One BioWare fan who might have said the wrong thing on an official forum found himself in an awkward situation. After saying what some might deem a derogatory statement in an official BioWare forum, user v_ware found that he couldn't play Dragon Age II. What is odd about this is that Dragon Age II is not a multiplayer game. One of the reasons this may have happened is because forum accounts are connected to game registrations, and v_ware tried to register the game after he was suspended.
Still, it seems like a very odd situation to everyone; why would BioWare stop someone from playing a game they just bought even if that individual received a temporary ban on one of their forums? It's plain silliness. The ban made it so that v_ware couldn't play Dragon Age II for 72 hours. So what did he say that was so horrible?
"Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?"
Putting aside the statement, a game company should never stop someone from playing a single player game or to conduct a transaction that benefits them. It is bad customer service and bad business.
At the very least, this situation should put smart mouthed forum users on notice: if you are going to get sassy, make sure you register your new games first.
Source: Kotaku by way of Uncharted NES.
Comments
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
I bought the game and was banned for 72 hours, too.
Though they didn't call it a ban; they called it a UK release date.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
The exscapist has an update to the story.
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.269975-No-Dragon-Age-2-for...
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
---
http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
So, when are we seeing the Extra Credits guys interview with EA? I want to see what they answered back then, read this and the securom article and laugh my ass off.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
So for implying that EA are a power-hungry organisation who care more about their image than quality of service, they go ahead and pretty much prove it?
Who the hell is in charge of their PR department?
If EA believe being refererred to as 'The Devil' is bad, they obviously have very little idea of public perception of themselves.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
What I find especially hilarious is the bioware mod response. I bolded the interesting parts
"Please review the EA Community Terms of Service, particularly sections #9 and #11. There are two levels of enforcement here:
1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.
2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.
Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow.
If there are further questions or concerns, please send them to me via private message. Thank you.
End of line."
So he accuses Bioware of selling it's soul to EA, and gets banned by the new EA forum system which destroys his ability to play games. Ironic.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
And for just one more layer of irony, the mod's sig says "Be excellent to each other."
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
A ban should always result in the lock down of comunication(forum,PMs,ect) but not the spftware on your game account.
I have a dream, break the chains of copy right oppression! http://zippydsmlee.wordpress.com/2010/05/21/cigital-disobedience/
Copyright infringement is nothing more than civil disobedience to a bad set of laws. Let's renegotiate them.
---
http://zippydsm.deviantart.com/
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
And thus with both a ban and not allowing the gamer to play his LEGALLY BOUGHT game because of his opinion, bioware successfully CONFIRMS his opinion
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
I'm not convinced this was a deliberate action on either EA or Bioware's part. Most likely an unforeseen consequence. Something that should certainly be addressed though.
Andrew Eisen
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
That is my read on the situation. My guess is they did not have 'banned forum account' in the DRM test plan and thus never got to see how the two systems interacted.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
Unforeseen or not, it's a situation that is completely unacceptable and totally the fault of the ridiculous DRM authentication systems in place today. When the pirated version is clearly superior, not to mention free, guess which one people are going to opt for? Oh, and it has SecureROM too, even though Bioware explicitly said it didn't. Nice one, EA.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
No its not the drm. Most companies do not prevent you from installing a game even if you've been banned from the forums. This is a completly different situation altogether.
Re: Sassy BioWare User Gets Ban, Can't Play Dragon Age II
This. Whether EA meant for this authentication scheme to lock forumgoers out or not doesn't really change the fact that the customer is now unable to play his legally-purchased game -- while, AND I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, pirates have no trouble whatsoever playing it.
And of course let's not forget the dramatic irony of BioWare, in cutting off a user's access to a legally-purchased game for suggesting they were "in bed with the EA devil", has very effectively proven his point.
I'm a big fan of BioWare. I'm looking at five of their games on my shelf right now. I've won awards in their design contests and once applied for a job there. I'm hoping they straighten their DRM policy out, because I will not buy another game from them if it includes SecuROM or can be disabled if I criticize EA.