EA bans ongoing + can ban non-Origin EA games

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_PixelNinja

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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.
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Full article at RPS.

The new alarming thing here is if you follow the link to Aaron's (one of the concerned) posts on The Escapist, you can see that he can't play Bad Company 2... A game that he doesn't even have on Origin, but Steam. It seems that EA has the possibility to ban via the EA account that many of their games use.
 
Don't use the forums. Problem solved.
 
CryingGod said:
Trolling and general bad behaviour having consequences? Who'da thunk.
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I do not understand how people --other than EA-- can think that behavior on a forum can and should warrant the removal of a product one payed for.

xIronCrossx said:
Don't use the forums. Problem solved.
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I disagree; while avoiding the forums at this time is the best advice one could take it does not resolve the problem of EA being able to deprive people from what they purchased. They should not be able to do that, even less game purchased though another platform.
 
I would like to hear some follow ups from people a couple of weeks after they were banned to see whether the EA support gave them back their accounts.

But either way, its moronic to remove games that people paid for from someone for their actions on a forum. Not even the government will take away your car for doing something wrong unless its something terrible or after multiple offences, and even then at least the offence was related to the punishment. What EA is doing is more akin to taking someone's car because they abused a police officer while walking around as a pedestrian, the punishment is unrelated to the crime, if it could be described as a crime at all. Not to mention in EAs case the punishment must be violating some sort of consumer protection laws at worst and at best is like spitting in the face of consumers (all consumers, not just the ones who have had their account banned).
 
i am still confused, people play EA games online and suddenly and without cause get their accounts banned? they crossed some line somewhere, broke the rules, violated the ToS they agreed to....in order for this to be true
 
Tudz said:
I would like to hear some follow ups from people a couple of weeks after they were banned to see whether the EA support gave them back their accounts.

But either way, its moronic to remove games that people paid for from someone for their actions on a forum. Not even the government will take away your car for doing something wrong unless its something terrible or after multiple offences, and even then at least the offence was related to the punishment. What EA is doing is more akin to taking someone's car because they abused a police officer while walking around as a pedestrian, the punishment is unrelated to the crime, if it could be described as a crime at all. Not to mention in EAs case the punishment must be violating some sort of consumer protection laws at worst and at best is like spitting in the face of consumers (all consumers, not just the ones who have had their account banned).
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Its worse than that. What there doing is the same as you buy a Ford Mustang, you go on the Ford website and call somebody a douchebag so Ford comes and takes your car! I can't see how there is a legal case for EA's sorry asses to by pulling this crap so I really hope they continue to piss people off and get slapped with a class action lawsuit.
 
old news people....OMG. EA has been blocking people out of their entire EA account for YEARS now if you do stupid shit in game, on forums, in their parking lots, etc.

if the game is tied to your EA account, you can be blocked from it any everything else regardless of where the game actually sits.

Again., they have been doing this since like 2008
 
MacLeod said:
Its worse than that. What there doing is the same as you buy a Ford Mustang, you go on the Ford website and call somebody a douchebag so Ford comes and takes your car! I can't see how there is a legal case for EA's sorry asses to by pulling this crap so I really hope they continue to piss people off and get slapped with a class action lawsuit.
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no, not the same. if you buy a real car, and walk into a ford dealership and act like a child and cause a scene and defame the company, you could find yourself being locked up and then sued, in which case they would get your car most certainly

i think it's pretty simple now that I understand the situation

buy a video game, play it according to the terms of service, thats it, if you decide to stand in a crowd and talk shit to people, expect that person to take offense and perhaps take action. just because kids can act like children in a video game forum doesn't mean they should
 
nobody_here said:
i am still confused, people play EA games online and suddenly and without cause get their accounts banned? they crossed some line somewhere, broke the rules, violated the ToS they agreed to....in order for this to be true
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Not to sound rude but did you read the article? The situation is clearly explained.
 
Bigbacon said:
old news people....OMG. EA has been blocking people out of their entire EA account for YEARS now if you do stupid shit in game, on forums, in their parking lots, etc.

if the game is tied to your EA account, you can be blocked from it any everything else regardless of where the game actually sits.

Again., they have been doing this since like 2008
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You, as many others, didn't read the article.


The guy did nothing, he was the target of a post, he was being cussed at, but the automated moderating program that EA uses on their forums is so badly programmed that he noticed a username INSIDE the post and banned that username >.<


Imagine now that someone makes a troll account, gets as many names as possible from the multiple ea forums with a crawler of some sort, and makes a cussing post while ctrl+v the names of the users inside the post... would totally make sense for everyone named in the post to get banned?


With all the money that EA has one would think that they could have paid for some half assed decent work and instead of an automated moderating program with the ability to perma ban people they would use one of the many word replacers around and just use it as a profanity filter, and sure if the filter is broken ban the person for 72Hs but come on, it is sad that even 4chan has word filters for years and they haven't figured them out...
 
I think about it a part of the night and I will remove all Origin stuf from my 3 pc. My 3 BF3 games was my last I purchase from EA. Too much is too much. They don't respect their customers and especially their privacy.
 
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DASHlT said:
On the steam forums, one of the Mods found this guys BAttlelog which holds the comments he put on the forums.

The guy was a troll and to me deserved the ban!

Battlelog is down, but here is his BF3 guy

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/user/MaximumTacos/

Wait and you will see....the guy is a douche and deserved the ban!

The steam thread about this. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2267612&page=3
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I've read all that and while I had doubts about the guy since the beginning it certainly does not warrant banning someone from accessing their legitimately purchased games.
 
_PixelNinja said:
I've read all that and while I had doubts about the guy since the beginning it certainly does not warrant banning someone from accessing their legitimately purchased games.
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Well I do think its OK.

You know how many times I wanted to ban someone on a COD server for swearing non-stop it gets old hearing trolls and shit.

Personally Im glad we have 1 less douche playing bf3
 
DASHlT said:
Well I do think its OK.

You know how many times I wanted to ban someone on a COD server for swearing non-stop it gets old hearing trolls and shit.

Personally Im glad we have 1 less douche playing bf3
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I know I won't change your mind but I strongly disagree.

If some is behaving in a unacceptable manner on a forum, ban them from the forum. If someone is behaving in an unacceptable manner on a server, kick them from the server. One should not affect the other and you should certainly not lose access to your game library. Besides that, while Aaron did get a warning the fist time around the second and final punishment came after someone quoted him on EAs forum. Also -- while we are focusing on Aaron here, this is also happening to other people.

This situation involves EA taking people's money then taking back their games. This is wrong.
 
_PixelNinja said:
I know I won't change your mind but I strongly disagree.

If some is behaving in a unacceptable manner on a forum, ban them from the forum. If someone is behaving in an unacceptable manner on a server, kick them from the server. One should not affect the other and you should certainly not lose access to your game library. Besides that, while Aaron did get a warning the fist time around the second and final punishment came after someone quoted him on EAs forum. Also -- while we are focusing on Aaron here, this is also happening to other people.

This situation involves EA taking people's money then taking back their games. This is wrong.
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Then you could say the samething about Blizzard.

Many people have been perma banned because of the language/harassment they do. This is no different.
 
I would say more often than not, people posting stupid crap in the forums are also being bothersome while being in-game as well.
 
Banning someone from accessing their games seems wrong to me, irrelevant of their behaviour.

If they're being an ass on the forums then ban them from the forums, this is a sufficient course of action to solve the problem, banning game use is excessive and unnecessary.
 
DASHlT said:
On the steam forums, one of the Mods found this guys BAttlelog which holds the comments he put on the forums.

The guy was a troll and to me deserved the ban!

Battlelog is down, but here is his BF3 guy

http://battlelog.battlefield.com/bf3/user/MaximumTacos/

Wait and you will see....the guy is a douche and deserved the ban!

The steam thread about this. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2267612&page=3
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It doesn't stop the fact that no, he didn't deserve the ban has the offending post wasnt written by him but instead was directed at him.

This is the same as saying "you were late a couple times to work, and now someone grabbed the boss's laptop and threw it at your head, that is it! YOU ARE FIRED!"

Sense? it makes none.
 
CryingGod said:
Trolling and general bad behaviour having consequences? Who'da thunk.
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doesnt matter. the guy bought the game with his hard earned cash. so what if he trolls a "forum" and has bad manners? it has nothing to do with the game. if he hacked the game and is cheating online then fair enough.

Only thing that should be a bannable offense in a forum is if he was some sort of racist kid being racist to people. THEN i would say that guy deserves his account banned for life and locked in jail
 
nobody_here said:
no, not the same. if you buy a real car, and walk into a ford dealership and act like a child and cause a scene and defame the company, you could find yourself being locked up and then sued, in which case they would get your car most certainly
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In the real world its a (hopefully) disinterested third part (the state) that locks you up and accords you due process before depriving you of property. EA, EULA aside, is basically practicing rule of strength insetad of rule of law.

nobody_here said:
buy a video game, play it according to the terms of service, thats it
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So you think that completely ambiguous terms of service in a EULA that was not agreed to at time of purchase is an acceptable reason to deprive a customer of property? Banning from forums or online play in the game the user abused should be the extent of the punishment. Locking a user out of all paid for games (some of which may have been sold with a differently worded EULA!!) including single player games for an unrelated offense is just wrong.
 
Renapd said:
I would say more often than not, people posting stupid crap in the forums are also being bothersome while being in-game as well.
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Then it shouldn't be hard to find a valid, legitimate reason to ban them in-game as well. But you need to actually make that effort.
 
DASHlT said:
Well I do think its OK...Personally Im glad we have 1 less douche playing bf3
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I don't just disagree with you, I think the idea that someone should have the game they paid for taken away for an utterly stupid. It feeds into this stupid bullshit idea that its some sort of fucking privilege for you to buy their game and you ability to play is purely at the whim of some arsehat person or program in control of forum bans.

Taking away what someone paid without returning their money is wrong, in any other form of life it would be stealing, but not in gaming where the publishers have your testicles firmly placed in their vice.

Someone is abusive on a forum, ban them from the forum... someone is an arse on a server, ban them from the server... its not rocket science people! Taking away the games they paid for should not even be an option, or if it is an option, they should get a full refund.

I fucking hate this bullshit attitude of it being as though its some sort of bloody privilege to give your money to a publisher. In any other form of retail it would be completely unacceptable and it should be unacceptable in gaming too.
nobody_here said:
no, not the same. if you buy a real car, and walk into a ford dealership and act like a child and cause a scene and defame the company, you could find yourself being locked up and then sued, in which case they would get your car most certainly
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Ummm, no?

It MIGHT get you sued, probably not, and even if they do, you will probably be sued for damages, not for them to take your car... that would be absurd. Ford isn't just gonna come along and take your car away, that would be STEALING, like what EA is doing. They could TRY and sue you to take your car, they probably won't succeed and they certainly wont just walk up and take your car that you paid good money to buy like EA is walking up and taking peoples games. And if it does get you locked up (which it might), it will get you locked up by the Police, not Ford... that would be kidnapping.
 
jonneymendoza said:
doesnt matter. the guy bought the game with his hard earned cash. so what if he trolls a "forum" and has bad manners? it has nothing to do with the game. if he hacked the game and is cheating online then fair enough.

Only thing that should be a bannable offense in a forum is if he was some sort of racist kid being racist to people. THEN i would say that guy deserves his account banned for life and locked in jail
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Seriously? Locked in jail for something said on an internet forum??? Are you sure that's a road you want to go down???
 
defiant007 said:
Blizzard bans people from their games based on forum posts? Source please.
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When you are banned in-game in Warcraft, you are banned from the forums also.

Even if its a temp ban (im a former 7 year player, I have been temp banned)

I have seen many posts about peoples friends getting banned from the game for what they said in the forums.

Shit happens
 
_PixelNinja said:
I do not understand how people --other than EA-- can think that behavior on a forum can and should warrant the removal of a product one payed for.


I disagree; while avoiding the forums at this time is the best advice one could take it does not resolve the problem of EA being able to deprive people from what they purchased. They should not be able to do that, even less game purchased though another platform.
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Because a lot of people are tired of all the retards out there who do stupid crap without fear of any real consequence.

To break down how they are related...

Buy game -> Go onto forum because game was bought -> say stupid crap on forum -> get banned from forum and game.
 
darkstarcow said:
Because a lot of people are tired of all the retards out there who do stupid crap without fear of any real consequence.

To break down how they are related...

Buy game -> Go onto forum because game was bought -> say stupid crap on forum -> get banned from forum and game.
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Ridiculous.
 
I have no issue with players being banned from a forum or even a game. Some of the infractions I have heard people getting banned for make zero sense.

This guy may be an complete idiot and might deserve the ban. Even if he does banning him from being able to play single player games he purchased is wrong.
 
darkstarcow said:
Because a lot of people are tired of all the retards out there who do stupid crap without fear of any real consequence.
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Ok, I agree.

To break down how they are related...

Buy game -> Go onto forum because game was bought -> say stupid crap on forum -> get banned from forum and game.
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I totally am not seeing the relation whatsoever. I can see getting banned off a forum. I can also see if you hack and cheat online and get caught getting banned off a server and even possibly some kind of blacklist or some such where you're temporarily banned from online or whatever...but that's about it at most.

I don't think you can even begin to make a case to back up your absurd statement, though, but I'd love to see you try. I doubt I'll see you again in this thread, though. ;)
 
DASHlT said:
When you are banned in-game in Warcraft, you are banned from the forums also.

Even if its a temp ban (im a former 7 year player, I have been temp banned)

I have seen many posts about peoples friends getting banned from the game for what they said in the forums.

Shit happens
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Unless they changed their policy lately, a forum ban doesn't transfer to your in game account. Knew a few players that earned bans on the WoW forums ;)
 
Who cares? I don't remember the last EA game I actually enjoyed. Let the losers sink themselves a little further.
 
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