EA threatens to revoke game access if you complain on forums

[zvow]

Saw this on Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g1jyk/ea_threatens_to_revoke_access_to_games_if_you_are/) right now:

http://i.imgur.com/xkhUI.png

full thread screencap (http://i.imgur.com/mec1o.png)
original thread (http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6459941/1#6460241)

What do you think about this? Overreaction maybe?

[minago]

doesn't bother me .

because

A.
all he had to do was make another account if he was hard up and wanted to play it .

B.
there's no telling what the guy said originally as the post it self just seems like he is trying to stir people up.

he got locked out of his account which is all that happened, it's not like he couldn't play his games.

like when i got mass effect 2 i didn't need to make a bioware account to play my game i did it just so i could get the dlc crap that came free with the game.

[tibbon]

Honestly, most people who get banned from forums or from gaming systems (like Xbox Live) deserve it. I haven't ever met a community manager who just wants to 'ban people' for the fun of it. Swinging the banhammer is never fun. Somtimes we make mistakes and people get caught up in spam filters and other reporting tools done awry, but I can't ever thing that a paid community manager is doing it in a malicious manner.

Reminds me of a session at PAX East I was at last year. Some guy stood up and asked the XBL Community Managers why he's been permabanned or something. He admitted to them that he's played pre-pre-releases of games (pirated/leaked copies) on XBL. They said, "yep, you deserved a ban for that and it will remain". Anyway, later that day at PAX he was found trying to steal code/games off a developer's laptop (or stole the laptop, can't remember). A complete douche, who deserved to be arrested for theft (of the code, etc at PAX... not for just piracy) and banned from XBL and PAX.

[zvow]

From the thread screencap, the guy said that he was banned for saying this:

"have you sold your souls to the EA devil?"

The mod (Stanley Woo) doesn't dispute his story and points to the terms that say a ban may affect access to your games/dlc. But let's say that he was banned for something else and the ban was well-deserved. Is it acceptable to have access to your games and dlc revoked because of a forum ban?

[PotatoJ]

Wow that is seriously messed up. A forum ban should not affect your licenses.

[minago]

Is it acceptable to have access to your games and dlc revoked because of a forum ban?

here is your answer



This is the deal. I just got my Bioware Signature Edition from the store. I allready knew I was going to play it without the extra content since I can't activate my extra codes. What I did not know was that I needed to activate the game before being abble to play it. So now I've got a dead game for 50 euros. Pity.

the game isn't dead



PS: Don't really know where to post this, since I'm unable to post in the technical support forum because I don't have an activated game. Figured it may get more attention from the mods here anyway. And pm'ing Chris Priestly is just sort of rude.
PSS: No trolling and no flaming. I knew what I did was wrong, the mods were right to suspend me, but being unable to play a game you bought seems a little steep.


the guy is sucking up and trying to make something outta nothing ,because.




Dragon Age 2 Physical & Digital PC/Mac DRM are as follows:

* No disc check, you do not need the disc in drive to play.

* No limit on the total number of PCs you can install the game on.

* There is a limit to the number of unique/different PCs that can play the game within a time window (if online) [5 PCs in 24hrs].

* After each new install there is a 1-time online check needed the next time you play, requiring a log in to your EA account to verify game ownership. If you are a member of these forums, you already have an EA account – just use the same email/password.


* You can play offline thereafter - the game will NOT require any subsequent login checks. If online, a game ownership check happens each time you play.

like i said the guy could have waited the 72 hours or just made another account since all it does is check your account one time.

the way he is making it sound is that he is locked out of playing his games and that is not the case .

he was blocked from adding games to his profile let me re-state that.

his profile

he could still play the games he previously purchased ....and he could have played the dragon age 2 if he wanted too .

since


the guy could have waited the 72 hours or just made another account

but the guy decided to be coy and post on the forums like oh woe is me how can this happen, i don't know where to post even though i been visiting the site for a year ,but i thought the mods may notice it more in general discussion so i'll post here and i don't think it is right oh and by the way im sorry pout.

if

the guy was locked out from his previous games then yeah it would bother me but this is just a cry for attention.

like that moron that didn't want "his junk" to be touched out the airport ,that man never was gonna get on that plane ....he just wanted to prove some point of playing the victim.

[zvow]

I don't have an EA account, so I'm ignorant of the details. But I was under the impression that games that you bought under that account through digital distribution, DLC, and games that are tied to that account by CD key were the issue here, and if your EA account is banned on the forum, you may lose access to the games/DLC tied to that account.


These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.

Also, since the account was banned, vware stated that he couldn't register his new DA2 game to that account. He could make a new account and register the game under that one, but then once his suspension was over he would have two accounts. (Is having multiple accounts even allowed in the terms of use?)

Please correct me, since I may be wrong about this.

[PotatoJ]

he was blocked from adding games to his profile let me re-state that.

his profile

I fail to see how this is any better. They are still revoking his game. Am I missing something?

[zvow]

not only that, but that means that he can't reinstall the game or play it online, since those are verified/tied with the EA account.

[minago]

I fail to see how this is any better. They are still revoking his game. Am I missing something?

you can make unlimited profiles.


not only that, but that means that he can't reinstall the game or play it online, since those are verified/tied with the EA account.

it's a one time check

edit:



Please correct me, since I may be wrong about this.

basically all that happened is like somebody getting temp banned from xboxlive and they wanted to buy dlc and get achievements under their profile.

yeah just make another profile or wait for the ban to lift it's not like you can't play your game

[zvow]

it's a one time check

If you're playing online it's not. And DLC is verified on startup so any (paid!) DLC may also be inaccessible. And you can forget about ever reinstalling games tied to that account.

Because of being banned on a forum, there's the potential that your purchased games and DLC will be revoked. If you find that acceptable, :puke:. Temporary in this case, but what about permanent bans? And the proposed solution is "just make a new account"? Seriously?


you can make unlimited profiles.


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.

[tibbon]

Because of being banned on a forum, there's the potential that your purchased games and DLC will be revoked.

Absolutely. If I was running a company that the forum experience and in-game experience are somewhat tightly tied (let's step away from this specific example and say it was WoW or Eve) then I'd want to make sure that the community managers (not unpaid volunteer moderators) could permaban people from both the forum and the game.

Users should be aware that what they do in the forums has consequence.

Should I be able to ban someone that's trying to scam other users into revealing their passwords? Absolutely.
Should I be able to ban someone who is gold farming, exploiting cheating methods or attempting to DDoS the servers? Absolutely.

If I know what their account is on the forum and it is tied directly to their in-game account, I should use that knowledge and act on it.

Some things deserve a warning, others deserve a temp ban, and others a permaban.

[zvow]

I can understand being banned from online multiplayer under certain circumstances, but having your purchased games and DLC revoked because of a forum ban (in this case, not because of cheating/farming/DDoS)? To the point that you can't reinstall the games ever again with that key/account even for single-player use?

Not to mention being unable to register any new purchased games in the future (unless you make a new account which would be against EA's TOS, risking having that account terminated and your game revoked).

[PotatoJ]

Absolutely. If I was running a company that the forum experience and in-game experience are somewhat tightly tied (let's step away from this specific example and say it was WoW or Eve) then I'd want to make sure that the community managers (not unpaid volunteer moderators) could permaban people from both the forum and the game.

Users should be aware that what they do in the forums has consequence.

Should I be able to ban someone that's trying to scam other users into revealing their passwords? Absolutely.
Should I be able to ban someone who is gold farming, exploiting cheating methods or attempting to DDoS the servers? Absolutely.

If I know what their account is on the forum and it is tied directly to their in-game account, I should use that knowledge and act on it.

Some things deserve a warning, others deserve a temp ban, and others a permaban.

Should I be able to ban someone who is making snarky comments? Absolutey not.
There is a slight different in this situation.

[Ultralord]

So who moderates the moderators? Corrupt police officers go to jail, what do we do with corrupt moderators? I want democracy!:razz:

[PotatoJ]

So who moderates the moderators? Corrupt police officers go to jail, what do we do with corrupt moderators? I want democracy!:razz:
Just use 3rd party forums IMO.

[tibbon]

So who moderates the moderators? Corrupt police officers go to jail, what do we do with corrupt moderators? I want democracy!:razz:

The moderators have bosses at EA. I've never seen a moderator or community manager to be the sole person running the company.

A game isn't a democracy. You don't have inherent rights to say anything you want. You're playing in their house. On their rules and terms.

Voting comes only through stock ownership. Don't own any EA stock? Well, then you don't get a vote. I'm sorry someone told you differently.

Plus, corrupt police going to jail? Lulz. Maybe 2 months of paid time off. Police protect their own.

[KicknGuitar]

Don't post on the forums. I hate official forums anyway. The only useful, official forums I've used (and got very helpful responses) have been Apple's.

[Lord Xenu]

EA = Dicks. This is nothing new. Someone just finally called it out. A lot of forums do this actually. Atari does it as well. I know that due to the lastest Test Drive Unlimited stuff.

[CaptainSmokey]

So much fro freedom of speech. Wow I think that was like the thousanth time I've said, hell nobody even says, "Hey, its a free country anymore." But lets not make this thread political.

[tibbon]

So much fro freedom of speech. Wow I think that was like the thousanth time I've said, hell nobody even says, "Hey, its a free country anymore." But lets not make this thread political.

Freedom of speech does not apply to your interactions with private companies. As said before, the only way you can expect a voice with a private company it to buy stock. Period.

[Warren]

I've seen this happen with MMOs, however usually it was in violation to one of the rules of the forum. That I can kind of agree with to an extent, but doing it for criticizing the company for whatever reason is going too far.

But then again, anytime you say anything bad about a company on an official forum it often disappears within minutes anyways.

[zvow]

Dragon Age 2 stealth installs Securom without user knowledge or consent (http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&safe=off&site=&source=hp&q=cache%3Ahttp%3A%2F%2Fwww.reclaimyourgame.com%2Fc ontent.php%3F770-RYG-News-Analysing-SecuROM-In-Dragon-Age-2&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&pbx=1)

Again via Reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/g21gu/dragon_age_2_stealth_installs_securom_without/)


Electronic Arts has landed itself in hot water with PC gamers after failing to disclose the digital rights management snuck onto Dragon Age II. The disc-based version of the game contains notorious SecuROM DRM -- a controversial bit of software that invites itself onto your PC and is regarded by gamers as glorified malware.

The worst part is that Electronic Arts does not inform gamers about the DRM anywhere -- there's no warning on the game's packaging or website, and it's suspiciously absent from the EULA. Consumer rights advocate "Reclaim Your Game" has been emailing subscribers to warn them of EA's shenanigans, which violates a court order demanding it disclose all instances of SecuROM in its games.

Add in the general hatred PC gamers have had for the sequel, and the possibility of one gamer being banned from BioWare's forums and subsequently unable to boot up his copy of the game, and you've got a bad PR recipe.

Our review of Dragon Age II is still coming. In the meantime ... what the Hell, EA?

How nice of them.

FYI, SecuROM was developed by Sony.


Even though EA and Bioware had explicitly stated before the fact that SecuROM would not be included in the non-steam versions of Dragon Age II, and simply be there to verify the game wasn’t played ahead of release day (and would not install anything on your computer), RYG’s tests show otherwise.

EA was sued in the past (and lost) for the way it used SecuROM in its games, with Spore mean the most notorious, although later versions of The Sims 2 were also affected. For those of you unfamiliar, SecuROM is a type of DRM (digital rights management) created by Sony – the same group that was sued before for DRM with music CDs – that installs itself onto your computer, without your knowledge, sends information to Sony (what information is never made clear), and worse, is not uninstalled when you uninstall the product with which it came. SecuROM can only be installed with what basically amounts to a specifically designed virus removal tool, although many recommend reformatting your harddrive as the only true way to remove the spyware from your computer. Moreso, SecuROM has been known to deactivate legitimate hardware and software on your computer, causing numerous problems, all without your consent, and all in a supposedly mad drive to prevent piracy by punishing paying gamers.

Detailed Vividgamer article (http://vividgamer.com/2011/03/10/ea-fails-to-disclose-securom-in-dragon-age-ii/)

[zvow]

Ha, way to backpedal, EA. They went from this:


These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.

Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules

To this:


there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended a user's entire account.

Immediately upon learning of the glitch, EA took steps to restore the user's macro account and apologized for the inconvenience

Guess it was just a 'glitch'. Completely innocent mistake. :thinking:

Le 'Stiq (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/03/11/player-banned-from-dragon-age-2-forum-accidentally-loses-acces/)

[PotatoJ]

Situation resolved
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/11/ea-retracts-game-ban-for-forum-violation/


“Unfortunately, there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended your entire EA account. Immediately upon learning of the glitch, we have restored the entire account and apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused while accessing other areas of the EA service.”

YAYAY