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Rumortoid: EA to ban you from games for message board conduct? photo

Here's a curious one for you. There is a fresh new rumor circulating the Innernetz concerning Electronic Arts and a new policy that allows them to ban you from their videogames if they ban you from their forums.

A quote allegedly attributed to Command & Conquer community manager Aaron Kaufman states that forum accounts are being directly tied to Master EA accounts, which would mean that if you were banned from the publisher's message board for whatever reason, the blacklisting would automatically extend to your online game access. 

In other words, message board trolls would have to play the likes of Spore and Red Alert 3 all alone.

If true, this is very harsh and I don't know what to make of it. On the one hand, it's always fun to give a forum troll his comeuppance, but on the other, EA provides no details on what is a bannable offense, and I just can't see banning someone from a game they bought, even if they acted like a moron on the Internet, to be all that fair.

We'll have to wait for an official confirmation, but in the meantime, I'd advise C&C fans to not be dicks. Just in case.


Continue: More rumors stories





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27 comments | showing # 1 to 27

lyfeforce's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:03
lyfeforce
That sounds like a million butthurt lawsuits waiting to happen.
pendelton21's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:06
pendelton21
Im as on the fence as you are, Jim. Trolls deserve punishment, but is this the right kinds of punishment?
pedrovay2003's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:10
pedrovay2003
As long as the offense was severe enough, I think this is a fine idea.
casualweaponry's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:13
casualweaponry
Its out of line. I see EA going crazy with the banhammer after Madden 2009's release; that series always has problems.
king3vbo's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:23
king3vbo
Good, maybe it will make people act less like trolls
Kyosji's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:23
Kyosji
If this is true, and it's tied to all banning. that's sad. EA is full of anal moderators. They banned me for talking about a non EA game and comparing it to Dark Age of Camelot. I found it hilarious since I am a huge fan of DAoC and continued to play it even after EA purchased it with Mythic, and yet they still banned me for even comparing it to another game just because it wasn't EA
Kyosji's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:24
Kyosji
BTW, I was in favor of DAoC on that particular topic, and that account is still banned to this day.
Lightthrower's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:28
Lightthrower
Also we need to remember that they banned users who were compaining about the DRM issues of Spore (which is really a situation to complain about!), so it's pretty much like a fascist regime.
Kyosji's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:30
Kyosji
All worship the EA Empire, or prepare to be cleansed!
Clbull's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:33
Clbull
So this rumour is that EA are banning game and forum accounts for breaking rules on the message boards. If thats the case for anyone complaining about the DRM in Spore (and now Command and Conquer Red Alert 3), then thats just awful.

EA shouldn't have placed DRM in their games in the first place. It actually punishes the people who buy the game quite a bit.
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:38
brainderailment
I think I've actually heard of this happening already with BF2142.
UglyDuck's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:44
UglyDuck
I'd just like to remind anyone on the fence that, if EA so intended, they could ban you for literally anything - slander, opinions, rumours, questionable claims, anything. They could cost you hundreds of dollars if they didn't like what you said.

Personal example; A long time ago, I got banned from the Ubi forums for requesting to have a friend unbanned (who himself was banned for disagreeing with a moderator on the topic of religion). If that meant I couldn't play any Ubi games, I would be unable to play dozens of games.

You wouldn't have to be a troll to get burned by this. But we'll see.
mispelt's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 13:56
mispelt
Future Headline: Microsoft adopts EA's online policy, LIVE ceases to be
Ninjasnake's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:02
Ninjasnake
It's not like I play any pc EA games anyway. The disaster that is spore has likely ruined my opinion in all of their future pc outings.
F Whipple's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:02
F Whipple
Resistance is futile
OutrageousToob's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:14
OutrageousToob
GOD DAMMIT! I knew it would come to this... This is why I will NEVER buy a game that requires any sort of online activation or company-server-side-DRM. I'd stop gaming before I'd give these chimps the control they want.

I wanted to buy Spore, but I'm glad now I didn't. I don't think EA deserves my money, I don't think the developers that choose to work for this scumbag company deserve my money either.

The fact that they can do something like this (because people STILL for some reason buy their DRM ridden garbage), and take control from their end, is a good indicator as to where this once awesome industry is headed.
PhazonYoshi's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:26
PhazonYoshi
Solution: Don't post on the EA forums.

Solved.
TewDee's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:45
TewDee
I can't think of a reason to go to the EA forums anyway. My head may explode from the rage it would induce.
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 14:55
Sharpless
I hate trolling too, but this is inappropriate. People should be entitled to the full list of features that the game that they own contains. Their conduct on a message board should have no bearing.
falinter's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 15:18
falinter
@Sharpless

this is just going to prove that we don't buy games anymore we buy the privilege to play a game and they can take it away with out refund whenever they want.
Eschatos's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 15:59
Eschatos
That's completely idiotic. Banning people from playing single player games? Since when has a forum ban not been enough. This has to be illegal somehow.
Sam Spectre's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 16:09
Sam Spectre
I can understand banning someone for tampering with a game but for bad conduct on an internet forum? That's kind of ridiculous.
episodic's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 16:24
episodic
Does ban by IP not work now? Are moderators that lazy that they can't keep a check on banning trolls?

This is absolute rubbish. What's the next step EA?
Syn's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 16:43
Syn
What a bunch of whiny little pansies. They sound like a 5 year old who had his Wheaties pissed in.

Go ahead and fuckin' do it then you little bitches, and as soon as you alienate your whole fucking consumer base what are you gonna do? Beg and plead? Aside from that being very enjoyable you're just burning yourself.

They're a bunch of asses...
...and they're dumb...

...they're.....DUMBASSES
mix's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 17:16
mix
Wow, totally awesome!

The only upside is that people who post garbage on the sites and swear are mostly the ones to be annoying in game...
neveranything's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/30/2008 17:18
neveranything
How is anyone surprised by this? This is coming from EA, the champions of the business model of raping you in the ass with a four foot wide rusty pipe and telling you to enjoy it because EA loves us enough to do it.
Too Much Coffee Man's Avatar - Comment posted on 10/31/2008 11:13
Too Much Coffee Man
The part of this that's most disturbing is they don't list what entails a bannable offense.

So, it being wholly up to their discretion, if someone politely brought up a legitimate grievance with an EA product and it started to become a popular issue for more of the members on an EA board; what's to stop EA from banning that person's accounts in spite, & claiming they gave due warning?

Banning trolls yes, banning anybody who doesn't portray EA as a shining beacon of gaming & embrace PC breaking DRM w/ open arms no.
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