Don’t screw with EA or their spawn

[Update] The good people of Shacknews received an update from an EA Rep:

“EA strictly enforces the code of conduct at Social.BioWare.com. If a player violates the rules by using profanity, they will be temporarily banned. Unfortunately, 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.”

[Original] This one blows the mind folks.  Straight from the official Bioware message boards, this guy posts that he was banned  for 72 hours and as a result can not access his EA account, apply his new Dragon Age 2 game code, or access any of his content. Apparently the guy said something about the selling of one’s soul to the EA Devil or some nonsense like that on the DA2 board… I’m sure I’ve said never said worse about EA, like they destroy just about everything they touch. Or look at.  Or think about.  Ahem.

I thought the guy was trolling.  Read his post.  It looks like a classic troll.  Then a Bioware moderator posts the following:

“Please review the EA Community Terms of Service, particularly sections #9 and #11. There are two levels of enforcement here:

1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.

2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.

Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow.

If there are further questions or concerns, please send them to me via private message. Thank you.

End of line.”

Holy crap.  That is the very last time I ever visit a message board where I have to use my EA account.  Know what’s tied to your EA account?  Just about everything including your games and DLC.  This is just begging to be made into a Penny Arcade comic with profanity because it really is that screwed up.  Access to games and their DLC that you have purchased should not be lost because you were banned from a message board via a REPORT POST button and an over-sensitive schmo.

Let that be a heads up for those of you who own EA titles or plan to own one and visit their boards.  Imagine losing access to SWTOR because you get a little out of line on the Battlefield 3 forums.

Oh, for the record, EA is wonderful and there is nothing wrong with any of their games.

Please don’t ban me.

  • Anyone else notice that in order to play Dragon Age 2 demo you have to register an account? The moment I saw that, I deleted the demo and not looking back at that game ever again.
    Grrrrrr.

  • So this is like EA saying “You WILL like Knights of the old republic” – we know you still have relatives who play Dragon Age 2. The only good thing that EA has ever done is hire the Infinity Ward people away from Activision…Bobby Kotick had it coming.

  • Is this really shocking at all?

    I mean it’s EA.

    I don’t know what he said beyond the “selling your soul to the devil”, but anyone that has played DA2 knows it’s a horrible, unfinished game.

    This is why I don’t post on boards anymore. This is also why it was truly sad when BioWare was converted to the borg.. err EA. Look at their last 2 releases. ME2 and DA2. Both were completely garbage compared to the original games, and you can see EA’s hand all over the games.

  • Jeez, I’d better watch myself on the Warhammer forums. This policy makes me question what little interest I have in SWTOR. Maybe I’ll skip it and play The Secret World instead.

  • Whoa, that’s INSANE. Good thing I haven’t posted over there – now I never will, just in case.

    And for the record, DA2 blows.

  • Sorry Keen I have alerted the authorities over at EA to come check out this blog. You have crossed a severe line here and I am sure they will come and ‘get’ you!

    For that matter I have also alerted the other big brother of the counter Evil Empire, Activision. They are watching this blog closely now.

    One day the gaming community will thank me.

  • A lot of people are saying DA2 blows. I played the PC demo and thought it was pretty fun. Graev has for Xbox 360 but I haven’t had time to pick his brain about it. What is so bad about it?

  • I don’t mind DA2 but don’t expect it to be as epic as DAO… Games are being dumbed down every release and DA2 is no different.

  • Ignore Steve.

    Mass Effect 2 was good. Could they do something better? Sure. But that doesn’t change the fact it was a very good game with lots of the charm of its original.

    DA:O wasn’t a BG-game worthy, but it had its own charm. I’m sure DA2 will be good too.

  • To respond to the initial blog: it is pretty ridiculous. They shouldn’t be able to restrict access to products you purchase in that manner. That’d be like buying a car, then complaining about bad suspension or something, only to come out to your driveway one day to find it’s got a boot on the wheel and a note from the dealership saying you can’t drive it for 72 hours. It sort of screams, “Appreciate me more!” As if being deprived of something will make you like it more when you get it back.

    In other news, I have no issue with DA2 so far. Granted I played DA:O on the PC and I have DA2 for the PS3, so I cannot speak to the changes made to the PC version of the game, or improvements made to the console version over the original. However, I am enjoying the game just as much as I enjoyed DA:O. Aesthetically a lot of the changes to the world have made it much more unique and interesting. The dialogue is pretty good, and you have a speaking main character, now (hooray)!

    It does have its issues – like being unable to equip armor to your allies. Instead they have a sort of “NPC armor” that covers the head, chest, glove, and boot slots with a single, ubiquitous body slot that you can upgrade by purchasing said upgrades from random vendors peppered around the game world. That is sort of frustrating – but it’s a minor issue, really. And they still get belt, amulet, and ring slots.

    Really there’s plenty to like about DA2. I think people just have really high expectations. Though I do find it curious that the two people to scorn DA2 haven’t really stated concrete reasons (“unfinished game” is not a reason – it’s a generalization, be specific!) for hating it. Which makes me suspicious about whether they really hate it, or whether it’s just a matter of, “being unimpressed and critical is COOL!”

    TL;DR – EA is evil; DA2 isn’t such a bad game.

  • I agree that this is ridiculous, but on closer inspection, it seems the only reason he can’t access the game is because he wants to register the game on the account that was banned which he cannot access at this time.

    He can register the game on a new account and play it if he really wants to.

    regardless, affecting access to you account and DLC from a forum comment is a joke, and I for one will not be acquiring DA:2 the legal way like I did with DA:O.

  • No comment on DA2 yet as I installed it last night then ran into the “Release Date check” – fair enough.

    I’m currently very annoyed with DA1, I bought the Ultimate Edition (I previously owned the basic DA) and after installing / updating all the extras I started a new playthrough. After a short break I returned to the game and now can’t play it at all because “The person with the account that owns these DLC has to login” — one thing that’s definitely not changed is me or my account.

    DLC is fine except when there are ridiculous barriers to use associated with it and I always seem to find issues with my EA account. EA = Draconian 🙁

  • Quite enjoy DA2 so far myself.

    I don´t quite understand the problem the guy has. He can use any EA account he creates or even play the game without one like I do. Blizzard does a similiar thing of banning people temporarily for saying things on their forums.

  • Seems like a bad website design then something deliberate. I’m sure other forums with game accounts tied into their forums have this issue (account ban instead of forum ban).

  • True, he can create a new account and register DA2 to it, however, if he had already assigned DA2 to the account he’d be SOL. (@Krister)You can’t have DLC or use some products without an EA account.

    They should create some kind of gap between the forum usage and the products you have purchased. Keeping them tied is great for customer service and users, but it’s a bit ridiculous that you can get screwed so royally.

  • This all makes me very optimistic for SWTOR. EA seems to have their priorities straight.

  • @Kim

    Mass Effect 2 was good. I didn’t call it a garbage game. I said it was a garbage game when compared to the original, which is very true. The story was lacking, and frankly, the only reason they can get away with it is because it’s the second installment in a trilogy.

    Dragon Age 2 on the other hand, IS garbage, especially when compared to the original. Dragon Age 2 is an unfinished game, and the story is by far the worst of any Bioware game. The story really lacks direction until Act 3. There are only two elements of DA2 that are of any note: the voice acting and the dialogue wheel.

  • I haven’t played an EA game in 2 years, I never did like having to make an EA account just to play Red Alert 3. Also EA is great, all glory to the EA empire! 🙂

  • Two things –

    1. I have said some terrible things about thier company, policies and about other players on their boards, been reported and the most I ever got was a message from a mod telling me to not be a jerk. This means that this guy who is claiming it was over something simple is lying and it’s about something much worse like threatening physical actual harm on someone or something of that nature.

    2. He can play the game all he wants. He needs to STFU, stop being a jerk, lick his wounds and go home. Actions in life have a consequence attached.

  • Here is what I don’t get:

    So a moderator can ban you from the forums, which restricts your forum access only. This seems entirely reasonable.

    However, any idiot with a forum account can “Report” your post to the, um I guess we’ll call them “authorities”, and this results in your whole account, games and all being banned?!? WTF! Who thought of this backward ass policy? Now anyone holding a grudge can troll all of your comments looking for anything borderline, and then bang, reported!!

    What a cluster EA is about to have on their hands…

  • I’ve been saying for years that DRM and digital deployment platforms are a rope consumers are going to hang themselves with. This is nothing. The market has spoken and it loves two things – promises and convenience. You sign up for these accounts because you want to play the game and that’s what they demanded. Now they change the rules and guess what? It’s too late to complain. You handed your rights over way back in the beginning when you agreed to their terms.

    Just wait until the content is all online and streaming. Crazy convenient, it’ll sell like hotcakes. Only when their services go offline it’s going to suck pretty hard to have all your purchases disappear. Legally.

  • According to RPS, EA has backed off and lifted the guy’s game ban with an apology from some PR big shot as well. Great job to Keen and the rest of blogging community on raising this issue up a notch. We are Duh Winning now.

    Regarding DA2, I am sure it is not as bad as some claim it to be, but I will never really know, because of the ridiculous requirement to register just to try the freaking demo. In the age when publishers and game devs almost give games for free in order for customers to try them out, any barriers and forms of control will be frown upon and will not be tolerated, not anymore.

    EA, Ubisoft, etc should take note.

  • The part of this problem that isn’t being addressed is how EA’s Account system works with the EA Store.

    The forum troll bought his game via the EA Store, which automatically tied the game to his account before he actually got the full copy.

    When he tried to register the game, because it was bought on the EA store, it required authentication to register — and the account he bought the game on was temp-banned.

    So on one hand… this sounds more like a programming oversight on EA’s part than anything.

    On the other hand, that doesn’t mean the idea of an EA Account ban to begin with, that could eliminate my game access, is okay.

  • There are companies that love their customers. There are companies that see their customers as ATMs. There are companies that don’t seem to be aware they have customers.

    And then there are companies like EA, who will openly mock you and berate you and laugh at you for using their product while they kick you repeatedly about the shins and insult your entire ancestry, and then go roll around on huge stacks of money because they know you’ll just come back for more.

  • As a quick aside, Blizzard does this to some extent as well.

    Their login servers did not like the fact that I logged in from multiple IP addresses (I travel for work so I log in from many places in the U.S. sometimes in the same week). They locked my account (even though I have an authenticator) and I couldn’t play either WoW or Starcraft II. It kind of sucked, but I called in and they fixed it pretty quickly.

    Not the same as getting banned from their forums, but it’s not a big step to get there either – maybe they are watching to see what EA can get away with?

  • Since EA destroyed Earth and Beyond MMO back in 2004, I just don’t use their products or services anymore. EA’s lack of support and interest in the game was a crushing blow and I just can’t believe they are that interested in their customer base.

    Dang, now I’m all depressed. I miss Earth and Beyond. /sigh