This might get a little interesting soon. There’s no question that Electronic Arts has a not-so-cuddly reputation at the moment. Most gamers scoff at the very mention of their name and hold hatred toward the way they do their business in the gaming universe. This collective distaste for the company may be about to skyrocket even further after a bit of controversy arose on a BioWare forum recently.
The facts seem a bit up in the air, but here’s the basic idea of what happened: a forum user named v_ware shared that his account had be suspended for “inappropriate content” but was unclear what exactly this meant and why. The suspension was to last 72 hours and would prevent him from being able to obtain the DLC included with Dragon Age II, the new title from BioWare he was anxious to play. But without causing a scene the user went out to grab his Signature Edition of the game and simply play the game as-is until his suspension was up. As fate would have it, however, he would soon discover that he needed to activate his new game, preventing him from even playing that.
So what pure evil did this forum user speak in order to prompt EA to lock down on him so hard that he wasn’t even able to play the game he had spent almost $70 on?
In a direct quote from an EA live chat, they told this forum user that he said, and I quote (no bullshit at all): “Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?”
How dare he say such a thing in a forum! No one on this planet could be THAT cruel to another human being, especially in a forum/comments section on the internet. It’s all peace, love, and butterflies online. Just disgusting!
OK — seriously EA, people spend less time in prison for a first-time DUI and you banish this person for saying THAT?! Have you ever even read the things people say online before? It gets much worse, I assure you.
When sharing this story under another name, a BioWare rep responded to the complaint as well, saying:
Please review the EA Community Terms of Service, particularly sections #9 and #11. There are two levels of enforcement here:
1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.
2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.
Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow.
If there are further questions or concerns, please send them to me via private message. Thank you.
End of line.
Take that as you will. All in all, this doesn’t shine a positive light on BioWare and it shines a downright dirty light on EA. People spend good money and a lot of it to play these games, and I’m pretty sure most people have the good benefit of being able to speak freely. There may be some details missing here, but if all is true as presented, EA is going to face the firing squad.
I for one don’t want to give anyone who thinks they can go on a power trip like this my business, and I’m sure many of you would agree. If you need to throw a temp punishment at someone for violating forum conduct rules, by all means, do what you need to do and throw some confetti in the air while you’re at it. But to not be able to take a grade school jab? Shame on you.
What do you guys think. Did EA react too harshly here, or do you feel they did what was right?
[Source: BioWare Forum via Game Informer]
that’s dumb. Sticks & stones…
Comment by BooBoo Giggle — March 11, 2011 @ 10:36 pm
This is ridiculous. He should file a lawsuit against them. For something he simply said online he now cannot play the game he PURCHASED outside of the forum? I don’t think the company should have that kind of authority. I think if anything it should’ve disabled multiplayer access for him for that duration but to prevent him from playing the game he owns? Outrageous.
Comment by Azrael — March 12, 2011 @ 6:23 am
I think most of the companies still underestimate the power of the individual Customer.
Or assume that we’ll get over poor Customer service and move on.
Here’s another one: my DC Universe Online main character got stuck in the game when a building materialized over his head. Happens. I reported the bug with the in-game system. Nothing. I tried again. Nothing. I contacted them through the forum’s Stuck report system. Nothing. I wrote about it on their forums. My post was NEVER published. This had been six weeks ago. I lost all interest in a potentially great game that not only shuts me down but also treats me like there’s no issue. Where to go from now? Obviously, I am cancelling the subscription and filing a snail mail letter of complaint. And then probably some “good” online press.
Comment by Anonymous — March 12, 2011 @ 10:16 am
EA Commie bastards!
Comment by Bobby Cooper — March 12, 2011 @ 11:50 am
Clear violation of freedom of speech
Comment by Cerealmonster1 — March 12, 2011 @ 10:02 am
To Hell with fucking EA. I bought Spore, and they wouldn’t let me use the DLC part of it because apparently my key was already registered. I had proof-of-purchase, everything. It took me three months to get a reply out of them, and it was some pathetic computer generated auto-response.
So it doesn’t surprise me that EA would do something like this. But while it’s not surprising, it’s way out of line of what a company should be allowed to do. EA’s marketing methods lately make me wonder too. The Dead Space 2 commercial for one. The ‘Sin to Win’ contest for Dante’s Inferno is another. I foresee harsh retribution on EA in the near future if this keeps up.
I for one, no longer buy any EA products. It’s sad, since some of my favorites are made by Bioware, which are part of EA. But I will not give my business to a company whose marketing and customer relations are this questionable.
Comment by M. Damian Mulligan — March 12, 2011 @ 5:37 pm
Why didn’t you just call them? I don’t condone what they did here if it is true, but I got great customer service from EA. You’ve got to call them. I bought Battlefield Bad Company 2 Ultimate Edition and had a code for part of the dlc that was never activated. Hence, it wouldn’t work. I called EA and no problem got a new code and they gave me a promo code good for $20 off anything I wanted from the EA Store. Call them!
Comment by Racer X — March 12, 2011 @ 1:02 pm
Happen to me too. Needless to say it was my first and last SoE game.
Comment by David — March 12, 2011 @ 7:03 pm
Oh EA..Didn’t you learn anything from the Ubisoft DRM controversies? These companies just keep pissing on our faces. Our paying faces.
EA is sad that Activision is getting all the bad press, they want some too; “Don’t forget about us!”
Comment by David — March 12, 2011 @ 7:05 pm
Uh, what? No it’s not. Firstly, private owned forums can set any rules they want…they’re private, not run by the government…to whom ‘freedom of speech’ is protecting from, just like you can’t go running into a grocery store and start shouting obscenities without expecting to get thrown out. Secondly, just because you’re free to say whatever you want doesn’t mean that you’re free of any consequences of what you say, just that you can’t be thrown in federal prison for stating your point of view.
Seriously, people need to stop throwing that ‘freedom of speech’ around on private forums just because person A said something that got them into trouble, whether or not it was deserved. Learn what it means before you go bellowing it around.
Comment by Duh — March 16, 2011 @ 8:05 am
I read the first few lines of this article and thought to myself “was this written in the year 2000?” anyone with even a modest interest in the games industry will tell you that EA has done much to rehabilitate their image in the past few years. Why do you think so many left Activision to partner up with EA? Get your facts in order dude. Plus I don’t know why people give out about publishers but still buy nearly any game they bring out. I for one have stopped buying Activision (a lot of hate directed at Activision :P) games after what they did to the Call of Duty series with MW2.
Comment by Poop Dogg — March 18, 2011 @ 5:50 pm
TBH. A lot of the forum users on Bioware should be banned for life with the insulting things they say to developers, most if not all undeserved.. Bunch of whiny bastards.
Comment by David R. Schmitt — April 5, 2011 @ 5:33 pm