http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic ... /6459941/1

I don't know the ins and outs, because I don't play DAO or DAO II Or III or whatever or post on those board. But evidently, he said the develolpers (bioware) sold their soul to the "EA devil." and they suspended his account. Fine. I understand. Ban him from the message boards or whatever. But locking his game account? So he can't play the actual game? A game that he paid for? For something that he did unrelated to playing the game (i'm leaving them the out to ban his account if he hacks or cheats)?

God help us all if they eff bf3 up.

That is not even the beginning. RPS is now reporting on this, you may get banned out of the games if you are banned on the forums.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03 ... -of-games/

I have no problems with this. If someone can't respect EA's forums, they won't respect anyone or any server rules on public servers. One less person I have to ban from my server.

^^^^^I can't say I'm surprised in the least.

This is actually illegal in the EU and the US under consumer laws, you know, the ones that trump over any EULA's. I don't know if legal actions may come from this but I do know one thing, if it does happen we will finally see if EULAs are enforceable or not under the scrutiny of the courts. People defending this, people defending having games banned for forum posts, are truly very misguided to say the very least since they are actually defending something's that's illegal under US and EU law.

And yes, this is a Spore DRM type of event, and for the information of any curious, EA lost the 9 lawsuits launched against it because of the DRM. However I doubt anyone will press any legal action forward though truth be told it would be fun to see how enforceable EULA's really are when put into the ultimate test of a court of law.

Ban people on the forums for being an ass, sure. Forums aren't public so freedom of speech doesn't apply to them so ban them all for all I care. However banning games for forum behavior is wrong, is a very bad precedent and needs to be fought tooth and nail.

And people wonder why I root for indies.

So does this mean that it's illegal for EA to ban someone for cheating as well? Because they paid for the game and who is EA to tell them how to play a game that they bought? I could see where this whole line of thinking could go.


Please don't try and start conflicts where there are none. I am not defending it in my previous post. I just said that it doesn't bother me. If people are trouble makers on their forums, odds are they will be in my server as well.

I guess to some, it's to much to ask people to be respectful in public forums. Ya, I can see that.

Again, forum behavior is different than game behavior and you just proved that point. Game behavior is dealt a game punishment, that is correct. Hacking and cheating in game is dealt with the proper game punishment that everyone, from publishers to devs to gamers, agree on. There's no actual laws on this and in fact you'll find no laws on penal code anywhere about using hacking or wallhacks in a game as a simple user, it's different for those who makes those tools but if you are a regular gamer cheating the penal code has nothing on it. It's just a standard the whole community agreed on, cheaters have to be punished and banned, and I agree. Again, game behavior equals game punishment. Same for forums, you're an ass in the forums you get banned, simple. However crossing them over is wrong and what EA has done is actually illegal under EU consumer law and under US consumer law, the kind that the courts hold over any TOS or EULA which in real life actually have no real legal weight as some lawsuits set that precedent.

As for my line of thought, are you going to argue the law? Because I'm actually stating facts here, not assumptions, and you can actually browse the civil and penal law if you doubt me. There's no line of thought, what EA did is wrong, ethically and legally.

Punishing for forum offenses with forum sanctions is correct. Punishing for game offenses with game sanctions is correct. Punishing forum offenses with game sanctions is all kind of wrong, same with punishing game offenses with forum sanctions. And you don't assume just because someone is one way in the forums is the same in a game, that's backwards thinking right there.



Well, I didn't name you but if you feel prosecuted as you do enjoy playing the victim so often, hey, more power to you. Tell you what, since you are such a nice guy if I was running EA I would ban you from all EA games from your forum posts. What would you do? I'll bet you wouldn't be too happy, I'm sure, and your tune would change quickly.

There, a nice analogy for you to wrap your head around this problem EA has now created.

I know, some people can be so disrepectful online.





viewtopic.php?f=104&t=4242

Just so you know, when someone makes a post and then ends it with a , this is meant to be a joke.

LOL actually I kind of like the idea. I mean when I ran my clan, if you got banned from our forums you got banned from our server. Honestly its not a big jump to think that if someone is going to be a douche in the forums they're going to be that way in game.

It's interesting because I've heard a couple of devs talk recently about how douchebag gamers can really have a negative effect on the overall experience for other gamers. Sure we can argue, that's what admins are for but at the same time.....how many of us have come across bad admin....or a server where there really needed to be admin? I just think that on any platform there just aren't enough people out there willing to stand up and tell people to quite being blank.

Steam is another thing that has taken some steps in the area where if you get VAC banned for a game using source, you get banned from all games using the same engine. That doesn't prevent people from just making seperate accounts for games but it does act as a deterrent. I wish they'd take it a step further and ban people from using steam period if you get VAC banned, meaning you would lose all of your games in that account. F'ing hackers.