Norwegian developer Funcom has apparently sent out newsletters to Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures-users with inactive accounts, notifying them that any low-level characters remaining on their accounts will be deleted as part of maintenance in the near future, unless the users choose to reactivate their accounts. All characters belonging to active accounts, as well as characters above level 20 on inactive accounts will remain available after the maintenance. In the message, of which a copy can be found after the jump, Funcom also offers the former users a ‘limited time offer’ of an additional 7 days of playing time if they choose to reactivate their accounts at this time.

Several recipients of the message have already complained about the move, feeling that Funcom is blackmailing them into reactivating their subscription and holding their low-level characters hostage for ransom, with the ‘limited time offer’ being viewed by some as an insult-to-injury.

The full message that was sent out by Funcom was as follows: