Totalitarian EA Moderators

[MC]

Owners of Electronic Arts published titles such as Spore and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 may end up banned from playing their games if they get banned from any EA-moderated forum, according to this post from moderator eaapoc:

Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly reccommend people play nice and act mature.

Similar threats emerged earlier this year, when Spore forumites were threatened with bans for discussing the title's controversial DRM, though EA later stepped in to clarify that the threat stemmed from an "over-zealous community volunteer" and were "absolutely not true or in-line with EA's moderation policy."

"What if some moderator goes off on a power trip?" asked Shacker Pugnate, who tipped us off to the news. "Does he seriously have the right to block access to software you legally purchased?"

Faylor's Take: To reiterate my previous stance, I certainly sympathize with the plight of those that have been tasked with watching over a game's official forums. But I really can't believe that EA has allowed this to pop up once again.

Apart from scaring posters into submission and causing even more controversy, I can't think of one reason to even bring up the idea of removing a consumer's ability to play their $50 game because of a questionable forum violation.

I can understand removing a user's posting privileges--I'm sure this has already happened multiple times--but the idea that there aren't varying levels of privileges--ie, separate posting and game access--to these accounts is an obscene oversight.

The implications of preventing owners from playing the $50 game they legitimately bought because of something they posted on the forums are mind boggling, and I really, really can't see this policy flying once the press runs with it and the higher-ups are made aware.

Source: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55647

 

[Majin_You]

I'm thankful I've never posted on EA's forums (nor do I intend to do so). While that covers any chance of misconduct on a forum killing my right to use the software I purchased with my own money, I don't believe that even the more rambunctious members of their forums could justifiably have their right to use legitimately-obtained software taken away.

Oh, EA.

 

[Dokutayuu]

I'm thankful I've never posted on EA's forums (nor do I intend to do so). While that covers any chance of misconduct on a forum killing my right to use the software I purchased with my own money, I don't believe that even the more rambunctious members of their forums could justifiably have their right to use legitimately-obtained software taken away.

Oh, EA.

I personally never did bother to register my products with them or register to their boards, I thought it'd end up with spam email about stuff I don't want from them.

I do agree though that this is a little much. It's like taking your car if you swore whilst driving.

 

[Brosiris]

Are they trying to lose money?

 

[Zeonix]

Are they trying to lose money?

They feel they have far too much of it.

 

[sub]

Thats just silly

 

[Almighty_Gir]

er... haven't we done the same here with having peoples steam id's banned from esf games?

 

[sub]

I believe that was only done once with Devil. Maybe Kurt, too.

The difference is that Devil ruined the game for everyone else. Besides, ESF is free.

 

[Brosiris]

They feel they have far too much of it.

I hear the National Fire Phoenix Foundation Federation of France (NFPFFF) is currently accepting donations. EA is more than welcome to kindly send a few billion. It'd be for a good cause.

 

[MC]

Update: EA community manager eaapoc, the bloke who started this whole affair, has acknowledged that his initial threat was "inaccurate and a mistake on my part."

"If we suspend or ban you from the forums, that does not affect your in-game account and certainly it does not impact your in-game account for other games," reads a new post. "I had a misunderstanding with regards to our new upcoming forums and website and never meant to infer that if we ban or suspend you on the forums, you would be banned in-game as well. This is not correct, my mistake, my bad."

Original Story: A forum moderator's threat that gamers could be banned from playing all of their EA-published games, such as Spore and C&C: Red Alert 3, for improper forum behavior was the result of a "misunderstanding," Electronic Arts tells Shacknews.

Explained Electronic Arts:

Posting in EA Forums is enabled by an EA Nucleus account -- but access to the forums and access to the games are separate. Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games. Players can be banned if they breach the Terms of Service or Code of Conduct in a forum, game or service. Each forum, game and service is managed independently by customer support representatives responsible for that specific forum, game or service.

A similar threat emerged earlier this year, after a Spore moderator threatened to ban users from the game if they discussed the title's controversial DRM on its official forums. EA quickly responded, explaining that post was made by an "over-zealous community volunteer" and was "absolutely not true or in-line with EA's moderation policy."

Source: http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/55656

These "misunderstandings" are becoming a little frequent over there.

 

[Damaera]

I could've sworn I saw a post on the SPORE forums saying that if you got banned, your SPORE account would also get banned and you'd have to purchase the game again.

 

[sub]

I hear the National Fire Phoenix Foundation Federation of France (NFPFFF) is currently accepting donations. EA is more than welcome to kindly send a few billion. It'd be for a good cause.

The one and the same NFPFFF that this "Sub" fellow is on the board of directors for and will surely share in the decision of how some of the money is uh, appropriated to the proper causes?

 

[DiebytheSword]

ESF Hardcode bans are practically non-exsistant. We can do them, but they haven't been done besides a literal handful in the full 10 years this game has been around (Devil is not banned (His script no longer functions on ESF), Kurt and co are, if memory serves). It has become significantly easier to do it since steam came out.

As for the topic at hand, I think Novalogic has it right. You can have your account or characters suspended. Account suspensions will kill your ability to play the game, effectively invalidating your CD key. Character Suspensions kill one of your characters off, and make you start a new one. Forum bans are entirely seperate, and you won't lose any ability to play the game, even though login is tied all across novaworld.