News EA forum ban blocks Dragon Age 2 player

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/03/11/ea-forum-ban-blocks-dragon-age-2-player/1

 

What a joke. Ban the guy from the forums, but dont stop him playing the game he paid for. Cheeky shits.

 

I'm sure they are covered up to their arses with small print allowing this but should that be allowed? Not for me - thats some seriously out of order control mechanism in place there.

 

yea surely he was banned from the forum. How did they ban him from playing his game? is it because of the online DRM check?


just to add to this, surely everyone has a right of free speach, ok if you break the forum rules you get banned. But if I said the same thing to my mate, face-to-face, it sounds like they would ban me from playing the game too.

 

A little OTT for the comment, but it's not a permanent ban, so not exactly a biggie.

 

hey if its in the terms and conditions of use, and we all know we read all the way through that!!!

Then i think good on EA/Bioware i would like my company to slagged off in my own forum.

 

Quite sad

The attempts to justify it are weak

 

I think Bioware/EA should have asked themselves 'Just because we could ban the guy, does that mean we should ban the guy?'

 

Out of curiosity...would I get banned for suggesting that it's sometimes hard not to get the impression that Harry Butler favours nVidia hardware over that from AMD?

 

Just because there are such things and terms and conditions. This doesnt give the company the right to put what the hell they want into them. The terms and conditions still has to abide by the law. So you cant say "by signing these terms and conditions, you agree to give us all the money you will ever earn in your life"
Those would be illegal. And I am sure given the right backing, many of these EA/bioware terms and conditions can be challenged in court and I have no doubt some of them will be classed as illegal.

 

How many times does this have to happen before major companies who pay big fat PR salaries realise that no one gives a flying proverbial about some guy on a forum unless they are a paying customer who you then treat like a criminal

 

**** that ****. If it wasn't for Mass Effect 3 i would never buy a Bioware game again in protest.

 

Its the principal of it dude. Why should they have the power to do that. If I buy a VW car, should VW be able to shut my engine off because I cut up their director at the lights? It would be cool...for them but its my car.

 

It's right there in the EULA, but how that would stand up in a court is up for debate - they stand on notoriously shaky legal ground so it's likely that if anyone did challenge EA in court then they would get that ban overturned. It's unlikely anyone will bother doing this though, so in all likelihood they will get away with this shameful behaviour.

That's not the point, and they've already stated that should the situation require it they can and will hand out permanent bans and deactivate accounts.

 

you know, this could make for a very interesting legal case.

The reason you get T&Cs before using software is that it's a requirement under US law.

It could be argued that if the forum contract, and the game contract are so intrinsically linked then that should be unequivocally stated in both, and if he's a minor then he may not have the capacity to interpret the two dense blocks of legalese required just to play a game.

I thought I'd check if it did actually state on the above on the bioware social network, and currently you can sign up without being provided with the contract you're signing up to - the ToS are presented in a shadowbox that just displays "Error loading content".

Looks like the onus is on Bioware to sort their act out

 

Apparently the rules concerning the banning of game accounts are linked to the EA community guidelines, not the Bioware social network:

 

Smell like rubbish to me. You can play DA2 without logging into the online community gubbins. Sounds like somebody got butthurt on a forum and now wants the world to hear them cry about it.

 

what a joke, seriously! what a ****ing joke... where the hell is the god damn regulations???????????
by letting EA commit such ****ed stupid bans cause the guy was right in what he was saying, ya know i bet there is more people out there who was thinking exaclty what he said!

Hate to say it tho guys, everyone who buys a EA game or anything to do with EA only fuels this pathetic sanctions!

 

The person concerned relogged as another user and admitted his comment was probably uncalled for and worth a FORUM ban. As a result the community started to post their suport when a bioware staff member jumped in - quoted the EULA/T&C's and locked the thread.

Imo it shouldn't be allowed, a forum ban is a forum ban and they should provide a mechanism to allow just that. Just because something is stated in a EULA or set of T's & C's doesn't necessarily make it fair or even legal and is open to challenge.

 

He can't activate it by the way...