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30th October 2008, 02:58 PM #1
EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
This is from a recent article on Kotaku and my own personal experience in the Spore forums. Visit this link for the article:
http://kotaku.com/5070957/backtalk-i...rom-your-games
http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread....tart=0&start=0 (slightly over half way down the page)
According to EA community managers, EA has the ability to revoke your ability to play one of their games based on what you say in their forums. Looking to vent your frustrations about a bug? Trying to get support for a product defect but getting the run-around via canned responses from Support? Disappointed with the dumbing down of a franchise? Upset that a parts pack or DLC is being released almost immediately after the game came out? Want to give EA a piece of your mind? Do so and you might just find they retalliate against you, the paying customer, by revoking your ability to play not just one game but ALL the EA games linked to your account!
In other words, not only are you treated as a thief by oppressive DRM such as Securom, but now you're getting into a bait car with every EA game purchase. A bait car is also known as a dummy car that auto thieves steal, drive off in, and the cops come up and remotely turn it off and lock them in so they can't escape. EA games customers are now being treated the same as those committing real grand theft auto and not the video game version of it. You buy the game and you're at EA's mercy because they could shut it down at any time on top of being suspected of piracy.
This sets a new low for the EA and the video game industry. Here's a quote from an EA community manager:
For anyone following EA's new single-account system, you may remember access to Spore was reported to be revoked if you were banned from the forums. While EA and Maxis quickly denied and booted the moderator who made such a claim and repeatedly deny that this is possible with Spore to this day, the functionality for such a system does exist and is completely under EA's control. Who's to say that if you get upset at their support people or call in for another activation that they won't disable all of your EA games? The Spore incidents are linked below, although the original forum post looks to have been deleted. A Maxis staff member insists that the Spore forum is not linked to the EA master account but there is no indication that making the connection is not something for the future or currently under implementation.
Originally Posted by eeapoc, RA3 admin
http://kotaku.com/5053781/spore-fans...-over-drm-talk
http://kotaku.com/5054372/ea-respond...nning-concerns
You have no recourse if they ban you. You cannot appeal. All decisions are final. You are completely at the mercy of EA and its staff. EA and its staff determines what is and is not acceptable and what does or does not violate policy. All serial keys linked to your account would be banned. Now instead of tolerating real raw feedback from their customers, they can simply hit a button and silence you forever, steal $50 to $80+ from you per game linked to your EA account, and prevent your use of something you lawfully purchased. There is no guarantee of a warning or a temporary action being taken against you. Do something they don't like and they can permanently ban you from the forums and from playing their products. Worse yet, EADM and Spore are known to leave registry information behind after uninstall that could inhibit a reinstallation.
So, RA3, Spore, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge, Battlefield, and Need for Speed fans...how do you feel about this?Last edited by Dragon_Myr; 30th October 2008 at 03:11 PM.
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30th October 2008, 03:07 PM #2Banned
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Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
that is rediculous, i would understand kicking u from the forums, but the games you own? Whats going with EA? I mean no matter what, they publish so many games, so either way, unless you wanna cut many games out of your library, were stuck with it. I cant believe the manager made a threat like that, there has to be some kind of law against this, especially since this wasnt the agreement at the time people purchased the game.
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30th October 2008, 03:07 PM #3
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30th October 2008, 03:08 PM #4
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
If this does happen, contacting the company and requesting for either a refund or reinstatement. If that is denied, lawsuit, maybe go class action.
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30th October 2008, 03:08 PM #5
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
You know, Microsoft isnt even that abusive... EA is looking for trouble imo... I just hope they find it...
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30th October 2008, 03:12 PM #6
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
I sure hope these are just false rumors, if not, I am definitely boycotting ALL EA titles.
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30th October 2008, 03:12 PM #7Notebook Evangelist
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Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
I mean we can all complain about this until we're blue in the face, but unless the market corrects, or some super lawyer looks for stuff like this in his free time, then I'm not sure what will happen. I think the only real thing is to not buy their games until they shape up. I know all of these games are now removed from my X-mas list.
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30th October 2008, 03:14 PM #8
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
They would legally have to reimburse your money in full
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30th October 2008, 03:23 PM #9
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
That's what I was hoping. This subject keeps coming up though. This is the second or third time I've read about EA linking your behavior and opinions to the products you've purchased. There's been no denial that it is possible to ban across different games. The only denial has come from the Spore forums not being integrated enough to allow bans there to carry over, but they are working on that site and EA ID integration may be on the way. Cheating is a pretty clear thing that should be banned. However, words and opinions are so subjective that it's dangerous territory ripe for abuse. I think we've all probably experienced an instance of abuse of power on a forum online somewhere. EA, in my opinion, tends to be abusive to its customers so this looks like a recipe for disaster to me.
According to their Terms of Service and the EULA, there is nothing in there that says they have to reimburse you. Hopefully this would instantly trigger a lawsuit if someone got banned. If they banned me I'd be calling up lawyers and the law school of the university I went to almost immediately after the ban.My PC only does everything. It can calculate leap years!
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30th October 2008, 03:31 PM #10
Re: EA threatens paying customers of Red Alert 3, Spore, and other games
What cause is this for? How does this help EA in any way?
Surely its going to **** a lot of people off, drastically increase piracy for all EA titles and probably kill themselves in the process.
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