GAMESREVIEWS
VIDEOS
COMMUNITY
Rising (10+)Notable (20+)Popular (30+)Promoted (Front Paged!)
People you followTaggedGeneral - Opinion/EditorialCommunity ReviewsOff-topicCommunity PodcastersBloggers Wanted ResponseLetters to Dtoids EditorsGet InvolvedGeneral BadassnessJoin a Live Stream EventListen to CommunitoidJoin a Playdate EventCompete in a ContestEA censors its own support number on its forums
[Editor's note: As I indicated in the third paragraph, I assumed that blocking the phone number on the forums has likely been a long-standing practice. As ZiggyMoff posted in the comments, Valve does something similar -- replaces the phone number for an email address. I can't claim to know how common this is, but I do know that it's stupid and prevents users from easily getting in touch with proper support. As EA has been in the limelight recently, this practice only further demonstrates an unwillingness to communicate with the customers. Maybe EA should reevaluate how it handles such things.] EA's SimCity saga has provided no shortage of comedy. Maxis general manager Lucy Bradshaw just yesterday proudly announced that the company is "hearing from thousands of people who are playing across regions, trading, communicating and loving the Always-Connected functionality." Surely EA must be receiving a mountain of complaints as well, unless it somehow found a way to prevent customers from even contacting the support team. Hmmm... As EA forum member LeLedg and others have accidentally discovered in a thread about customers trying to make a legitimate SimCity complaints, EA is preventing the customer assistance hotline number from even appearing in the forums. When you type out the number 866-543-5435, it is replaced by an asterisk, a common message board function typically used to block coarse language. Just to be safe, the forum-goers typed other permutations of the number in addition to completely different phone numbers -- it's only EA's number that's censored. There is a likelihood that this is a big misunderstanding, that this function was implemented well before the SimCity debacle to prevent people from spamming the number in the forums. Yeah, about as likely as being able to reach EA via any other means, so not very. A handful of customers have already noted that speaking to a rep via live chat session is ineffective, instead insisting on phone calls. Actually tracking down the number on EA's site is a fruitless endeavor, but the fact that EA is blocking said number from visibly appearing in the forums makes it seem like EA wants to pretend that everything is hunky-dory in Sim Land. Just in case EA decides to delete these posts, LeLedg decided to share screen grabs of the hilarity in action. Check those in the gallery below. Simcity forum censors EA customer care phone number. [reddit] (Thanks, David!) Did you know? You can now get daily or weekly email notifications when humans reply to your comments.
8:00 AM on 12.19.2012 The War Z devs silence dissent, alter Steam store pageFollowing accusations of lying about its game, The War Z developer Hammerpoint has compounded its guilt by silencing dissent any way it can. On both their official forums and the Steam board, anybody criticizing the game...
10:15 AM on 12.10.2012 Nintendo blames Germany for dumb Wii U eShop restrictionsNintendo has confirmed German law as the reason for a stupid restriction that stops European eShop customers buying 18-rated games like ZombiU during the day. Because Nintendo of Europe is based in Germany, all of Europe is l...
5:05 PM on 06.18.2012 The DTOID Show: Bring on the uncensored violence!That's right, folks - I'm back in the studio after a week-long vacation, and I've got my party shoes on! You know, the orthopaedic ones with extra arch support? (I have fragile bones.) Anyway, on today's show, we've got a tr...
7:45 AM on 06.18.2012 R18+ age rating for games approved in Australia!Ladies and gentlemen, it finally happened! After years of censorship and outright bans, Australia has finally approved an R18+ age rating for videogames, allowing adults to choose their own entertainment. "The R 18+ cat...
9:00 AM on 03.28.2012 ESRB censors the red on Risen 2 box artThe ESRB has made Deep Silver remove a red stain from Risen 2: Dark Waters' box art. This stain will go from red to turquoise, owing to the North American rating board's stance on cover imagery that could represent blood.&nbs...
9:00 AM on 02.07.2012 Lollipop Chainsaw will be censored in JapanApparently Lollipop Chainsaw is getting the censorship treatment in Japan...unless you're willing to buy the premium version of the game. Two different versions of Suda 51's latest will be released in order to tone down the g...
12:30 PM on 02.03.2012 Twisted Metal delayed and censored in EuropeTwisted Metal is suffering a few localization problems, resulting in the car-on-car violence being delayed in Europe. The game is now due out in March for PAL gamers, although a solid release date is yet to be confirmed. ...
6:15 PM on 01.31.2012 Some German politicians want their own version of SOPAMembers of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union, which form one of the ruling parties in the German government right now, like SOPA so much that they want their own version of it for Germany. While they a...
12:30 PM on 12.09.2011 Microsoft retracts support for SOPA via BSASOPA -- the online piracy bill that threatens to censor the Internet -- has earned the support of a number of game companies, including Nintendo, Sony and Electronic Arts. One publisher quietly supporting the bill was Microso...
|
surf dtoid with 
follow
