(UPDATE #1) The e-Gamer Loyalty Card from IP e-Games Philippines


The e-Gamer Loyalty Card from IP e-Games Philippines

Got yours? Then you did not join the e-Games DOM1NATION event yesterday. This is the best gamer privilege ever given by a local game publisher, providing gamers the following:

Follow up:

  • the coolest in-game benefits
  • the best online game support
  • sweetest discounts from partner establishments (two pages list of establishments on a 9pt font size)
  • enjoy a hack resolution support and access to the VIP hotline number
  • instant admission to all e-Games events

All these for just a PhP100.00 (U$50.00) membership fee. Something that is worth waiting in the long-line, and it is also great that they are producing our membership cards right on-the-spot (unlike an anime channel who keeps on losing their customers membership applications).

Also a simple thank you to the e-Gamer who told me that the IGN field means Username as shown below:

I wrote there Seraphim because that IS my IGN, which is short for In-Game Name. This term has been in used for 5 years already, and I don’t why they confused IGN for Username, any real gamer knows the difference between the two, unless they are starting a new trend which actually will only give them more trouble as I will explain.

Imagine your IGN is “Seraphim” (again IGN is short for In-Game Name, or in older terms, Character Name). You wrote in the application your “IGN” because that’s what the field is for. The e-Games personnel searched their database and found “Seraphim”, gave you your control number and told you to go to the Card production area. The guy in the card production will write what was given and print your membership card. There you go, you now have your e-Gamer Loyalty Card.

You used it of course, especially for the special items that you can get with it. Depending on their process, let’s assume it will be given to the account the Card was linked to, the item will not appear on your real account. You call them and they tell you that they already gave your special item. And so on and so forth.

What happened here? Simple. Your IGN is a popular name, anyone can use your character name as their own username, in this case, “Seraphim” is one of the Angelic Orders and hence popular. It so happens that someone created an e-Games Account with the name “Seraphim”, so there I/you lost it. On e-Games part, people will call for reasons related to this flaw.

Does it matter? I believe so, because the control number they gave me is already by the millionth, when after the correction, I’m the 77th user who registered for an e-Games Account. It means that, anything I request using my e-Gamer Loyalty Card will be attached to the username it was registered/linked to.

I don’t know what else can happen if the Loyalty Card you are holding is registered to the wrong account, and I don’t know how many players who got their loyalty cards but these were attached to the wrong accounts. e-Games last option to rectify this is to ask a gamer of his/her account name before giving out their special items. And when it comes to taking advantage of the discounts, it will not matter as these establishments only cares about your card’s account number, no harm there, since you can verify your name with another ID.

The table below shows the difference between an IGN and a Username:

In-Game Name (IGN) or Character Name Seraphim Cherubim
Username myusername Seraphim

And I don’t know why they chose to use a player’s username to show on the card. A username must be kept private for security reasons. As another proof, one of my friends wrote his IGN or Character name, the e-Games personnel said it does not exist in the database so she can not register him for an e-Gamer Loyalty Card, we found out (again thanks to the gamer who told us) that it should be username not IGN, and voila, my friend got his loyalty card.

In other words, they really chose the ‘username’, and in any company I know, especially online gaming (except emails and old-style social-networks), a username is as vital and as important as the password and must be kept private at all times. Giving out one’s username publicly is a great risk, you just helped the hacker-wannabees one step closer in compromising your account.

There is another problem though, and I kept on telling the guy in-charge of the data that will be printed on the card – the expiration date is set to 05/07 or May 2007 as shown below:

I’m sure this is another error, if it isn’t, then a Loyalty Card for PhP100.00 which will be valid only for 1 month is way too much. IP e-Games need to clarify this as well, especially when it comes to their partner establishments. Regardless, if it really is not an error, there are more discount or loyalty cards out there for the same amount yet is valid for 24 months.

To summarize, here are the two things that IP e-Games must make clear to their customers:

  • the Loyalty Cards of the people who were linked to the wrong accounts/username because of the misuse of the term IGN (which stands for In-Game Name or Character Name)
  • the expiration date of the Loyalty Cards

To the Customer Service of e-Games Philippines, get ready for more calls.

Just an extra, look at your e-Gamer Loyalty Card again:

If you think that the account your Loyalty Card was registered/linked to is correct then here’s how you will know your account number.

  1. Look at your Loyalty Card’s card number, the last 6-digits is the date your card was printed (in the picture above it’s 070428 or 2007, April 28)
  2. The digits before the date is your e-Games account number, in my case it’s 77, meaning, when I registered, my account is the 77th account on their database (as opposed to the username “Seraphim” which is already by the millionth)

Here’s another, there are two marks on the card – a dot and a down-arrow. I’m thinking that this is the ’secret’ mark to tell a fake loyalty card from the real one. Or maybe it doesn’t mean anything.

Enjoy your e-Gamer Loyalty Card, and well done for IP e-Games for the countless partner establishments they got. Visit the Official website for more details: e-Gamer Loyalty Card.


UPDATE #1: April 29, 2007, 8:40PM ACT (ASEAN Common Time)

An update to the correct interpretation of the e-Gamer Loyalty Card.

If you look at the image above, the 05/07 is the start date of the card, or in other words, “Valid From”. The card itself lacks the field for “Valid Until” because of one of the two possible reasons:

  • the application that the Card Production team (which I believed was outsourced) is using a version made for ATM Card production. If you look at your ATM Card, it only shows the date when you applied for an ATM Card/account, not the “Valid Until” because ATM Cards do not expire (obviously); or
  • to avoid issuing a new “physical” e-Gamer Loyalty Card with the updated “Valid Until” date, this can save us – the gamers – of paying another PhP100.00 just for the renewal (note: e-Games can still charge a fee for the renewal, but since there will be no new card that will be issued, it should be cheaper)

Finally, the last six digits of your card number, which is 070428 as shown above (note: if you registered during the DOM1NATION event) is the “Card Issuance Date”.

So what’s the expiration of your e-Gamer Loyalty Card? It’s one full year according to GM-Psybot and his colleagues.

Now that’s clear, let’s enjoy our e-Gamer Loyalty Card!!


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