BioWare is dead serious about upholding its Terms of Services and will bring down the hammer of justice hard should you step out of line. One member (username withheld) of the Star Wars: The Old Republic message board learned that the hard way when his / her account was permanently suspended.
What infraction did User X commit? Being underage -- the board's terms clearly state that no minor under 13 years of age can be granted an account, regardless of parental consent. How did the moderation team discover this flagrant disregard for the rules? User X admitted as much in a post in this thread. For those without access to the site, here's how the post read:
I'm 12 and what is this.
BWAAAAA HAA HA HA HA HA HAAAA HA HA HA HAAAA!
(Thanks for sending this in, Ryan and Mitchel!)
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Contest:
10:30 PM on 01.21.2012
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I'm out of touch and what is this?
I'm sure that was ages ago, and this is the news section, not the olds.
Yes please.
Said user agreed to the ToS then later, through self admittance, broke the ToS. So why shouldn't he be banned?
CAN HAMBURGER HELPER SAVE THE DAY?
WILL THEY REACH THE END OF RINE?
AND CAN BIODRONES STOP DRONING?
TUNE IN NEXT SUNDAY TO FIND OUT!
I think the point is that he isn't actually 12. The forum post in which he "admitted" he broke the ToS was a joke. What are you, raytarded?
For those that somehow don't understand.
WILL THE TORTANIC GO FREE2SAIL?
BioWare is derp.
For those who still don't understand.
Go on and give yourself a nice round of applause, there fella. You deserve it.
Not really... There's nothing in the COPPA regarding someone saying they're 12 and being removed from a game.
http://www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm
That being said, moderating message boards (particularly corporate ones) sucks (ask anybody who's done it) and it's easy to miss things like "jokes" since you're obligated to power through every thread in your assigned era.
Hopefully this gets fixed.
2) Even if it wasn't a fake, the ToS DOES prohibit people under 13 from playing, even with parent's permission. This is because COPPA is a PITA for companies, so rather than deal with the implications of allowing people under 13 (which you can sorta do under COPPA) they just simplify it and reject everyone.
3) One overzealous forum mod who doesn't know their memes (or maybe does and is an epic troll) who banned someone because they openly stated they are violating the ToS (see above) does not = BioWare
4) Even if I was wrong on all the above counts (I'm not), one simple email from the account owner showing he was in fact above 12 years old would likely rectify the entire situation.
Why is the Internet so eager to hate this game? And haven't we learned by now all these nonsense SWTOR bans are fake and originate from /v/ where they are all sitting around circlejerking their hatred for all things EA? We didn't learn after the last guy claimed he got banned for dancing?
The link to the forum topic is there for people who are members. There's also a YouTube video floating about that proves it as well.
Looks like they deleted the thread. Either way, linking to the fact that he said it on the forums doesn't mean he was banned for it. And the YouTube video just shows his computer screen with the "email" printed on it. Come on now.
Color me corrected. I found the correct link to the YouTube vid, it does seem legit. Doesn't change the rest of my argument. I also found this posting from the banned fellow: http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/oqg88/so_i_got_banned_on_swtor/
Seems he was already on the ropes for speedhacking. He then let his account lapse and ended up banned. Frankly, I'm glad he's gone.
2) See above.
3) They work for BioWare, they ARE BioWare. Anyone who's worked for a any-size corporation knows this.
4) You're 100% wrong. umad?
And to answer your question: Because we were all bait-and-switched, which is why they are having record cancellations. And the "guy who got banned for dancing" was using the /getdown exploit on bosses to keep them from attacking, and thus, a bannable exploit.
umad that I just defused any argument you possibly had? >:D
@Adam Perry: in the last month? ToR's been compared to WoW since early BETA. That's basically what it is. The only people who don't think so are the ones who never played WoW or make assumptions after getting to level 23 in vanilla.
And fuck, Ive never heard that meme before. Not everything somebody repeats more than once on the internet is a "meme".
You're right, I double checked and it's real. I stand corrected (and have already posted in this thread that I was wrong on that count)
2, saying it's real doesn't invalidate that the TOS prohibits the action. A BioWare representative who followed orders, albeit overzealously, does not a whole company make.
Finally, stating that I am "100% wrong" that an email clearing up the situation would fix it is, in fact, 100% wrong. If he shows he's not 12, they will unban him. Why? Because 15 dollars a month is why.
Finally, the dancing ban guy was fake, and proven fake, and was fake.
No, I'm not mad, because arguing is arguing is arguing?