Modding single player Mass Effect 3 bans you from Origin

[Guardian of Nekops]

This seems to be a case of Bioware punishing online cheating, being blown out of proportion to the point where people worry about them scouring their computer to detect any miniscule change.

Nothing to see here. Nobody's saying you can't scratch out portions of the book you bought and replace it with your own prose so it sounds better to you... it's all just paper/bits of data, and trying to regulate something like that would be insane and pointless. Unless you use programming skill to cheat in multiplayer, distribute the game for free, or modify their game into something slightly different that you intend to sell without giving them a cut, nobody's going to care.

And as long as nobody cares, it doesn't matter what the law or the EULA states, because nobody's going to bother enforcing it. Reminds me of the folks who worry about aliens or the government watching their every move, reading their thoughts or whatever... relax. That would be a LOT of work, even were it possible, and I guarantee that you the worrier are not that important to anybody with the ability.

 

[Robert Ewing]

CEO of EA.

"Hey, I know! Let's deliberately shorten the life of one of our flagship titles by making modding a bannable offence! And alienate a completely die-hard mass effect community that has done nothing but praise our efforts and is eager to expose the true untapped potential and replay value of the game! That'll get em' to buy more console units! God damn PC gamers, I hate them."

Seriously EA, just all of you jump off a building. Like, now. If you're reading this, end your life. Do it. Splatter you're warped and twisted remains on the pavement. Make sure your soul is blasted into the forming of the 8th circle of hell. The one especially for bullshit like Origin.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Bethesda: "Want to mod our games? Here's a toolset for you!"

Valve: "Want to mod our games? Here's a job for you!"

EA: "Want to mod our games? Here's a ban for you!"

 

[Raesvelg]

snip

snip

At this point I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to correct people's misplaced vitriol over this issue to is reply to each of them individually to tell them that if they'd bothered to actually click the link in the OP, they'd see that the ban only applies if you mod the game in order to cheat at multiplayer.

That's it.

The same thing that just about every multiplayer game in the world does.

 

[Guardian of Nekops]

snip

snip

At this point I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the only way to correct people's misplaced vitriol over this issue to is reply to each of them individually to tell them that if they'd bothered to actually click the link in the OP, they'd see that the ban only applies if you mod the game in order to cheat at multiplayer.

That's it.

The same thing that just about every multiplayer game in the world does.

Though, to be fair, the title of the original post is misleading, as is the text. It's rather odd to have a hyperlink in your post that seems in no way to support the rest of what you write.

 

[Raesvelg]

Though, to be fair, the title of the original post is misleading, as is the text. It's rather odd to have a hyperlink in your post that seems in no way to support the rest of what you write.

Oh, I understand the confusion, I just expect (mistakenly apparently) people to perform at least a token amount of investigation before they start foaming at the mouth.

When the OP was written, the point was, at least on the surface, valid. It took several days for the guy who made the off-the-cuff remark to clarify his statement, and by then I'm sure the internet hate machine was in full swing.

But it's just... silly, most of the time, when people work themselves into a lather over something that seems too ridiculous to be true, and it of course turns out not to be.

 

[Kathinka]

Guys what about this?

Spoiler: The irony:

I found this on moddb after reading this thread.

this is the best thing i have seen today. thank you. thank you so much.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

You have to be seriously mentally challenged to ban people for modding games. They make PC gamers buy the games and DLC just so they could support a company that does good by them. Would Bethesda be where it is now if their games weren't so heavily moddable? Would Valve be where it is? Fuck no. Counter Strike was created as a mod. Counter Strike made Valve famous. Counter Strike uplifted e-sports and companies that manufacture mouses, mousepads and gaming keyboards. After Counter Strike every major developer tried to recreate it's success, thus creating Battlefield and Call of Duty (among others). Big companies owe everything to the modding community! Treyarch went as far as to rip off gun-game which is a community mod for Counter Strike. God knows what modding community could come up with if Bioware released modding tools for ME3 and if DICE released modding tools for BF3. They could create new mods, new missions, new games. People would buy the core game just to be able to play awesome mods. EA could then adopt those mods as official mods and base games on them. That's what a good company does. That's what Valve did and look at them!

 

[Raesvelg]

You have to be seriously mentally challenged to ban people for modding games.

Good for you they're not going to. Click the link in the OP.

"As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

 

[Xangi]

You have to be seriously mentally challenged to ban people for modding games.

Good for you they're not going to. Click the link in the OP.

"As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

Read the last post, Origin bans anyone with modded SP files. Not surprising considering this is EA.

 

[Raesvelg]

Read the last post, Origin bans anyone with modded SP files. Not surprising considering this is EA.

I did. Did you?

Recently, at least?

"To clarify,

Scylla was
correct and I was correct. Scylla's answer was more broadly based in
that if you modify your SP and it has no game changing effects to
your/others multiplayer experience (say for example, granting you x
amount of credits or making a weapon x times more powerful) then there
is no problem with this. My answer was poorly worded and I apologize for
that - I was aiming to answer a couple questions I had received via PM
(the same two questions from many different users) as well as support
what Scylla said.

As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

 

[Double A]

You can write all over the books you buy, despite them not being your intellectual property. How are mods any different?

This is ludicrous. I am sorry but when I purchase a product from someone I expect to be able to do with it what I will within the confines of the law. EA can kindly go to hell.

Isn't that like telling a trout it can go jump in a lake?

 

[Xangi]

Read the last post, Origin bans anyone with modded SP files. Not surprising considering this is EA.

I did. Did you?

Recently, at least?

"To clarify,

Scylla was
correct and I was correct. Scylla's answer was more broadly based in
that if you modify your SP and it has no game changing effects to
your/others multiplayer experience (say for example, granting you x
amount of credits or making a weapon x times more powerful) then there
is no problem with this. My answer was poorly worded and I apologize for
that - I was aiming to answer a couple questions I had received via PM
(the same two questions from many different users) as well as support
what Scylla said.

As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

"To confirm, YES you will be banned if Origin picks up that you modified SP which it scans for on ME3 launch. Locked."

This is all I need, why are you even trying to defend this policy?

 

[Fappy]

You can write all over the books you buy, despite them not being your intellectual property. How are mods any different?

This is ludicrous. I am sorry but when I purchase a product from someone I expect to be able to do with it what I will within the confines of the law. EA can kindly go to hell.

Isn't that like telling a trout it can go jump in a lake?

Truer words have never been spoken.

 

[Raesvelg]

Read the last post, Origin bans anyone with modded SP files. Not surprising considering this is EA.

I did. Did you?

Recently, at least?

"To clarify,

Scylla was
correct and I was correct. Scylla's answer was more broadly based in
that if you modify your SP and it has no game changing effects to
your/others multiplayer experience (say for example, granting you x
amount of credits or making a weapon x times more powerful) then there
is no problem with this. My answer was poorly worded and I apologize for
that - I was aiming to answer a couple questions I had received via PM
(the same two questions from many different users) as well as support
what Scylla said.

As mentioned by Scylla, you will not be banned
for modifying your files *unless (and this is where my intention was)
they give you an unfair advantage in any multiplayer aspect of the
game."

"To confirm, YES you will be banned if Origin picks up that you modified SP which it scans for on ME3 launch. Locked."

This is all I need, why are you even trying to defend this policy?

He went back and clarified his statement to what I posted above.

I really don't know how much clearer I can make this.

 

[Skallagrimm]

Legality is nothing to do with morality.

It's clear why EA are punishing people who mod Mass Effect 3, it's control. They want control over the product because then they can just sell more of it, nobody makes stuff they might want to put into DLC that someone might have the brazen gall to make for the sake of oh, I don't know, making the game more enjoyable. Such selfishness for someone to make an enhancement to the game in their spare time without EA's permission, and going against EULAs..... Because those are the cornerstones of everything that society stands for obviously.

Seriously, who the hell can actually support this kind of thing, and above all, why? Hurts nobody, and only gives people more enjoyment. Bethesda and Valve have the right idea, EA are fast becoming a company I will actively deny money to.

 

[Raesvelg]

Seriously, who the hell can actually support this kind of thing, and above all, why? Hurts nobody, and only gives people more enjoyment. Bethesda and Valve have the right idea, EA are fast becoming a company I will actively deny money to.

Nobody has to support it, because it's not true.

http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/344/index/9917845/2#10648995

The post was updated, admittedly days after what was likely an off-the-cuff remark that ultimately sparked this thread.

The first rep to speak in the thread was correct; you'll only get banned if you mod the game to cheat in multiplayer. Which is pretty much the way it works with every damn multiplayer game there is anyway.

All this misplaced rage is eroding my faith in humanity and their ability to do things like, you know, read.

 

[Atmos Duality]

All this misplaced rage is eroding my faith in humanity and their ability to do things like, you know, read.

It's misplaced because they changed their statement AFTER the topic took off?
At least try to keep the misanthropic jabs in context and continuity if you must make them.

 

[Raesvelg]

All this misplaced rage is eroding my faith in humanity and their ability to do things like, you know, read.

It's misplaced because they changed their statement AFTER the topic took off?
At least try to keep the misanthropic jabs in context and continuity if you must make them.

Basically anyone who came in after post 449 (my own, I might add) and who didn't remark that this whole thing has basically been a tempest in a teapot is suffering from misplaced rage, yes.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Basically anyone who came in after post 449 (my own, I might add) and who didn't remark that this whole thing has basically been a tempest in a teapot is suffering from misplaced rage, yes.

Well, as long as we aren't slamming anyone out of order...
Carry on with your contempt for humanity. ^_^