(Rant) Don't buy Rockstar games.

Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩

Fuck Rockstar. I changed my email accounts but forgot to change Rockstar first. Now, after buying GTA V on Xbox and Steam and sinking a lot of time into it over two accounts, they added some mandatory launcher on Steam that forces you to login to their Social Club. Mandatory launcher calls an account that I can’t unlink, triggers mandatory 2FA to an email that doesn’t exist. They refuse to help despite my willingly handing over a lot of private information - their support system is as good as fake. The end result is I have sank >£100 in buying their games and they ensure that not only do I not get to continue my account on GTA V, but I have been permanently locked out and actually impossible to play any Rockstar Social - walled game on Steam.

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I have the same issue with Activision, and here’s the kicker. They’re exactly the same blueprint. Same support. Same result. Same fake-ass Western names on their signature.

Just don’t give corps like Rockstar money.

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Zer0_F0x@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I used to work for a company that Epic Games outsourced their support to. We were based in Athens, Greece. There were other companies receiving the same email pool on Helpdesk Bulgaria or Romania, as well as an Indian office, all supporting US customers via email.

We were paid 3.5eu / hour and our performance was micromanaged by counting how many replies we did per hour.

Hence, we had canned responses that we’d copy/paste to save time and maybe achieve a bonus for that month.

Unfortunately we ended up being shit on on reddit on multiple occasions because some poor guy misunderstood the request and a legitimate request would be promptly denied, even though it shouldn’t be. The level of English comprehension varied wildly among us.

All I’m saying is maybe Rockstar actually has a way to ID your account based on IP addresses, credit card used, date purchased if you have the receipt email, driver’s license etc and you’re just dealing with an underpaid dude in Eastern Europe not quite understanding you.

Usually if you threaten to sue they escalate to tier 2, so you may have more luck that way and tbh I don’t know about Rockstar, that’s how Epic did it back in 2018.

Maybe try explaining it a different way? I dunno but good luck.

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- Flagstaff@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thanks for the context, which led me to downvote this post. Come on, guys; not all complaints are valid.
  
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  - Technologist@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It is valid to take people’s money and deny them the product? Interesting opinion…
    
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- Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Edit: I just saw the rest of the messages in your comment.
  
  I wouldn't have given you back the account either in their shoes. You just claim things that anyone could claim from their point of view, they have procedures they need to follow.
  
  They can't try your password, or see it anywhere and would never ask you for it either.
  
  They're asking simple things that you should have been able to verify. After that they'd likely ask for IP addresses and last 4 digits of card used etc.
  
  They have to do this, or anyone's account could be hacked by social engineering all too easy.
  
  I honestly don't see how you can turn the blame on him. It's not his fault the support didn't ask for the right things. It's actually part of Rockstar support procedure to ask essentially public information like previous email addresses or previous nicknames. On my first try they asked the same things from me. On my second try they also asked for Steam purchase history and game keys. It's not his fault the support fucked up and didn't ask for the right things.
  
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  - Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    The thing is, and I think you’re missing this, he got those wrong. After being asked for email and Nickname he provides them and the support person says “I’m unable to verify that you own the account”, that means he answered wrong, yes those might be bad questions because some random person might know them, but he didn’t.
    
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  - Wildmimic@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    But this whole situation started with him ignoring that he didn't have access to the mail address connected to his account, and i bet that this has been this way for years, not a few days. And he couldn't even spit out one definite answer for the original nickname used when creating the account (which tells me it definitely has been years). They didn't ask for the wrong things, OP couldn't answer them.
    
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ech@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Lol, YDI. When asked to provide the identifiable information, you just say “Stop and do the thing I want.” You seriously expect them to just hand over an account to someone who can’t provide basic information about it? You owned yourself, pal.

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- Luffy879@lemmy.ml ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Just wait until that guy learns about Crypto
  
  I’m just imagining their pure rage when reaching out to a Bitcoin Dev/maintainer whatever with something like „I don’t know what my Wallets name was, idk my 10 phrase password, but give me back my 10$ in Btc right now”
  
  And then pasting this again with the Title DONT BUY BTC THEY SCAM YOU
  
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- maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Social Club is the kind of account you use a throwaway email for, and just use whatever random nickname isn’t taken yet. I, personally, have no idea what the email or nickname to my Social Club account are. I also have bought GTA V through Steam back in 2015 and haven’t lived into Social Club since. I think it’s perfectly fair to expect that your Steam account shouldn’t be hijacked by Rockstar upon linking it to one Social Club account once.
  
  At the very least, if they’re gonna have a Rockstar launcher, it should allow you to unlink your Steam account through it, using your Steam credentials, and free it up to link to a new Social Club account.
  
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- jj4211@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Look at the timestamps, the conversation is from top to bottom. So technically I guess he tried to answer, but he probably missed the answer and instead had a tone that happened to match exactly how a scammy email would sound.
  
  If legitimate, it’s probably better that they didn’t get to successfully automating spamming the support system. Nothing screams legitimate requests like bot spamming… Don’t know the tone of his follow ups, but best to take a breath and reset their tone and try again, asking what other details aside from nickname can be used, given their steam access.
  
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  - ech@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Ah, yeah, I totally misread those screenshots. My mistake. Still not good, though. I take back that YDI, but yeah, not surprised they’re getting ghosted after all that.
    
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  - Odo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    I think you meant “bottom to top”. But yes, that does change the tone a bit.
    
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StrixUralensis@tarte.nuage-libre.fr ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Looking at the conversation, you do sound like a hackerkid™ trying to social engineer itself into someones rockstar account

You should give them the info they ask for
Also, the poor indian dude answering you probably doesn't have access to you crew's name in gtav or anything like that.

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Wildmimic@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Don't give them money because you aren't able to keep your email address updated? Don't give them money because you are not able to provide the information they need to verify you are who you say you are?

I've worked costumer support for many years, and me and my supervisors would have rejected your request too. Since you can't provide what they want (not even a definite nickname wtf), you probably can't prove the purchase either.

Don't flame some poor support guy, kick yourself in the ass for letting it slide for so long that you cant even remember the original nickname anymore and chalk it up as a learning experience - we've all been there.

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- FigMcLargeHuge@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Well then can we flame them (rockstar) for turning off Linux support on GTA V Online? I know the exact same anticheat works on linux, because I am playing Dune online and it’s working just fine. So yeah, back to that, fuck rockstar!
  
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  - Wildmimic@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    yeah, that's a flameable offense, i agree.
    
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maxwells_daemon@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Everyone on the comments making such a huge deal of account security when literally all Rockstar had to do was allow people to unlink their Steam accounts from Social Club. It could even be done in their own launcher, with the credentials of the Steam account that actually owns the game. Then people could just make a new Social Club account, it’s not worth shit anyways.

They’re locking people out of playing a local, offline game, over some decade year old account that I used my spam email for, and now I’m supposed to remember it? Get a fucking grip bro.

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artyom@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yeah this is the cancer that is email 2FA.

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- chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Unfortunately email is the only way they have to verify your identity. No email, no account.
  
  That isn’t really true, I’ve restored access to multiple game accounts before in situations where I lost access to my email, it mostly involved providing information about the account that only the person using it would know, like the names of characters on it and some other stuff. If a company can’t handle this it’s because they don’t want to pay for competent customer support workers and just rely entirely on automated systems.
  
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  - artyom@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes, it is the lazy way to secure accounts. No defense there.
    
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  - Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Yes, things like original email and Nickname are some of those questions because after they change the public might have no way of figuring it out. Notice the support tech asked for those informations and when provided with it he said that he couldn’t verify ownership, this means OP reported wrong information for the identifying questions.
    
    I’m not saying the service is great, asking him to access an email he claims to have lost access is dumb, but everything after that the tech support person did his best, and I don’t think he should have disabled 2FA, since it could be a social engineering attack.
    
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Stamets@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

A lot of private information

Public nicknames, passwords and emails that could be fished from public dumps and retried, public crew names… Where’s the private and where is the a lot?

Also you’re not even paying attention. You called someone Aaron well after they’ve left the conversation.

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Pumasuedeblue@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Why don’t you request a refund from Steam? If the game doesn’t work because they changed it then I want my money back.

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Dudewitbow@lemmy.zip ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
yeah this is the circle of ownership because the only way to get your account back at this point is social engineering, which is a serious topic about getting accounts hacked which different companies will handle seriously, as it requires a level of “trust me bro” on identity, If possible, id try to look for a CS that will take receipts of the game purchases to help further prove your identity.

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Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Mandatory launchers can fuck right off. I was lucky enough to get Rockstar support to accept my Steam purchases but even then I had to try twice because the first time they pretty much blew me off.

I also had a similar issue with Ubisoft. There it was actually easier to restore my old email than get Ubisoft support to cooperate.

In short, fuck forced launchers and anyone who says "it's just another account". Yeah, it is at the moment but who knows 10 years from now. You'll be locked out of your games because some fuckery happens and support won't do shit.

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- Flagstaff@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  
  Mandatory launchers can fuck right off.
  
  … Iike Steam’s? 😛
  
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  - Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You know what I meant. If I buy a game on one launcher it shouldn't open another launcher that then launches the game. The other launcher is completely unnecessary but it is mandatory to launch the game, hence mandatory launcher.
    
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  - ech@lemmy.ca ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    pcgamingwiki.com/…/The_big_list_of_DRM-free_games…
    
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  - Lfrith@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Think It’s the complaint is where a launcher is required on top of a launcher. Like if you buy Cyberpunk 2077 from Steam, GOG, or Epic it doesn’t required another launcher on top of the launcher you bought it from.
    
    Good thing is that it does seem like majority of games don’t do that. Even EA is moving away from it.
    
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veni_vedi_veni@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
God, can these companies fuck off with their third party launchers? Its why I don’t buy any game off Steam which has that warning, not worth the hassle

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XenBad@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I have the same issue and had the same result with Rockstar. Ubisoft managed to change my email though after providing proof of purchase. Fuck Rockstar, I’m sailing the seas with their games.

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- SilverFlame@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Somehow I had 3 separate Ubisoft accounts with differing games on them. After a short back-and-forth proving I was the account(s) owner, they actually did what I asked. They combined all 3 accounts into one and combined my games catalog.
  
  The corporation sucks ass, but their support did me a solid.
  
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- innermachine@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I had same issue trying to play that after a long time and after sending a screenshot of my steam acct logged in on a certain page they gave me a link to reset my info and I now have access again. What a pain in the ass it was though
  
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voracitude@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
First of all, I agree entirely. Now: Pounds, so you’re in the UK. Have a read about your options with the ombudsman service: …org.uk/…/how-to-use-an-ombudsman-in-england/

the Financial Ombudsman Service sorts out problems with banks, insurance, PPI, loans, mortgages, pensions and deals with other money and financial complaints - read our advice about getting your money back if you paid by card or PayPal

If nothing else you’re putting them on blast with the government, and that contributes to the paper trail for eventual action. In the meantime it might get your complaint resolved. Did you try tweeting at their official account too? Sometimes that can help get things moving.

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- Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thank you! I didn’t think an ombudsman would be at all helpful against a game company, I should reconsider aha. No Twitter account but that’s good advice!
  
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  - meliante@lemmy.pt ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    It’s not a game company. It’s a company period. It sold you something that you’re not able to use.
    
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  - TWeaK@lemmy.today ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    You’re right, this is more of an issue with your purchase not being complete. I think your legal remedies would either be through your card provider (probably too late) or civil action directly to Rockstar.
    
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Etterra@discuss.online ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
This isn’t unique to Rockstar. If the email you created an account with is dead, you’re screwed no matter who it is. I had this problem with Dropbox once. Luckily the email in question still existed, I just didn’t know it. However since it was on a friend’s server he was able to hook me back up.

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- Stamets@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I had the same issue with steam. They requested the same things. A ton of hoops to jump through but worth it because, you know, security.
  
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- ArsonButCute@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  While their process is organized lengthy, EA reps will go really far to help you prove you own an account to recover it and change the login info, over the phone at least. I’ve had to work with them recovering accounts several times because I never learn from a mistake the first time.
  
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Little8Lost@lemmy.world ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I advise you to try out GOG and itch.io as they sell games wbthout DRM

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- Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thanks, yes that’s good advice. I’ve got an account with GOG and use their launcher
  
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  - Flagstaff@programming.dev ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    Although l think it sacrifices achievement progress, you may consider Heroic Games Launcher instead, which is open-source.
    
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rdri@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I know this is probably not helping but ideally you’d want to go through this process

…rockstargames.com/…/changing-the-email-address-o…

If this process is not working people might want to report on it.

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WeebLife@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Time to sail the high seas.

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CountVlad47@feddit.org ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Maybe I was lucky, but I had the same issue where I no longer had access to my old e-mail account and they sorted it out for me within a few hours (after a few e-mails back and forth).

It probably helped that I was able to provide them with a screenshot of the game in my Steam library as well as a list of all the games linked to my Rockstar account with dates of purchase. To find the dates of purchase on Steam I went to “account details” and “view purchase history”.

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- Lyra_Lycan@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Thanks - from what I can gather the support member is a roulette spin with each message - hopefully I can use your tips and increase my chances of success
  
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crx@lemmy.ml ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Exact same for me but an Ubisoft game linking my Steam account to a long gone email address of a long gone Ubisoft account.

Absolutely hopeless customer support saying there is no possible way for them to help me.

Good thing I wasn’t planning on buying any Ubisoft game ever again, problem pretty much sorted itself out.

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jaemo@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Step one: put this on your tinder profile:

I have been permanently locked out and actually impossible to play any Rockstar Social - walled game on Steam.

Step two: reel’em in. You’re free now!

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TheV2@programming.dev ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
What exactly happened that leads to your conclusion that none of your support requests are going through? And why was it not possible to continue the on-going support request that you linked in your screenshot?

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bryndos@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Did you try typing goru@n.ga as your email address?

IRL you don't need an email account to do road violence. Simulator is worse than life.
Matrix, confirmed.

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- BuboScandiacus@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  ?
  
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  - bryndos@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
    IIRC goruanga was the cheat code in gta. also it came up when you got all the hare krishnas in one and go and gave 1million points.
    
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doingthestuff@lemy.lol ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
My daughter played on my account while she was a minor and didn’t have her own rig. She got a gaming PC and her own steam account and is grown now, has her own copy of gtav.

But my account is tied to her email. Almost every time I want to play I have to call her. I’d just buy another copy on a steam sale but, “you already own this game”.

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- Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  Assuming you don’t care enough about your progress, can’t you just log out of the R* launcher with your own login?
  
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Fecundpossum@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yep, I have the same story verbatim dude. Fuck Rockstar, permanently. Haven’t played one of their games in like 5 years, and I never will again.

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- WhyAUsername_1@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
  I mean, rockstar hasn’t release a new game in like 5 years. So you have not missed out on anything yet.
  
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unconsciousvoidling@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I couldn’t play red dead 2 because of some old email I didn’t recognize was associated with my rockstar social account that was linked to my steam account where I bought the game. I didn’t even give a shit about cloud or online play. I just wanted to do the game all alone but it wouldn’t let me without that email. It was the dumbest shit ever and i eventually just got a refund. They definitely use people over seas for support and it takes them forever to reply.

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UndergroundGoblin@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Yep. I have the exact same problem with EA-Connect. My account is just gone because EA doesn’t offer any support.

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Lembot_0004@discuss.online ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Ok, I won’t. I don’t like launchers anyway.

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thermal_shock@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
One way to fix this is buy your own domain and own all the email accounts.

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millie@slrpnk.net ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
Have you tried using FiveM? Last I knew it didn’t require social club access.

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Yurgenst@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago
I delt with the exact same issue recently. I was locked out of my 13 year old Rockstar account and despite sending everything asked for they wouldn’t help me. It took 9 separate support requests over the course of 6 months before I was able to get my account back. Their support is the most infuriating AI bullshit I have ever dealt with.

I didn’t know if it will help you but it seems the key phrase that actually got them to look at my account was that I was “worried about my account being compromised”. It was a complete lie but I had run out of options. They ask every time “when was your account linked to steam/epic” and I just said “I’ve never linked epic, oh no someone has my account!!”. That was the only thing that worked. Good luck 🤞

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