68 réponses à ce sujet

[Kloreep]

www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/14/ea-forum-bans-are-still-affecting-games/

Not good.

Then we heard from James, whose tale is even more extraordinary. He has been permanently banned for using [censored word]...It was in reply to someone else who’d said it, and responded, “Ah, back to the [---] talk.” He was originally told this ban would be for 72 hours, but on Saturday received an email informing him that it was now to be a permanent ban from his Origin account, with no further explanation given. It was added that the matter was “now closed”. And, as ever, EA’s live chat and customer support are refusing to help him in any way. He’s also been told that his BF3 characters and levels will be deleted.

Update: James explains he was polite and courteous with the EA Live Chat person, who had pointed him toward the email form to request further help. He filled this in, again politely he says, and the next day received an email in response saying,

“Please note that your account [email] has been permanently terminated from the Electronic Arts Online service for violating the terms of services. The account will no longer be accessible in any way, and all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.”

And the in field explaining why?

“This action was necessary due to the repeated nature of the offense on the account. We regret having to take this final step, but it is entirely necessary on behalf of protecting the Electronic Arts Online community. The violation has already been discussed above so further communication on this matter won’t be entertained. We thank you for your understanding on all the statutes within the Terms of Service, and they still contractually apply to you as per the original agreement, especially the sections regarding terminated members of the service.”

No such discussion had taken place. No such “repeated” offense had occurred. Which makes the refusal to even discuss this ban somewhat problematic. Since he received this email, James has not been able to access any of his Origin games online.

Modifié par Kloreep, 14 novembre 2011 - 02:09 .

[KingJason13]

If you couple EA's attitude involving banning someone from their legally purchased product with their CREEPY to the maximum privacy agreement (seriously, read it sometime - I'm not sure it should even be legal!)... add a little dash of their business model draining the creativity out of their developers... and I'm not sure how they have customers at all!!!

EA IS EVIL!!!

[bmwcrazy]

So if they ban your EA Forum account for saying a swear word, you have to re-buy all your games and DLCs?

I say this is a brilliant strategy to generate more revenue! Good work, EA!

Modifié par bmwcrazy, 14 novembre 2011 - 04:08 .

[eroeru]

[inappropriate post removed]

Modifié par Stanley Woo, 14 novembre 2011 - 04:59 .

[eroeru]

Sorry.

xD

[Gunderic]

KingJason13 wrote...

If you couple EA's attitude involving banning someone from their legally purchased product with their CREEPY to the maximum privacy agreement (seriously, read it sometime - I'm not sure it should even be legal!)... add a little dash of their business model draining the creativity out of their developers... and I'm not sure how they have customers at all!!!

EA IS EVIL!!!

They have customers because they have the money to publish big hits.

[ME_Fan]

I have a question which is kinda related. I want Battlefield 3 on PC, but haven't bothered because of Origin. Now I'm hearing that it's not too bad. Should I or should I not install Origin on my PC?

[Gunderic]

"The first person to get in touch with us about BF3 was Nick. It’s hard to sympathise with Nick, to be frank. He made a stupid thread about “teabagging” on the EA forums, and then seemed to be a bit confused that he should get in trouble for suggesting he dangle his “balls” in dead people’s faces. Common sense would dictate that’s not a subject to be raising on a family-friendly forum. His astonishment expressed to us that this should be an issue isn’t endearing. However, less endearing was EA’s response. Following Wong’s advice above he contacted EA’s Customer Support, via email and live chat, and received a refusal to even discuss the matter each time"

rofl.

[Arcadian Legend]

This is the first time I'm actually saying this, but EA... What the hell? Do they want to have low sales? Course this is just one person but you get what I'm saying. A complete ban and deletion for everything? That guy owned that stuff and bought it with his own money.

[bmwcrazy]

ME_Fan wrote...

I have a question which is kinda related. I want Battlefield 3 on PC, but haven't bothered because of Origin. Now I'm hearing that it's not too bad. Should I or should I not install Origin on my PC?

The problem is not Origin, it is the stupid web interface server browser which doesn't even work correctly.

Who ever came up with that idea should be shot. 

[ObserverStatus]

When gamers download the games for free, it's piracy, but when publishers steal legally purchased games from their owners, it's necessary action to protect the community...

[Unbannable]

I think Bioware moderators know this and no longer report forum bans to EA, as it's EA that has the capability to permanently suspend your account. I was just temp banned not a few moments ago, but my DA2 account is still active.

If you guys are that concerned over this, make a separate account with no games linked to it to post on the forum.  That way, even if you are banned, they can't tamper with your game access.

Modifié par Unbannable, 14 novembre 2011 - 07:12 .

[bmwcrazy]

bobobo878 wrote...

When gamers download the games for free, it's piracy, but when publishers steal legally purchased games from their owners, it's necessary action to protect the community...

Seriously, pirates get better support than people who actually bought their games.

[KingJason13]

What's truly hysterical in this situation is that if EA held the language used during online gameplay to the same standards of their forums: EVERYONE WOULD BE BANNED! lol

[eroeru]

"Keeping discussion civil" is not necessarily ethical nor good in any way. Especially if it is done in order to keep control for a select group of people, or oneself .

(i.e. playing god or feeling superiority is never a good thing, for anyone, and thus never ethical - cause that's what egos of people don't essentially like - the feeling that someone is claiming or thinking or acting to be superior.)

Modifié par eroeru, 14 novembre 2011 - 08:00 .

[Pious_Augustus]

I think EA is shooting it self in the foot here. You're going to put the future of your company into Forum ****'s to where if they ban you...you cannot play the game? I smell a lawsuit but more importantly I feel EA needs to back track some of it's policies.

It reminds me of AOL way back in the day to where you can get banned if you go onto a 15 year olds site and he complains because of something you said on the forums. I spent hundreds maybe even thousands a year on video games do they really want to push away customers so their developers and forum ****'s can feel empowered?

[Kloreep]

eroeru wrote...

"Keeping discussion civil" is not necessarily ethical nor good in any way. Especially if it is done in order to keep control for a select group of people, or oneself .

(i.e. playing god or feeling superiority is never a good thing, for anyone, and thus never ethical - cause that's what egos of people don't essentially like - the feeling that someone is claiming or thinking or acting to be superior.)

I don't particularly care how EA wants to run their forums. Well, I do care; but I acknowledge and kowtow to the dictatorship of the forum owner. Their digs, their rules. See my fearful censorship of the offending word from the RPS quote.

What bothers me is that there is any link between suspension of posting privileges and this unilateral revocation of purchases. There is no justifiable reason to lock someone out of their purchased single player games for their posts; and while the connection between a multiplayer ban and forum ban could be argued, I find that pretty repulsive too.

For me, the big question here is if I even want to continue going to EA forums like the BSN. It seems like the safest policy would be to not. Or, like Unbannable says, try and hide behind even more anonymity - more than we already had, that is, using handles like BioWarePlayer42. (Of course, if EA is really this draconian, should we not also route ourselves through TOR to really avoid identification? Sigh.)

I do like the BSN, just because it's the official forums with devs commenting and all that cool stuff. But this really gives me pause. What third-party Bioware fan sites would you folks recommend for forums?

[Reptilian Rob]

I think EA is just in it for the trolling.

I can honestly imagine them sitting in a posh exec lounge smoking high end cigars laughing at the common man being mistreated.

There's really no other explanation for a company to be THAT wonky to it's customers.

[craigdolphin]

This is every bit an unethical as theft IMO. I don't give a toss about the legal nitty gritty here: this is simply excessive. It's fine to ban forumites if they break forum rules. But it is not fine to extend that reasonable punishment to removing that customers ability to use their lawfully purchased content.

Not cool EA. Not cool at all.

[DukeOfNukes]

surprised EA hasn't fixed this, TBH.

Flat out, PC gaming is having issues because developers/publishers no longer know how to handle their customer base. If you're gaming on a PC, you're more tied into that community. A startling amount of games are being released without any kind of demo these days. With digital copies, you're no longer being sold the game, you're being sold the right to play the game...which can be revoked at any time for pretty much any reason. PC gaming is a disaster...and a completely unattractive platform, with the exception of a handful of developers, and independent developers.

Simply put, gamers are being put into a corner where even if they legally purchase a game, they have to violate the ToS in order to be able to play it.

[UrkOfGreyhawk]

I'm not surprised. Not even a little bit. Typical EA.

Of course the only way EA is going to take any of you seriously is if all of us start voting with our wallets.

Personally ME2 was the last EA game I'm ever buying.

There couldn't be a worse match in the industry than Bioware and EA. It's like McDonald's buying 11 Madison Park. Bio was dead before the ink dried on the deal.

[marshalleck]

The obvious solution is to create a dummy account not linked with any of your games, for use on the forums.

[Veex]

marshalleck wrote...

The obvious solution is to create a dummy account not linked with any of your games, for use on the forums.

In the event that you can't control the language you use while posting of course.