BioWare bans guy for saying "I'm 12 and what is this"

[Eri]

"I'm 12 and what is this". If you don't know what that means, http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/im-twelve-years-old-and-what-is-this. Everybody back on the same page?

OK, so we can all have a laugh at this poor guy's expense when he was banned from Star Wars: Old Republic for using the line.

Posting "I'm 12 and what is this" in a forum thread, the user was "permanently suspended" from the game for violating its terms of service, specifically - and deliciously - the fact you have to be aged 13 and over to have an account.

What I find almost as funny is the name of the punishment handed out. A "Permanent suspension". There's, uh, no such thing. If it's permanent, it's not a suspension!

http://kotaku.com/5878669/bioware-bans-old-republic-player-for-using-internet-meme#

I don't know what's more fail, BioWare, or that he couldn't even say the meme correctly.

+1 for BioWare support for their outstanding situational handling.

 

[Scentless Apprentice]

Christ, you'd swear Bioware were fucking everything up on purpose, with the boneheaded mistakes they've made recently.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Eh, that's actually kinda funny. Douchebag user of douchebag meme cops the banhammer for violating the terms of service.

 

[Craorach]

Hilarious. Good job Bioware.

Idiot uses stupid Meme and gets banned because someone takes him literally, maybe he'll learn in future.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Hanlon's razor :
"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity"

I have my doubts...

 

[mad825]

I'm twelve years old and what is this?


*ducks and cover from mods*

seriously, I never knew about this meme until now. Perhaps they'll unban him when they relise how much of a stupid mistake that was?

 

[Scentless Apprentice]

Eh, that's actually kinda funny. Douchebag user of douchebag meme cops the banhammer for violating the terms of service.

How exactly do you know the user was a "douchebag"?

Hilarious. Good job Bioware.

Idiot uses stupid Meme and gets banned because someone takes him literally, maybe he'll learn in future.

Really, you think it's good that he was banned just for using a meme?

 

[Steppin Razor]

How exactly do you know the user was a "douchebag"?

His usage of that meme qualifies him as a douchebag.

 

[Scentless Apprentice]

How exactly do you know the user was a "douchebag"?

His usage of that meme qualifies him as a douchebag.

Wow. He said one completely harmless sentence and you decide he's a douchebag. Unbelievable.

[Really, you think it's good that he was banned just for using a meme?

He wasn't banned for using a meme. He used a meme and someone took what he said seriously.

the user was "permanently suspended" from the game for violating its terms of service, specifically - and deliciously - the fact you have to be aged 13 and over to have an account.

Understand now?

"Hilarious. Good job Bioware.

Idiot uses stupid Meme and gets banned because someone takes him literally, maybe he'll learn in future."

The guy I quoted seemed pretty happy that the user was banned after using a meme. I know why he was banned.

 

[Moriarty]

seeing as most of the accusations of inappropriate bannings from bioware turned out to be quite reasonable, I'm not willing to blindly rage at rumors until we see more about this. Too bad the thread doesn't seem to exist.

 

[Steppin Razor]

Wow. He said one completely harmless sentence and you decide he's a douchebag. Unbelievable.

The internet is not serious business all the time and it is possible that people may be making a joke.

 

[RJ 17]

Now if we could only we could start banning people for talking about slender wooden shafts with sharp metal tips and certain hinge joints found in the leg....

As for the topic at hand....I really do have to kinda laugh at this. BioWare isn't paid to keep up-to-date on the meme's going around the internet. If an account holder comes out and says "I'm 12, what is this?" then that's an admission of a ToS violation and thus BioWare is perfectly within its right to ban the guy.

This is definitely up there towards the top of "silliest reasons someone has ever been suspended indefinitely (which is the proper term for "permanently suspended")" list, but I mean come on...the guy DID say he was an age that was too young to have an account.

My call on this one: rampant stupidity on both sides.

 

[Carl The Manicorn]

d

I'm twelve years old and what is this?

Ninja'd

OT: That's funny and cruel. I can't belive that they did that. Wouldn't you think that they would be hip to memes? Meh, they are doctors, and doctors usually have a weird sense of humor.

Now if only people got banned for using "Arrow to the knee" jokes. As much as I love usuing that meme, people use it for the dumbest reasons.

"I used to do homework like you. Till I took an arrow to the knee."

Hardy har har.

 

[maddawg IAJI]

Now if we could only we could start banning people for talking about slender wooden shafts with sharp metal tips and certain hinge joints found in the leg....

As for the topic at hand....I really do have to kinda laugh at this. BioWare isn't paid to keep up-to-date on the meme's going around the internet. If an account holder comes out and says "I'm 12, what is this?" then that's an admission of a ToS violation and thus BioWare is perfectly within its right to ban the guy.

This is definitely up there towards the top of "silliest reasons someone has ever been suspended indefinitely (which is the proper term for "permanently suspended")" list, but I mean come on...the guy DID say he was an age that was too young to have an account.

My call on this one: rampant stupidity on both sides.

I wouldn't call it stupidity on Bioware's side. Its pretty standard for most sites to expect you to be at least 13 and if you said the exact same sentence here, you'd probably get banned (or a 365 day suspension at the least) as well.

People need to take responsibility for what they say.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

How exactly do you know the user was a "douchebag"?

There's as much evidence to support that he's a douchebag as there is to support that he was banned because Bioware is stupid/malicious. It's all just presumptions, and your presumptions will be decided by whatever your personal confirmation biases are.

If you have a pro Bioware bias, you're going to imagine this was maybe the umpteenth time this guy had a post flagged, and the mods finally lost their patience with him and jumped on an opportunity to suspend him. There have been innumerable accounts of people feigning rough treatment on forums, and a little digging has revealed they'd been instigating all along.

If you have an anti Bioware bias, you're going to say "Aha, this confirms what I've believed all along, EA and Bioware robble robble robble", and nod your head sagely, as if you'd uncovered the Ark of the Covenant, and not skimmed a Kotaku article without any attribution whatsoever.

The most likely scenario is that the mod in question didn't like the poster/meme in question, and decided to follow the letter of the law and suspend his account. This scenario allows for A) arrogance and stupidity on Bioware's part and B) the poster in question being a douchebag.

Because, really...have you been to TOR's forums? Douchebags are not in short supply. If I was a mod over there you'd get stories like this 500 times a day.

 

[Sovvolf]

My call on this one: rampant stupidity on both sides.

I can't even put stupidity on Biowares side. As you said, its not their job to keep up to date on current memes. I'd like to think I'm pretty internet savvy and I've never heard that one.
Bioware just did like it would be expected to do, from their point of view, some fellow just admitted he was underage to be on the site and banned him accordingly.

The stupidity goes to the fellow banned for assuming that the mods at Bioware would know that one meme and understand it was a joke.

You can't really call someone stupid for not having knowledge of something fairly specific such as that.

Though obviously, given how the internet is, Bioware will be the big bad guy.

 

[LetalisK]

Are we seriously giving Bioware shit because one of their community moderators wasn't aware of a fucking internet meme? Jesus Christ.

 

[RJ 17]

Now if we could only we could start banning people for talking about slender wooden shafts with sharp metal tips and certain hinge joints found in the leg....

As for the topic at hand....I really do have to kinda laugh at this. BioWare isn't paid to keep up-to-date on the meme's going around the internet. If an account holder comes out and says "I'm 12, what is this?" then that's an admission of a ToS violation and thus BioWare is perfectly within its right to ban the guy.

This is definitely up there towards the top of "silliest reasons someone has ever been suspended indefinitely (which is the proper term for "permanently suspended")" list, but I mean come on...the guy DID say he was an age that was too young to have an account.

My call on this one: rampant stupidity on both sides.

People need to take responsibility for what they say.

And that's exactly why I don't blame BioWare for doing what it did. Strictly speaking the guy admitted to breaking the ToS. However I'd imagine that BioWare could have checked to make sure that the account itself was set-up by an adult what with the credit card information and what-not. Unless it's against the ToS to let your child get on your account.