EA now issuing permanent Origin bans through content filter

[MaximumTacos]

Not holding anything back. Like everyone else who got into BF3 from the midnight launch I cursed in BF3 forums until I got a warning from a mod. Then I stopped. That was quite a while before this*, and the forums are still filled with people who say things. Also, the phone support guy told me that even if I had quoted someone who was in violation, I'd be the one in trouble, so, derp.


(*I can back all of this up with timestamped emails... and damn, it has been a while since the release)

This isn't about that, though, this is about the total lack of access to even SINGLEPLAYER portions of games I paid for, because of a suspension from the BF3 forums.. which results in a suspension from BattleLog.. which results in a suspension from singleplayer.. and there's a bonus suspension from all EA games, including Bad Company 2 that I BOUGHT THROUGH STEAM.

Also the suspension is a permaban according to alakhazar or whoever.

It's quite beautiful in it's retardness, actually.

 

[The Lunatic]

Coming soon to the Origin Store: Unban your account!

Pay us $10 for to undo the permanent banning of your account for the minor forum post you made!


I'm calling it.

 

[Bostur]

I'm not surprised at all. At first they tried to sneak in a clause in the EULA that inactivity for 2 years was enough of a reason to delete access to all games. They changed that later, but it is clear that they want full control.

Don't buy any EA games is the best advice I can give.

 

[random_bars]

I don't... Understand. The whole 'banned from single player' is bullshit, yeah, but surely the more important issue here is that someone else did something EA didn't like but you got banned for it??

I mean, sure, it might be that they were too harsh or they had no reason to ban for that or they broke the rules or whatever. But this is all irrelevant because you should have never been banned in the first place. Isn't that a more important issue?

 

[Therumancer]

Angad: Please note that your account [[email protected]] has been permanently terminated from the Electronic Arts Online service for violating the terms of services. The account will no longer be accessible in any way, and all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted.
Angad: Is there anything else I can do for you?

I posted the rest here as I don't want to be spamming the forums with it.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.323783-Questions-Still-Swirl-Around-EAs-Origin-Bans?page=4#13389462

What do you guys think about this?

The violation in question was someone making a post, cursing at me, with my username at the end of their rant. That's right. You just have to swear at someone now and EA's automatic filter does the rest.

Hmmm, well my first question would be what the guy was swearing at you for. Their database might only compile accusations under very general headings, so being put in the same catagory as swearing might actually be from player harassment or whatever that wasn't being recorded.

That said, my issue with this kind of thing is that there is no human review involved. I also admit to some concern over what is going to happen with "Old Republic Online" when the game finally launches given the generally rowdy behavior of people involved in MMOs.

As far as the guy suggesting they get taken to Small Claims Court, the problem with that is that first the courts have to agree to hear the case. Secondly if you lose a case like that you can get hit by the other guy's legal fees... and since you can't afford to hire a lawyer for a $50 payout, you'll be representing yourself against a legal representitive from a big company that is going to hit you with his fee. That's why companies don't get nickeled and dimed to death this way.

This is also why class action suits exist, when everyone gets together to hire a lawyer to represent the situation as one case, making the potential payout sufficient for the lawyer being hired to take a percentage of. It's harder for a big company to intimidate it's way out of, and it's also why a lot of EULAs are making people sign away their rights to a class action suit. Whether the EULA could stand there is questionable, but the bottom line few people are going to be able to hire a lawyer to fight that point.

-

Overall I can't fault what EA is doing, I mean we've all probably wished at one time that these companies get more hardcore with the banhammer... however an automated banhammer causes as many, or more problems than it solves. The issue is that EA doesn't want to spend the money to hire what amounts to their own police force, or put a human review system into play as it would cut into their profits unless they basically raised the prices of their games even more and pretty much slapped us all with the bill and people wouldn't stand for that. Basically EA isn't going to cut into it's hundreds of millions in profit for the sake of the customers. The idea is good, the implementation is ruined by greed.

I imagine this will come to a head with Old Republic Online.

 

[Sixcess]

What is wrong with EA? Just... what is wrong with them?

The answer is actually pretty simple: You.

Well, not you personally, but the collective 'you'. People who buy their shitty games and accept their shitty service are the reason EA can continue to do things like this.

Sadly true. Thing is I don't even mean just this thread (the OP is rather abrasive so there may be more to it, who knows) but it seems like barely a day goes by without EA doing something horrible. It's like they watched that Extra Credits episode and decided that they want the entire gaming community to hate them.

It can't just be that they're a huge company who have to deal with a lot of customers. Steam is huge and doesn't get anywhere near this level of bad press. even Activision are looking good next to EA these days.

 

[Zefar]

Still no access to singleplayer content, or anything else in my Origin account.

Every. Single. Piece. Of. Content. In. Origin. Is. Locked. Out.

Am now almost bored enough to dig up personal cell numbers of CS executives at EA. I will keep you updated.

If EA are jerking you around may i suggest filing a complaint with the BBB (better business bureau)? they're actually quite good at making shifty manufacturers reverse "fu*k the customer" decisions.

http://www.bbb.org/greater-san-francisco/business-reviews/video-games-wholesale-and-manufacturers/electronic-arts-in-san-francisco-ca-64196/file-a-complaint

I love when people tell others to post on the BBB which mind you is a fraud. You can just pay a fee and get a A+ on it. Doesn't matter what history your company has had.
There is also this where restaurant owners have sometimes gotten ONE single complaint and the company was put on the worst rating even though the client had taken back his complaint and gotten on good terms with the company. They had to pay to get back to their A+ rating.

People signed up well known Terrorist groups as a company and gotten an A+ rating just by paying for it.

But the biggest thing about BBB is that most gamers will not give a damn about someone posting one single complaint on the BBB.
Even people looking for a publisher won't read the BBB. Reporting on it will not change a thing.


If the Topic actually got banned for just quoting someone then there is a problem. Might been a mistake as it happens.

But for most of the time it's just those massive trolls that get temp banned and maybe they will stop trolling the forum then. Because they deserve everything bad they get.

 

[Pandabearparade]

even Activision are looking good next to EA these days.

Damn, I hadn't even thought about it but you're right. Activision hasn't done anything to piss me off in over a year. Maybe one of the major shareholders shoved a sock in MR. Kotick's mouth?

 

[Windcaler]

Depending on how many games you had on there I would go ahead and file a law suit. No seriously, consult a lawyer and take it to small claims court because Im pretty sure they're doing something illegal here

 

[MaximumTacos]

Day 2. I sent them a link to this thread.

No contact from customer service.

 

[Fwee]

You see, the first mistake you made was using Origin in the first place. I took one look at it and told EA to go fuck itself with the most diseased dick it could unearth.

 

[MammothBlade]

Fucking EA piece of dumbshit cunts.

I'm not surprised, they are too lazy to even have a proper ban process, they rely on crude algorithms to do their permabanning for them.

The only way to avoid origin is to buy console games, and then hope that everything is hosted through PSN or XBL.

 

[MaximumTacos]

You see, the first mistake you made was using Origin in the first place. I took one look at it and told EA to go fuck itself with the most diseased dick it could unearth.

I honestly couldn't believe that all the negative stuff about EA/Origin was be true. I thought that it had to just be overhyped, like anti-microsoft or anti-mac stuff.

Good god, WHY didn't I listen to the internet for once in my life!?

 

[MaximumTacos]

edit: sorry my post button went into burst mode

 

[lRookiel]

And this is why I try not to relate myself to EA in any way.

 

[CoL0sS]

Hah, I totally feel for you man. This is some interesting news indeed. I'm pretty sure your situation will be solved to your satisfaction, because it doesn't really make sense to ban you for something someone else posted. Thank you for posting here and raising awareness about these sort of things. At least you managed to establish some sort of communication with their support staff, I've been trying to reach anyone at game.co.uk for 2 months now, and they practically stole money from me twice now. I'll still wait for their response before making a thread, but if anyone knows if there's someone I could contact about my rights as a customer (since it's UK based company) I'd be very grateful.

 

[targren]

and this is why Steam rules, honestly though, if you paid for the game, and didn't read the "ToS" you might be out of luck, because it can totally say "ToS apply to forums and if you mess up there, we'll steal your game privledges" because like movies, you don't actually "own the game" as far as I know, you are merely buying the liscense to have a copy... or some technical terms like that. As such, they can draw up the basic guidelines of what you can and cannot do.

How does the TOS make Steam any better? If you read the Steam TOS, they too have the "We can cancel your access at any time, for whatever reason we want to make up" clause, and a "Maybe we'll give you stand-alone copies of your purchased games, maybe we won't. Depends on our mood" clause.

That this hasn't happened on Steam (or if it has, it didn't get publicized like EAs string of screwups) has nothing to do with the TOS. Valve could do exactly the same thing and be entirely in their rights, according to the TOS.

 

[Hitokiri_Gensai]

EA seriously needs to reconsider their systems before they lose all their players and subscribers, thats pretty bullshit right there.

 

[MaximumTacos]

Well, someone just posted this on /v/. Are we allowed to link there?

 

[boag]

What do you guys think about this?

what do i think? right now i think it's be hilarious to post every swearword in america along with a list of every account name in origin's system

they'd either loose a large market share or revise their dumb-assery,

just a shame i cant do it to activision too..

brb, trolling origin...

I want to see this happen, in mass, I really really hope someone people try to do this, if just for the sake of testing out their ban bots.