. Open the spoilers for more information on the policy.
Policy #1 Your account and games are deleted if you unsubscribe for 12 months.
I have been reading the Onlive's Terms of Service and FAQ's to see if it is worth buying games on the service. Below is a list of quotes written word for word (Including capital letters and bold letters.) in the Terms of Service and Account FAQ that you must accept to use Onlive.
OnLive reserves the right to change the pricing and billing practices for the Service at any time.
OnLive may suspend an Account, or resume a suspended Account, under certain conditions specified in the Terms, including, for example, the expiration or renewal of your Service membership term.
OnLive will close your Account if it not resumed within twelve (12) months of the last suspension.
Once an Account is Closed, the Account may not be reopened, and all player data will be deleted, including any saved game data, active PlayPasses and any coupons or credits.
CLOSING YOUR ACCOUNT WILL RESULT IN PERMANENT LOSS OF ACCESS, CONTENT, SERVICES AND VALUE ON THE ONLIVE SERVICE.
Read the parts about Account Suspension and Account Closure on both the Terms of Service and Account FAQ to enlighten yourself. The sentence in the Account Suspension part of the Terms of Service that says "OnLive may suspend an Account, or resume a suspended Account, under certain conditions specified in the Terms, including, for example, the expiration or renewal of your Service membership term." is key to understanding that a unsubscribed account is a suspended account. Then read the part where suspended accounts are closed after 12 months and you understand the problem.
Now before you say "Who plays games 3 years after they are released?" and miss the point that not only do you not own the games you buy at full retail price on Onlive but that they can be removed from the service after only 3 years.
This is taken from their Getting Started FAQ.
What is a PlayPass?
A PlayPass grants you access to play a game for a specified period of time. Membership is required to purchase and use a PlayPass. PlayPass options available:
Full: Provides unlimited access to the selected game throughout its supported lifetime on the OnLive service. We expect to keep all games supported for as long as people continue to play them, but at a minimum, all current games will be supported for 3 years after their release on the OnLive Service.
5-Day: Provides unlimited access to the selected game for five (5) days from purchase.
3-Day: Provides unlimited access to the selected game for three (3) days from purchase.
In the highly unlikely situation that a game becomes permanently unavailable before the minimum term of your PlayPass, you will receive a prorated refund.
Hopefully Onlive will change these policies. Intill then everyone should be fully aware of these policies Onlive has written clearly in their Terms of Service and expanded FAQ.
" I understand the part about CLOSING your account and losing stuff, as you would essentially be getting rid of everything and the account would no longer exist. Also, I think people are blowing this a bit out of proportion. If you are paying for this service at the start, don't dig it, and then decide to let it expire, then why the hell are you going to go back to it? Therefore, what does it matter that you lost shit that you aren't going to use again? The thing that's kind of bullshit is that they will only keep games on their services for three years after they've carried them. It's destined to fail, but it's at least been a neat idea. "
Let's say you buy 24 games from onlive during the free first year and the $4.95 per month second year. When the price goes up to $14.95 per month price on the third third year of your subscription after the promotional period ended you will lose all 24 games if you stay unsubscribed for 12 months in a row and your account will be closed. You do not own the games you buy at full retail price on Onlive. And currently their written policy states that unsubscribed accounts are called suspended accounts and if a account is suspended for 12 months it is closed. A closed account is not allowed to be reactivated according to their terms of service and is just like being banned.
@natural_deadhead: Everything is word for word from various parts of their Terms of Service and account FAQ.
Read the parts about Account Suspension and Account Closure on both the Terms of Service and Account FAQ to enlighten yourself. The sentence in the Account Suspension part of the Terms of Service that says "OnLive may suspend an Account, or resume a suspended Account, under certain conditions specified in the Terms, including, for example, the expiration or renewal of your Service membership term." is key to understanding that a unsubscribed account is a suspended account.
Read their Terms of Service HERE. Read their Account FAQ HERE.
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