On a CGM Curation site Naver Matome, there is a funny list [J] how people are complaining how Gree, one of Japan’s largest social game networking service, makes its member withdrawal process difficult.
Here is the resigning form page which I could find from their help. (on smartphone version. their main feature phone site and PC site may have different forms) There are selections you must choose to go ahead.
The choices are;
- I don’t know how to play
- There are no interesting games
- I want to hide my name and age (you can not change them from the initial ones when you registered)
- The site is too slow
- I receive too many notification mail from Gree
- Because of unsolicited mail like pestering me for meeting offline
- I could not make friends
- I lost all (virtual) coins
- Human-relation problem
Many of the answers will take you not to the withdrawal page but another guide pages which explain how to solve the user’s issue (and keep playing on Gree).
For example, choosing “I receive too many notification mail from Gree” takes you to this configuration page,
where you may stop notification mail from Gree and/or unknown users. You may also stop notification during night time.
When you choose “There are no interesting games”, the next page shows you the list of Gree’s games.
Many people complain their past experience on Twitter.
The official help page has an answer to the question “I want to withdraw Gree. Why am I not allowed to do so even when I answer the question?”. Gree says “The questionnaire will show you how to solve your issues if you select the reasons which can be solved. If you still want to leave us, please select the most appropriate choice on the questionnaire.”
Hatena user kowntaq commented [J] that the Gree’s withdrawal form is another game to find the secret right path.
I could not find who said the first but there are a good joke telling the easiest way to quit Gree is “to modify your profile that you are seeking “sefure” (a Japanese jargon from “sex friend”), as Gree is patrolling all dating related messages with lots of workers. If you play suspicious like asking minor to meet you, you can immediately be out of the system. 😉
It is probably unwise and should not be necessary to paint yourself as a paedophile in order to get out of a web site.
Can’t users simply tag all Gree emails as spam? This will usually result in their ISP shutting the site down if there are enough complaints.
You can block all mail from Gree on your cellphone, but it won’t erase your data from the service.
As almost quarter of Japanese registered Gree, if ISP blocks it then their users will migrate to others I think. In similar case, that pressure was often used by 2-channel, when ISP did not exclude an abusive user against 2-chan, they blocked the whole ISP by the range of IP address, many other users complained (and said they would switch ISP), there are no major consumer ISP blocking 2-channel.
one more. I wrote “asking date with minors”, but generally, asking date with any age is not permitted on Gree and other social network.
There are a hundreds of Japanese games online but this is the first time I heard about Gree games.