What is your thought on EA giving bans?

[tomemozok]

EA is giving out bans like santa gives candy to kids.They are basically giving bans just because they can.
Is it because they want to increase game sales,to make you open a new acc with a new copy of a game,or is it because they have some jerk controlling the bans?
What's your thought?

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I'm not sure, i try to avoid "official" forums for just about any game company or publisher and I don't use third party hacking programs.

 

[Stigmata]

My thoughts on this are too passionate to be coherent through the forum's word filter. You can consider me displeased with the company.

 

[tomemozok]

Stigmata,is it that bad?
All EA games i have are on steam,so i don't know the situation on origin...I have no problem whatsoever with the games,but this ban thing is discouraging me from ever buying a game on Origin.:flame:

 

[Bad^Hat]

It's not only stupid, it's utterly puzzling. The fact that they haven't rectified this after it's been a known issue for months (even after stating it was not their policy when questioned on it initially), and the cryptic way they've dished out statements about it to the media makes it downright inscrutable. I have no idea what they think they have to gain from this except a paltry few extra purchases, if people really feel like giving them more business after being unjustly cut off from their games, but the fact that EA deletes their saves and profiles makes me doubt that this is their intention, and word of mouth alone would easily make up for that in lost custom anyway.

In short, what the flying ****, EA?

Edit: tomemozok, you have to run BF3 through Origin, and I think they took a few of their other games off Steam when it launched. In any case, it doesn't seem like anyone's run into trouble if they've simply avoided the forums, but it's still inexcusable.

 

[Barnz]

I don't buy anything from EA, Ubisoft, Activision, 2K, because their game always have stupid copy protection.

 

[Stormy]

I dont care. It dosnt effect me so what ever.

It's really just keeping the cry babys and morons out of the games so wohoo.

 

[ríomhaire]

Banning game accounts with forum accounts is just absolutely retarded. They are making no friends with this policy.

 

[<RJMC>]

I think ea is trying to make a "comunity" stuff like the forums here and such and is trying to cut any negative feedback whit this

hopefully wishing for a comunity that is full of people saying how awsome they games are and how great ea is since is tecnically free advertisement that is made by itself

hope this backfires horribly on them

 

[Bad^Hat]

I dont care. It dosnt effect me so what ever.

It's really just keeping the cry babys and morons out of the games so wohoo.

Three smaaaaaall niggles there:

1) Not everyone who's been affected has actually done anything to deserve probation, let alone a full ban.

2) A full ban cuts off access to single and multi player games alike.

3) No it isn't.

 

[Maestro]

EA Origin is like herpes for your PC. I refuse to buy BF3 because of it.

 

[ray_MAN]

So many people in the gaming community are so self-righteous and think that they're really "sticking it to the man" when it comes to boycotting companies like EA, Activision, etc..

 

[Acepilotf14]

I dont care. It dosnt effect me so what ever.

It's really just keeping the cry babys and morons out of the games so wohoo.

Imagine if a ban on SPUF or here would lock you out of your Steam account. Now, imagine SPUF and here had horribly incompetent moderation.

Even better, a ban on SPUF or here revoking all your licenses to all games on Steam for good.

 

[Vegeta897]

So many people in the gaming community are so self-righteous and think that they're really "sticking it to the man" when it comes to boycotting companies like EA, Activision, etc..

And people like you love to call any act of refusing to play a game because of other considerations a 'boycott'.

I don't see any of that in this thread. It's just people talking about how shitty EA is. Where are you reading about people refusing to play EA games or use EA services as an expression of protest? Do you see anyone in this thread saying "I'm not gonna buy another EA game until they start treating us right!"

It's an expression of not wanting to buy their software, that's it.

 

[Maestro]

So many people in the gaming community are so self-righteous and think that they're really "sticking it to the man" when it comes to boycotting companies like EA, Activision, etc..

I said nothing about boycotting. I said I won't be buying EA's products because they made the decision to use Origin, which is like computer herpes. Boycotting implies I have some greater moral goal in hurting them financially. My higher moral goal is not giving my PC herpes.

 

[Ennui]

I'd be willing to be that over 99% of EA account bans are due to legitimate violations of TOS (not stuff you see on reddit like a guy quoting someone else's post that says "bad ass") and those I really have no problem with. Which in turn means that the majority of such bans are for the typical troll dickbag type and I actually like the idea that they suffer financial consequences from their behavior... we're all too used to the internet being a place where you can act like this offensive incomprehensible retard and get away with it. Furthermore, if you don't like that kind of EULA then you shouldn't have spent your money on anything from them in the first place. It's not really all that different from Xbox Live or other services where you can get your whole account banned for offensive behavior. Hint: if you don't want to risk getting in trouble just don't post on the damn forums. They are a cesspool anyway.

Do I think that EA could stand to significantly improve its community interaction and forum moderation regarding this kind of stuff? Do I think they should consider lightening up in some of the more questionable situations like people quoting other people's profanity? Do I think it's silly to ban people for using profanity in non-flaming situations (e.g. not directed at specific people or groups of people) on the forums for an M rated game where profanity is commonplace? Yes, yes and yes, although I have to say I also understand coming from the authoritarian / strict standpoint since they are moderating a forum/community with millions of users and consequently thousands of trolls and douchebags.

The issue is with a few situations and a lack of consistency (which probably just results from a lack of leadership or centralized authority in the system they have for handling all the moderation/enforcement, a fixable problem) not with the core concept of getting things you paid for banned due to your behavior online, which is a battle we collectively lost as gamers many years ago.

As for the Origin "is like computer herpes" thing, that just sounds like typical internet reactionary contrarianism. Yes, you have to run it to play a game. So what? You run it in the tray and you barely notice it's ever there. You don't have to run it on startup - if you launch BF3 without Origin running it will simply auto login and launch without any extra effort. It handles updates and patching well, has fast download speeds (faster than Steam for most people) and has had a pretty smooth launch so far all things considered. Yes, if you are annoyed you have to run an additional digital distribution service to Steam, that is true, but it's unrealistic fanboy nonsense to think that Steam shouldn't be competed with. I personally have had zero issues with Origin or with customer service... on the several times I've used EA support chat I've always had helpful people on the other end who got me exactly what I wanted (Veteran status etc).

So what's the herpes part exactly?

 

[Viperidae]

Weren't people banned for raising legitimate complaints about the game? I thought that was the problem.

 

[Ennui]

I don't know, if that's the case I'd love a link. I guess it depends what the "legitimate complaint" is and the context (are they being trollish / offensive / aggressive in how they are expressing this complaint? etc).

Like I said I do think they should address the inconsistency and occasional lack of judgment in their moderation system, so I'm all for bringing stuff like that to their attention, but as that all has mostly to do with lack of experience on the part of their moderators or administrators or whomever it doesn't mean I want to condemn the entire system which isn't particularly ridiculous or draconian in comparison with many other services modern gamers use on a daily basis. I'm half playing devil's advocate here since I'm sick to death of all the overblown echo-chamber hyperbole about Origin and EA support and stuff that reddit likes to circlejerk over when they aren't all posting lame memes about how Steam takes all their money every sale.

Basically my opinion is similar to what Bad Hat said except I'm more sympathetic to the difficulties of administrating a system that has to filter out the thousands of racist troll ****tards from the forums so I understand how unfair cases could slip through as well, even if I think EA is being unbelievably stupid from a PR standpoint by not doing everything they can to address it. It's not ultimately that much more expense to spend a bit more money on customer support and community moderation and being a bit less strict and impersonally authoritarian, especially considering that gamers would go from hating them to loving them if they just showed a little humanity and effort to address these basically minor issues that only affect a tiny minority of legitimate customers.

 

[Viperidae]

So there’s Rob, who was accused of posting a commercial to his support site – a site that EA links to itself in its own support site FAQ – who received a ban. And James, permanently banned (until his account mysteriously popped back to life recently, with no communication from anyone) for saying “e-peen”. We’ve heard from Alex, who put a sweary joke on the forum, not directed at anyone, and found himself locked out of his games. Toma got in touch to say that after previous bans for what sound like entirely unacceptable forum posts, months later he has now found himself banned because of his Gravatar logo – a Reddit troll face. Buh? Pointing out that one of the main devs at EA uses the Me Gusta face got nowhere, and he has been told he’ll learn of his account’s fate in seven days, so certainly longer than the traditional 72 hour ban, potentially permanent.

Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn’t help because “the game developers control this”. Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that “all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.” Followed by, “Is there anything else I can do for you?” Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn’t affect games. And then came this incredible reply:

“Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player.”

Couldn't find anything on banned for criticism.

Still, even one customer losing their account for the above shit should be worthy of never putting money in the hands of EA (And not even from a boycott standpoint. From a 'I might lose all that money I just gave them' standpoint).

 

[Escaep]

As for the Origin "is like computer herpes" thing, that just sounds like typical internet reactionary contrarianism. Yes, you have to run it to play a game. So what? You run it in the tray and you barely notice it's ever there. You don't have to run it on startup - if you launch BF3 without Origin running it will simply auto login and launch without any extra effort. It handles updates and patching well, has fast download speeds (faster than Steam for most people) and has had a pretty smooth launch so far all things considered. Yes, if you are annoyed you have to run an additional digital distribution service to Steam, that is true, but it's unrealistic fanboy nonsense to think that Steam shouldn't be competed with. I personally have had zero issues with Origin or with customer service... on the several times I've used EA support chat I've always had helpful people on the other end who got me exactly what I wanted (Veteran status etc).

So what's the herpes part exactly?

This. I've had 0 problems with Origin so far. It always works when I want it to and launches BF3 when I tell it to. It is even using less memory than Steam right now.

 

[Vegeta897]

It is even using less memory than Steam right now.

As it should. Why are people comparing Origin to Steam? Sure on paper they're the same kind of software, but in practical terms it's just something you need to run BF3. Like Ennui said, "You run it in the tray and you barely notice it's ever there." and this is how it should stay. Nobody as far as I know wants to go creating a profile and do all the community stuff that we've already got in Steam. So I'd expect Origin to have proportionally lower resource usage to match the utility I'd get out of it.

 

[Raziaar]

I'm not sure, i try to avoid "official" forums for just about any game company or publisher and I don't use third party hacking programs.

It's all about those in house hacking programs, am I right? Awwww yeahhh...

 

[Bad^Hat]

<stuff>

See, my problem is that they aren't even communicating with their community about this shit, not just the people handing out the punishments. As far as I can find, we still have no ****ing clue what their official policy is regarding bans affecting game ownership (though we can easily infer it from their actions) or whether they're actually working on rectifying it, and everything they've said on it has been either contradictory or vague. From a PR standpoint, they're handling this incredibly poorly.

 

[SpotEnemyBoats]

I'd be willing to be that over 99% of EA account bans are due to legitimate violations of TOS (not stuff you see on reddit like a guy quoting someone else's post that says "bad ass") and those I really have no problem with. Which in turn means that the majority of such bans are for the typical troll dickbag type and I actually like the idea that they suffer financial consequences from their behavior... we're all too used to the internet being a place where you can act like this offensive incomprehensible retard and get away with it. Furthermore, if you don't like that kind of EULA then you shouldn't have spent your money on anything from them in the first place. It's not really all that different from Xbox Live or other services where you can get your whole account banned for offensive behavior. Hint: if you don't want to risk getting in trouble just don't post on the damn forums. They are a cesspool anyway.

Do I think that EA could stand to significantly improve its community interaction and forum moderation regarding this kind of stuff? Do I think they should consider lightening up in some of the more questionable situations like people quoting other people's profanity? Do I think it's silly to ban people for using profanity in non-flaming situations (e.g. not directed at specific people or groups of people) on the forums for an M rated game where profanity is commonplace? Yes, yes and yes, although I have to say I also understand coming from the authoritarian / strict standpoint since they are moderating a forum/community with millions of users and consequently thousands of trolls and douchebags.

The issue is with a few situations and a lack of consistency (which probably just results from a lack of leadership or centralized authority in the system they have for handling all the moderation/enforcement, a fixable problem) not with the core concept of getting things you paid for banned due to your behavior online, which is a battle we collectively lost as gamers many years ago.

As for the Origin "is like computer herpes" thing, that just sounds like typical internet reactionary contrarianism. Yes, you have to run it to play a game. So what? You run it in the tray and you barely notice it's ever there. You don't have to run it on startup - if you launch BF3 without Origin running it will simply auto login and launch without any extra effort. It handles updates and patching well, has fast download speeds (faster than Steam for most people) and has had a pretty smooth launch so far all things considered. Yes, if you are annoyed you have to run an additional digital distribution service to Steam, that is true, but it's unrealistic fanboy nonsense to think that Steam shouldn't be competed with. I personally have had zero issues with Origin or with customer service... on the several times I've used EA support chat I've always had helpful people on the other end who got me exactly what I wanted (Veteran status etc).

So what's the herpes part exactly?

Agreed on all accounts.

From what I've heard, EA customer support is much more helpful than Valve's customer support.

Granted, EA charges thing like DLC and what not, but I think EA is a bit more in touch with its community at the moment. The battlefield 3 'get satisfaction' site for the dev's and EA community manager to reach out players on wants and criticisms, on a regular basis. Valve has all but forgotten its Half-Life fanbase, not a single word, nothing. Granted, Valve supports mods, which EA doesn't... which is worth noting.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

I pretended to be a girl on Origin support and received 10x better service and got my pre-order canceled immediately. True story.

I did, however, get an email from the gentlemen the next day asking how I was. From his personal email account.

 

[tomemozok]

So,no one here was(or is) banned from Origin?
Than the few people who were banned from Origin for no reason whatsoever are just collateral damage from the war against bad language,and bad behavior.
ok i get that.
What i don't get is how come:
You restrict bad language and bad behavior,and even go as far as banning payed products,if that post was on a forum for a mature game?
You support blood,shooting people in the head,and blowing whole buildings with such realism in the game,but a swear on a forum somewhere is too much?
Who are they to tell you about principle and bad things?
Who are they to judge you,and cut you off from something you have payed for fair and square?
Don't get me wrong,in some extreme cases,they should do just that,but not if someone mentioned your name in a post and putted a curse word next to it.
After all,if the game is rated M,then it will be consisted of 90% mature crowd,so swearing would not be a problem.
All i say is they should pay attention with the whole banning thing,and definitely not ban you from the games themselves.
And the thread wasn't about what is better Steam or Origin,so plz drop the herpes thing.
That i will put in a new thread

 

[Maestro]

I used Origin last time for BF2142, and it was like herpes for my damned computer. I refuse to use that shit again.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Honestly, I have had zero problems with Origin so far. It boots fairly fast, and once my game launches I just keep it tucked away until I close it. No big deal.

The banning thing, having had no prior knowledge (never use EA forums or wherever this is happening), I can see the majority of the cases being totally valid. However, even having a few errors like the ones posted above with such dire consequences means something has to give. Either ease up on the punishment, or be stricter on what constitutes being punished.

 

[Bad^Hat]

But see, the thing about the bans being "valid" is this: the forums and games have separate rules of conduct, and therefore any overlap is largely incidental. tomemozok already pointed this out above (sort of), but for instance, swearing is a no-go on their forums (to the point that "e-peen" is worthy of a suspension), whereas it's completely fine in many of their games. So, in what way does swearing on the forums demonstrate that that person is unfit to play a certain game, let alone all of them, let alone single player games? So many people in this thread presume that "the majority of cases must have been justified," but based on what, exactly? Oh, because they must have been trolls. But why? With criteria as all-encompassing as this, wouldn't the trolls just be like dolphins in a tuna net?

Not to mention a good troll might be smart enough not to do that shit right under the nose of someone who could cut off access to the games they use for trolling. JUST MAYBE.

 

[BabyHeadCrab]

:V Electronic ARTS

 

[TwwIX]

Forum bans should have zero bearing on game accounts. I don't give a shit what the users posted on the boards. This is not acceptable. EA does nothing but employ ****ing morons to handle their community relations department. Zhinto is a perfect example of that and so are the sycophantic moderators that run their forums. They're completely out of touch with their communities. Battlefield 3 will be my last EA game. The frustration just isn't worth it.