Forum Ban Locks Player Out Of Dragon Age 2
One forum member commented about gamers selling their souls to the EA devil and promptly received the mighty ban-hammer, locking him out of the forum and his Dragon Age 2 game for 72 hours.
To our dear Tom's readers who just purchased the PC version of Dragon Age 2 this week, watch what you say on the BioWare and EA forums. Seriously, you'll regret it.
As one gamer has revealed over on the BioWare forums, a comment made in a post brought on the mighty ban-hammer for 72 hours. The problem is that the ban isn't just focused on his forum activities, it's also locked him out of the actual Dragon Age 2 Signature Edition bundle--which he purchased and installed on his rig--during the 72-hour duration.
According to the post, EA sent forum user "Vware" an email stating that his account was suspended for inappropriate content. Vware contacted EA via Live Chat to understand what exactly it was he did to earn the 72-hour ban. An EA representative quoted one of his forum comments, repeating his "have you sold your souls to the EA devil?" post. While the comment is most definitely hilarious, EA apparently thought otherwise.
"Now, those are the words I said, you can't argue with that," Vware admitted.
"I'm not going to try and sugar coat that, let me just say in my defense, I have always been a pretty reasonable person on this forum. So I agree that you guys suspended my account from the forums for 72 hours. What I don't agree with is that I can't activate my new DA2 game."
BioWare's Stanley Woo followed up to Vware's forum complaint by pointing to EA's online terms and conditions.
"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," Woo said. "Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow."
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Woo seems to suggest that someone on the forum didn't like Vware's comment and pressed the REPORT POST button. Once evaluated and deemed in violation, EA has the right to lock customers out of their installed games and/or DLC according to the Terms and Conditions.
Section 11 of EA's Terms and Conditions, "Rules of Conduct," clearly states that forum users are in violation when they "harass, threaten, embarrass, or do anything else to another player that is unwanted, such as repeatedly sending unwanted messages or making personal attacks or statements about race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc."
So much for freedom of speech.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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cburke82 Does it make sense that they can stop you from playing a game you purchased based on something you said on a blog/forum? That cant be something allowed, in other words we took your money for a product and because "somebody" hits a button you arnt allowed to play it. Would they be able to stop you from playing a game perminately.Reply
I was considering purchasing this game and think I now will not. I cant support a company that would take your money and then stop you for using there product because of something you said. If that were common practice Microsoft would have broken into my house and taken my XBOX360 for all the crap i said when i got my RROD :lol: -
templarklimek Well, how lovely of EA to take your money then not "allow" you to use what you bought. While the Orwellian lack of free speech on their website is onerous at best, the deniel of the use of the purchased product is matter that should be taken up in a civil court of law. If i was this user I would demand an instant refund or litigate. Again, not because EA banned him from the website but because they denied the use of a paid for product. IMHO.Reply -
mt2e The new news is that DA2 also installs SecuROM and sure as shit I checked and it did....."https://support.securom.com/removaltool.html"Reply -
templarklimek Let me add i don't care for friolous lawsuits by any means but EA is not God, or the PC police. A precendant could be set here as to how far a corporation can go in these kinds of matters. For the better or worse.Reply -
skaz wow. The forums I sorta get. But to lock him out of a game he purchased seems completely ridiculous to me.Reply -
templarklimek The "partnering" of big government and big corporations is a dark and "liberty free" future. For our good of course.Reply -
liquidchild LULZ...they spent money on the game and STILL got banned.....Fat old man, "You shouldn't pirate games kids"...Kids, "why rich old fat man?". Fat old man, "well for one jesus can see you do it and 2 you can get 'teh banz hamber'"....Kids, "well you just banned those kids and they bought the game, so I'll keep my 60 bucks and risk the ban".Reply
Clever girl.... -
nekatreven This is why I now rarely purchase games (pc or 360)...only ones where it comes out that this BS isn't applicable. Every generation of product we lose more and more control. Back in the days when just CD keys and 'can't have the same CD key online in two places' were common, things weren't quite so bad. The line was crossed a long time ago; not only with all the BS new restrictions and controls, but also with the increase of 'general whoring' of the customer. That abomination of an X360 port called COD5 comes to mind.Reply