To keep you up to date with the status of our investigation into EA’s dubious banning players from accessing their Origin account games (mostly multiplayer, although we’re hearing exceptions), we have, well, no news.
Unfortunately, despite repeated attempts to receive a statement on EA’s current position on their banning procedure, we have only been met with silence for the last fortnight. After some initial responses, pointing affected customers toward their support lines, we received an ambiguous statement that avoided the current issue and rather said there were plans to “review” whatever the current secret policy might be. And then no responses to our emails since. All the while, we’re hearing of case after case of customers being affected.
I’m building up quite the portfolio of affected gamers, who find after a forum violation they’re unable to access their Origin games. And within this is a more disturbing trend – those who are finding that their forum bans are, without explanation, becoming permanent bans. Permanent bans from accessing their Origin accounts, their Battlelog accounts, and therefore downloading purchased games, and playing online. Something which obviously raises serious questions about consumer rights, which is of course another angle we’re currently investigating.
The pattern tends to go like this:
Person says a naughty word on an EA forum. Person receives 72 hour ban from forums, which blocks Origin too. Person contacts EA customer support and is told “tough”. Person writes to RPS.
With the occasional addition of:
Person finds their ban has become permanent with no warning, and no option to appeal.
Of those people who contact us, we tend to get two types. The first who write invective-speckled fury on the forum, and then to us, and obviously entirely deserve their forum bans. The second are those who have done absolutely nothing wrong on the forums, but are punished erroneously, either for quoting an insult someone else has called them, or doing nothing offensive whatsoever. But neither group, according to EA’s words to us in March, should be being banned from Origin or accessing their games. A statement, however, that EA doesn’t appear willing to repeat nine months on.
So there’s Rob, who was accused of posting a commercial to his support site – a site that EA links to itself in its own support site FAQ – who received a ban. And James, permanently banned (until his account mysteriously popped back to life recently, with no communication from anyone) for saying “e-peen”. We’ve heard from Alex, who put a sweary joke on the forum, not directed at anyone, and found himself locked out of his games. Toma got in touch to say that after previous bans for what sound like entirely unacceptable forum posts, months later he has now found himself banned because of his Gravatar logo – a Reddit troll face. Buh? Pointing out that one of the main devs at EA uses the Me Gusta face got nowhere, and he has been told he’ll learn of his account’s fate in seven days, so certainly longer than the traditional 72 hour ban, potentially permanent.
Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
Aaron chronicles his adventures here.
At this point, with no reply from those within EA who have responded to this matter in the past, we can only suggest that our readers avoid the EA forums. The chances of being banned seem far too risky, when the consequences are the loss of access to products you have paid for. We are aware we’re not the only ones looking into the legality of this matter.
Short Summary: -Gamers find themselves suddenly banned from Origin -Gamers find out that they're banned because of forum violations on EA's site. -Gamers also find out some of the bans were completely unjustified (e.g. someone else swears in a post but uses their name and apparently that counted somehow). -Gamers attempt to appeal or ask for explanation -EA responds "tough luck" and permanently bans (often without ability to appeal).
This is a pretty ugly slap in the face of customer rights. Sure bans on the forum is okay but to also deny access to Origin? Even worse there's a guy that reports that he was locked out of the EA games he bought on Steam. Some of those bans are extremely shady in that they shouldn't have been done in the first place (because the user did not commit any violations of their forum rules, but rather victims of misunderstanding). No one else to my knowledge has ever pulled stunts like this (and we all know how much quality is packed in the Battle.Net forums).
Poll: Did EA go too far?
EA went to far (667)
95%
EA is being completely fair (33)
5%
700 total votes
Your vote: Did EA go too far?
(Vote): EA went to far (Vote): EA is being completely fair
I really do hope that EA can pull their act together and reverse the decisions with their apologies. I do believe they were well in the wrong here. Some of those forum bans, yeah they're fair game, but denying game access is just completely wrong.
On December 06 2011 00:23 bonifaceviii wrote: You know, banning people in-game for shitty forum posts on the company's website doesn't seem like a bad idea in theory.
In practice, though, I'm sure it's a nightmare.
Well I suppose suspensions and eventually to bans for repeat or serious violations. But a permaban on the first offense for minor stuff? I don't know any sites that are that strict.
Tbh, this sounds like a bureaucratic failure. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind creating a policy like this on purpose. My guess is that somewhere in the giant EA corporate structure, someone heard about social networking and "Facebook integration" and decided to link the forum and Origin accounts without making a provision for one of those getting banned. Probably by now, no one thinks this policy is a good idea but there's probably a bunch of different corporate divisions each trying to avoid blame, so no one actually gets around to fixing it.
The random bans for no reason are bad, but nothing surprising from poorly moderated forums of a large company. It's the origin account bans that make this noteworthy.
On December 06 2011 00:24 TheLaw wrote: EA has even stolen money of mine, I swear that company is run by children in adult skin. Bunch of selfish bastards.
holy lol batman. I dont even know what to make of this. holy god. Im glad i never got on the Origins bandwagon haha. losing your games over what is said in a forum? I bet if the people knew that they could lose their games they would have never purchased them in the first place lol. Foolish EA.
Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
WOW. That's ridiculous x.x
So wait, is that pretty much analogous to someone else writing a rant post on a Blizzard forum with the name "DarkPlasmaBall" in the middle of the post, which leads to my DarkPlasmaBall StarCraft 1 and 2 and Diablo accounts becoming banned, and me never even being able to play in single player?
And this is why I advocate boycotts and piracy as equally effective activism tools.
Just never buy the games from them, pirate it or let it rot on the shelf until the company either changes their ways or dies.
Oh, and again, as I've posted before:
Anyone who thinks this is illegal has not read an EULA. Short version is that you don't own anything but the right to play the game for as long as the company wants you to. That's what you get for your $60.
So someone else curses in a post and mentions your name, you get banned, you go to support to appeal, you get permanently banned and locked out of all your games forever.
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
Though you can probably draw some parallells to the people behaving badly in the forums and in the games (the multiplayer ones) but I fail to see why you should go to such extreems as ban people from both with the violation being in only one of them.
After reading this, what incentive would anyone have to even post on their forums? Perhaps that was their objective all along to make less people post on their forums?
Okay banning for muliplayer is understandable (but completely wrong none the less) yet banning a person for playing single player!? Talk about wasting 60+ dollars.
Someone should send some of our mods to EA and show them how its done.
One of a long list of reasons that I haven't played anything under an EA label in a very long time, they've got a long history of treating their customers poorly and implementing illogical policies. I don't really have a problem with people being idiots on forums getting banned from them, but losing access to the games they paid for? banning for relatively mild comments? no recourse or appeal even in the case of obvious mistakes? Come on.
Sounds like EA has a system in place like the Minority Report. Bans people who will eventually break the rules a head of time. I guess it said a brown ball, but when he opened the ticket they discovered it was a red ball and perm banned him asap.
So shitty, I am sure it will be resolved for him and maybe EA learns something... doubtful but you never know.
On December 06 2011 00:34 Fruscainte wrote: So someone else curses in a post and mentions your name, you get banned, you go to support to appeal, you get permanently banned and locked out of all your games forever.
What in the actual fuck EA.
Time to go on a trolling rampage? Seriously, people can mass ban accounts now o_O
On December 06 2011 00:34 Fruscainte wrote: So someone else curses in a post and mentions your name, you get banned, you go to support to appeal, you get permanently banned and locked out of all your games forever.
What in the actual fuck EA.
Time to go on a trolling rampage? Seriously, people can mass ban accounts now o_O
I'm honestly considering going on there with my old EA account, cursing up a shit storm and putting as many usernames as I possibly can in the post as well. Just to see if they follow through.
How exactly does EA think this is going to turn out? Why would we endure this draconian enforcement when ThePirateBay entertainment system offers the exact same games without DRM?
On December 06 2011 00:47 Klondikebar wrote: How exactly does EA think this is going to turn out? Why would we endure this draconian enforcement when ThePirateBay entertainment system offers the exact same games without DRM?
Exactly.
Until the bought version provides a better, more sustainable, and more fair service than the unbought version people will always revert to that methodology, unfortunately. I really feel bad for anyone under EA, because they're always going to be bumfucked by them.
I don't think that how you act publicly should ban you from playing a game you paid for unless what got you a ban were your public actions within the game you can no longer play.
But this is simple enough for some people: don't go back to EA forums, use a community forum instead I guess
For a minute there I thought they were actually banning the people that clog up the battlelog forum with childish swearing and whine posts, which I would've liked.
However, after reading the article....Wow, just wow, really EA?
Good thing I quit and uninstalled BF3 yesterday...It's a shitty game anyway.
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
If you don't want to get banned, don't break the rules.
Let's just put camera's in everyone's houses, and if they commit a basic crime, send them to jail for the rest of their lives.
I mean, if you got nothing to hide and you aren't breaking any rules -- who cares?
Also, if you read the OP, people who aren't even breaking the rules are getting banned. Some random guy will say a curse word and involve your name in a post. You will then get banned for no reason for 72 hours, and if you went to support asking what just happened, why am I banned, you get permanently banned from your bought games -- online and offline -- forever.
Why would anyone even post on the EA forums? Is there anything worthwhile? I mean i think EA is going overboard with this, but whoever doesn't expect such stuff from them should look in the mirror real hard. I'm not surprised by this news at all, but i would never post on the EA forums either.
The only situation where using publisher forums is a good idea is with technical support issues. And whoever can not request technical assistance without swearing.. well i'm okay with these people getting banned, because they make the tech support guys lives hell. When buying a EA game that was most likely console-targeted and ported over to PC, everyone should know by now, that technical issues are to be expected and should be capable of asking for help rationally.
But seriously, using publisher forums for anything other than tech support is just generally a bad idea, in pretty much every game i can think of. LoL forums? haha. Battle.net forums? haha. EA forums? can't be any better. So just stop using them and your accounts are safe ;P
Of course, just because you can opt to not use the forums doesn't justify getting perma-banned for minor offenses. But imo, just not using such forums is the best way for everyone involved. Prevents you from getting caught up in such stuff with the added benefit of decreasing exposure to low-quality forums.
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
Honestly i dont see a problem, you would not get banned permanently for saying a single fuck. but if you are trolling/swearing/scamming/spamming on their forums, they will ban you. Just do not post on their forums. I think that lots of people in this thread misunderstand. The person that was permanently banned had a whole slew of spamming posts. It was just the wrong post that the moderator sent him. It was posted on the bf3 subreddit i believe.
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
If you don't want to get banned, don't break the rules.
Let's just put camera's in everyone's houses, and if they commit a basic crime, send them to jail for the rest of their lives.
I mean, if you got nothing to hide and you aren't breaking any rules -- who cares?
Also, if you read the OP, people who aren't even breaking the rules are getting banned. Some random guy will say a curse word and involve your name in a post. You will then get banned for no reason for 72 hours, and if you went to support asking what just happened, why am I banned, you get permanently banned from your bought games -- online and offline -- forever.
Putting a camera in everyone's house, and jailing them for basic crimes is completely different from selling a software license, and then revoking it when the TOS are broken lol. Also, if you read my post, it says "as long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban".
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
If you don't want to get banned, don't break the rules.
Let's just put camera's in everyone's houses, and if they commit a basic crime, send them to jail for the rest of their lives.
I mean, if you got nothing to hide and you aren't breaking any rules -- who cares?
Also, if you read the OP, people who aren't even breaking the rules are getting banned. Some random guy will say a curse word and involve your name in a post. You will then get banned for no reason for 72 hours, and if you went to support asking what just happened, why am I banned, you get permanently banned from your bought games -- online and offline -- forever.
Putting a camera in everyone's house, and jailing them for basic crimes is completely different from selling a software license, and then revoking it when the TOS are broken lol. Also, if you read my post, it says "as long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban".
I honestly don't know how anyone can defend permanently banning someone from a game for saying "fuck" on a completely unrelated online forum or going to customer support and trying to appeal a ban. But whatever.
On December 06 2011 00:47 Klondikebar wrote: How exactly does EA think this is going to turn out? Why would we endure this draconian enforcement when ThePirateBay entertainment system offers the exact same games without DRM?
Exactly.
Until the bought version provides a better, more sustainable, and more fair service than the unbought version people will always revert to that methodology, unfortunately. I really feel bad for anyone under EA, because they're always going to be bumfucked by them.
Normally I'm not a huge fan of piracy but in this case, you give EA $60 and they can STILL arbitrarily take the game away from you?! Given that scenario I really can't say "no you shouldn't pirate."
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
If you don't want to get banned, don't break the rules.
Let's just put camera's in everyone's houses, and if they commit a basic crime, send them to jail for the rest of their lives.
I mean, if you got nothing to hide and you aren't breaking any rules -- who cares?
Also, if you read the OP, people who aren't even breaking the rules are getting banned. Some random guy will say a curse word and involve your name in a post. You will then get banned for no reason for 72 hours, and if you went to support asking what just happened, why am I banned, you get permanently banned from your bought games -- online and offline -- forever.
Please post some proof. Anyone can make huge accusations but i refuse to believe that support has the power to ban your account. EA chat support has approximately 0 power as it is apparently, how would they suddenly gain enough to ban your account. Also proof about the forum post? like a link to the actual post.
Edit: To the post above mine, That is stupid. Any game you buy currently on steam/origin/amazon downloader etc is just a licence. They can remove it at any stage for any reason as stated in their terms of service.
Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
How can it be possible that you can't play a game that you fucking buy because you say something on website...?! I don't get it, and I am glad I don't play any EA games...
This is why I don't support production companies who force game designers to copy and paste, and then proceed to fuck over their customers by releasing shitty games AND banning them from playing.
On December 06 2011 00:55 TheLaw wrote: Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
Have you got a reason to back that up with? If you are posting on your account with your games on it after agreeing to their rules and get banned. You should lose access to the account. Just consider it punishment. If the punishment is to harsh is to hard to call. You never see all the details in these cases.
For example, would you have the same reaction if a scammer bought bf3 and started to scam the forums. Would you then want him to be able to log onto his account and attempt to spam through that? There is a line that has to be drawn in terms of punishments but I personally do believe that banning access should be considered a valid punishment.
On December 06 2011 00:56 Chargelot wrote: This is why I don't support production companies who force game designers to copy and paste, and then proceed to fuck over their customers by releasing shitty games AND banning them from playing.
Blizzard/Bethesda forever.
Down with EA/Activision.
Bethesda needs to hire some decent coders. way too many bugs.
On December 06 2011 00:55 TheLaw wrote: Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
Have you got a reason to back that up with? If you are posting on your account with your games on it after agreeing to their rules and get banned. You should lose access to the account. Just consider it punishment. If the punishment is to harsh is to hard to call. You never see all the details in these cases.
For example, would you have the same reaction if a scammer bought bf3 and started to scam the forums. Would you then want him to be able to log onto his account and attempt to spam through that? There is a line that has to be drawn in terms of punishments but I personally do believe that banning access should be considered a valid punishment.
Why is it so hard to perma ban on only forums instead of games.......
On December 06 2011 00:56 Chargelot wrote: This is why I don't support production companies who force game designers to copy and paste, and then proceed to fuck over their customers by releasing shitty games AND banning them from playing.
Blizzard/Bethesda forever.
Down with EA/Activision.
Bethesda needs to hire some decent coders. way too many bugs.
So you want blizzard/Activison to go down and last forever? you realise that they are the same company pretty much now.
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
Honestly i dont see a problem, you would not get banned permanently for saying a single fuck. but if you are trolling/swearing/scamming/spamming on their forums, they will ban you. Just do not post on their forums. I think that lots of people in this thread misunderstand. The person that was permanently banned had a whole slew of spamming posts. It was just the wrong post that the moderator sent him. It was posted on the bf3 subreddit i believe.
There is a good example! The guy claims to have been banned for a single thing but was actually a troll.
it shouldn't matter what i say on their forums. punish it by banning me from the forums.
but there's no fucking way the company is going to get away with stealing something from me that i rightfully own. they don't have any justification for taking someone's stuff for punishment when the two are entirely unrelated. the whole "forums and the game are same company, so connected" is nonsense. only if i'm flaming on the game is it acceptable to revoke rights on the game... but even then it's not permissible to take away single player.
honestly this made me lose all respect for EA. thieving bastards. i feel like an acceptable community response would be to ramp up support of cracked games and rogue servers. they don't deserve a penny.
On December 06 2011 00:30 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
WOW. That's ridiculous x.x
So wait, is that pretty much analogous to someone else writing a rant post on a Blizzard forum with the name "DarkPlasmaBall" in the middle of the post, which leads to my DarkPlasmaBall StarCraft 1 and 2 and Diablo accounts becoming banned, and me never even being able to play in single player?
I'd like to point to this post again because a lot of people are arguing without understanding that the guy DID NOT make the problematic post. Someone else did, and put his name somewhere in his post. That's it. I don't think anyone can legitimately argue about this fact : this is fucking stupid.
On December 06 2011 00:30 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
WOW. That's ridiculous x.x
So wait, is that pretty much analogous to someone else writing a rant post on a Blizzard forum with the name "DarkPlasmaBall" in the middle of the post, which leads to my DarkPlasmaBall StarCraft 1 and 2 and Diablo accounts becoming banned, and me never even being able to play in single player?
On December 06 2011 00:30 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
WOW. That's ridiculous x.x
So wait, is that pretty much analogous to someone else writing a rant post on a Blizzard forum with the name "DarkPlasmaBall" in the middle of the post, which leads to my DarkPlasmaBall StarCraft 1 and 2 and Diablo accounts becoming banned, and me never even being able to play in single player?
I'd like to point to this post again because a lot of people are arguing without understanding that the guy DID NOT make the problematic post. Someone else did, and put his name somewhere in his post. That's it. I don't think anyone can legitimately argue about this fact : this is fucking stupid.
This was posted a single page back. This guy is a major troll and deserved the ban coming to him. Whetever he should be banned from singleplayer as well, I dunno. But I do know that Blizzard does the same thing with their battle.net 2.0. If you get banned from battle.net, you also get banned from singleplayer.
On December 06 2011 00:55 TheLaw wrote: Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
Have you got a reason to back that up with? If you are posting on your account with your games on it after agreeing to their rules and get banned. You should lose access to the account. Just consider it punishment. If the punishment is to harsh is to hard to call. You never see all the details in these cases.
For example, would you have the same reaction if a scammer bought bf3 and started to scam the forums. Would you then want him to be able to log onto his account and attempt to spam through that? There is a line that has to be drawn in terms of punishments but I personally do believe that banning access should be considered a valid punishment.
Don't you think it is hypocritical by game companies to treat the right of property of consumers with utter disrespect while they lobby for harsher copyright laws? Why are lawmakers not protecting consumers from arbitrary rules in software license agreements?
On December 06 2011 00:35 elmizzt wrote: As long as they sort out the issues where the wrong person gets the ban, I'm all for the blanket ban.
So it's okay that if I say "fuck" on their forum, I'm banned from playing the games I bought permanently?
You don't see an issue with that?
Honestly i dont see a problem, you would not get banned permanently for saying a single fuck. but if you are trolling/swearing/scamming/spamming on their forums, they will ban you. Just do not post on their forums. I think that lots of people in this thread misunderstand. The person that was permanently banned had a whole slew of spamming posts. It was just the wrong post that the moderator sent him. It was posted on the bf3 subreddit i believe.
There is a good example! The guy claims to have been banned for a single thing but was actually a troll.
it shouldn't matter what i say on their forums. punish it by banning me from the forums.
but there's no fucking way the company is going to get away with stealing something from me that i rightfully own. they don't have any justification for taking someone's stuff for punishment when the two are entirely unrelated. the whole "forums and the game are same company, so connected" is nonsense. only if i'm flaming on the game is it acceptable to revoke rights on the game... but even then it's not permissible to take away single player.
honestly this made me lose all respect for EA. thieving bastards. i feel like an acceptable community response would be to ramp up support of cracked games and rogue servers. they don't deserve a penny.
It is not stealing it from you, you bought the license to the game and they took it off you. It is all stated clearly when you buy the game. It is not stealing. They have complete justificiation. That is the way that they have set up their forums, they want it to be all interconnected with the games. If you post on the forums you must have agreed to let them do that. The simple answer is to not pirate the game, it is to not post on the forum. That would show them that people disagree with their policy.
Also are you arguing that a game is not a game if its single player?
I will admit that it was to much to ban permanently for what someone else said. That was obviously a lapse in judgement by the moderator/computer program. But I will stand by their point of banning the game from people who are in fact being dicks on their forums. Chances are that if you are a dick on their forums you are a bit of a dick in game as well, and they do not want that.
On December 06 2011 00:55 TheLaw wrote: Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
Have you got a reason to back that up with? If you are posting on your account with your games on it after agreeing to their rules and get banned. You should lose access to the account. Just consider it punishment. If the punishment is to harsh is to hard to call. You never see all the details in these cases.
For example, would you have the same reaction if a scammer bought bf3 and started to scam the forums. Would you then want him to be able to log onto his account and attempt to spam through that? There is a line that has to be drawn in terms of punishments but I personally do believe that banning access should be considered a valid punishment.
I can't agree. No way that your game should be taken from you just because you say stupid shit on the forums. Sure ban them from the forums, that is fine. You can even block their ability to talk ingame if you want, Maybe remove multiplayer? But then you would need a extreamly good reson. Not just one or 2 offenses.
I honestly think that the EULAs that allows companies to take away games and ban their customers from the games should be illigal. That they can, at any moment with out any warning, ban you from their game without having to give a good reason and for this to be legall is compleatly bull shit. why should you pay 50€ for a game that you could lose at the whim of the companies.
On December 06 2011 00:55 TheLaw wrote: Don't listen to, elmizzt, hes a troll. I don't think anybody could be that dumb otherwise. The issue here is people are getting banned for something they said on forums. I'm all for banning forum trolls on ANY forum. But banning from games from something said on a forum isn't right at all.
Have you got a reason to back that up with? If you are posting on your account with your games on it after agreeing to their rules and get banned. You should lose access to the account. Just consider it punishment. If the punishment is to harsh is to hard to call. You never see all the details in these cases.
For example, would you have the same reaction if a scammer bought bf3 and started to scam the forums. Would you then want him to be able to log onto his account and attempt to spam through that? There is a line that has to be drawn in terms of punishments but I personally do believe that banning access should be considered a valid punishment.
Why is it so hard to perma ban on only forums instead of games.......
Because people aren't afraid of getting perma banned on the forums. As long as the kids that got banned by mistake are not only are allowed to play again, but are also compensated in some way (a free EA game for example) I actually think this is what should be done. This way raging nerds can have a community forum, and the real game forum can actually be a more civilized place
At this point, every person who has any sort of power in their customer service department should be fired. I worked at shaw as a CSR (customer service representative) and I know for a fact that the people I worked under would NEVER ban people for such stupid reasons. On another note of retardedness, who anyone could consider this a good business desition is beyond me, because I am pretty sure that banning your players and actually stealing money from them is not a good way to get them to buy any more of your games. I can say with confidence that I will not be buying any more EA games myself and I will be sure to advise everyone I know to do the same.
Have to say if Origin banned me from playing games I'd paid for, regardless of their rules, I'd just immediately turn to piracy for their products and I'm somone who has literally only ever downloaded one game, and that's because it was imossible to buy it anywhere anymore.
The accounts in the OP are absolutely insane and I hope this decision ends up costing EA a lot of cash. Permanently banning an account from the forums is sufficient for bad forum behaviour, banning them from multiplayer should only be an absolute last possible option and banning them from their games in general if not illegal damn well should be.
On December 06 2011 01:28 Mykill wrote: why would u play EA games... >_>
Mass Effect is one of the best games I've played in a long time. But when ME3 comes out, I'm going to wait and see how the DRM behaves before I decide whether or not it's worth the buy. It's sad that my purchasing decisions are no longer concerned with the quality of the game. DRM dominates my decision to buy a game or forgo it completely.
Ahh i when i read the thread title i assumed this was about TL and i was thinking FINALLY.. but no dice -.- I can only keep fingers crossed that we can soon be rid of mods who's arnt that great.
On December 06 2011 01:28 Mykill wrote: why would u play EA games... >_>
I enjoy the battlefield series and the mass effect series. In my eyes i would argue that why WOULDN'T you play EA published games. They tend to be pretty great(not counting dragonage2) recently.
Playing through their DRM gives me a migraine, and I can't always connect online. Back on topic, Draconian law utilized by our companies... got to love the control they try to exert on us. Ban from forum, sure go for it. Ban from game, stupid stupid STUPID.
I. Do. Not. Understand. How. Anyone. Would. Support. EA.
Just don't buy their f*cking games. "But they're great": this means you have no knowledge whatsoever of the gaming culture. There is a shit ton of great games out there.
I'm not saying that Mass Effect or Dragon Age aren't good - I'm just saying you shouldn't be giving money to EA. If Satan was a good painter who sold his paintings to fund his evil ways would you still decorate your living room with his works, just because "it looks pretty good"?
On December 06 2011 01:37 Kukaracha wrote: I. Do. Not. Understand. How. Anyone. Would. Support. EA.
Just don't buy their f*cking games. "But they're great": this means you have no knowledge whatsoever of the gaming culture. There is a shit ton of great games out there.
I'm not saying that Mass Effect or Dragon Age aren't good - I'm just saying you shouldn't be giving money to EA. If Satan was a good painter who sold his paintings to fund his evil ways would you still decorate your living room with his works, just because "it looks pretty good"?
That is a horrible example. Those games would not exist without EA's backing, the millions that the company has is able to create those games. Also i probably would, if it looks good i will most probably grab it. Satan has never done anything to me and anything i have heard people say about him seems to always be fake.
On December 06 2011 01:40 SirMilford wrote: Also i probably would, if it looks good i will most probably grab it. Satan has never done anything to me and anything i have heard people say about him seems to always be fake.
I dunno, metal bands make me think he's kinda cool
While it's EA's castle and their rules(which don't really seem very logical in anyway) what people seem to miss is that this isn't their rule. EA has earlier stated that forum bans will not affect your games, however now people in forums getting banned find out their accounts fully permabanned and not being able to play their games in anyway. EA has never had good customer support really, shouldn't be any news at this point.
On December 06 2011 01:31 Klondikebar wrote: Mass Effect is one of the best games I've played in a long time. But when ME3 comes out, I'm going to wait and see how the DRM behaves before I decide whether or not it's worth the buy. It's sad that my purchasing decisions are no longer concerned with the quality of the game. DRM dominates my decision to buy a game or forgo it completely.
This, sadly is the same for so many others. Judging DRM before anything else when you're about to purchase new game is so backwards I can't really understand. I haven't bought EA nor Ubisoft game in a while 'cause the ever increasing amount of DRM that is getting stacked on their games makes me turn away from them.
My guess: Forum maintenance is too expensive, so they make sure that everybody stops using their forums that way. No more maintenance costs. EA wins again.
Hmmm, don't really play any of their games except a couple sports ones. Not too worried about getting banned though because I don't post on their forums and I don't play online. Pretty shady though, they should learn how to interact with their customers.
On December 06 2011 01:46 Iplaythings wrote: .. Do they fuck people up on purpose or are they just sadistic? What the hell..
Atleast pretend you care for your customers
Having fewer trolls and jerks on the forums is caring in my view, although I seem to be alone in this. I don't know what their criteria is though, as the OP seems really biased -_-.
well considering i made a thread today calling their system for PC a complete piece of shit and asked how many blowjobs the person who created the idea of a web-based server browser had to give in order to get it into the game and i didn't get a ban, i would venture to say that it isn't that far.
On December 06 2011 01:52 Silidons wrote: well considering i made a thread today calling their system for PC a complete piece of shit and asked how many blowjobs the person who created the idea of a web-based server browser had to give in order to get it into the game and i didn't get a ban, i would venture to say that it isn't that far.
That was not that bad, but why did you feel the need to mention it? Don't you see the pointlessness of your forum post. it has been discussed multiple times on multiple forums with multiple people and EA will not change. Swearing on THEIR forum with your account is a sure way to get banned, and honestly i hope you get a temporary ban. I would like to see strict conditions on more internet forums.
I've personally started to dislike Electronic Farts or Electronic Apes long time ago, when they shut down the server for NFS Underground 1 and literally, killed the game. To all saying "but that's old game and it has to go", I'll answer with this little well known fact - Blizzard is still running the Diablo I servers. Yes, that's Diablo 1, as ONE. Game even older then NFSU1. Since then, I'm pretty much avoiding anything EA at all costs. + Show Spoiler +
On December 06 2011 01:52 Silidons wrote: well considering i made a thread today calling their system for PC a complete piece of shit and asked how many blowjobs the person who created the idea of a web-based server browser had to give in order to get it into the game and i didn't get a ban, i would venture to say that it isn't that far.
That was not that bad, but why did you feel the need to mention it? Don't you see the pointlessness of your forum post. it has been discussed multiple times on multiple forums with multiple people and EA will not change. Swearing on THEIR forum with your account is a sure way to get banned, and honestly i hope you get a temporary ban. I would like to see strict conditions on more internet forums.
if i do get banned then i won't ever buy a game from them ever again, not really my problem
On December 06 2011 01:52 Silidons wrote: well considering i made a thread today calling their system for PC a complete piece of shit and asked how many blowjobs the person who created the idea of a web-based server browser had to give in order to get it into the game and i didn't get a ban, i would venture to say that it isn't that far.
That was not that bad, but why did you feel the need to mention it? Don't you see the pointlessness of your forum post. it has been discussed multiple times on multiple forums with multiple people and EA will not change. Swearing on THEIR forum with your account is a sure way to get banned, and honestly i hope you get a temporary ban. I would like to see strict conditions on more internet forums.
if i do get banned then i won't ever buy a game from them ever again, not really my problem
Why would you consider that? You swore on their forums and you would receive a temporary ban. Why does that become their problem? I know that you are speaking with your money and i agree with that statement 100percent. But i think your reasoning behind it is childish.
EA already said that they want to continue to ban people who violate / misbehave in their forums. And they also said that they dont want to ban the whole origin account, but "at most" (additional to the forum ban) the corresponding game. And I think that's an ok stance.
Edit: Of course only when there really was a violation / misbehaviour
This is why I don't play EA games, so this doesn't really affect me. Those who got banned for this is kind of silly, you can say they were being retards or what not and deserved it but, to be banned from origins also? I don't like it.
On December 06 2011 00:56 Chargelot wrote: This is why I don't support production companies who force game designers to copy and paste, and then proceed to fuck over their customers by releasing shitty games AND banning them from playing.
Blizzard/Bethesda forever.
Down with EA/Activision.
Bethesda needs to hire some decent coders. way too many bugs.
On December 06 2011 00:28 strongandbig wrote: Tbh, this sounds like a bureaucratic failure. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind creating a policy like this on purpose. My guess is that somewhere in the giant EA corporate structure, someone heard about social networking and "Facebook integration" and decided to link the forum and Origin accounts without making a provision for one of those getting banned. Probably by now, no one thinks this policy is a good idea but there's probably a bunch of different corporate divisions each trying to avoid blame, so no one actually gets around to fixing it.
On December 06 2011 01:46 Iplaythings wrote: .. Do they fuck people up on purpose or are they just sadistic? What the hell..
Atleast pretend you care for your customers
Having fewer trolls and jerks on the forums is caring in my view, although I seem to be alone in this. I don't know what their criteria is though, as the OP seems really biased -_-.
Dude, according to what I read on TL, I don't know if it's real or not but if it's true it has some serious issues
Like one dude they sweared in his post and then he mentioned another guy in that post. But the other guy were banned as well, I mean if that shit is true I am never ever gonna touch EA forums, just out of paranoia for being mentioned.. I really hope I got this wrong because that is so.. weird in all possible ways
On December 06 2011 02:06 Stiver wrote: Simple: don't play online for EA games?
Tell them by actually not paying for their games anymore. Only way companies actually listen.
No they don't. Ubisoft's PC sales have fallen by 90% since the introduction of their special new DRM without a corresponding rise in console sales. That means people aren't just migrating to consoles...they've stopped buying Ubisoft games altogether. Despite this hilarious drop in sales Ubisoft still calls their DRM a success.
I am actualy waiting for someone to go to court over stuff like that. Thats what You should do, when You feel Your rights are being violated. Obviously not many people want to waste their time and money over something as trivial as game ban, but one day it will happen. Obviously the result might be different depending on the country. For example here (Poland) if court would find that company is using TOS that is violating consumer rights they can order super high fine that might even put comapny finances in danger (its based upon companys earnings and how long they use unallowed clause [among other things]),remmeber that somewhere else, court might be complety cool with exact same wording of TOS.
Something similiar already happend once (that i know off) i dont recall the game and company but they isued a game with a limited number of instaltions (You could install it like five times and thats all), some guy sued them over it, their lawyers told them that they cant win in court, and they created a patch that allowed limitless instaltions.
My point is, if You think Your rights are being violated and You care enough, just fight in court. A lot of companies (not only in gaming) use forbiden clauses all the time just beacause people dont care enough to fight them in court.
Going to court isnt even necessary most of the time (pre-trial letter usually just does the job).
I don't mind the idea of banning people for people assholes on forums, but I think it's stupid to have automated bans or bans for swearing. If anything is going to be automated it should be approved by a human being before the ban goes thru. If you're going to ban people for swearing you should just not sell video games with swearing because it's soooo offensive.
It should be made clear when you join the forum tho that your games are at risk. I wouldn't bother joining a forum that told me that
On December 06 2011 02:26 -Archangel- wrote: Lol, this should shut up all the people talking about piracy. Also people using Steam. Steam can and will do similar shit one day. Mark my words.
Your forum account and Steam accounts aren't linked. That's why when their forums got hacked they weren't worried about the actual store accounts.
On December 06 2011 01:52 Silidons wrote: well considering i made a thread today calling their system for PC a complete piece of shit and asked how many blowjobs the person who created the idea of a web-based server browser had to give in order to get it into the game and i didn't get a ban, i would venture to say that it isn't that far.
That was not that bad, but why did you feel the need to mention it? Don't you see the pointlessness of your forum post. it has been discussed multiple times on multiple forums with multiple people and EA will not change. Swearing on THEIR forum with your account is a sure way to get banned, and honestly i hope you get a temporary ban. I would like to see strict conditions on more internet forums.
if i do get banned then i won't ever buy a game from them ever again, not really my problem
Why would you consider that? You swore on their forums and you would receive a temporary ban. Why does that become their problem? I know that you are speaking with your money and i agree with that statement 100percent. But i think your reasoning behind it is childish.
Speaking with my money is probably the least childish way of doing things. My reason is that I think what they did was stupid and I felt like voicing my opinion. Am I allowed to voice my opinion? If I changed the curse words would it be better? Probably not.
On December 06 2011 02:27 Chef wrote: I don't mind the idea of banning people for people assholes on forums, but I think it's stupid to have automated bans or bans for swearing. If anything is going to be automated it should be approved by a human being before the ban goes thru. If you're going to ban people for swearing you should just not sell video games with swearing because it's soooo offensive.
Sounds like team liquid. Swearing is bad children.
This is actually extremely interesting. Certainly EA has gone too far, and no one, imo, should play their games if they're going to be such assholes, but I've always liked associating forum moderation with systems of government. 4chan is anarchy, TL is a constitutional monarchy of sorts, and now, EA is a Totalitarian regime.
Tell me honest now, who here did not see this coming after the dragon age II similar fiasco happened? Before Origins' was released, but the information was announced, you all knew this was coming right? That EA would never change their policy or their customer service(Well, if you can call it that), and that EA would start banning people from their origin account for whatever they reason they felt was justified(i.e., felt like it).
If there is anyone here with even any faith left in EA or most of the large corporations involved in gaming, including blizzard, please take yourself out of the gene pool. This is just going to get worse and you are all standing there and accepting it.
On December 06 2011 02:27 Chef wrote: I don't mind the idea of banning people for people assholes on forums, but I think it's stupid to have automated bans or bans for swearing. If anything is going to be automated it should be approved by a human being before the ban goes thru. If you're going to ban people for swearing you should just not sell video games with swearing because it's soooo offensive.
It should be made clear when you join the forum tho that your games are at risk. I wouldn't bother joining a forum that told me that
IIRC R1CH stated that he tried to automate the moderation process at one time similar to this way. He said that it labeled everyone as a "shitty poster" and that it was like the Santa from Futurama.
This is just rediculous, why EA why!? I can maybe understand if what they were saying was extremely racist, sexist etc. but even then to ban someone without appeal from something they have paid for... It's going too far
On December 06 2011 02:37 mbr2321 wrote: This is actually extremely interesting. Certainly EA has gone too far, and no one, imo, should play their games if they're going to be such assholes, but I've always liked associating forum moderation with systems of government. 4chan is anarchy, TL is a constitutional monarchy of sorts, and now, EA is a Totalitarian regime.
On December 06 2011 00:24 TheLaw wrote: EA has even stolen money of mine, I swear that company is run by children in adult skin. Bunch of selfish bastards.
You insult children.
No child could be as selfish as a businessman.
Huh? Children are extremely selfish. They gradually lose selfishness over time, but start off caring about nothing else.
On December 06 2011 02:37 mbr2321 wrote: This is actually extremely interesting. Certainly EA has gone too far, and no one, imo, should play their games if they're going to be such assholes, but I've always liked associating forum moderation with systems of government. 4chan is anarchy, TL is a constitutional monarchy of sorts, and now, EA is a Totalitarian regime.
everyone knows TL is the Third Reich
*sigh* Godwin's Law never ceases to go unfulfilled.
And TL is actually very good about sticking to the laws it has laid out. The mods might be overly snarky at times but their bans are well within TL guidelines.
EA has straight up said they weren't going to ban Origin accounts along with forum bans but they are doing the exact opposite.
Seriously people need to stop supporting EA. They have been producing terrible games and even worse customer service for years.
I don't care how good a game is, how hyped up it is, whether your friends are buying it or whatever other factors might sway your opinion to buy a product of theirs, just don't do it.
Force them to reconsider, revamp and address the issues they have created by taking a stand against their products or continue to buy their shit and showing them that you don't care.
It offends my sensibilities to patronize a company like this. The solace is that the companies who go in this direction are probably ultimately self-destructive.
On December 06 2011 00:30 DarkPlasmaBall wrote: Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”
WOW. That's ridiculous x.x
So wait, is that pretty much analogous to someone else writing a rant post on a Blizzard forum with the name "DarkPlasmaBall" in the middle of the post, which leads to my DarkPlasmaBall StarCraft 1 and 2 and Diablo accounts becoming banned, and me never even being able to play in single player?
I've been really really upset with EA recently. I bought Mirror's Edge on Steam a while ago and it was a great game. I found out there was DLC for the game but it doesn't work in the Steam version. I would not have purchased the Steam copy if I was aware I wasn't going to get a fully functional copy of the game :\
Additionally, it's totally ridiculous that you don't really own your copy of the game and they can lock you out. I think the only thing they would be allowed to do is block you from protected servers in multiplayer games, like Steam with VAC-secured servers.
For other online games with a persistent experience (mmos), it should be up to the developer of the game to manage bans and such. EA shouldn't be able to ban you from content that you paid for because of some altercation on the forum.
The thing that scares me is not how blatantly obvious EA shows how much they care about their paying customers, not how much innocent people have been banned, but how much inspiration Manifesto might get from this merciless act.
On December 06 2011 02:27 Chef wrote: I don't mind the idea of banning people for people assholes on forums, but I think it's stupid to have automated bans or bans for swearing. If anything is going to be automated it should be approved by a human being before the ban goes thru. If you're going to ban people for swearing you should just not sell video games with swearing because it's soooo offensive.
It should be made clear when you join the forum tho that your games are at risk. I wouldn't bother joining a forum that told me that
IIRC R1CH stated that he tried to automate the moderation process at one time similar to this way. He said that it labeled everyone as a "shitty poster" and that it was like the Santa from Futurama.
On December 06 2011 03:34 Zombo Joe wrote: Remember when Blizzard wanted to impliment REAL ID?
They would have done the same if it came through.
I thought they did, didn't they?
I can remember my brother-in-law's Facebook filling up with Starcraft 2 achievements in the month or so after the game came out...
The original Real ID had you using your real name on the forums. The community quickly proved that even with just a real name, you could get WAY too much information about someone. A legion of people also cancelled pre-orders. It was probably the most ill conceived thing about Battle.net 2.0 (which is saying a lot because almost the whole infrastructure is an abortion).
On December 06 2011 04:04 Probe1 wrote: But this actually seems worse than Bnet 0.2
Well yes, this is downright thievery. This is the culmination of "you're only paying for a license." When you do not actually own the game for which you paid, the publisher can simply take it away whenever they want. Tons of people said they'd never be that stupid. But here we are. EA is just taking away your game because you never actually owned it in the first place.
On December 06 2011 04:04 Probe1 wrote: But this actually seems worse than Bnet 0.2
Well yes, this is downright thievery. This is the culmination of "you're only paying for a license." When you do not actually own the game for which you paid, the publisher can simply take it away whenever they want. Tons of people said they'd never be that stupid. But here we are. EA is just taking away your game because you never actually owned it in the first place.
I absolutely agree. I don't understand why anyone would let a company get away with this sort of despotism.
Is EA trying to be the most evil video game company in the world? I think they were doing a pretty good job already, but because of this I think they have succeeded.
On December 06 2011 00:34 deth2munkies wrote: And this is why I advocate boycotts and piracy as equally effective activism tools.
Just never buy the games from them, pirate it or let it rot on the shelf until the company either changes their ways or dies.
Oh, and again, as I've posted before:
Anyone who thinks this is illegal has not read an EULA. Short version is that you don't own anything but the right to play the game for as long as the company wants you to. That's what you get for your $60.
Has the supreme court looked over the issue of an EULA's constitutionality with respect to property rights? EA should be careful they do not spurn enough people to cause a legal mess over this. I don't see them winning in court despite there being a small box that says "I Agree"
I've learned the hard way to avoid EA games and it's always nice with a reminder so I dont make the mistake again. I used to like the NFS-series but mandatory career mode with catchup made it just too much.
Im starting to think that theres so much shit about EA and how bad they are, that competitor companies might pay people to say that huge amount of crap about them. There's so much bad things that I cant believe people still buy from them.
i never knew EA got so much hate. i buy EA product at least once a year. what other option is there for sports games? and i've always been happy with their qualify of games (madden, fifa, fifa street, nba live, fight night)
i did used to buy winning11/PES up until 2009 or so, from then FIFA was the better football game.
lol i posted on the EA BF3 forums and got banned for 3 days from BF3's beta.. Although to be fair my thread was titled "MW3>BF3" and the actual post was a link to the nada's body thread..
This is not the way to maintain customer satisfaction to say the least. Also, duping innocent people who PAID for their product is totally bonkers. A very good reason to pirate the heck out of EA games, if this is how they treat their customers.
On December 06 2011 02:27 Chef wrote: I don't mind the idea of banning people for people assholes on forums, but I think it's stupid to have automated bans or bans for swearing. If anything is going to be automated it should be approved by a human being before the ban goes thru. If you're going to ban people for swearing you should just not sell video games with swearing because it's soooo offensive.
Sounds like team liquid. Swearing is bad children.
We don't ban for swearing. Hell, I think everyone staff curses like a sailor. Typically the reason you see people banned with swearing in their posts though is because they're directing at someone. There is a difference between "Ugh, I played so fucking bad that game" and "God, you're so fucking retarded". See the difference? Usually one will get you a warning/ban, one will not. We don't cater to kids, we just want people to act respectful.
EDIT - and on that note, I looked up your posting history because I tasted something of personal bias in the air. I'm glad I wasn't disappointed, you have many warnings/bans for being a complete asshole. If you think ANY of your bans had something to do with the cursing in those posts as well, you're completely missing the reasons why you were banned.
Is it possible to retract my purchase on BF3? Seriously though, this is like a meth lab. It's stupid, dangerous and immoral and is most likely going to blow up in their face. Stuff like this doesn't fly.
On December 06 2011 05:15 Endymion wrote: lol i posted on the EA BF3 forums and got banned for 3 days from BF3's beta.. Although to be fair my thread was titled "MW3>BF3" and the actual post was a link to the nada's body thread..
You deserve a cookie and an award for the effort. Also the first thing I thought of was this image:
I've read the first couple pages, and it seems that people have missed that the person who WAS banned didn't even do ANYTHING wrong, it was just that someone else had posted a swear word with his name in that post... this makes it much more ridiculous- people really need to do something about
Hmm, so I did a little test today and the results are quite sad....
I made 5 Origin accounts all useless shells, I went to the forums put some hateful things in them with all the names of my accounts created. Guess what guys....All 5 are banned for 72 hours over only one of them posting.....EA's system seems to be fully automated either that or the mods on the EA servers are fucking idiots.
This makes me fearful that some random troll could just spam Origin accounts and then get so many people banned soooo easily... It took me 10 mins tops to make all 5 ghost accounts and with 1 account posting with the others names in them they all get banned.. And I changed my IP before I set up each account so I am just confused at what the fuck EA is thinking.
It's like they're forcibly instituting a boycott on their own game. Makes 0 sense, except in light of the fact that a huge number of fans are unconcerned that they're behaving this way.
I personally don't like it when people swear... but this is insane. I can see being banned from your game if you are hacking to defeat other people or to ruin other people's game experience. And I can see banning from the forums for being a jerk. But being banned from a game that you bought because of forum posts on a related website?
This would be yet another reason why I dislike games being dependent to online play and through a company's account (even something like Steam.) Even though it's very unlikely for me to be effected by such things, I would much prefer to own my game independent of a company's benevolence or lack thereof.
On December 06 2011 05:40 Nazarid wrote: Hmm, so I did a little test today and the results are quite sad....
I made 5 Origin accounts all useless shells, I went to the forums put some hateful things in them with all the names of my accounts created. Guess what guys....All 5 are banned for 72 hours over only one of them posting.....EA's system seems to be fully automated either that or the mods on the EA servers are fucking idiots.
This makes me fearful that some random troll could just spam Origin accounts and then get so many people banned soooo easily... It took me 10 mins tops to make all 5 ghost accounts and with 1 account posting with the others names in them they all get banned.. And I changed my IP before I set up each account so I am just confused at what the fuck EA is thinking.
And this is truly insane. If some trolls figure this out...
On December 06 2011 05:40 Nazarid wrote: Hmm, so I did a little test today and the results are quite sad....
I made 5 Origin accounts all useless shells, I went to the forums put some hateful things in them with all the names of my accounts created. Guess what guys....All 5 are banned for 72 hours over only one of them posting.....EA's system seems to be fully automated either that or the mods on the EA servers are fucking idiots.
This makes me fearful that some random troll could just spam Origin accounts and then get so many people banned soooo easily... It took me 10 mins tops to make all 5 ghost accounts and with 1 account posting with the others names in them they all get banned.. And I changed my IP before I set up each account so I am just confused at what the fuck EA is thinking.
Thats... such a glaring mistake that should not be made in 2011. (I'm going with the assumption that everything is fully automated)
Yes, all internet moderation is too heavy imo. On every website including TL.
We live in a world where we think its ok to just close/block/delete people and what they say, it isn't. But, as simple users, we have no real power over the websites we use or the programs we use, and in a world of fleeting digital content, more and more things are going to be "licensed" to us rather than sold. Today it's your EA account, what if it's your bank account tomorrow? What if your car or house keys only worked if you kept paying a bill? What if all your DVDs stopped working if you pirated even a single movie?
These are all things certain companies would LOVE to implement and the only reason they don't (besides technical ones) are that we wouldn't stand for it. Show EA you won't stand for this either.
EA somehow manages to buy out some good developers but really, EA is in it for the money and it's a battle between EA and Ubisoft versus companies like Valve imo.
On December 06 2011 05:47 darkscream wrote: Yes, all internet moderation is too heavy imo. On every website including TL.
We live in a world where we think its ok to just close/block/delete people and what they say, it isn't. But, as simple users, we have no real power over the websites we use or the programs we use, and in a world of fleeting digital content, more and more things are going to be "licensed" to us rather than sold. Today it's your EA account, what if it's your bank account tomorrow? What if your car or house keys only worked if you kept paying a bill? What if all your DVDs stopped working if you pirated even a single movie?
These are all things certain companies would LOVE to implement and the only reason they don't (besides technical ones) are that we wouldn't stand for it. Show EA you won't stand for this either.
This isn't America, this is TL's house. There's no free speech here (at least we're not entitled to it). Owners of private forums are more than welcome to censor all they want. The issue is not that EA censors it's forums, the issue that they rob their customers.
Banning users from their games because of forum posts is complete bullshit. Only in some strange, tyrannical mind could you justify such an extreme punishment for something so ridiculous.
"He said e-peen on the forums?! My god! Ban him from every game he's ever bought with an EA label!" - Random EA Douche
It's almost as if the people at EA don't actually play games themselves. They're like some puritan cult that makes sports games. They also moonlight as internet vigilantes, cutting the e-peens off gamers with sharp tongues.
I'm hoping there's a class action lawsuit about to pop up. There is literally no way EA can defend blocking game/account access to people who weren't even guilty of violating forum "rules."
On December 06 2011 05:47 darkscream wrote: Yes, all internet moderation is too heavy imo. On every website including TL.
We live in a world where we think its ok to just close/block/delete people and what they say, it isn't. But, as simple users, we have no real power over the websites we use or the programs we use, and in a world of fleeting digital content, more and more things are going to be "licensed" to us rather than sold. Today it's your EA account, what if it's your bank account tomorrow? What if your car or house keys only worked if you kept paying a bill? What if all your DVDs stopped working if you pirated even a single movie?
These are all things certain companies would LOVE to implement and the only reason they don't (besides technical ones) are that we wouldn't stand for it. Show EA you won't stand for this either.
This isn't America, this is TL's house. There's no free speech here (at least we're not entitled to it). Owners of private forums are more than welcome to censor all they want. The issue is not that EA censors it's forums, the issue that they rob their customers.
And it's not like TL is unfair. In fact I find TL's moderation like a breath of fresh air. You can say whatever you want as long as you don't insult/flame/troll others and support your less standard opinions with facts.
god i hate EA, not even that their games are crap, oh wait, the games they bought are crap, but their customer service as well? Man, pull yourself together.
The forums should be seperated from the game. If your banned from the forum be banned from the forum. If your banned from the game, be banned from the game.
They're setting themselves up to have the image of an "evil" company atm.
This is so incredible fucked up! How can anyone actually pay money for this?! I would´ve played BF3 too, but as soon as i read that EULA from Origin i was done with this. It´s just completely ridiculous, customer rights don´t seem to exist anymore. I really thought something like this wouldn´t get passed in Germany, but apparently i was wrong. The german data protection authority complained a bit, but of course nothing has happend. I´m gonna stay away from EA, that´s for sure!
On December 06 2011 05:47 darkscream wrote: Yes, all internet moderation is too heavy imo. On every website including TL.
We live in a world where we think its ok to just close/block/delete people and what they say, it isn't.
See, I think you might not appreciate the point of moderation. The reason we even bother moderating is to uphold certain standards, otherwise every website in the world would look like 4chan. While some people wouldn't mind that, there are many that would. In fact, I would argue (and I've heard it from users time and time again over the years) that many people enjoy TL.net so much for example BECAUSE of the moderation. When you keep the stupid shit out, the quality is going to go up.
I like the guy earlier who compared moderation styles to government styles, and I think it's absolutely true. Some people are going to want to live in an anarchy, others are going to appreciate having "laws" in place that work towards common good.
On December 06 2011 06:00 Klondikebar wrote: This isn't America, this is TL's house. There's no free speech here (at least we're not entitled to it). Owners of private forums are more than welcome to censor all they want. The issue is not that EA censors it's forums, the issue that they rob their customers.
And it's not like TL is unfair. In fact I find TL's moderation like a breath of fresh air. You can say whatever you want as long as you don't insult/flame/troll others and support your less standard opinions with facts.
thats totaly crazy? what does an Forum acc has to do with a game licence i buyed? that like stealing the money out of the gamers? Never played any of their games... stick to blizzard and small companys :=
On December 06 2011 06:12 RogerX wrote: They're setting themselves up to have the image of an "evil" company atm.
They've done that for at least a decade. I don't know why they want everyone to hate them, but whoever makes these decisions seems intent on running the company into the ground.
Origin was an awful idea as it is. Now they're taking their awful ideas a step further. What morons. The more I think about it, the more insane they seem. They are shooting their customers in their feet for buying EA games, and then shooting themselves in the feet for getting rid of customers. I would hate to see a big player in the gaming industry like EA fail or go bust but doing shit like this I can see it happening.
I beat some kid in BF3 and make him rage hard, he proceeds to create a dummy origin account and creates a tread calling me a "insert expletive filled insult here". As a result I am banned and can no longer play any of my origin games.
^Would/Could the above actually happen? If so I'm not going to be playing BF3 until this gets figured out.
On December 06 2011 05:47 darkscream wrote: Yes, all internet moderation is too heavy imo. On every website including TL.
We live in a world where we think its ok to just close/block/delete people and what they say, it isn't. But, as simple users, we have no real power over the websites we use or the programs we use, and in a world of fleeting digital content, more and more things are going to be "licensed" to us rather than sold. Today it's your EA account, what if it's your bank account tomorrow? What if your car or house keys only worked if you kept paying a bill? What if all your DVDs stopped working if you pirated even a single movie?
These are all things certain companies would LOVE to implement and the only reason they don't (besides technical ones) are that we wouldn't stand for it. Show EA you won't stand for this either.
This isn't America, this is TL's house. There's no free speech here (at least we're not entitled to it). Owners of private forums are more than welcome to censor all they want. The issue is not that EA censors it's forums, the issue that they rob their customers.
And it's not like TL is unfair. In fact I find TL's moderation like a breath of fresh air. You can say whatever you want as long as you don't insult/flame/troll others and support your less standard opinions with facts.
99% of internet moderation is way too light. face it, the vast majority of the population is made of idiots. in addition the internet often turns otherwise silent people into douchebags and tends to bring out the worst in people. moderation is a MUST and one of the reasons why i visit TL since like 8+ years even in times i stopped playing bw/sc2 is because the great moderation here keeps the standarts high and makes it for me the most enjoyable site to visit i know. even after sc2 which brought waves of trolls and kids TL is the glorious forum of reason in the endless sea of troll and stupidity infested boards out there.
@Topic
dunno if i want to laugh or get mad at this. its so ridiculous that its almost funny. but that a company can rip their customers out of things they paid for just because they are a big ass name is just sad. its just another sad tale where EA shows the gaming world their true face again.
tbh i stayed away from buying fifa 12 and bf3 just because of EA. never done that before but i have the cash, shop is across the road ,etc and still i stayed away from buying it just because having a bad feeling when thinking about giving EA money.
not much more to say about it. its sad, its outrageous and whoever is responsible for crap like that should get what he deserves.but in the world of games companys often can do whatever the fuck they want as long as they have game series that people will buy no matter what.
The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
On December 06 2011 06:09 TheLOLas wrote: That is so ridiculous. Why would you ban someone for cursing. FUCK!
Especially when the characters in the game scream "I GOT YOU MOTHERFUCKER" and "TAKE THIS BITCH" when they bag themselves a kill, haha. I'm sure people who are browsing the Battlefield 3 forums can handle an entire arsenal of sailor vocabulary.
On December 06 2011 06:30 gosuMalicE wrote: Lets pose a hypothetical situation:
I beat some kid in BF3 and make him rage hard, he proceeds to create a dummy origin account and creates a tread calling me a "insert expletive filled insult here". As a result I am banned and can no longer play any of my origin games.
^Would/Could the above actually happen? If so I'm not going to be playing BF3 until this gets figured out.
According to a previous post that tested the banning effects, yes - if anyone curses and puts your name in the same post, you run a risk of being banned.
On December 06 2011 05:26 DeepElemBlues wrote: Banning someone because someone else wrote their username in a post that also contained profanity... that's pretty really bad.
I can see a bunch of trolls creating EA accounts, and quoting randoms with swearing, just to get them banned. Although I suppose when (not if) this happens, EA will be forced to unban all these users.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i dont like that much of what they done with sc2,the "new blizzard", hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
Yes, and so long that everyone thinks that way, nothing will ever change. As long as you think your vote doesn't matter, then it doesn't.
Also, yes, there's only one of any particular game. But for the vast majority of games, you can find something like it. Yes, it won't be the same story. It won't be the same gameplay. But it'll be similar enough. Or, God forbid, do without. People act like they absolutely must have some particular entertainment. Like it's their life or something.
You don't need any particular videogame. The world will not end if you miss out on the next iteration of FIFA or Assassin's Creed or whatever. All it takes is personal discipline.
Sadly, that is a quality that modern western societies lack as of late.
I'm so glad I don't play EA games anymore. Didn't get battlefield and probably wont, but honestly why are you swearing on official forums anyways - I would assume this happened there. I would think that most companies try to keep their sites as clean and professional as possible so they don't give out a bad image of themselves. However I think this is a little over the top and should be looked at again.
On December 06 2011 07:13 FoeHamr wrote: I'm so glad I don't play EA games anymore. Didn't get battlefield and probably wont, but honestly why are you swearing on official forums anyways - I would assume this happened there. I would think that most companies try to keep their sites as clean and professional as possible so they don't give out a bad image of themselves. However I think this is a little over the top and should be looked at again.
I think it is an issue if the automated system bans you for having your username show up in someone else's hateful post.
On December 06 2011 07:13 FoeHamr wrote: I'm so glad I don't play EA games anymore. Didn't get battlefield and probably wont, but honestly why are you swearing on official forums anyways - I would assume this happened there. I would think that most companies try to keep their sites as clean and professional as possible so they don't give out a bad image of themselves. However I think this is a little over the top and should be looked at again.
I think it is an issue if the automated system bans you for having your username show up in someone else's hateful post.
Wait a minute. If I go and post on the forums calling someone out, raging, and overall being a prick - they get banned for it? That's just fucked up and doesn't make sense.
Wasn't planning on buying any EA games in the near future anyhow, this just gives me more reason not to. I hope EA gets sued for this, it sounds completely insane. People should probably avoid forums associated with game accounts imo. If you can lose your access to a game you paid for because of something you wrote on a forum it doesn't seem worth the risk, especially if the moderators go mad with power (or whatever it is that caused this situation)
I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Do you see a problem with EA banning people who were simply mentioned in someone else's posts?
Do you see a problem with them denying access to the single player game when they have said that forum bans would not affect Origin accounts?
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Do you see a problem with EA banning people who were simply mentioned in someone else's posts?
Do you see a problem with them denying access to the single player game when they have said that forum bans would not affect Origin accounts?
Did you even read the OP?
Well, all of these things happen, and will continue to happen until we stop buying EA's stuff. Their games are good enough to warrant a TON of people buying them, and as long as they have those sales, then nothing'll change.
Frankly, i think it was a little harsh, and it really sucks for the guy who was banned simply for being mentioned, but it is their forums, and their game platform, and they can ban for whatever reason they like.
If they deemed it fit, they could ban you because of the username you picked, or the fact that you play too much and don't get enough sleep.
Granted, they wouldn't, but they COULD.
It's sad, but it's not like people are going to stop buying battlefield, or other EA Games that come out every year
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
i don't understand where this sudden hatred of blizzard is coming from, this is an EA thing, yes they have a parent company of Activision, but that doesn't mean suddenly because EA did this, Blizzard is at fault. Sometimes the fanaticism of this forum is mind bogglingly stupid.
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Do you see a problem with EA banning people who were simply mentioned in someone else's posts?
Do you see a problem with them denying access to the single player game when they have said that forum bans would not affect Origin accounts?
Did you even read the OP?
The OP just showed a flaw in the system. Obviously that is not the moderation that EA is after, ifact i would argue that this probably happens more than one would expect! Except it is dealt with faster and quiter. They will update their software and the problem will go away.
No honestly i do not, why are you being a dick to begin with? If you are posting on EA's forum shitting all over other people and their product, I personally do not see a problem with them withdrawing access to your account.
These kinds of issues will continue as we increasingly transition toward software as a service. The only way to respond is to either boycott SaaS (pretty much impossible IMO) or only support the companies that at least try to take care of their customers.
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Oh, I do. Even if they clean up the exploit, it's still a horrible consequence. Again, I've never understood the fascination for curse words. However, the punishment should match the crime. If swearing is disallowed on the forums, then ban them from the forums. But for instance, Honda can't take away your car if you post a nasty comment on their website. It's just isn't legal. But what the gaming industry has done is made all the cars dependent on the manufacturer so they can shut it on and off at will.
There may be cases where in forum actions may warrant ingame bans, but I can't think of any. Ruining other people's fun with hacking... sure. But being a douche on a forum? There's no way a company could've done this in earlier days. They just didn't have that much control. To do the equivalent, they'd have to break into your house and physically confiscate it. It really moves the games away from personal property and more to a glorified rental system.
On December 06 2011 00:23 bonifaceviii wrote: You know, banning people in-game for shitty forum posts on the company's website doesn't seem like a bad idea in theory.
In practice, though, I'm sure it's a nightmare.
Tbh it's a good step to reduce the amount of garbage on forums. People might be less inclined to troll forum posts and write rage swearing posts if it affected their actual gaming. But permanent bans from the game because of something you said on the forums should never come.
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Do you see a problem with EA banning people who were simply mentioned in someone else's posts?
Do you see a problem with them denying access to the single player game when they have said that forum bans would not affect Origin accounts?
Did you even read the OP?
The OP just showed a flaw in the system. Obviously that is not the moderation that EA is after, ifact i would argue that this probably happens more than one would expect! Except it is dealt with faster and quiter. They will update their software and the problem will go away.
No honestly i do not, why are you being a dick to begin with? If you are posting on EA's forum shitting all over other people and their product, I personally do not see a problem with them withdrawing access to your account.
I have issue when their forum that bans for posting with swear words is hitting all sorts of people. For example, if you posted this post in which you're defending EA's system, on EA's board, you'd likely to be banned from your account because you used the word "dick" and the word "shitting". This is several levels of stupid - why would you ever link a word filter to an automated ban system, then link that system to account access? At that point you're discouraging any interaction at all on your message boards for fear of losing all the games you legitimately purchased.
Don't buy EA games, it's that simple. I was close to buying BF3; heard good things about it. But the game is made by EA and my dislike for them bars me from buying any of their products. Simple.
Really pathetic situation from EA. Banning from multiplayer is a stretch that I could follow, but to follow up with a ban from the single player game? Seriously? Have some pride, EA. You already have the guy's money.
The forum bans don't really bother me, its the fact that people are being locked out of their games via a bad forum post. This is entirely unacceptable.
I play EA games, but I don't go on their forums, its a waste of time if you want to help.
The only thing that you can do on EA forums is troll, and I guess that is why EA is doing this, to stop the trolling which started because EA forums is a horrible community to begin with.
On December 06 2011 05:56 Valashu wrote: EA somehow manages to buy out some good developers but really, EA is in it for the money and it's a battle between EA and Ubisoft versus companies like Valve imo.
We'll see what happens.
Except EA acquires/partners with companies like Bioware that create massive hits, fun enough for people to forgive their policies and buy the game anyway.
On December 06 2011 04:04 Probe1 wrote: But this actually seems worse than Bnet 0.2
Well yes, this is downright thievery. This is the culmination of "you're only paying for a license." When you do not actually own the game for which you paid, the publisher can simply take it away whenever they want. Tons of people said they'd never be that stupid. But here we are. EA is just taking away your game because you never actually owned it in the first place.
I thought about how to respond to your post a lot and I still don't have anything further to say. EA is brazenly shafting their customers and if it was a perfect world- EA would be out of business years ago for being a shark of the video games industry.
._.
I have nothing positive to say and no reason to post on this. EA is way way in the wrong here and there isn't anything their customers can do. Almost makes me want to cry for legislation preventing companies from permanently 'leasing' their games to customers that think they own it.
sigh. Like I said, I have nothing positive or contributory to say.
On December 06 2011 00:34 Fruscainte wrote: So someone else curses in a post and mentions your name, you get banned, you go to support to appeal, you get permanently banned and locked out of all your games forever.
I have a gravatar image that some may find offensive. But its for an 18 cert game, so EA ban me and I would actually complain to however the relevant complaints commission is, and undoubtedly have my account magically restored. EA did this with my BFBC2 account as well, although I never used the forums or had any offensive language or material while I played. EA go to far with the whole strict control thing, we need stricter control on what these companies can do, as at the end of the day people like Arron who support that company and cash out for games are getting their items they bought removed for little to no reason.
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
I believe they have said that SWTOR will not require you to go through Origin. What's dumb is that could have been a blatant lie and we won't know until release day.
And I'm curious, what happens when you use a bad word in the game, someone reports you, and you get permabanned from SWTOR?
So... they ban someone from their forums because they or someone using their name cussed?
Ehhh, ok. That makes complete sense. Hi, my name is R1CH, and fuck those motherfucking faggots. If TL used that logic, me saying that would get a forum admin banned and unable to play any part of SC2 without buying another account.
Honestly though, I don't like EA as a company. Sure, they're better than Activision, though not Blizzard, when it comes to the products, but EA and Activision are both guilty of being too sensitive in cases like this.
BF3 is such a magnificent game... marred terribly by the shitstorm that is Origin. If only Valve could somehow buy out EA and put Steam in place of origin, that would be like the second coming of christ
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
I believe they have said that SWTOR will not require you to go through Origin. What's dumb is that could have been a blatant lie and we won't know until release day.
And I'm curious, what happens when you use a bad word in the game, someone reports you, and you get permabanned from SWTOR?
Ubisoft that From Dust was not going to have any DRM whatsoever, and it was the most DRM intrusive game of the last decade. I would take their word with a grain of salt, I would not be surprised if SWTOR took Origin.
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
I believe they have said that SWTOR will not require you to go through Origin. What's dumb is that could have been a blatant lie and we won't know until release day.
And I'm curious, what happens when you use a bad word in the game, someone reports you, and you get permabanned from SWTOR?
Ubisoft that From Dust was not going to have any DRM whatsoever, and it was the most DRM intrusive game of the last decade. I would take their word with a grain of salt, I would not be surprised if SWTOR took Origin.
I remember the From Dust debacle. They lied multiple times and then when they finally got it sorted out the game still played like shit on the PC because it was such a shoddy port.
Does it count as piracy if you download the game, play it for 30 seconds, make a face like you just sucked on a lemon, and delete the game?
On December 06 2011 09:20 GrapeApe wrote: I hate EA, but their name on the box of Star Wars: The Old Republic will not stop be from buying that shit! KOTOR 3 IS FINALLY HERE...in mmo form
And this is why EA will keep shitting all over you.
I believe they have said that SWTOR will not require you to go through Origin. What's dumb is that could have been a blatant lie and we won't know until release day.
And I'm curious, what happens when you use a bad word in the game, someone reports you, and you get permabanned from SWTOR?
Ubisoft that From Dust was not going to have any DRM whatsoever, and it was the most DRM intrusive game of the last decade. I would take their word with a grain of salt, I would not be surprised if SWTOR took Origin.
I remember the From Dust debacle. They lied multiple times and then when they finally got it sorted out the game still played like shit on the PC because it was such a shoddy port.
Does it count as piracy if you download the game, play it for 30 seconds, make a face like you just sucked on a lemon, and delete the game?
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Reminds me of a thread on the league of legends forum where a red named "jeffjew" replied to why someone was banned. Evidently he said "wtf?" and "noob" too many times. The age of care bear gaming is near.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Just to be clear, developers (like Blizzard) are often on our side. They're gamers too and they know how things work. Many of these terrible decisions come from publishers (in the Blizzard example that would be Activision) and even then it's mostly from upper management.
Working in the corporate world has taught me that company officers can often be completely divorced from reality.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Just to be clear, developers (like Blizzard) are often on our side. They're gamers too and they know how things work. Many of these terrible decisions come from publishers (in the Blizzard example that would be Activision) and even then it's mostly from upper management.
Working in the corporate world has taught me that company officers can often be completely divorced from reality.
Switch what I said to publishers then. Either way the source of the problem isn't really something we can do anything about.
I don't actually have anything against Blizzard (though with shitty battle.net 2.0 and the story of SC2 so far they're well on their way), I was just continue to use his example rather than bothering to pick a new one.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Case and point: Minecraft. A game that started out good, with massive potential. Eventually had the developer Notch making business game development decisions influenced by lawyers.
From Notch's Blog 26th April 2011
The plan for mods After some internal discussion and general anxiety, we’ve arrived at a plan for supporting mods. It’s still a bit vague and the details might change after we’ve run it by our lawyers, but here’s what we want to do:
* Let players sign up as “mod developers”. This will cost money (edit: no longer costs money!), and will require you agreeing to a license deal (you only need one per mod team). * Mod developers can download the source code from our SVN repository. As soon as we commit a change, it will be available to all mod developers, unobfuscated and uncensored. * Mod developers get a unique certificate for signing their mods. This means players can see who made what mod and choose to trust individual developers. The cost of signing up makes sure only serious developers have access to this certificate.
The rules of the license deal will contain:
* Mods must only be playable by people who have bought Minecraft * You can’t sell your mods or make money off them unless you’ve got a separate license deal with us * The mods must not be malicious (obviously) * We retain the right to use your mod idea and implement it ourselves in Minecraft. This is to prevent the situation where we have to avoid adding a feature just because there’s a mod out there that does something similar. It’s also great for dealing with bug fixes provided by the community.
In the long term, we hope this means people will do awesome new things with the Minecraft engine and play around with it. We want to buy and/or license good mods and/or total conversions and sell them ourselves. It’s possible we might have a mod marketplace for selling and buying mods that fans have written, or we might purchase and integrate nice mods that fit the main theme of Minecraft.
[edit
Just to clear up two things:
The access cost won’t be prohibitively expensive, and if you make a good mod or something else based on the source code, it’s highly likely we will want to license it.)
He has since then not implemented Mod Support and briefly gone over the fact that it's still not implemented, even thou the community does more work in the world of MineCraft than his team does. Mod Support still not being implemented is the no1 reason I do not continue to play Minecraft. There are so many fantastic mods out there, but implementing them and then uninstalling them later becomes a big hassle. If there was proper mod support it would be fantastic. Notch has other concerns thou. From my understanding of it anyway. Notch is a start up man. More keen on his next project than his current. So hopefully he has hired the right staff to continue Minecraft in a good direction.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Just to be clear, developers (like Blizzard) are often on our side. They're gamers too and they know how things work. Many of these terrible decisions come from publishers (in the Blizzard example that would be Activision) and even then it's mostly from upper management.
Working in the corporate world has taught me that company officers can often be completely divorced from reality.
Switch what I said to publishers then. Either way the source of the problem isn't really something we can do anything about.
I don't actually have anything against Blizzard (though with shitty battle.net 2.0 and the story of SC2 so far they're well on their way), I was just continue to use his example rather than bothering to pick a new one.
Understood. I just think that we have a good reason to be throwing a tantrum right now, we shouldn't be throwing tantrums at the wrong people.
I can almost guarantee you that anything said by a developer is scripted and severely limited but their confidentiality agreements...(aka they have to say whatever they're told to say).
In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
As much as people think competition with Steam is a good thing, it certainly isn't good if it's coming from EA. I trust Valve and I don't trust EA. Looks like BF3 is going to be the first and last game I buy from Origin. Maybe even the last from EA.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Even if you do support the Indie developers, what then? The Indie ones which just eventually become the new Blizzard, and nothing will change. Money is what is corrupting the industry, those who have large amounts of money invested in the companies don't give a shit about you, they only care about the money, and unfortunately their influence holds a lot of weight.
The worst part is that at the end of the PC gaming road, we won't see developers become nicer and give us what we want, we'll see them just abort PC gaming all together for the much safer consoles.
Just to be clear, developers (like Blizzard) are often on our side. They're gamers too and they know how things work. Many of these terrible decisions come from publishers (in the Blizzard example that would be Activision) and even then it's mostly from upper management.
Working in the corporate world has taught me that company officers can often be completely divorced from reality.
blizzard sure as fuck wasnt on my side over the last few years
in summary, don't use the forums AT ALL. I wouldn't risk it, just don't post, don't even make a forum account if you don't have to (I wouldn't know, I barely own any EA games or any with origin). Seriously, I know EA is being a complete bitch about this but don't get involved if this doesn't personally concern you.
I hope EA shapes up, but then again I hope they go bankrupt because I've always hated EA.
WOW... I thought Blizzard had some unjustified bans sometimes... but this is crazy. It sounds like EA is treating their customers like their 8 year old kid. Like when you're 8 and you say, "shit," because you heard it from that farmer kid you know and they take away your SNES which you got for Christmas for a week... but EA is doing it permanently and you didn't actually say the word, you were just near the kid that said it. You may be thinking that the aforementioned scenario involving a SNES happened to me... you may be right.
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
I'm 95% certain that somewhere in that agreement we all press "I agree", there's a foot note about them having the power to revoke the game of anyone, and legally amputating your legs for science. They probably own your house ^_^
On December 06 2011 00:23 bonifaceviii wrote: You know, banning people in-game for shitty forum posts on the company's website doesn't seem like a bad idea in theory.
In practice, though, I'm sure it's a nightmare.
This is the reality of the situation imo.
The idea that trolls are punished in consequential ways gives me warm fuzz feelings. Just imagine if games like LoL (MobA games have notoriously bad communities) could effectively deter ALL trolling. Game after game of polite and reasonable team efforts... heaven.
I played Battlefield 3 for like two weeks after release. Super fun for a little while but severely lacks re-playability and thus bores me to tears. As for the rest of EA games on Origin... I'll just say that the quality of their forum moderation seems to follow the quality of their product evenhandedly.
As for the option of piracy that people bring up, I'm all for it. If the company is being unfair to the people who buy the games and support them, why support them?
What does everyone expect from the worst online gaming company in the world? I stopped buying EA games after CnC Red Alert 3 in 2008. Sequel to my child hood game and they ruined it. Not only that, but all of the CnC games under EA were terrible and the online support was something a child could do better.
It's not only this but they have a long list of fails *cough* MOH online.
A company that big shouldn't get away with what they have for so long and that's basically a slap in the face to online gamers. Their online support is atrocious and has been for a decade.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Two wrongs don't make a right. Doing something illegal just because someone's being a prick doesn't justify your illegal action.
Your legal choices are to buy the game or not buy it. There's nothing stopping you from just not buying the game. You don't have to play it; as you point out, you can buy some indie game or whatever.
BTW, there are no companies that are not controlled by money. Pro tip.
I got battlefield 3, because a friend of mine accidently bought two copies of it abroad for 20 bucks, each. I bought it from him, so that I can play coop with him. I got a freaking legal version of it and can play the game without a problem, except that I can't fucking play coop with him, because EA's servers will just disconnect us and close the game. And now they pull shit like this. If shareholders knew, they certainly wouldn't be happy.
The only games, that I don't regret buying are those from Blizzard, and some of steam.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Two wrongs don't make a right. Doing something illegal just because someone's being a prick doesn't justify your illegal action.
Your legal choices are to buy the game or not buy it. There's nothing stopping you from just not buying the game. You don't have to play it; as you point out, you can buy some indie game or whatever.
BTW, there are no companies that are not controlled by money. Pro tip.
You make a strong statement that "illegal" == "wrong". I wonder if there's anything illegal you've done that you've written off as ok because you justified it somehow?
This whole EA thing is pretty sickening. Looking forward to whatever resolution comes up. The Escapist thread on this also has some interesting back and forth between the original article's OP and someone who's looking like EA damage control. Fun stuff ^^
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
I'm 95% certain that somewhere in that agreement we all press "I agree", there's a foot note about them having the power to revoke the game of anyone, and legally amputating your legs for science. They probably own your house ^_^
but it cant be legal just to force the user to say i agree to anything they say in order to play the game you pay for O_O
I think a lot of people though aren't considering that Multiplayer isn't necessarily a right when you purchase the game. I'm sure the game itself (ie, singleplayer) is, but is MP? I'm sure the EULA mentions they have the right to remove your MP privileges (obviously it's a stupid mis-use in this case, but I'm responding to those claiming there is a legal issue here).
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
Great insight, and I think something like this (class action) can happen. There is definitely a possibility that the EULA terms that game companies make us sign can be unconstitutional.
For those that doubt this - in Australia, consumers are filing a class action against ANZ Bank on what they consider excessive late fees.
On December 06 2011 13:29 EvilTeletubby wrote: I think a lot of people though aren't considering that Multiplayer isn't necessarily a right when you purchase the game. I'm sure the game itself (ie, singleplayer) is, but is MP? I'm sure the EULA mentions they have the right to remove your MP privileges (obviously it's a stupid mis-use in this case, but I'm responding to those claiming there is a legal issue here).
But the EULA itself can be unconstitutional - a game company should not be able to take away your gaming rights because they feel like it.
EA is dumb but seriously who goes on these 'official' forums for companies/games anyways? It is always the same, just a massive shitfest with a bunch of little kids trolling and flaming eachother like theres no tomorrow.
This makes me so incredibly angry. What the fuck is EA thinking? ASGJASFAWGJKQ
I seriously hope there is a class action taken against EA. Goodbye free speech, EA is out to crush you.
I would, however, completely understand this action if it was because people were caught hacking. Swearing on the forums though is a complete and utter joke.
On December 06 2011 13:29 EvilTeletubby wrote: I think a lot of people though aren't considering that Multiplayer isn't necessarily a right when you purchase the game. I'm sure the game itself (ie, singleplayer) is, but is MP? I'm sure the EULA mentions they have the right to remove your MP privileges (obviously it's a stupid mis-use in this case, but I'm responding to those claiming there is a legal issue here).
People have a "right" to access everything that was advertised when they made the purchased by default. The only time companies should be able to take that away is when the player repetitively abuses other players or cheats. Anything marginal IMO shouldn't be bannable straight up (saying fuck you once because you are emotional and angry for a split second during a frustrating game shouldn't cost you access to your game). Of course there are exceptions e.g. racism where even one occurrence should be bannable but overall it should be something pretty extreme that gets you a ban and denies you something you paid for. The legal issue I guess is whether you can prove that EA is not sticking by their own EULA.
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
Great insight, and I think something like this (class action) can happen. There is definitely a possibility that the EULA terms that game companies make us sign can be unconstitutional.
For those that doubt this - in Australia, consumers are filing a class action against ANZ Bank on what they consider excessive late fees.
Mate, it's got nothing to do with the constitution. This is private contract law. But yes, depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, there may be cause for challenging an unreasonable term in the contract (but hard to say either way in this case).
And for all the people saying "they can't get us to agree to them having this power in exchange for paying for their game!". Yes they can, because you agreed to it, and when it comes to contracts, almost anything goes.
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
Great insight, and I think something like this (class action) can happen. There is definitely a possibility that the EULA terms that game companies make us sign can be unconstitutional.
For those that doubt this - in Australia, consumers are filing a class action against ANZ Bank on what they consider excessive late fees.
Mate, it's got nothing to do with the constitution. This is private contract law. But yes, depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, there may be cause for challenging an unreasonable term in the contract (but hard to say either way in this case).
And for all the people saying "they can't get us to agree to them having this power in exchange for paying for their game!". Yes they can, because you agreed to it, and when it comes to contracts, almost anything goes.
Well, the Australian ANZ bank customers agreed to their terms and conditions when using their services. However, the class action suit against the bank has been allowed to go ahead. Thus, it is shown that there are grounds to challenge unreasonable terms in a contract (whether in the constitution or wherever).
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Valve? Probably one of the biggest video game companies after EA/Activision and they generally do things that are good and awesome. I can't really think of any major grievance I have with Valve. They even created Steam, which while benefiting them greatly, works fantastic and the notion of me only having to buy a game once and I can download it at any point in the future is pretty fantastic. They're at least one example of a very large video game company that generates a lot of revenue and doesn't screw over their fanbase.
Money is important but so is keeping your consumer happy. The problem with gaming companies like EA and Activision is that they create policies that give them more control over their games and don't see a decrease in profits because most gamers don't care enough to stop buying their products. Just because an indie company gets big doesn't mean they'll adopt policies that punish the consumer.
I agree that it is a little draconian, but negative community members drive away other customers.
I believe there is an interview with Gabe Newell on the subject where he basically says he couldn't care less about obnoxious users. DOTA 2 has a feature where if you are obnoxious enough(either through game leaving or player feedback) it puts you in a ladder pool with other obnoxious people and leavers, while it rewards people with positive player feedback by putting them with non obnoxious people.
On December 06 2011 14:27 InvalidID wrote: I agree that it is a little draconian, but negative community members drive away other customers.
The problem is solved by having dedicated servers. There's some asshole being a troll? Who cares, you just ban him from your group's server. Before long people who want to have a good time without assholes will find the servers where those people get banned and people who want to run around and troll will find servers where that's allowed.
EA, Activision, and other companies however are trying to do away with that model because it gives them more control over their game and in their mind reduces piracy.
On December 06 2011 10:12 Belisarius wrote: In a strange way, I'm kind of excited to see this kind of thing going down. For the past five or so years, game publishers have been pushing a very thin and very important line where they, by the terms of their EULAs, can revoke players' access to games they've paid for, for no reason at all, and we've stood around and let it happen it on the understanding that they won't use that power.
Now that a major publisher is starting to go straight-up batshit insane and delete accounts left and right for not just suspicious but outright ridiculous reasons, I see an opportunity for some game-loving lawyer out there to kick them in the balls and take back our right to play the games we've paid for.
In fact, I'm anxiously waiting for someone to take EA's class action clause to the supreme court as unlawful - which I'm absolutely sure it must be - and then dismantle the rest of this absurd edifice.
Probably the most ironic thing is that the Gamers vs Origin Battle To End All Battles is going to have nothing to do with what players were most furious over at Origin's inception - its spyware component - but is in fact going to be fought over people's rights to use trollfaces as avatars on EA's own forum.
Great insight, and I think something like this (class action) can happen. There is definitely a possibility that the EULA terms that game companies make us sign can be unconstitutional.
For those that doubt this - in Australia, consumers are filing a class action against ANZ Bank on what they consider excessive late fees.
Mate, it's got nothing to do with the constitution. This is private contract law. But yes, depending on the jurisdiction and circumstances, there may be cause for challenging an unreasonable term in the contract (but hard to say either way in this case).
And for all the people saying "they can't get us to agree to them having this power in exchange for paying for their game!". Yes they can, because you agreed to it, and when it comes to contracts, almost anything goes.
Well, the Australian ANZ bank customers agreed to their terms and conditions when using their services. However, the class action suit against the bank has been allowed to go ahead. Thus, it is shown that there are grounds to challenge unreasonable terms in a contract (whether in the constitution or wherever).
Yep, I didn't disagree with you. Just clearing up that it's not constitutional law. Contract law has for quite a while allowed challenges to unreasonable contract terms. However, it's a pretty high threshold to meet, and as with all legal matters, it all depends heavily on the specific circumstances of the situation before you, and you can't really know the result until the court makes a finding years and millions of dollars later.
In any event, the truth is that some kind of class action or private individual going up against EA would be very unlikely, because it will take years to resolve in court and more money than anybody is probably willing to throw at it. Short of any regulatory body pursuing the issue (eg if there is an equivalent to the ACCC for the relevant jurisdiction under which the EULA is governed) it's pointless to argue about any legal action being taken. Legal avenues aren't always the most practical.
On December 06 2011 14:27 InvalidID wrote: I agree that it is a little draconian, but negative community members drive away other customers.
The problem is solved by having dedicated servers. There's some asshole being a troll? Who cares, you just ban him from your group's server. Before long people who want to have a good time without assholes will find the servers where those people get banned and people who want to run around and troll will find servers where that's allowed.
EA, Activision, and other companies however are trying to do away with it because it gives them more control over their game and in their mind reduces piracy.
Sure, but lets say you are a random person who buys a game from best buy. You wont know how to find some random community of well mannered people on some private server.
In fact I have a great example of this. A middle aged woman at my work decided to try Call of Duty on her daughters XBOX360. She said she enjoyed the game, despite it being the first game she had ever played, but that the people on it would constantly make obscene, vulgar, and mean comments at her over the voice chat. Granted we have come to expect that from our long term experience with online gaming, but the average Joe consumer just wants to play and have fun and not be accosted by profanities, when the fault is the matchmaker systems not their own.
That's exactly why you should usually avoid posting on official forums. Seriously, it's not like any government is going to aid you in getting your rights protected. It's the internet, be quiet and watch, you'll have your time to speak.
On December 06 2011 14:27 InvalidID wrote: I agree that it is a little draconian, but negative community members drive away other customers.
The problem is solved by having dedicated servers. There's some asshole being a troll? Who cares, you just ban him from your group's server. Before long people who want to have a good time without assholes will find the servers where those people get banned and people who want to run around and troll will find servers where that's allowed.
EA, Activision, and other companies however are trying to do away with it because it gives them more control over their game and in their mind reduces piracy.
Sure, but lets say you are a random person who buys a game from best buy. You wont know how to find some random community of well mannered people on some private server.
In fact I have a great example of this. A middle aged woman at my work decided to try Call of Duty on her daughters XBOX360. She said she enjoyed the game, despite it being the first game she had ever played, but that the people on it would constantly make obscene, vulgar, and mean comments at her over the voice chat. Granted we have come to expect that from our long term experience with online gaming, but the average Joe consumer just wants to play and have fun and not be accosted by profanities, when the fault is the matchmaker systems not their own.
The key word there is Xbox 360 where no dedicated servers exist. No real community exists.
If you play a PC FPS game with dedicated servers you can pick and choose who you play with and where you play. It's something that companies are starting to lose out on now that Activision is removing dedicated servers from virtually every game they release and with things like EA's new Origin system.
Matchmaking is a pretty shitty way to play video games because the consumer that doesn't want to hear obscene or racist things is forced to.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Valve? Probably one of the biggest video game companies after EA/Activision and they generally do things that are good and awesome. I can't really think of any major grievance I have with Valve. They even created Steam, which while benefiting them greatly, works fantastic and the notion of me only having to buy a game once and I can download it at any point in the future is pretty fantastic. They're at least one example of a very large video game company that generates a lot of revenue and doesn't screw over their fanbase.
Money is important but so is keeping your consumer happy. The problem with gaming companies like EA and Activision is that they create policies that give them more control over their games and don't see a decrease in profits because most gamers don't care enough to stop buying their products. Just because an indie company gets big doesn't mean they'll adopt policies that punish the consumer.
Valve killed CS:S (for me at least) when they did the big update which allowed people on macs to play it. It changed the game so much that I couldn't play it anymore. It also broke nearly every mod that had been created up until that point.
They're motivation? Money. Mac playerbase = untapped players = people buying that couldn't before = more money. Regardless of the fact that nearly everyone I know hated it when it was in beta (the best I saw were people going "meh"), they still went ahead with it anyways.
Granted Valve isn't anywhere nears EA's level, but the same rules still apply to them. All actions they do are for money, keeping their consumers happy (read: not pissed off) is just an easy way to ensure future sales.
I also never said that it was a certainty that they would treat their customers badly, just that there's really nothing stopping them.
Apart from EA's stupidity, I wonder why there is no EULA excerpts on box with the game - I mean how on earth I'm supposed to decide whether I want to support the company if I don't know how it'll treat me with license? It seems just wrong and deceiving.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Valve? Probably one of the biggest video game companies after EA/Activision and they generally do things that are good and awesome. I can't really think of any major grievance I have with Valve. They even created Steam, which while benefiting them greatly, works fantastic and the notion of me only having to buy a game once and I can download it at any point in the future is pretty fantastic. They're at least one example of a very large video game company that generates a lot of revenue and doesn't screw over their fanbase.
Money is important but so is keeping your consumer happy. The problem with gaming companies like EA and Activision is that they create policies that give them more control over their games and don't see a decrease in profits because most gamers don't care enough to stop buying their products. Just because an indie company gets big doesn't mean they'll adopt policies that punish the consumer.
Valve killed CS:S (for me at least) when they did the big update which allowed people on macs to play it. It changed the game so much that I couldn't play it anymore. It also broke nearly every mod that had been created up until that point.
They're motivation? Money. Mac playerbase = untapped players = people buying that couldn't before = more money. Regardless of the fact that nearly everyone I know hated it when it was in beta (the best I saw were people going "meh"), they still went ahead with it anyways.
Granted Valve isn't anywhere nears EA's level, but the same rules still apply to them. All actions they do are for money, keeping their consumers happy (read: not pissed off) is just an easy way to ensure future sales.
I also never said that it was a certainty that they would treat their customers badly, just that there's really nothing stopping them.
Really? You don't think they did that as a favor to mac users who want to be able to play CS? I bet they were getting e-mails from mac-users who wanted the game to be compatible with their OS.
This is ridiculously absurd. Honestly, everyone should boycott EA until this policy is lifted. Literally do not play a single EA game and do not go on the EA forums until this is changed. Self control bros!
On December 06 2011 00:28 strongandbig wrote: Tbh, this sounds like a bureaucratic failure. I can't imagine anyone in their right mind creating a policy like this on purpose. My guess is that somewhere in the giant EA corporate structure, someone heard about social networking and "Facebook integration" and decided to link the forum and Origin accounts without making a provision for one of those getting banned. Probably by now, no one thinks this policy is a good idea but there's probably a bunch of different corporate divisions each trying to avoid blame, so no one actually gets around to fixing it.
The random bans for no reason are bad, but nothing surprising from poorly moderated forums of a large company. It's the origin account bans that make this noteworthy.
This was on the first page and it seems like the most logical way to look at it. From what was said months ago by EA (but not repeated since then?) was that game bans were not supposed to be a part of the ban from the forums. It's likely that the whole ordeal was lost in piles of to-do lists. Huge oversight for EA regardless though.
That's what we get from DRM. It does not even matter what the offense is, but nowadays when you "buy" a computer game, your rights to use it are so severely limited, it is not even funny. The same basically goes for music and will entend to more and more pieces of software. I will throw in a not 100% fitting, but probably helpful analogy (true story).
Yesterday my daughter asked what the "Piratenpartei/Pirate Party" is about. Not so easy to explain discussions about copyright law to a 8 year old, so excuse some lack of accuracy; also I am no lawyer, but I know the basic difference between different rights and terms of use, but it does not matter in that regard I think:
When you buy a box of Crayons and some pieces of paper to draw a picture: do you belive the picture you made is yours? Well, certainly she does. When I buy a piece of Software - let's say MS Word - and I write a text with it: is that my text? Seems it currently is still. Let's say I buy SC2 and make a map with the editor it includes: is that map mine? No!? If I use swear words on a forum, that is provided by the same company I bought a game from, can they revoke my right to play the game I pay for? Yes!?
One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I don't see how EA expects to keep customers on their own platform when they do shit like this, especially given that many of their AAA titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age are also available on Steam.
Is it in their right to ban people from their Origin games based on Forum posts? Sure. Is it a smart move? Certainly not, when they're trying to break into the digital distribution sphere--stuff like this hurts their image when they're already not the leading brand name when it comes to digital distribution.
DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I deny that this is a problem of Origin. Steam does essentially the same thing. Valve might be handling it better, but that does not really make a difference in the general problem.
On December 06 2011 18:34 gruff wrote: DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
As above, I think that is not true. Everyone his own opinion, but for me, the distinction between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" is pointless, because the basic problem lies in the idea behind it, whether a company implements it more or less strict; more or less customer friendly is only a nuance.
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I deny that this is a problem of Origin. Steam does essentially the same thing. Valve might be handling it better, but that does not really make a difference in the general problem.
On December 06 2011 18:34 gruff wrote: DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
As above, I think that is not true. Everyone his own opinion, but for me, the distinction between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" is pointless, because the basic problem lies in the idea behind it, whether a company implements it more or less strict; more or less customer friendly is only a nuance.
There is a lot of things in the world that is a nuance but in the end something unavoidable. If you look at it from the company's pov then it's entirely understandable why they want drm or something equivellent. Are there better ways? Perhaps. But at the end of the day I can accept a well thought out drm that aren't too intrucive. Why shouldn't you make a distinction between a good or a bad one?
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I deny that this is a problem of Origin. Steam does essentially the same thing. Valve might be handling it better, but that does not really make a difference in the general problem.
On December 06 2011 18:34 gruff wrote: DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
As above, I think that is not true. Everyone his own opinion, but for me, the distinction between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" is pointless, because the basic problem lies in the idea behind it, whether a company implements it more or less strict; more or less customer friendly is only a nuance.
There is a lot of things in the world that is a nuance but in the end something unavoidable. If you look at it from the company's pov then it's entirely understandable why they want drm or something equivellent. Are there better ways? Perhaps. But at the end of the day I can accept a well thought out drm that aren't too intrucive. Why shouldn't you make a distinction between a good or a bad one?
Because the underlying principle is what is bad. To me is is not the question if a certain implementation harms me personally. It starts something that will harm me personally.
Anyways, you can probably have endless debates with different opinions about this; yours is just different from mine. What makes me wonder sometimes though, is that certain incidents (like this) get spotlighted, while others of the same kind go unnoticed or even get mostly positive response (like the current banning of bug abusers in WoW).
although I obviously don't have any inside intel, in my humble opinion EA could get sued - but not from you, but from retailers!; just think about it that way: you buy a car from person X; then you call person Y, who produced the car, an asshole without any provocation/explanation/whatsoever - does that give person Y the right to take the car away from you? most definitely not
the problem is, I have no idea how this would look like under US law, but such things would definitely not hold under Austrian Law; meaning, you could get your money back from amazon/whatever, because regardless of who the owner of the digital rights is, your contractual relationship is with the RETAILER - the person of whom you bought the product from is directly responsible that you can use it properly
people around here need to realize that you don't really have to start a lawsuit vs EA - it's 100% sufficient if you demand your money back from the company that sold you the product and provide as explanation that EA has shut you out, which means that you can't use the product any more; and suddenly it's not sleepingdog vs EA but amazon vs EA
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I deny that this is a problem of Origin. Steam does essentially the same thing. Valve might be handling it better, but that does not really make a difference in the general problem.
On December 06 2011 18:34 gruff wrote: DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
As above, I think that is not true. Everyone his own opinion, but for me, the distinction between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" is pointless, because the basic problem lies in the idea behind it, whether a company implements it more or less strict; more or less customer friendly is only a nuance.
There is a lot of things in the world that is a nuance but in the end something unavoidable. If you look at it from the company's pov then it's entirely understandable why they want drm or something equivellent. Are there better ways? Perhaps. But at the end of the day I can accept a well thought out drm that aren't too intrucive. Why shouldn't you make a distinction between a good or a bad one?
I think the basic idea is that the company and the customer should ideally have a mutually-beneficial relationship, rather than an adversarial one where the customers are basically the enemies of the company.
And here I was, considering for the first time in my life using Origin to buy swtor before release. That is in spite of the ridiculous early access extra fee that EA seemingly thought up for no reason at all. Well... guess what. Not much discussion about that anymore. EA can go play with their ridiculous attitude somewhere in cyber-vision-of-grandure-land.
Now the only remaining issue is that I stilll WANT to buy Swtor, but I can't do so without some of that coin going to the EA coffers. Damn you Bioware, for joining EA!
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Valve? Probably one of the biggest video game companies after EA/Activision and they generally do things that are good and awesome. I can't really think of any major grievance I have with Valve. They even created Steam, which while benefiting them greatly, works fantastic and the notion of me only having to buy a game once and I can download it at any point in the future is pretty fantastic. They're at least one example of a very large video game company that generates a lot of revenue and doesn't screw over their fanbase.
Money is important but so is keeping your consumer happy. The problem with gaming companies like EA and Activision is that they create policies that give them more control over their games and don't see a decrease in profits because most gamers don't care enough to stop buying their products. Just because an indie company gets big doesn't mean they'll adopt policies that punish the consumer.
Valve killed CS:S (for me at least) when they did the big update which allowed people on macs to play it. It changed the game so much that I couldn't play it anymore. It also broke nearly every mod that had been created up until that point.
They're motivation? Money. Mac playerbase = untapped players = people buying that couldn't before = more money. Regardless of the fact that nearly everyone I know hated it when it was in beta (the best I saw were people going "meh"), they still went ahead with it anyways.
Granted Valve isn't anywhere nears EA's level, but the same rules still apply to them. All actions they do are for money, keeping their consumers happy (read: not pissed off) is just an easy way to ensure future sales.
I also never said that it was a certainty that they would treat their customers badly, just that there's really nothing stopping them.
Really? You don't think they did that as a favor to mac users who want to be able to play CS? I bet they were getting e-mails from mac-users who wanted the game to be compatible with their OS.
A favor....
Um no. They did it for the extra player base, at the expense of their current one. My personally experience with how the game ended up aside, they still broke nearly every mod that had been created. If that's not a kick in the face to the existing community then I don't know what is.
I doubt they got emails from mac users, because up until recently it was pretty much just accepted that if you buy a mac you're not using it to play games on. Unless you have something to prove otherwise?
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I don't see how EA expects to keep customers on their own platform when they do shit like this, especially given that many of their AAA titles like Mass Effect and Dragon Age are also available on Steam.
Is it in their right to ban people from their Origin games based on Forum posts? Sure. Is it a smart move? Certainly not, when they're trying to break into the digital distribution sphere--stuff like this hurts their image when they're already not the leading brand name when it comes to digital distribution.
New EA games don't come out on Steam anymore. Battlefield 3, The Old Republic and Mass Effect 3 are good examples. Valve also pulled both Crysis 2 and Dragon Age 2 from Steam because those two games had DLC that was distributed via Direct2Drive instead of distributing their DLC through Steam.
So, I actually do understand EA wanting to create Origin. Right now Valve almost has a monopoly on PC games and EA wants a piece of the pie. I do agree that EA needs to be careful because I've only seen and heard horror stories about Origin and honestly since all they're offering are EA products right now I don't see myself getting it anytime soon.
On December 06 2011 06:40 overt wrote: The solution to all of this is to just not buy EA or Activision products. You're supporting the two companies that are ruining video games when you do.
If you boycott those companies (which would include not buying Blizzard games btw) you can actually hope for things to change. Like for Origin to be less shitty. For EA's customer service to be better. For Activision to stop being dicks to their employees and producing games like they're all Madden.
Boycotts work. Buying EA/Activision games and then bitching about lack of features and shitty customer service doesn't because they're still getting your money.
thats the problem in the game industry.
in a sense a company has the monopoly on a product. while in most other branches the products more or less do the same there is only ONE starcraft and only ONE assassins creed and only ONE Fifa etc. so boycotting a company(esp big publishers) shuts yourself out of products you might really want and have no alternative to.
names like that will sell no matter what. even if tomorrow came out that EA is extracting kids souls to power their servers people would still buy the next fifa.
also in todays grand global videogame industry you have a hard time getting noticed that way .
i mean i agree with you and as said in my previous post dont plan to buy EA games anytime soon. but i WILL buy hots and d3 even tho i hate much of what they done with sc2, hate activision, HATE kotick etc just because i need to have them and i cant get them from anyone else.
I understand why most people don't choose to boycott EA/Activision but those two companies are, imo, ruining the video game industry. If people want shit to change you have to actually do something rather than complain about it on reddit or TL and send angry emails. Most of the people bitching about Origin and EA will probably end up buying Mass Effect 3 regardless. Most of the people who are mad about Activision laying off the guys at Infinity Ward, not putting LAN in SC2, and all of the other shenanigans that they pull will still buy the new Call of Duty or StarCraft expansion.
You have to show companies that you're mad with your wallet not with your words.
The answer is easy if you ask me :p
Piracy
Just download the games you want to play but are being made by some douche company and pay for games from studios you like. Don't give money to Blizzard, give it to indie developers or other companies which are not controlled by money
Money is how businesses work, the only different between Indie developers and ones like Blizzard is that ones like Blizzard have the room to be an ass. If the Indie developer has even the smallest screw-up with how they treat their customers, no one will buy their product. The same can not be said for larger developers.
Valve? Probably one of the biggest video game companies after EA/Activision and they generally do things that are good and awesome. I can't really think of any major grievance I have with Valve. They even created Steam, which while benefiting them greatly, works fantastic and the notion of me only having to buy a game once and I can download it at any point in the future is pretty fantastic. They're at least one example of a very large video game company that generates a lot of revenue and doesn't screw over their fanbase.
Money is important but so is keeping your consumer happy. The problem with gaming companies like EA and Activision is that they create policies that give them more control over their games and don't see a decrease in profits because most gamers don't care enough to stop buying their products. Just because an indie company gets big doesn't mean they'll adopt policies that punish the consumer.
Valve killed CS:S (for me at least) when they did the big update which allowed people on macs to play it. It changed the game so much that I couldn't play it anymore. It also broke nearly every mod that had been created up until that point.
They're motivation? Money. Mac playerbase = untapped players = people buying that couldn't before = more money. Regardless of the fact that nearly everyone I know hated it when it was in beta (the best I saw were people going "meh"), they still went ahead with it anyways.
Granted Valve isn't anywhere nears EA's level, but the same rules still apply to them. All actions they do are for money, keeping their consumers happy (read: not pissed off) is just an easy way to ensure future sales.
I also never said that it was a certainty that they would treat their customers badly, just that there's really nothing stopping them.
Really? You don't think they did that as a favor to mac users who want to be able to play CS? I bet they were getting e-mails from mac-users who wanted the game to be compatible with their OS.
A favor....
Um no. They did it for the extra player base, at the expense of their current one. My personally experience with how the game ended up aside, they still broke nearly every mod that had been created. If that's not a kick in the face to the existing community then I don't know what is.
I doubt they got emails from mac users, because up until recently it was pretty much just accepted that if you buy a mac you're not using it to play games on. Unless you have something to prove otherwise?
Companies don't just do "favors" for no reason.
I was going to ignore your initial comment because I didn't think it was worth any time but I don't think a company allowing more people to play their game can really count as them being money grubbers who are screwing over their fans.
Yes, the Mac change broke mods for not just CS:S but for numerous other Source games like TF2 and Half-Life. I don't know about CS:S but for TF2 and Half-Life it took only a matter of weeks for virtually every mod to be repaired and fixed. I highly doubt Valve opened their Source code up to Mac users with the intention of breaking all mods ever made. Fun fact, Valve updates tend to break SourceMod and numerous other tools that are used for running TF2 and CS:S servers. I guess they're being assholes when they provide free updates to their games too?
I don't think you can fault them too much for opening their games up to Mac users. Yeah, they're trying to bring in new customers but they're allowing an entirely new section of the market to play their games. And I can understand where you're coming from a bit, when Valve made TF2 free I was a little annoyed because servers became filled with idiots who had no clue what they were doing and the game felt almost unplayable for a few months because of all the new players who were completely awful (seriously going 50:5 on most maps just isn't fun). But could I really fault Valve for doing something cool and making their game free to let new people try it out? Even if I could argue they only did it because they could now make tons of money with the MannCo store and so it was probably a smart business venture it was still an incredibly cool move by them to allow new people to get into their game.
I don't play CS:S but I would imagine that nearly every mod that used to exist probably still does. And if it doesn't then I would argue that's the fault of the community because every other Source game that I've played had their mods repaired after the Mac update.
Heh. Reminds me of how my friend broke a story on how the EULA for Origins originally gave EA permission to "search" through your computer. Probably just language legal thought it could sneak through to cover any loose ends rather than anything else but EA deserve the negativity associated with it.
I wouldn't say that Valve has a monopoly on PC games itself, but the platform for which PC games are delivered on. Even with that, it's still false considering that Blizzard's platform is extremely successful for its own library of games (even though Blizzard does not have a game management console program, just the one built into the website which is clever since web standards are universal across almost every OS platform. If only they could bring their games to Linux distributions).
On December 06 2011 07:39 Trashie wrote: I don't see a problem with banning people ingame aswell as forum, based on their forum behavior. If you act like a dick, just to be a dick, just because you can - you deserve it.. Deal with the consequences, dick.
EAs other practices? Horrible. Lets hope they die out soon.
Do you see a problem with EA banning people who were simply mentioned in someone else's posts?
Do you see a problem with them denying access to the single player game when they have said that forum bans would not affect Origin accounts?
Did you even read the OP?
Did you even read MY post, or are you being intentionally dense?
EA are absolute fucking pieces of shit that get away with WAY more than they have any right to. Games affiliated with EA tend to be released to market at an alpha stage of development, then after a few years of patching they develop it to beta. After the ridiculous BF2 saga, a game which was initially borderline unplayable, I vowed to not buy anything with the EA logo on it.
As it happened, I got BF3 for my birthday and to find that they expect people to put up with this Origin / Battlelogger bullshit is absolutely ridiculous. I can just hear the cogs turning in their planning phase 'hmm, everybody seems to like facebook. lets make a pointless game version of facebook. then maybe everybody will like the game'.
PS. I also heard that I guy on the EA forums got banned for saying 'badass'.
I just hope that they manage to offend enough people to cripple their business, cause they're heading that way.
On December 06 2011 18:29 TheYango wrote: One thing to keep in mind is that Origin is in direct competition with Steam.
I deny that this is a problem of Origin. Steam does essentially the same thing. Valve might be handling it better, but that does not really make a difference in the general problem.
On December 06 2011 18:34 gruff wrote: DRM doesn't have to be bad, it's the bad implemented ones that we have to revolt against. I remember buying a few songs maybe 2-3 years ago. It had some form of security that you had to activate it once to be able to listen to it. It worked fine right after I bought it but maybe half a year later I had to make a clean install of windows. When I then tried to play my music files you couldn't reactivate them as I had already did once as the service had ended or something like that. I ended up deleting them and pirated the songs instead. When you create drm's that severely hamper the use of the products you have bought I think it's time to reconsider your strategy.
As above, I think that is not true. Everyone his own opinion, but for me, the distinction between "good DRM" and "bad DRM" is pointless, because the basic problem lies in the idea behind it, whether a company implements it more or less strict; more or less customer friendly is only a nuance.
There is a lot of things in the world that is a nuance but in the end something unavoidable. If you look at it from the company's pov then it's entirely understandable why they want drm or something equivellent. Are there better ways? Perhaps. But at the end of the day I can accept a well thought out drm that aren't too intrucive. Why shouldn't you make a distinction between a good or a bad one?
Because the underlying principle is what is bad. To me is is not the question if a certain implementation harms me personally. It starts something that will harm me personally.
Anyways, you can probably have endless debates with different opinions about this; yours is just different from mine. What makes me wonder sometimes though, is that certain incidents (like this) get spotlighted, while others of the same kind go unnoticed or even get mostly positive response (like the current banning of bug abusers in WoW).
Even though this is a little off topic, what happened in WoW was just. Getting any level item by exploit discredits the game and the effort of the players. A 3-8 day "ban" hardly equates to EA's lifetime ban of all games.
Its completely ridiculous. I read this story earlier and couldn't believe it. I've already strayed away from EA after they implemented the used game fees for online games. (I don't like buying sports games at launch but enjoy a game or two online...)
I've never played an MMO but TOR looked like it'd be my first. (Star Wars games are my kryptonite.) However, in a game filled with PvP and such I don't want to risk getting banned because someone flames me or something stupid. Since it doesn't even have Singleplayer I think I'll hold off til this passes over.