EA forum moderator threatens game ban on members
Category: Industry, Posted: 10/30/2008 at 08:12PM EDT by Frank Ling, Content Contributor
If you own the games Spore or Command & Conquer Red Alert 3 and have been a malcontent on the associated forums, an EA forum moderator says that you may not only be banned from forum activity, but you could be banned from the games that are linked to your Master EA Account.
EA forum moderator eaapoc stated:
"Your forum account will be directly tied to your Master EA Account, so if we ban you on the forums, you would be banned from the game as well since the login process is the same. And you'd actually be banned from your other EA games as well since its all tied to your account. So if you have SPORE and Red Alert 3 and you get yourself banned on our forums or in-game, well, your SPORE account would be banned to. It's all one in the same, so I strongly recommend people play nice and act mature."
This is not the first occurrence about the threat of banning of individuals from their game accounts due to inappropriate forum behavior. When the controversy about the DRM (digital rights management) scheme on Spore surfaced, many Spore forum members complained about it.
During these incidents, a forum moderator responded by threatening to ban members who discussed the topic. EA later clarified its position and said that the moderator was out of bounds and "absolutely not true or in-line with EA's moderation policy."
One EA forum member, Faylor, challenged the legality of such a ban by saying:
"I can understand removing a user's posting privileges--I'm sure this has already happened multiple times--but the idea that there aren't varying levels of privileges--ie, separate posting and game access--to these accounts is an obscene oversight.
"The implications of preventing owners from playing the $50 game they legitimately bought because of something they posted on the forums are mind boggling, and I really, really can't see this policy flying once the press runs with it and the higher-ups are made aware."
This recent attempt by forum moderator eaapoc to take things into his or her own hands will no doubt, be disciplined for threatening EA forum members and trying to set company policy.
[via shacknews]
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So I would start seperating your accounts between games then, also thats just dumb that a forum ban could result in a game ban, sounds like power trippin mods to me.
To bad all the flamers on the Spore forums are mentally retarded, that I think the forums should just be shut down. The idiots are complaining about the functionality of Securom and DRM that they don't understand EA never developed that technology, they just implement it.
EA at it again, thet'll really make sure everyone hates them
before anyone complains please read here http://forums.ea.com/mboards/thread.jspa?threadID=457006&tstart=0
it was a misunderstanding, short quote from forum
"That said, the previous statement I made recently (that's being quoted on the blogs) was inaccurate and a mistake on my part. I had a misunderstanding with regards to our new upcoming forums and website and never meant to infer that if we ban or suspend you on the forums, you would be banned in-game as well. This is not correct, my mistake, my bad.
If we suspend or ban you from the forums, that does not affect your in-game account and certainly it does not impact your in-game account for other games. Quite often we usually warn you before taking any type of action, suspend you before considering any type of ban, etc. I am sure you guys know that we are fairly tolerant and stress that you please show respect to others, but we also understand the forums are a place to be heard and express your opinion in a constructive manner. Everyone has their "flame" moments."
Yes. Quick resolution. Excellent. But if you look up one paragraph from that quote, you'll see he mentions a run-in with "the blogging media". That's places like Shacknews, Kotaku, and Gamernode. So GN deserves some credit in bringing this out and getting it resolved. If you read APOC's original post, there is no confusion. He flatly states that he has that kind of power, and was probably loving it. We brought him crashing down to Earth where he belongs.
Let's organize a massive EA boycott with a list of demands.
fuck EA in thier greasy hairy arsehole.
Mod deserves to be fired then sent to the chans due to no one else hiring him.