Orcs Stole My Charge Card!

I rarely do WOW stories because, well, I don't play WOW, but this one had me rolling. Apparently, according to this Guardian story, the subscription fees for WOW showed up on some European players' credit card statments as charges to "the Croydon Park Hotel in Croydon, Surrey or the Swallow St. George Hotel in Harrogate, Yorkshire."

Can you imagine a person's spouse reading over the credit card bill:

"You said you were working late on the 14th didn't you?"

"Why, yes, I was. And?"

"So, you weren't at the Swallow St. George Hotel then with one of your flings?"

"No, no, I swear...it must have something to do with an online game!"

"Sure, an online game. And the charge is so small you must have been renting by the hour! You disgust me!"

Yeesh, Blizzard can't catch a break lately. WOW has gotten great reviews and has a much bigger player roll than EQII, but they've had their share of problems as well (server lines, downtime, lack of patches, rogue GM's, mass bannings). They must be asking themselves what else can go wrong. They probably should be asking themselves why they don't hire more staff.

Obviously, this wasn't Blizzard's fault - it was the card processing company's. But, with the somewhat ridiculous anti-WOW advertisements SOE runs can we expect:

Come journey with us to the magical lands of Norrath! There's no waiting to log on to a server and we always clearly label all subscription fees on your monthly statements! Why be afraid you are a victim of identity theft when you can join the wonderful realm of Everquest II!