So, these past few weeks I've been active on BioWare forums with the release of DA2, and well this happened today.
User was banned for calling BioWare/EA out on DA2. Now granted he was rude/obnoxious, BioWare/EA called down the banhammer and banned said user not just from forums but from his bought games also (since he registered them on the account).
he got suspended for 72 hours. Just go outside and come back later.
Did you read it through all the way?
Now, those are the words I said, you can't argue with that. I'm not going to try and sugarcoat that, let me just say in my defense, I have always been a pretty reasonable person on this forum. So I agree that you guys suspended my account from the forums for 72 hours. Btw, this is the first time I got suspended.
What I don't agree with is that I can't activate my new DA2 game.
This is the deal. I just got my Bioware Signature Edition from the store. I allready knew I was going to play it without the extra content since I can't activate my extra codes. What I did not know was that I needed to activate the game before being abble to play it. So now I've got a dead game for 50 euros. Pity.
So for your consideration. Please let someone who payed for his game at least play it.
With DA2's DRM a player must activate their game via online to play it. Due to the player's actions EA/BioWare has suspended the player's purchased game from being played AKA a dead game.
Granted, I think he may be able to play after the 72 hours are up, but this is still pretty harsh.
The account was suspended, yeah, so he couldn't access it for anything. Harsh, but that's how they roll. Had it happened a week before Dragon Age 2 release, he wouldn't bother. The games can be played without issues after the activation, banned or not.
But he could always make another account, play the demo again (to unlock the items) and then activate his game there to play. Problem solved ^^
*edit*
This was posted by a Bioware representative in that same post and is quite interesting how customers don't read the terms of use and rant about being punished:
Please review the EA Community Terms of Service, particularly sections #9 and #11. There are two levels of enforcement here:
1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.
2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.
Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow.
A developer should never, ever have such a thing as the right to shut you off access to your game no matter what. They can cut you off from a Master Server for online play but thats it. Such control should be illegal regardless of whatever pathetic agreements that nobody read has been signed.
And then people blame pirating when they have such ridiculous control over us in "legal manners". Just because pirating is illegal doesn't mean its wrong. And just because this is legal doesn't mean its right. Hope anyone that suffers such a fate decides to pirate every god damn EA games they want.
That's like buying a book and someone saying you can't read it cause you spoke out against the publisher. This is really retarded. Hopefully he gets every penny back.
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Not even Death will save you from Diablo Bunny's Cuteness!
Just because its in the fucking agreement doesn't make it right.
What gives people the right to sell you things and take it from you? No, I bought the game, I can use it whenever I want, don't fucking care what the agreement says.
Not like a book? YES, IT IS. I bought it, I can use it. Anything else is absolutely DISGUSTING. This isn't a god damn weapon. Me using it is purely personal and doesn't affect other people, yet THEY think they can allow themselves to remove our rights to use it.
No, thats absolutely fucking wrong. And yes, I'm mad.
Just because its in the fucking agreement doesn't make it right.
What gives people the right to sell you things and take it from you? No, I bought the game, I can use it whenever I want, don't fucking care what the agreement says.
Not like a book? YES, IT IS. I bought it, I can use it. Anything else is absolutely DISGUSTING. This isn't a god damn weapon. Me using it is purely personal and doesn't affect other people, yet THEY think they can allow themselves to remove our rights to use it.
No, thats absolutely fucking wrong. And yes, I'm mad.
I'm gonna agree with you. That's messed up.
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"I want to say something but I'll keep it to myself I guess and leave this useless post behind to make you aware that there WAS something... "
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
That's pretty much the reality of the situation i think.
We get the right to use the product and that's about where our rights end. When we press "agree to the terms of use" we give up every other right, that's why it works legally.
I must be one of the few people that sat down and read every word of the WoW licence agreement. Not what you'd say a fun read, but definitely interesting to see the limitations you have as a user and customer.
17.9 Force Majeure. Blizzard shall not be liable for any delay or failure to perform resulting from causes outside the reasonable control of Blizzard, including without limitation any failure to perform hereunder due to unforeseen circumstances or cause beyond Blizzard's control such as acts of God, war, terrorism, riots, embargoes, acts of civil or military authorities, fire, floods, accidents, strikes, or shortages of transportation facilities, fuel, energy, labor or materials.
I guess i'm not the only one then, lol!
That part is indeed funny and kind of my favorite aswell.
A developer should never, ever have such a thing as the right to shut you off access to your game no matter what. They can cut you off from a Master Server for online play but thats it. Such control should be illegal regardless of whatever pathetic agreements that nobody read has been signed.
And then people blame pirating when they have such ridiculous control over us in "legal manners". Just because pirating is illegal doesn't mean its wrong. And just because this is legal doesn't mean its right. Hope anyone that suffers such a fate decides to pirate every god damn EA games they want.
You signed their contract - You piss them off where your account can be identified and you will get banned.
I thought this was common sense.. At least for gamers who have ever heard of Steam or Blizzard.
You use hacks you get banned. You use bots you will get banned.. Why should insulting the software company be any different? Especially on the official forums.. Not to mention that he _knew_ he had to activate his game on the website before he had to play it..
I'm all for criticism.. But if you criticize someone who can (and will) legally take something away from you then at least use humble constructive criticism..
this is why i dont sign anything without my solicitor...Lol jk
apple has a term that states you may not use their products (iPod) to perform terrorist acts or something similar
as for the ban, he got big vs. EA, who we all know are terrible people, and he got sat the fck down. next time he'll keep his mouth shut. its 72 hours, the game isnt 'dead,' just take a break go play it later. I think i might be the only one who understands what Don is saying. he signed the agreement, and he broke the rule.
its horrible stuff and id hate to get banned over an opinion or joke, but we all know mods are sometimes idiots who are ban happy - in this case one of the forums own users reported his post. so dont criticise EA right away, it seems like some forum mod checked his rulebook and interpreted it in which the words to be too offensive and decided it was worth a ban. theres no use crying because mods are like referees, they wont admit to mistakes unless they are blatantly obvious and under a mountain of proof.
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Remember the String of Ears
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
You signed their contract - You piss them off where your account can be identified and you will get banned.
I thought this was common sense.. At least for gamers who have ever heard of Steam or Blizzard.
Even Steam never had the audacity to remove access to your game. Cutting access to the Master Server (and in Steam case, VAC server) is fine because its a service. And thats exactly what Steam does, they cut you off from online play.
But even if they probably have the same rights to stop you from playing your games, they don't.
Point is yes, we have been getting "banned" from our games since forever, but not completely.
Of course, the real problem is not that this has happened, the problem is they have too much rights over us and that has been so for a long time. I've just never seen any company use this power in such a way until now.
You signed their contract - You piss them off where your account can be identified and you will get banned.
I thought this was common sense.. At least for gamers who have ever heard of Steam or Blizzard.
Even Steam never had the audacity to remove access to your game. Cutting access to the Master Server (and in Steam case, VAC server) is fine because its a service. And thats exactly what Steam does, they cut you off from online play.
But even if they probably have the same rights to stop you from playing your games, they don't.
Point is yes, we have been getting "banned" from our games since forever, but not completely.
Of course, the real problem is not that this has happened, the problem is they have too much rights over us and that has been so for a long time. I've just never seen any company use this power in such a way until now.
You can always play the games you activated, you just can't log in to the servers (thus, not update the account with current achievements, screenshots etc). That's no big deal.
The big deal for him is that he got banned and can't access the account to activate Dragon Age 2. It's not that he has a dead game. He just has to wait a few days till he can do that again.
Blizzard is just as harsh. Remember how many CD-Keys for Diablo II and Starcraft were banned and can't use battle.net? That's the same deal. It can get even worse with WoW. Except for the suspensions of your account that can be for just a few days (note, days you've already pre-paid to get access to the game - and there's no single player to have fun with, while waiting) or even a lifetime ban (that can affect your entire battle.net account).
Ok, the reason they banned him may be ridiculous, but the thing is that as long as they have the legal rights to do so, there's no point in whining about it.
Point is yes, we have been getting "banned" from our games since forever, but not completely.
Regardless of who is in the legal right or wrong here, the issue at hand is that out-of-game activities got him shut out the game. Usually people are only banned from games for cheating or harassing people in-game, but not for behaving improperly out-of-game. And while we can argue the severity of the issue here, seeing as it was not permanent but 72h, the fact remains that this is not employed by anyone else. At least not that I know of, which also helps explain his surprise and anger at this sudden ban. Whether he agreed to it or not.
Ok, the reason they banned him may be ridiculous, but the thing is that as long as they have the legal rights to do so, there's no point in whining about it.
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
Point is yes, we have been getting "banned" from our games since forever, but not completely.
Regardless of who is in the legal right or wrong here, the issue at hand is that out-of-game activities got him shut out the game. Usually people are only banned from games for cheating or harassing people in-game, but not for behaving improperly out-of-game. And while we can argue the severity of the issue here, seeing as it was not permanent but 72h, the fact remains that this is not employed by anyone else. At least not that I know of, which also helps explain his surprise and anger at this sudden ban. Whether he agreed to it or not.
So it's not ok to harass/insult other community members but it's ok to harass/insult developers/shareholders?
And from what i understood, he could still play the games he activated, just not log in to his gamer profile (like playing solo Xbox 360 games but being banned from XboxLive - that i think also happens quite often). The issue was that he couldn't activate his Dragon Age 2 game cause his account was temp banned.
Ok, the reason they banned him may be ridiculous, but the thing is that as long as they have the legal rights to do so, there's no point in whining about it.
Whining? No. Complaining? Hell yeah.
Complaining would be if he mailed the people that banned him to see if it would be lifted. Posting threads in the forums trying to get attention looks more like whining to me.
You mean, emails and messages that are never heard?
EA doesn't listen to you. Sometimes, you have to make people react. In my eyes, its extremely important to make a part of the community react negatively to an unacceptable action. That is our only way to make them think twice about what they do.
So it's not ok to harass/insult other community members but it's ok to harass/insult developers/shareholders?
The relationship between two community members is different from that between a customer and the company. I just don't see why EA would even want to do this.
It doesn't say where his comment came from, but let's assume it was posted in the forum. Why was he banned from activating his games because of that?
Complaining would be if he mailed the people that banned him to see if it would be lifted. Posting threads in the forums trying to get attention looks more like whining to me.
He did ask them though. The post is far from whining in my opinion. It's coherent, constructive, non-offensive. He's just saying "this doesn't seem right. Just wanted you to know that".
PlugY for Diablo II allows you to reset skills and stats, transfer items between characters in singleplayer, obtain all ladder runewords and do all Uberquests while offline. It is the only way to do all of the above. Please use it.
Supporting big shoulderpads and flashy armor since 2004.
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So, these past few weeks I've been active on BioWare forums with the release of DA2, and well this happened today.
User was banned for calling BioWare/EA out on DA2. Now granted he was rude/obnoxious, BioWare/EA called down the banhammer and banned said user not just from forums but from his bought games also (since he registered them on the account).
This is just... flabbergasting to me.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
Did you read it through all the way?
With DA2's DRM a player must activate their game via online to play it. Due to the player's actions EA/BioWare has suspended the player's purchased game from being played AKA a dead game.
Granted, I think he may be able to play after the 72 hours are up, but this is still pretty harsh.
But he could always make another account, play the demo again (to unlock the items) and then activate his game there to play. Problem solved ^^
*edit*
This was posted by a Bioware representative in that same post and is quite interesting how customers don't read the terms of use and rant about being punished:
And then people blame pirating when they have such ridiculous control over us in "legal manners". Just because pirating is illegal doesn't mean its wrong. And just because this is legal doesn't mean its right. Hope anyone that suffers such a fate decides to pirate every god damn EA games they want.
Just because its in the fucking agreement doesn't make it right.
What gives people the right to sell you things and take it from you? No, I bought the game, I can use it whenever I want, don't fucking care what the agreement says.
Not like a book? YES, IT IS. I bought it, I can use it. Anything else is absolutely DISGUSTING. This isn't a god damn weapon. Me using it is purely personal and doesn't affect other people, yet THEY think they can allow themselves to remove our rights to use it.
No, thats absolutely fucking wrong. And yes, I'm mad.
I'm gonna agree with you. That's messed up.
-Equinox
"We're like the downtown of the Diablo related internet lol"
-Winged
But it is "legally right".
That's pretty much the reality of the situation i think.
We get the right to use the product and that's about where our rights end. When we press "agree to the terms of use" we give up every other right, that's why it works legally.
I must be one of the few people that sat down and read every word of the WoW licence agreement. Not what you'd say a fun read, but definitely interesting to see the limitations you have as a user and customer.
Oh well...
I guess i'm not the only one then, lol!
That part is indeed funny and kind of my favorite aswell.
Amen! Amen!
I thought this was common sense.. At least for gamers who have ever heard of Steam or Blizzard.
You use hacks you get banned. You use bots you will get banned.. Why should insulting the software company be any different? Especially on the official forums.. Not to mention that he _knew_ he had to activate his game on the website before he had to play it..
I'm all for criticism.. But if you criticize someone who can (and will) legally take something away from you then at least use humble constructive criticism..
apple has a term that states you may not use their products (iPod) to perform terrorist acts or something similar
as for the ban, he got big vs. EA, who we all know are terrible people, and he got sat the fck down. next time he'll keep his mouth shut. its 72 hours, the game isnt 'dead,' just take a break go play it later. I think i might be the only one who understands what Don is saying. he signed the agreement, and he broke the rule.
its horrible stuff and id hate to get banned over an opinion or joke, but we all know mods are sometimes idiots who are ban happy - in this case one of the forums own users reported his post. so dont criticise EA right away, it seems like some forum mod checked his rulebook and interpreted it in which the words to be too offensive and decided it was worth a ban. theres no use crying because mods are like referees, they wont admit to mistakes unless they are blatantly obvious and under a mountain of proof.
"to the worm in horseradish, the world is horseradish."
Even Steam never had the audacity to remove access to your game. Cutting access to the Master Server (and in Steam case, VAC server) is fine because its a service. And thats exactly what Steam does, they cut you off from online play.
But even if they probably have the same rights to stop you from playing your games, they don't.
Point is yes, we have been getting "banned" from our games since forever, but not completely.
Of course, the real problem is not that this has happened, the problem is they have too much rights over us and that has been so for a long time. I've just never seen any company use this power in such a way until now.
You can always play the games you activated, you just can't log in to the servers (thus, not update the account with current achievements, screenshots etc). That's no big deal.
The big deal for him is that he got banned and can't access the account to activate Dragon Age 2. It's not that he has a dead game. He just has to wait a few days till he can do that again.
Blizzard is just as harsh. Remember how many CD-Keys for Diablo II and Starcraft were banned and can't use battle.net? That's the same deal. It can get even worse with WoW. Except for the suspensions of your account that can be for just a few days (note, days you've already pre-paid to get access to the game - and there's no single player to have fun with, while waiting) or even a lifetime ban (that can affect your entire battle.net account).
Ok, the reason they banned him may be ridiculous, but the thing is that as long as they have the legal rights to do so, there's no point in whining about it.
Whining? No. Complaining? Hell yeah.
So it's not ok to harass/insult other community members but it's ok to harass/insult developers/shareholders?
And from what i understood, he could still play the games he activated, just not log in to his gamer profile (like playing solo Xbox 360 games but being banned from XboxLive - that i think also happens quite often). The issue was that he couldn't activate his Dragon Age 2 game cause his account was temp banned.
Complaining would be if he mailed the people that banned him to see if it would be lifted. Posting threads in the forums trying to get attention looks more like whining to me.
EA doesn't listen to you. Sometimes, you have to make people react. In my eyes, its extremely important to make a part of the community react negatively to an unacceptable action. That is our only way to make them think twice about what they do.
They're corrupt idiots. As bad as Kotick is, at least he isn't ruthless and incompetent.
It doesn't say where his comment came from, but let's assume it was posted in the forum. Why was he banned from activating his games because of that?
The ones already activated yes. DA2 wasn't activated.
He did ask them though. The post is far from whining in my opinion. It's coherent, constructive, non-offensive. He's just saying "this doesn't seem right. Just wanted you to know that".