Slashdot Mirror
EA Forum Ban Will Now Mean EA Game Ban
An anonymous reader writes "A post on the EA Support Forums from APOC, online community manager for Electronic Arts, outlines a new policy for their new forums, saying users who earn a ban based on their behavior in the forums will be locked out of all of the EA games tied to that account: 'Well, its actually going to be a bit nastier for those who get banned. Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since it's all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature. All in all, we expect people to come on here and abide by our ToS. We hate banning people, it makes our lives a lot tougher, but it's what we have to do.'" Update: 10/31 12:36 GMT by T : Not so! Pandanapper writes "After a flood of complaints the EA community moderator APOC corrects his statement about how banning you from the forums bans you from your game access as well:"That said, the previous statement I made recently (that's being quoted on the blogs) was inaccurate and a mistake on my part. I had a misunderstanding with regards to our new upcoming forums and website and never meant to infer that if we ban or suspend you on the forums, you would be banned in-game as well. This is not correct, my mistake, my bad."
Fo'shure I'm looking forward to shelling out my hard-earned money (especially in this wonderful economy) for EA titles in the future after seeing this.
I enjoyed EA games in the past. Being a military buff I especially enjoyed their flight simulators. They were mostly stable and fun to play. I cringed when they bought out Westwood because I thought they were going to screw up the C&C franchise, but (mostly) they didn't.
But being banned from online play because I let out a "fuck" on their forums? Or for any reason whatsoever unrelated to behavior within the game? Never mind the insane DRM on their latest output.
Fuck that. No more EA games for me. I'm getting old anyway. Time to switch to online Scrabble or something. Flash DigDug and Galaga FTW.
FIRST the DRM, now this? They really hate players
So, they take away something I paid for - will they refund? Probably not. I wonder how that would play out in a court of law.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
EA is not gonna get any of my business with their shoddy transgaming Cedega-wrapped junk that they deploy on the Mac platform.
They need to stop burning their users, which EA has done for years. Kinda sounds like a consumer case of abuse where the victims keep coming back time after time. A shame, really.
Now I will have ZERO problem pirating SPORE or any other EA title. In fact I wasn't going to bother with SPORE given the lackluster reviews, but I'm firing up Azurus as we speak to grab it just to spite the arrogant f'ers.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Are they TRYING to start a class action lawsuit???
Judge: "What did you do?"
Me: "Called him an asshat."
Judge: "What did they do?"
Me: "Locked me out of $500 worth of software"
Judge: "I rule in favor of the plantif for 1 ass-ton of money"
EA Guy 1: You see what Bungie, Valve, and many other game developers are doing? Linking games to gamer's internet forum accounts? Letting you see your stats, other peoples stats, game avatars, recently played games, and other cool stuff like that?
EA Guy 2: Um, yeah.
Guy 1: Well, we need to do something to top that. We need something that will really draw in our players and make them part of our community.
Guy 2: How about, participate in our forums, and earn the chance to be banned from your favorite game forever by a power-starved, 17 year-old forum mod.
Guy 1: Brilliant! Next issue, blood sample toolkits packaged with all our games.
Guy 2: ??????
Guy 1: No, it's not what you think. It's only for the initial install... and three times a month after that.
The amount of effort it takes to get things reversed when you feel you have been inappropriately banned. I recently spent a lot of time on web and phone to get my son's account re-enabled for an online game (not EA). Once a manager looked at his remarks in context it was clear that he was not in violation of their ToS. If they are going to do this, they better be damned sure of the training and ability of the people who will be issuing the death penalty to the gamers.
LETS DECOMPOSE & ENJOY ASSEMBLING
EA just doesn't want any money, now do they?
Average consumer will think... "surely only potty mouths get themselves banned from the game by flaming in the forums"
And still buy the game.
The banned person has to buy their games all over again, if they still want to play == more $$$ for the game maker.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55656
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55656
Posting in EA Forums is enabled by an EA Nucleus account -- but access to the forums and access to the games are separate. Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games. Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game or service. Each forum, game and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service.
I haven't bought spore, but I have played through much of it. It really isn't even a multiplayer game aside from downloading content from other users to be added to your own single-player game. What purpose would banning a player from Spore serve? Are they trying to tell us that they would ban people from a single-player game?
...because when an independent game developer bans you from his forum, not only does he shut down your account, but he writes you into the game as a boss character. >:-)
I like it. Seriously. It's a big "asshats are unwelcome" sign, meaning rational gaming adults that hate the immature antics are going to have an entire company with an "adult swim" gaming experience.
And I'll bet that overall, the modding of forums *will* improve, when the first small claims or civil cases come to trial, or the first class-action suit happens. I think mods will get clued in very quickly that they'd better be able to completely justify a ban under the new system, because suddenly their decisions have financial impact.
The point is, they're not going to continue getting money if they keep screwing over, on a continuing basis, the people who give them the money.
Then how do you explain the fact that the cable and cellular companies are still in business? ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
it always seems kinda odd when major corporations that don't mind being unethical themselves when they can make a profit then turn around and try to force their sense of morality on others (e.g. censorship policies). i think companies like Sony, EA, Gamespot, etc. should focus more on correcting their own bad behaviors rather than trying to control the behavior of others. trampling on the rights of consumers, extorting your customers, and selling out your journalistic integrity to advertisers are not exactly shining examples of corporate responsibility.
it's especially annoying when major gaming sites have incompetently implemented profanity filters that prevent you from using ordinary words that happen to contain the same letter sequence as an "inappropriate word or phrase." i don't even bother posting reviews on Gamespot anymore because it's such a pain in the ass trying to figure out what word i used that triggered their profanity filter.
and then there are sites like IGN that have imbeciles for moderators, who think that homebrew/emulation/ripping CDs is illegal. if i want to rip one of my PSX games onto my hard drive and convert it into an eboot that i can play on my PSP that's my own prerogative. censoring posts that talk about homebrew/CFW/etc. is blatant posturing by the gaming industry to condition the public into thinking that only industry sanctioned uses of games/consoles are legal, and that using homebrew, CFW, etc. is illegal/unethical/taboo.
Really? You think they'll ban you from all forthcoming releases as well? How will that work? Will somebody be stupid enough to get banned from the forums, then buy another game from EA, and sign up for the new game with the banned account? People will probably start sock puppet accounts so that their main account doesn't get banned. Anybody who buys Bioware and then signs up with a banned account is pretty thick anyway.
I don't think Microsoft has ever banned anyone from using Windows for swearing on MSDN
Just another reason to avoid EA. I went to pre-order SPORE and stopped the moment I read about EA Online "download guarantee" for $6 additional fee when buying the game. The download guarantee meant you could download SPORE again for 2 years if you paid $6 now. I decided right there I would not buy EA games online and canceled. I later found out about the registration issues. I'll spend my money at STEAM where Valve can have more of my money. Buy a game there and download again any time I reformat my Windows machine which is at least once a year and I've never heard of a time limit on STEAM. I prefer to buy my games over STEAM and not mess with optical discs or packaging.
How is this any different than the signs in restaurants that say "We reserve the right to refuse to serve someone." They don't care if you already paid for your meal, if you're abusing the wait staff, they can kick you out. It's a private establishment, just like the forums/servers/realms/whatever, just because you paid for the game does not give you the right to infringe on the rights of others.
Just because you bought the game does not entitle you to act like an a$$hole in the forums, chatrooms or in the game. I'm all for forums in which if someone is spouting off garbage, the moderator has the right to delete the post/thread and ban the user. I've seen this in many non-game related forums. Most people abide by the rules, and when some nut comes along and spouts junk, it just attracts more people like them.
They're not going to ban someone that uses the occasional off colored language, or and if they're smart they'll warn you that you're on thin ice. Unless it's obvious that the poster is spamming posts etc..
Many games were ruined by a$$holes, take Diablo2 for example. Cheating was so rampant that you could only play multiplayer with people you already knew. If only they could have banned all the cheaters.
This is why the internet is such a horrible place to exchanging information. All you have are immature ignorant fools posting what ever they feel like. All they do is complain-complain-complain, bitch-bitch-bitch, whine-whine-whine. It's fucking ridiculous. It's so hard to find any thing good anymore. You know, good intellectual conversations, hello?!!?. Even Slashdot has it problems. And surely, you can't keep these people from posting on anything, they'll just fucking lie and make a new account.
I really do think the internet, the forums, blogs, whatever...really suck!
It's left blank because I have nothing to say to you punks!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Judge: What did he do?
EA: Made a monster that looks like a dick!
Me: Objection! It looks nothing like a dick!
EA: Its clearly phallic!
Me: Thats a long neck, evolved for reaching high...
EA: Its sitting on a pair of balls!
Me: Theyre legs! It walks on them!
EA: HAIRY BALLS
Its worth it just to see a gaggle of lawyers on $400+ p/h trying to argue the phallic appearance of my one-eyed trouser monster.
3laws: No freebies, no backsies, GTFO.
"Those banned will stay banned, but like most other internet services, its not that hard to create a new fake e-mail account. However, its a lot harder to get a new serial key =)"
Seems like it's pretty easy to get a new serial key, guy. Easier than dealing with the default spyware installation procedure, really. What a dumb thing to say.
I never buy another EA game. I was going to buy Dead Space, but since it's apparently no longer possible to actually buy an EA game, I guess I'll just pirate it. Sad they lost someone who was actually going to pay money for their games and sadder still that they don't care.
Fear the penguin.
EA makes great games, most of which I have played through and through.
I'll always buy their games, if it interests me, as most of their titles have.
Most of you are silver spoon fed arrogant bastards who think EA owes you something.
They don't. They owe you NOTHING.
If I pay them for a game, then they owe me a functional game.
Technoli
Why is this modded insightful? Sheep aren't even considered citizens. They don't wear pants. They can't carry money. Maybe they could barter with wool if we weren't shearing them all the goddamn time. I don't even think sheep are playable characters in the Sims, what business would they have playing it?
I don't have an EA account, so I can't post this on the EA forum.
It doesn't matter even if the forum accounts are linked to the game accounts.
After all, just because you can play Game A in your EA account doesn't automatically mean you can play Game B.
Just because you can't play Game C, doesn't mean you can't play ALL other games.
So it should technically be possible for EA to stop people from using the forums without stopping people from playing their games, even if the accounts are the "same".
Just make the forum a "game" and fix the access/authorization crap accordingly.
You could even treat different forum areas as different games.
Microsoft? No thanks, I don't do Windows or Xbox.
Sony? No thanks I don't want a Blu-Ray player nor DRM in my games.
EA? Transgaming/Cedega, DRM and now this? No thanks.
Companies I still trust enough to buy their games:
- Nintendo (for Zelda, Metroid, etc)
- Blizzard (still waiting on Starcraft II and Diablo III)
In fact, almost any Zelda, Metroid, Starcraft or Diablo game is already pre-sold because I trust them enough to sell me good quality games that don't make me feel like a thief or a beta-tester.
That's not a correction or a misunderstanding.
That's a hasty back-peddling move. Expect to see this repeated in about a year. We are the frog in the slowly boiling water, and EA just tried to turn up the heat.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
Actually, I just thought of perhaps a better way to play. How about giving games the option for players to flag themselves as "mature" and choose whether to allow games with other players that are not marked as "mature."
If you start acting like an immature dickhead, you can still play online and post in the forums, but you have to play in the little kid's sandbox while the others can happily ignore you from the "adults" table...
EA makes great games, most of which I have played through and through.
I'll always buy their games, if it interests me, as most of their titles have.
Most of you are silver spoon fed arrogant bastards who think EA owes you something.
They don't. They owe you NOTHING.
If I pay them for a game, then they owe me a functional game.
Yep, and you'll still be able to use the games even if your account is banned - you just won't be able to use their online services tied to those games.
You people need to get a life. Stop whining about every little slight. This won't even AFFECT most of you morons who are bitching, because you probably don't even POST on their forums! Yet you'll get all self-righteous here - saying you'll never buy another EA game - at least, until they put out another cool one and you go buy it because - after all, did what you whined about on /. really bind you to not picking up the next Need For Speed?
Stop being so stupid.
Oh wait, this is /. As you were.
Check out the full TOS for the "code of conduct." I wouldn't share that No CD utility with the EA forums :)
Did I say "something" was going to change?! I meant to say that NOTHING was going to change. I misread that word, and that's why I misspoke earlier. I hope that clears everything up for everyone. Stay tuned for future announcements when I try to further clarify what I was trying to say. Enjoy the forums. - Apoc
Those are my principles. If you don't like them I have others. -Groucho Marx
Rule 8: There are no real rules about posting
Rule 9: There are no real rules about moderation either -- enjoy your ban
The Admin and the Engineer
A year? This is the second time in 2 months this exact situation has come up:
Moderator: "Vicious bans about for badmouthing (EA Game of choice)!"
Public: *outcry*
Moderator: "I mean.. uh.. never mind!"
EA: "He doesn't actually work for us, he's a community volunteer." (Link)
It happened when Spore was released and the DRM was a hot topic on the forums.
Since you've removed the "being a dick" feature from the games, where is my discount to compensate for the game's diminished play value?
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Not giving a rats ass about some obscure technology that does not impede your ability to enjoy a game (most DRM to most consumers) does not make you sheep. Sure I have boycotted companies for less (haven't bought an Activision product in a year and plan to miss out on Star Craft 2 because of it), but this is no reason to say that everyone that doesn't care about the same things I do are sheep.
EA's been all down hill since Archon 2. I'm not going to miss them.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
People in positions of authority on a message board for a professional organisation should probably learn how to spell and use common phrases too (it's "one and the same", if he used his brain he could figure out what that actually means and not say "one in the same"). On top of that he is outright lying, saying he didn't mean to imply anything by his original post:
I had a misunderstanding with regards to our new upcoming forums and website and never meant to infer that if we ban or suspend you on the forums, you would be banned in-game as well.
He did mean to infer that otherwise he wouldn't have outright said it. If he didn't bother to check up then he is an idiot (though I suspect he ws just trying to scare people into playing nice, he sounds like the manipulative type who switches between aggressive/brown-nosing at the drop of a hat). Nobody in their right mind would say it is fair for someone who got banned from a forum to have all the games accounts they paid for annulled just because of one moment of trolling, or a mod having a bad day.
which is totally what she said
Look at this quote from here though
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=457006
First the mod says that bans from the forums don't mean a ban from the games a bit later some other EA guy says this
Elearen (EA.com)
tbh I would rather that forum behaviour did affect online availability.
It would tie in with the TOS quite nicely.
http://www.ea.com/global/legal/tos.jsp
And the TOS he links to says this
EA may terminate any EA Service at any time by giving you notice of such termination within the time period specified when you joined the particular EA Service, or if no time period for notice of termination was specified, then within thirty (30) days of the date such notice is posted on the applicable EA Service.
EA may also terminate your Account(s) (and access to all related entitlements) for violation of this Terms of Service, illegal or improper use of your Account, or illegal or improper use of EA Services, products, or EA's Intellectual Property. You may lose your user names and personas as a result of Account termination. If you have more than one Account, EA may terminate all of your Accounts and all related entitlements. EA may issue you a warning, or EA may immediately terminate any and all Accounts that you have established. You acknowledge that EA is not required to provide you notice before terminating your Account(s). If EA terminates your Account, you may not participate in an EA Service again without EA's express permission. To participate in an EA Service, contact support.ea.com EA reserves the right to refuse to keep Accounts for, and provide EA Services to, any individual. You may not allow individuals whose Accounts have been terminated by EA to use your Account.
If your Account, or a particular subscription for an EA Service associated with your Account, is terminated, no refund will be granted; no online time or other credits (e.g., points in an online game) will be credited to you or converted to cash or other form of reimbursement, and you will have no further access to your Account or entitlements associated with your Account or the particular EA Service (such as points, tokens or other digital items).
Seems like the Mod announced the draconian new policy that he can ban you not just from the forums but from all the games you've bought with no refund, a shitstorm erupted and he clarified things that that was not the policy. But it is in the TOS as the other EA guy pointed out.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Actually, if you've looked at enough game forums, you'll see lots of bans which are for stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with being uncivilized.
There are whole companies where they delete posts, and even ban accounts for stuff like reporting or discussing bugs. And I don't mean the "you gay motherfuckers get off your lazy arses and fix my pet peeve right now" kind of "discussion", but even mentioning that some exploits exist at all, or that some DRM bug has prevented someone from starting the game. Especially if someone from Marketing got ideas like, "omg, if people find out we have bugs or multiplayer exploits, our sales will drop, and we can't have that before Christmas." But whatever the reason, trying to prevent people from posting bugs, especially if a bug has showed up already too often on the forum, _is_ a pretty popular way to avoid fixing them.
Heck, Sony even had a sandbox for new forum users (which included veterans finally activating their forum account), just so they can't complain about the NGE in SWG. Apparently enough people activated their forum account just to say a final "good bye, but this is no longer fun" when unsubscribing, and we can't have that, can we?
I also remember forum bans and account bans for as little as distasteful fanfic about someone's game. But it wasn't in the game, and it wasn't even on the game's forums. Just, you know, if you dare post something we dislike about our games, we'll kick you out.
So I'm really not looking forward for more of that dictatorial accounts. If someone actually cheated in a multiplayer game or anything, fine, ban them. But not for offending an already arbitrary forum moderation system.
And how does a Spore ban (since they used that particular example) even fit that picture? Even EA marketed Spore as a "massively single-player game". Let's say I was a forum troll. So exactly how's my temper going to affect someone else's game? Can I even get into anyone's game to spew obscenities at them? Or what?
Plus, here's another idea: it seems to me like if you have a player rebellion on your hands, on the forums or in game or otherwise, the best policy is to be open and fair. People don't run amok about a bug when they know it'll get put in the queue and looked at later. You might get one, though, if it becomes obvious that you use PR bullshit and deleting bug reports, instead of fixing very real problems and exploits. They don't run amok about some griefer being banned, especially if again you're open as to why and what the rules are. You get a virtual rebellion when you're acting like an ass to the customers in the first place.
Adding a game ban there just adds injury to the already existing insult.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Its peanut butty jelly time!
Tag this article misunderstanding. The moderator to made the original post has since corrected himself.
Next we will kill the children.
Sorry, my bad. That should read free candy for everyone.
She made the willows dance
All EA games suck.
Ban me. Oops, wrong forum.