Poll: Who is in the right here?

[Imat]

Not right to ban him from any games, no, but to completely squelch him would've been fine. Only well-behaved players get access to forums/in-game chatter.

 

[Ragnarok185]

Don't trust EA. EVER. EA had NO right to do this shit to anyone

 

[Savagezion]

You can think what you want of the legalities, disagree with me forever for all I care. But don't think everyone finds his comments as just a joke.

That is why I fear for this newer generation. The political correctness is reaching astounding levels. People never cease to amaze me at how much they can overreact to something. It seriously makes me think of the movie Demolition Man and those little fine dispensers everywhere. One day it will be illegal to cuss at all or illegal to not say "please" when asking for something because some people find it offensive instead of just impolite. Impolite doesn't even exist nowadays, now everything is either offensive or acceptable.

For instance, not once did I get upset over your comments. Hell, by the end I was cracking up. I was merely pointing out a fallacy I spotted. In case you forgot, I said I would do the same thing EA did. However, I would give him his account back in a couple weeks and claim "glitch" to save my butt from legal action.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Don't trust EA. EVER. EA had NO right to do this shit to anyone

Did you actually read what happened? It's not really like the guy was singled out or anything.

 

[targren]

And that, boys and girls, is why I will never buy a digital download (nor even a physical game disc) that requires some sort of publisher-account as part of its DRM, be it Origin, Steam, or GFWL.

And why I shall weep with all of manhood's tears, if my fears come to life and Torchlight II is using Steamworks DRM across the board.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

And that, boys and girls, is why I will never buy a digital download (nor even a physical game disc) that requires some sort of publisher-account as part of its DRM, be it Origin, Steam, or GFWL.

And why I shall weep with all of manhood's tears, if my fears come to life and Torchlight II is using Steamworks DRM across the board.

Not to diminish your point there, but it wasn't a digital download. He had a physical copy

 

[targren]

Not to diminish your point there, but it wasn't a digital download. He had a physical copy

Don't worry, it doesn't . It's still a case of corporate butthurt leading to widespread denied access of his rightfully purchased product. In his case, it was "just" the online portion (though, as I understand it, that's 99% of the value for Battlefield and CoD-type games) as opposed to any access.

Still, it does reinforce my decision since, while EA may be the scummiest of the scumbags that everyone loves to hate, Valve's ToC give them the ability to do the exact same thing.

I'm glad it happened now, though. I mean, it sucks for this guy, but I'll admit, some of the sales on Steam lately have had me starting to reconsider.

 

[OriginalLadders]

It's still his fault for breaking the ToS agreeing he agreed to knowing full well he could be banned from the forums, and subsiquently lose his EA account

That still doesn't make it not excessive.

If someone posted a bunch of nasty comments on Youtube and was banned (if only), it would be draconian to ban them from access to their associated Gmail account. Google may well be within their rights to do this, the hypothetical person may well have agreed to it in the terms of service, but that doesn't make it right or fair.

 

[DementedSheep]

He shouldn?t get off scot free but they should not be locking you out of the stuff you bought because of comments on a forum. They should only be banning you from commenting on the forum.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

It's still his fault for breaking the ToS agreeing he agreed to knowing full well he could be banned from the forums, and subsiquently lose his EA account

That still doesn't make it not excessive.

If someone posted a bunch of nasty comments on Youtube and was banned (if only), it would be draconian to ban them from access to their associated Gmail account.

That doesn't really fit there. Being banned from Youtube isn't the same since you don't have anything connected through Youtube like you would your EA or Origin account. If Youtube was the medium through which your gmail was connected, then sure it'd make sense.

 

[OriginalLadders]

That doesn't really fit there. Being banned from Youtube isn't the same since you don't have anything connected through Youtube like you would your EA or Origin account. If Youtube was the medium through which your gmail was connected, then sure it'd make sense.

You have to have a Gmail account associated to a Youtube account now, you can't access Youtube (other than to watch videos) otherwise.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

Not to diminish your point there, but it wasn't a digital download. He had a physical copy

Don't worry, it doesn't . It's still a case of corporate butthurt leading to widespread denied access of his rightfully purchased product. In his case, it was "just" the online portion (though, as I understand it, that's 99% of the value for Battlefield and CoD-type games) as opposed to any access.

Still, it does reinforce my decision since, while EA may be the scummiest of the scumbags that everyone loves to hate, Valve's ToC give them the ability to do the exact same thing.

I'm glad it happened now, though. I mean, it sucks for this guy, but I'll admit, some of the sales on Steam lately have had me starting to reconsider.

I'm surprised no one has brought up Valve or Steam yet, since I've heard literal horror stories about people who have lost their accounts with them over something like this and lost over hundreds of games with no notification at all, and their ToS is WAY worse than EA's. I just think Valve/Steam is much more conscientious about the account ban punishment than others.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

That doesn't really fit there. Being banned from Youtube isn't the same since you don't have anything connected through Youtube like you would your EA or Origin account. If Youtube was the medium through which your gmail was connected, then sure it'd make sense.

You have to have a Gmail account associated to a Youtube account now, you can't access Youtube (other than to watch videos) otherwise.

I don't have one attached to my Youtube account, and I'm watching Youtube videos literally right now.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

I like that the guys pointing out the terms of service as well as what he said are more or less ignored by anti-EA drivel.

 

[OriginalLadders]

I don't have one attached to my Youtube account, and I'm watching Youtube videos literally right now.

I'll have to take you word for it, because about a year ago Youtube wouldn't let me log in until I had associated a Gmail account, and whenever I try disassociating them it won't let me log back in until I have a Gmail account associated with it.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

He shouldn?t get off scot free but they should not be locking you out of the stuff you bought because of comments on a forum. They should only be banning you from commenting on the forum.

He wasn't banned from playing the game, his EA account was banned. He had his gamertag attached to his EA account, which he subsiquently lost for getting his second harassment infraction.

 

[Bat Vader]

He paid for the games. Being an asshole shouldn't exempt him from playing.
Way to abuse your powers EA.

Did he deserve to be banned from the forums? Absolutely. They were right to ban him from the forums. I am on the fence about him being banned from playing online. If he was harassing people on the forums. He may have also been harassing people online as well. I am not saying he did just that he may have. If it does turn out he was harassing people online as well than I think him being banned from playing online was fully warranted.

Hopefully the guy learns his lesson and stops harassing people.

 

[Ruwrak]

'tough luck' we call it.

Shouldn't have been a jerk to begin with.
Allthough EA is a bit odd for banning him from all games.
And if this was an isolated happening on -forums- I see no reason why he should be banned from online play.

So noone is right, and everyone has a point.

 

[Sud0_x]

OP

You guys may be interested in the following old post of mine:

http://games.slashdot.org/story/08/10/31/004213/EA-Forum-Ban-Will-Now-Mean-EA-Game-Ban
It seems this isn't the first time this sort of thing has come up, apparently it was a "mistake" and the "...information was incorrect" 3 years ago too.

This is in regards to an EA forum ban resulting in an EA community ban and locking people out of games.
Funny how this sort of "glitch" has just come to their attention after they denied it happening in the first place.

Unfortunately the original posts by EA staff have since been removed, it's still a bold faced lie. Nothing but damage control. Again.

Edit: Please take note, the article is dated 2008
Second edit: This article is EVEN BETTER [link]http://www.shacknews.com/article/55656/ea-not-banning-game-access[/link]


And within this article (also from 2008): http://www.shacknews.com/article/55647/ea-threatens-game-bans-for

"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." [Chris Faylor, 2008]

It is suggested that this type of thing had happened prior.

I dunno it's a tough one to call... are they really this bad at lying or are they truly that incompetent?

The escapist's own Andy Chalk has covered this at least twice in the past

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/87102-EA-Get-Banned-From-Forums-Lose-Your-Games
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.269975-No-Dragon-Age-2-for-Suspended-BioWare-Forumite-UPDATED

Seriously, guys, we shouldn't be surprised about these things.
Yes, I am of the opinion that this business is complete bullshit.
Edited for broken links.

 

[Jitters Caffeine]

'tough luck' we call it.

Shouldn't have been a jerk to begin with.
Allthough EA is a bit odd for banning him from all games.
And if this was an isolated happening on -forums- I see no reason why he should be banned from online play.

So noone is right, and everyone has a point.

They DIDN'T ban him from his games. They banned his EA account which he had connected to his gamertag, which in turn got him locked out of the online content of his games. He can still play them, just not access the online.