Bioware blocks user from playing his store-bought copy of DA2, for bad-mouthing EA?

[bob1052]

So what. Steam does it all the time and you still get millions who love Steam. That other companies have similar policies doesn't surprise me nowadays, neither does the fact Bioware would happily implement it with all the trolling they are receiving lately about Dragon Age 2.

Where does it say in the Steam TOS that if you say "Steam is horrible," you will have your account banned and all the games will be worthless? I thought so.

Please think before posting.

What they did is illegal. It's that simple. It's his opinion and his right to free speech.

Free speech doesn't apply to everything. Also he agreed to rules, which he broke.

He also paid ?50 for a game that he cannot now play. Is that right?

That has no bearing on what I said. Regardless, what's done is done.

What's done is done? Nice. So stealing is ok, as long as its "done" in the eyes of an outsider.

What? If you agree to terms and break them, you have no one to blame but yourself.

GAME in the United Kingdom put a section in their online site TOS where they stated that, by agreeing to their TOS, they legally owned your soul. They did it for the lulz. Know why? TOS means shit legally.

Guess what? Souls can't even be proven to exist. So obviously that tos doesn't stand up. But many do, which is why they use them in the first place.

So if GAME had replaced 'soul' with 'house', that would be legally binding, yes? Thousands of people would lose their homes, and this would be upheld in a court of law? Because it said so in the forum TOS?

Go read my original response to what you said earlier.

The GAME example had absolutely nothing to do with proving legality in any measure.

On a related note to what you are saying, the fact that fire is hot clearly means that the Sun revolves around the Earth.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

If you don't mind I'm gonna continue purchasing my disks that I can play no matter what. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways.

In all seriousness I'm glad I never bought into steam. If bioware is pulling shit like this, can we really trust valve?

Uh... Did you read the post of the suspended person at all? Or even the title of THIS thread?

He bought the Signature Edition. In a store.

They're doing this with his account, which strips him of his save files and DLC.

Not quite as bad as purely digital distribution's equivalent would be, but purely digi-dist runs that risk.

How so?

Do you need to sign in to play or something?

Anyways, he should sue.

 

[smeghead25]

I 100% agree they should have the right to block online play for whatever they deem is inappropriate (not that I believe what you said was at all inappropriate). They should be able to refuse access to forums and online play for people who are generally being assholes. HOWEVER, no single player component of a videogame, whether or not it has to have a permanent internet connection, should be blocked. You pay for it, you deserve to play it. If EA (Executive Assholes) put in a stupid system where persistent internet connection is required, that should NEVER impact on someones ability to play a game they bought.

This is why I only ever buy their games on consoles, or super cheap Steam sales. They don't deserve the money they charge if they can take away my ability to play the fucking game.

 

[CitySquirrel]

So if GAME had replaced 'soul' with 'house', that would be legally binding, yes? Thousands of people would lose their homes, and this would be upheld in a court of law? Because it said so in the forum TOS?

Courts might find it excessive, but most things in TOS would stand up in court. The problem with your example is that it would be found to be unreasonable.

 

[Logic 0]

He didn't realize the powers he was going up against and lost that's all there is to it.

 

[bob1052]

If you don't mind I'm gonna continue purchasing my disks that I can play no matter what. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways.

In all seriousness I'm glad I never bought into steam. If bioware is pulling shit like this, can we really trust valve?

Uh... Did you read the post of the suspended person at all? Or even the title of THIS thread?

He bought the Signature Edition. In a store.

They're doing this with his account, which strips him of his save files and DLC.

Not quite as bad as purely digital distribution's equivalent would be, but purely digi-dist runs that risk.

How so?

Do you need to sign in to play or something?

Anyways, he should sue.

Legal fees to take a major entity such as EA to court for a 50 pound game isn't really worth it. Its not even worth it for the principle.

 

[DSK-]

Wow...just wow. That's an incredibly dickish move. Oh well, away you go with minus another 30 points from my Influence meter, Bioware.

Although I will admit that I don't know the full picture, but banning him for any amount of time over something so minor is out of order.

 

[jayman52]

If you don't mind I'm gonna continue purchasing my disks that I can play no matter what. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways.

In all seriousness I'm glad I never bought into steam. If bioware is pulling shit like this, can we really trust valve?

Uh... Did you read the post of the suspended person at all? Or even the title of THIS thread?

He bought the Signature Edition. In a store.

They're doing this with his account, which strips him of his save files and DLC.

Not quite as bad as purely digital distribution's equivalent would be, but purely digi-dist runs that risk.

How so?

Do you need to sign in to play or something?

Anyways, he should sue.

Legal fees to take a major entity such as EA to court for a 50 pound game isn't really worth it. Its not even worth it for the principle.

It's actually starting to look like it might actually be worth it if can find a way to destroy EA with the bad publicity.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

If that happened to me, the first thing I'd do (and I'm not condoning this or saying it's ok to do, just what I would do in this hypothetical situation) is pirate it and play it that way. You already paid for the license, so you just want to do what they agree to let you do when you buy that license. Contracts (which a license is) work both ways, not just in the companies favor.

 

[Jabberwock xeno]

If you don't mind I'm gonna continue purchasing my disks that I can play no matter what. I guess I'm just stuck in my ways.

In all seriousness I'm glad I never bought into steam. If bioware is pulling shit like this, can we really trust valve?

Uh... Did you read the post of the suspended person at all? Or even the title of THIS thread?

He bought the Signature Edition. In a store.

They're doing this with his account, which strips him of his save files and DLC.

Not quite as bad as purely digital distribution's equivalent would be, but purely digi-dist runs that risk.

How so?

Do you need to sign in to play or something?

Anyways, he should sue.

Legal fees to take a major entity such as EA to court for a 50 pound game isn't really worth it. Its not even worth it for the principle.

I disagree.

The industry need a groundbreaking case to set precedent on DRM, the consumer's right to their product, etc.

This shit has gone on long enough.

 

[Lord Devius]

How so?

Do you need to sign in to play or something?

Anyways, he should sue.

I'm not quite sure of the details, not a fan of Dragon Age myself, but I'm pretty sure that having the save file from your playthrough of the DA2 demo gets you some items in the full game, and possibly some progress through the story that was included in the demo? Not sure. Someone who knows what they're talking about should answer this.

Also, all the DLC for the other games he paid for and played is lost to him now. That sucks.

I think if he could win, he should sue, but I don't know that he'd have any ground to stand on. He agreed to their rules, and they decided to interpret them really harshly.

 

[Kyoufuu]

Heaven forbid that a company should enforce its own rules in a way that will actually encourage people to obey them! No, what they need to do is give him a slap on the wrist, that will surely stop people from breaking the agreements that they made when they bought the game. /sarcasm

Also, how am I meant to type an e with an accent captcha? How???

 

[Negatempest]

I 100% agree they should have the right to block online play for whatever they deem is inappropriate (not that I believe what you said was at all inappropriate). They should be able to refuse access to forums and online play for people who are generally being assholes. HOWEVER, no single player component of a videogame, whether or not it has to have a permanent internet connection, should be blocked. You pay for it, you deserve to play it. If EA (Executive Assholes) put in a stupid system where persistent internet connection is required, that should NEVER impact on someones ability to play a game they bought.

This is why I only ever buy their games on consoles, or super cheap Steam sales. They don't deserve the money they charge if they can take away my ability to play the fucking game.

Okay, i'm not here to start some debate or argument. I am just here giving information. Okay, because of an in appropriate sentence he typed, he got his "forum" account banned for 72 hours. So he can't make changes to the forum account of register games to it. You need to register DA2 to "start" playing it. So if he had DA2 installed and playable before he got banned, he would still be able to play the game, he just couldn't add more Bioware/EA games to that same account. The ban is no different than the same bans they do here in The Escapist. He just more or less shot himself in the foot.

 

[Flishiz]

This pretty much the essential argument for net neutrality...

 

[jayman52]

This pretty much the essential argument for net neutrality...

When are we going to be able to vote on that again?

 

[DinkumFair]

If it was an MMO or interactive game and he said some vile filth or did a long hardcore blast of the game I can see keeping him off the game for 72 hours (the ban was not permanent! so he wasn't 'robbed'). But his was a single player game where he couldn't offend anyone... it is silly.

 

[bob1052]

Heaven forbid that a company should enforce its own rules in a way that will actually encourage people to obey them! No, what they need to do is give him a slap on the wrist, that will surely stop people from breaking the agreements that they made when they bought the game. /sarcasm

Also, how am I meant to type an e with an accent captcha? How???

Also shoplifting should universally be given the death penalty to encourage people to obey the laws against it.

This is less of an issue of should he be given any punishment than it is an issue of it being a very severe punishment.

Being locked out of every game you have tied to your account (which for most people will be every Bioware game you own) for the duration of a temporary ban on a free account on forums hardly seems reasonable.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

The industry need a groundbreaking case to set precedent on DRM, the consumer's right to their product, etc.

The industry needs to be made to decide if gaming software is a product or a service instead of changing their minds depending on circumstance (and which gives them the advantage over the consumer).


Edit: For those wondering how software works as a service, that's how Steam essentially does it. So while it has the disadvantages of a service (they can ban you from Steam and block access to all steamworks enabled software) they also have the advantages (loss of the physical media after registration is a non-issue - you've still got access to the software AND digital replacement there of should it become necessary)... which is better than the usual set up that gives consumers all the disadvantages of both products AND services but none of their advantages.

 

[Flishiz]

This pretty much the essential argument for net neutrality...

When are we going to be able to vote on that again?

Soon I hope. A very long time I expect.

 

[jayman52]

This entire situation is why I am glad I got ME2 on PS3. They can't take away my access to the game with that version. They would have to explain to Sony why they are doing it and I doubt even Sony would see that as reasonable.