EA: Get Banned From Forums, Lose Your Games

[Shamus Young]

I wouldn't worry too much about this. For one it would be a serious invitation to have some very losable lawsuits filed against you. Also, this is not the first time a questionable EA forum mod shoots off his/her mouth without all the facts.

As someone who saw many, many lawsuits in the post dot-com era as companies imploded and the related actors fought over the scraps:

EA has over a billion dollars. What person is going to take them to small claims court over their $60 game and then put up tens of thousands of dollars - maybe even hundreds of thousands - to try and stand up against the EA legal armada? That kind of money is peanuts to them.

And there is always the chance that your lawyers will bungle it, or their lawyers will outsmart you, or the jurors will be drooling morons who've never played a videogame in their life, and you'll end up will legal precedent that supports EA.

Being in the right is not enough to guarantee victory. You also need lots and lots of free time and huge piles of cash.

That is why this has gone on as long as it has, and gotten this bad, to where EA can take away ALL your legally purchased games, at any time, without giving you a refund or giving you the chance to appeal.

 

[James Raynor]

This has Failure written all over it.

http://www.ratemyeverything.net/image/6134/0/Epic_Fail.ashx

 

[klakkat]

I wouldn't worry too much about this. For one it would be a serious invitation to have some very losable lawsuits filed against you. Also, this is not the first time a questionable EA forum mod shoots off his/her mouth without all the facts.

As someone who saw many, many lawsuits in the post dot-com era as companies imploded and the related actors fought over the scraps:

EA has over a billion dollars. What person is going to take them to small claims court over their $60 game and then put up tens of thousands of dollars - maybe even hundreds of thousands - to try and stand up against the EA legal armada? That kind of money is peanuts to them.

And there is always the chance that your lawyers will bungle it, or their lawyers will outsmart you, or the jurors will be drooling morons who've never played a videogame in their life, and you'll end up will legal precedent that supports EA.

Being in the right is not enough to guarantee victory. You also need lots and lots of free time and huge piles of cash.

That is why this has gone on as long as it has, and gotten this bad, to where EA can take away ALL your legally purchased games, at any time, without giving you a refund or giving you the chance to appeal.

If enough people sue them, or if even ONE wins, then their legal costs start piling up faster than shit at a chronic diarrhea sufferer's convention. The $60 is indeed nothing to them; but the legal fees run at about 100 times that much, so they'd rather settle. If even one person wins a suit, then hundreds of thousands more will be encouraged to sue, and they go broke overnight unless they stem it somehow.

This happens a lot with people suing big companies; some lawyers will work for free unless you win or get a settlement (this happens all the time with car incidents). So unless it is clear that the suit will NEVER win, people will keep trying, and sooner or later the company will either have to change or go broke, and will settle a lot of cases out of court in the meantime.

 

[matrix3509]

I believe the problem stems entirely from the fact that you can get banned from EA forums now for even discussing DRM or SecuROM. So now if you complain about DRM, get ready to effectively lose your games.

 

[James Raynor]

I believe the problem stems entirely from the fact that you can get banned from EA forums now for even discussing DRM or SecuROM. So now if you complain about DRM, get ready to effectively lose your games.

Oh, wow.

 

[Raven28256]

See, this is why everyone's hate of EA is totally justified. Now, I don't support bad behavior on forums in any way, but this is just too far for moderation. It is like EA WANTS every single gamer in the entire world to hate them so much that they stop buying their games. I can't think of a single game company so bent on their own destruction.

EA is just begging gamers to hate them. There is just no plausible explanation as to why they shoot themselves in the foot time and time again with stuff like this.

 

[Echolocating]

I think people are overreacting. I highly doubt EA will ban people for mention DRM and such... or even exclaiming that you are the first to respond to a thread. I think you'll find the moderators will be even more lax than the ones here at The Escapist.

EA is merely bringing the idea of consequence to a normally consequence-free environment. Good for them. I don't agree with the single player games being locked out (that's lazy on their part), but I do respect them for attempting to tackle a problem that plagues the internet.

Then again, everybody knows that only losers hang out on the EA forums. ;-P

 

[aks9]

I think it's crazy that some people are empathising with EA and see this as a "reasonable" way to keep the forums under control! I think that if people behave badly on the forums, no matter how badly, the most it can warrent is a ban on the FORUMS, but to actually lock you permanently out of the games you've purchased is just wrong. You've paid for those. If you lock someone out of the games they've paid for, I think you'll get some pretty angry people who'll have nothing better to do than to try their best to wreck even more havok on the forums or wherever. Isn't threatening you to behave well on the forums, in order to not get the games you've paid for locked down, somewhere near blackmail? Locking you out of all your EA games and not just one is even worse!

I'm sure that nowhere in the EULA does it say that you will get locked out of your games if you break the forum rules. The internets would of been up in fury long ago if that were the case.

I believe the problem stems entirely from the fact that you can get banned from EA forums now for even discussing DRM or SecuROM. So now if you complain about DRM, get ready to effectively lose your games.

Oh, wow.

shit, really? can you link to that? that's insane. who the fuck runs EA???

 

[Samurai Goomba]

I believe the problem stems entirely from the fact that you can get banned from EA forums now for even discussing DRM or SecuROM. So now if you complain about DRM, get ready to effectively lose your games.

Oh, wow.

Seriously, wow. I've always hated EA (because they make crap games,) but now I can hate them as a company, too. Maybe after they've lost a few million customers they'll rethink their fascist policies. I firmly believe in a person's right to own what they payed for, but apparently a lot of modern game companies don't agree.

 

[dekkarax]

You are misinformed. Especially about Steam, which is moderated fairly and only sure-fine hackers get banned. Besides, people agree to signing up to these terms when installing these games, so they can whine all they want but they're still in a contract with the publisher.

My point was that they CAN do such things with Steam, not that they do. Today only hackers get banned, tomorrow who knows. Maybe tomorrow is the same as today, but the ability for them to do what EA is doing will always be there. And what's the next step? If they can turn off your game access for forum behavior, it's not a stretch to think EA may disable a game after a year's worth of use, forcing you to buy it again and again.

a case of absolute power corrupts absolutely

Damn it EA, why'd you have to go all crazy when Red Alert 3's almost out. either one buys it and feels guilty for adding fuel to EA's DRM policy fire or one doesn't and feels like they are missing out.

 

[The Iron Ninja]

Silly ol' EA... when will they learn?

Well to answer my own question, I suppose it would be when everyone stops buying their games.

I also have to say, Tim Curry is awesome.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Good luck. All my EA games were made before 2006.

 

[Avatar Roku]

Hm...I'm getting Mirror's edge, but staying away from EA after that.

 

[maxusy3k]

I guess I'll just have to uh, not post on their forums some more?

 

[James Raynor]

And people actually wonder WHY people pirate EA's games?

 

[LordCraigus]

Even more incentive to pirate EA's latest titles.

Nice one EA, they're really doing well in their mission to encourage the free-sharing and distribution of software... that was their mission right?

 

[Nimbus]

Wow, seriously, this is like watching an 'effing circus. EA is a sinking ship at this point. Five years from now people will think back to this point in gaming history and laugh. Hysterically. 'Till then I am perfectly happy watching it all from up here on my pirate ship

 

[Unholykrumpet]

...another reason I'm glad I had my parents take out their stock they had in EA. These little Shenanigans are going to shred their buyers immensely.

 

[Jackpot]

How capitalism works is that you pay money for goods and services. You then use those goods and services to whatever end you desire.

SHOPKEEPERS AREnT ALLOWED TO TAKE THEM BACK FROM YOU.