GameForge AG GameForge - STEALS MONEY from Customers Karlsruhe, Germany

Ikariam.org and Ikariam.com are an online video game developed by the German company GameForge.  It's important to note that the company is German, because American laws and the BBB don't apply to them.

Ikariam is a game similar to the Sims, which allows you to develop cities and armies and more over a long period of time.  I began playing the game about a 1.5 years ago.  In that time, I spent $120 USD purchasing "ambrosia" in the game (which is used for upgrades to your account that allow you to grow faster).

About one month ago, my girlfriend started playing the game, as well.  We live together, and she wanted to play with me so we could spend that time together.  Being that we live together, we often played from the same machine.  We didn't realize that Gameforge had a rule in place that disallowed people who play from the same computer to help each other in the game.  Being that my girlfriend was relatively new (and having helped dozens of other people in the past), I naturally helped her by sending her supplies.

Without a single warning, Ikariam "banned" both of our accounts permanently.  We sent several petitions to the support team, but they ran us around in circles, saying there was nothing they could do.  We were escalated a total of 6 times "to the next level", even though one support agent admitted to us that there are only 3 levels of support staff.  Furthermore, the ENTIRE support team is run by volunteers who have no direct line of communication with the company.  This is a team of people put in place to run customers around in circles.

Here's where it gets tricky.  I had a balance of "ambrosia", the Ikariam currency, in my account that they banned.  This "ambrosia" has cash value.  They refused to return it to me.  This is the equivalent of selling something then not delivering it.

What we were told is that we were "allowed" to begin new accounts in the game.  What an absurd rule.  We're "banned" but still "allowed to play"?  Something fishy is up there...

My hypothesis is that Ikariam has devised a very loose set of rules to get people to play, pay, invite their friends, and then get drawn into an unfair ban, only to have to begin a new account and pay again.  The reason they need this cycle of banning is that accounts only need ambrosia in the first year of development.  Beyond that, they are self-sustaining.  The ludicrous manner in which they ban patrons who have been playing by the rules for years WITHOUT WARNING, then invite them to start again, is extremely suspicious.

This is a WARNING to anyone thinking about playing Ikariam (or any GameForge game) - these games are designed to take your money REPETITIVELY.  They market themselves as "free games", but trust me, if you play regularly and seriously, you WILL pay - MORE than you would pay for a full featured cash game.

CAVEAT EMPTOR.