Customer banned from activation of DA2 due to post in BioWare community forum

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Redundant.

 

I changed it just for you.

 

All we can do in this life is be true to who we are and what we believe. That might offend some, and please others. But it is what it is. Like most around here, I try to call em as I see em.

So yeah, I guess we agree.

 

wow, they backed up quicker than the toilets at the heart attack grill

 

Another fellow got banned as well now. However he has not been banned from the forum, only from the game (ps3). He has been....vocal...on the forums as well.

 

Pretty sure the banned kid in the first post said he knew he got banned for profanity, not for saying anything about Bioware. Everyone just zero'd in on the "selling your soul" part because it was easier to get upset over it.

Not that I don't think EA is a trash company eating up smaller companies and reducing the quality of all games as a whole... but better to find a solid examples of their trashiness than a misquoted forum posts to make them look bad .

 

omnigodly, excellent post. Way to see past the emotional reactions and provide one of the more objective opinions I've seen about this.

 

It doesn't matter if he got a ban for badmouthing Bioware or for using profanity, neither should result in him getting banned from playing games and DLC he already paid for. Ban him from the forum, sure, but ban his account?

Or maybe you wouldn't mind if your Steam account got banned - with all the games that you activated/bought through Steam - for swearing on the Valve forums? (Assuming of course that you bought games through Steam or have games that use Steam DRM.)

 

Since the mods already unbanned him saying that it was a mistake to have banned him from his own game for a forum post, I don't think that's an issue anymore.

Regardless, I don't go to forums and scream profanity at anyone. So I could care less about how EA would treat someone that does since I instantly dislike them for being fail trolls.

 

I liked the way you back-tracked on that. Seriously, that's not meant in sarcasm. The corporate dudes ADMITTED that it was "an error." In another words, it was their mistake. Some people can't figure that out, even after getting the supposed "facts" of the issue. The issue was never about "profanity," but about an unhappy CUSTOMER who had made a purchase.

 

Backtracking assumes that I said my point was about the error and not about why people got upset. The point was that arguiing over their right to block use of their game over a forum post was a non-issue because they revoked the ban. Users were still upset because he said he was banned for calling them the devil, not necessarily that he WAS banned.

You're focus on my post is kind've proving my point. People latch on the to emotional - right or wrong - more than the facts.

 

While you are saying that, you may have noticed that I "latched" on to your post less than some others. Yet, your comment was directed at me. Parody? From my perspective, emotion has far less to do with the issue than taking someone's money and giving them nothing, or something inferior in return. That's just good business 101.

 

Admitting that doing something stupid was a mistake doesn't necessarily make it any less stupid.
And the error seemed rather more a systemic error (ban that would simply block the user's account, rather than limit that account's user rights) than just someone goofing up and accidentally banning someone in the wrong way. Could be wrong about that, though.

You're assuming quite a lot here.
I can similarly assume - without reading up on this guy's post history, admittedly - that this guy was saying that something looks ****ing beautiful. Which I presume could also get flagged for profanity and thus get him a ban, but not necessarily making him a troll.

 

I have seen profanity banning on other websites; it is usually for 1 to 3 days. As for the individual not being able to access his or her DLC information, that does not surprise me as all of my forum info matches up to my DLC info on the Bioware social website.

Without knowing how Bioware social website handles DLC and the forum; it maybe linked and by banning a user from the forum, Bioware also bans the user from his or her DLC content.

In this instance, if the user did use profanity, they should be banned and if one of the consequences is that they do not have access to his or her DLC than, so be it. Yes, it seems rude and uncalled for such a minor violation; however, they need to set an example that profanity is not allowed on Bioware social website.

As for access to the DLC, games or other software, as consumers of software we are not buying the right to physically own the software and use as we see fit; instead, we are buying the right have privilege to use the software. The company that owns the rights to the software can at any time disables or discontinues users from using the software. For Bioware and EA, this provides them the ability to revoke our rights to play DAII, access DLC, etc… if they so see fit. As buyers of the right to the software, we have to make sure we don’t do anything stupid or we may lose our rights to use the software.

For those of you who believe this user has a case for legal action should definitely review the agreement that comes with any software and the agreement we sign off on when we sign up for a website. Bioware and EA did nothing illegal; they followed their policy and the user was banned. The user paid the price for not following Bioware/EA website policy.

It did not work out well for the user who suffered a few days of not being able to truly enjoy DAII, but they should learn by it, and learn that profanity should be kept off Bioware’s website. As for not having access to his or her DLC, that could be part of the agreement on the website, the game or bad programming on the website. However, it doesn’t matter now, because the user is now able to play the game and Bioware has apologized. We all make mistakes, sometimes others seem bigger than they really are.

 

Then they should refund his money. Let ask you something, since you may be a consumer as well as a concerned person over the use of profanity, to the point that someone needs to be made an example of to appease your sense of right or wrong. If you enter a retail store, get upset and use profanity, you may be ejected from the store; that's pretty common. However do you lose the use of the product you purchased because you are ejected from a store if you paid for it? Of course not. The issue is not if he should be banned or not from Bioware's crappy website [and notice they promote it a lot, even for those of us who have no interest in it]. Now, they can use the sneaky fine print and legal double-talk to defraud a customer, but the result is that they knew they had a paying customer and they decided it was an error to deny him the use of his product.

 

Okay, but what percentage of this customer's $60 should be reimbursed for 3 days without play against the rest of eternity with play (assuming no additional bannings occur)?

 

They don't for any other paid service where the customer gives abuse. You don't get reimbursed if you go to a restaurant and swear at the staff (Yes I'm aware most restaurants have you pay AFTER the meal, but still an example ) you don't get to take your drinks with you if you're chucked out a bar and I've even seen refusal of service for tech repairs and internet because of the abuse technicians get.

 

If I walked into a VW dealership and started talking about how their cars were ****, would they be justified in taking my keys away for 3 days?

 

Depends - are you test driving a car at the time?