This is the notice on the site today-
*For reasons beyond our control, the current version of Zombie Pandemic is set to be discontinued shortly, and this will likely impact the user accounts of Yahoo! players. We are experiencing technical difficulties with the game vendor. We will provide more precise information as soon as possible, and are working to resolve the issue. In the meantime, we advise users not to make further micropayments for their accounts. Stay tuned for additional information.
I don't know about you, but my first question was What's a "micropayment"? Although it's free to play (in a limited fashion) I paid 26 squids for a year of premium and the site goes poof 2 months later. This made me want to see some more of their creative writing, so I went and looked at their "terms and conditions". This is where potential future players might want to take special notice. I have to say that if I had read this when I first saw the game, I never would have started playing until it was out of the "Open Beta" stage, if at all. Here are a couple of excerpts...
* As a result frequent server updates with adjusted, extended and modified game content can be expected resulting in instability of the game and thus inconvenience to the user. Created user accounts may also be subject to deletion at which point a beta tester must create a new account. User accounts will be reset several times during the beta test in order to balance out the gameplay. (I read that as "You're likely to lose all your progress and have to start over again, possibly many times".)
* The carrier reserves the right to cease operating the game Zombie Pandemic without justification. The user may demand reimbursement for fees already paid out for features. This option shall only apply to fees unused up to this point in time. Any other claims by the user shall be prohibited.
(The way I read this is that if you bought credits for virtual items, you can be reimbursed for what you haven't used yet up to the time of the game ending. Time paid for can't be reimbursed forward from the time of the game ending, so if you bought Premium, you're screwed.)
The entire page of terms and conditions is here... Terms and Conditions
So I guess now we wait and see how the development team handles this problem. It's a decent brainless game to diddle with while watching tv, movies, or hanging out, but it certainly won't be missed that much if it goes for good. Just remember, don't give them any money and as I said in an earlier post- stay away from the forum.
I'll close this post with a shot of my players, quite possibly dead and rotting right now. HAH!
