Is EA going too far?

[Prrkitty]

http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2008/10/30/misbehave-on-eas-forums-get-locked-out-of-your-games

Quote: Electronic Arts has a new policy in its forums: misbehave and violate the publisher's terms of service, and not only will you be banned from the forums, but you'll find yourself unable to play any of your EA games, too. The news came today when a community manager posted information regarding the new version of EA's website and forums, which is set to launch next week.

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I deliberately put this here in GD instead of GGD so that more people might see this.

You've paid your hard earned money for the game... and now they'll lock you out of the game if you "misbehave" in/on their forums?

Like the end of the article says... what if you leave negative feedback? Will they disable your account (which in turn will also disable all the games you've bought from EA)?

I think EA is gettin too big for their britches. Much as I think I'd like to play Spore, I don't think I want to deal with EA's uppity attitude. So at this point I will not support them, EA, and will not buy any of their products.

[Russ]

First Spore, now this. EA is going way too far. They seem to think they can do whatever they want because they're a big company.

[rock_nog]

Too far? I don't think so - it's their games, they can do whatever they want. However, it's a really dumbass move, for a company who constantly struggles with image problems. But hey, I'm not in charge of EA's PR, so what do I know? Besides - I'm sure if stupid moves like this hurt sales, they'll just take the music industry approach and blame piracy (yes RIAA, that's it - it's piracy that's hurting sales, and not the fact that you keep churning out utter crap that no one in their right mind would listen to, much less pay for).

[Icey]

Simple solution: don't post in their forums, or if you have to (technical complaint, etc) be professional and don't be an ass about it.

Or you could always do what I do, and not buy or play EA games.

[Archibaldo]

Is it really that hard to behave on a forum? This really should be a mute issue. As a general rule, you're supposed to behave. And violating the ToS? If you don't agree to them don't click "I agree to the ToS" button at the bottom of the page. Problem solved.

[Revfan9]

I can't remember the last decent game EA made anyway.

I also remember hearing something about that mod going back on his statement (He was just misquoted or something on the comment about being banned from the games as well or something), but I don't have an official source, so take it for what it's worth.

Archibaldo: It's also an issue of corrupt admins, which happens on a lot more forums than you'd think. I don't hang around the EA forums so I don't know the situation there, but I'm sure nobody likes the idea of being no longer to play the games that they paid good money for just because someone felt like being a dickhead.

[Archibaldo]

I can't remember the last decent game EA made anyway.



Dead Space and Rock Band off the top of my head.

[Cloral]

The moderator who posted this has stepped forward and admitted that the posting was a mistake:

http://kotaku.com/5072192/ea-getting-banned-in-forums-does-not-get-you-banned-in-our-games


That's right: Totally not true, despite what EA's Command and Conquer manager told folks on Oct. 18. As EAAPOC himself said at 3 a.m. this morning in a new post on the forums it was "inaccurate and a mistake on my part."