An EI Interactive heads up on Horizons purchase

You probably know by now that the MMO Horizons have been purchased by EI Interactive from Tulga. Of course, as all transactions go, there have been the usual management shift fuss.

Unfortunately, the change in management also led to some “fuss” for the players’ part. Around July 28, Horizons players were informed through email, as well as in the forums, that there will be a new billing system:

This new billing update screen will provide you with a number of payment options to select from… secure via PayPal Subscription, Direct Pay, and Credit Card entry.

However, Steelclaw, a forums user found out that the new billing system was far from secure, “as they were not sent over an encrypted https connection, but a regular http connection”.

Woody Hearn of GUComics decided to issue a Consumer Advisory Warning due to this. However, the new billing system was still put up around August 5. Of course, the forums were flooded, and “letters to EI” were sent, but were unfortunately met with nothing but silence.

Good thing a statement was finally made on the 16th, which came from no other than Nicholas Dobbins himself, Director of Marketing for EI Communications Corp. Basically it was an apology and a promise that the company will respond to user feedback on a “case to case basis”.

Fast forward to October. Take a look at what our source reported on the matter:

To date in mid-October, the official forums are still closed to new registrations which mean that new players are unable to participate in the official community of Istaria. News updates are sparse on the official site. The last three pieces of information dated July 23, August 23 and October 14.

Let’s just hope for the best and cross our fingers that these matters will be handled smoothly by EI.

You probably know by now that the MMO Horizons have been purchased by EI Interactive from Tulga. Of course, as all transactions go, there have been the usual management shift fuss.

Unfortunately, the change in management also led to some “fuss” for the players’ part. Around July 28, Horizons players were informed through email, as well as in the forums, that there will be a new billing system:

This new billing update screen will provide you with a number of payment options to select from… secure via PayPal Subscription, Direct Pay, and Credit Card entry.

However, Steelclaw, a forums user found out that the new billing system was far from secure, “as they were not sent over an encrypted https connection, but a regular http connection”.

Woody Hearn of GUComics decided to issue a Consumer Advisory Warning due to this. However, the new billing system was still put up around August 5. Of course, the forums were flooded, and “letters to EI” were sent, but were unfortunately met with nothing but silence.

Good thing a statement was finally made on the 16th, which came from no other than Nicholas Dobbins himself, Director of Marketing for EI Communications Corp. Basically it was an apology and a promise that the company will respond to user feedback on a “case to case basis”.

Fast forward to October. Take a look at what our source reported on the matter:

To date in mid-October, the official forums are still closed to new registrations which mean that new players are unable to participate in the official community of Istaria. News updates are sparse on the official site. The last three pieces of information dated July 23, August 23 and October 14.

Let’s just hope for the best and cross our fingers that these matters will be handled smoothly by EI.