How saying bad things can keep you from playing Dragon Age II

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**Slarg232**

Copied from Facebook App:

It appears that a Bioware fan has been temporarily halted from playing his copy of Dragon Age II after copping a forum suspension. Which is weird since, you know, Dragon Age II is a singleplayer game.

According to a post on the Bioware forums, user v_ware had his account suspended for a period of 72 hours for allegedly saying "Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?". Whether that's actually what he said, or that's all he said, we're not here to judge. We're not forum referees, and what caused the ban is beside the point.

What does interest us, though, is that because v_ware's forum account is linked to his EA Store account, the ban not only stopped him from downloading content for his new game, it apparently prevented him from installing and then playing his new copy of Dragon Age II at all.

BioWare community rep Stanley Woo wrote in response to v_ware's complaint:

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.

Sure, the ban is a temporary one. It's not like he can't ever play the game. But since when did it become acceptable to stop a person playing a singleplayer game for their conduct in a forum?

A similar issue popped up back in 2008, but then, we were explicitly told by Electronic Arts that "Players who have been banned from EA Forums are not automatically banned from online access to their other EA games".

Woo's comments (and v_ware's complaint) that "these bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC" seem to contradict EA's earlier assertions.

Granted, this is a unique situation. v_ware is being prevented from installing his game because he bought it from EA's own store, meaning it requires account authentication; had the game already been installed, then he'd be able to play it and there'd be no issue. So it's not like this is going to happen to people on a regular basis.

The fact it can happen at all though raises questions over the level of control a publisher has over a gamer's "property". Had the player been suspended from an online game for his conduct in said game, then that would be seen by most as acceptable. It's a relevant punishment.

But restricting access to a singleplayer, offline game, even in an incidental situation like this, is a problem. EA's consolidation of online accounts can be a good thing in some cases (I appreciate the convenience of EA Sports games knowing who I am because of my gamertag), but in cases like this, it's also a cause for concern.

Not to mention serving as an example, if ever one was needed, that in 2011 a video game is never truly and 100% your property.

We've contacted EA and BioWare for clarification on the policies regarding forum bans and game access, and will update if we hear back.

It's stuff like this that makes me buy discs, not online.

**Melissia**

Reminds me of Blizzard banning people for cheating in single player in their latest starcrap game.

**metallifan**

I can't believe it. EA disgusts me. If it weren't for Bioware, I'd never give EA another cent. Banning someone from installing their game because they said EA sucks? Let's face it, that's not opinion. It's pretty much fact here. If it weren't for the fact that EA's head office is made of gold thanks to them owning nearly all of the royal families of the game development world, they would never -dream- of crapping all over their consumers like this.

Hell, I remember the mid 90's when EA was the underdog - When they were 'Activision' before Activision completely blew. EA practically made all their money selling sports franchise games, because they couldn't afford to buy out the developers of the more popular titles. Now everything they touch gets an added suck factor because they know that they can sell utter crap and still make a killing thanks to owning the rights to games that were awesome in their hayday.

People see a well-known name (Battlefield, Medal of Honor, The Sims, etc...) and buy the game thinking it'll be great, like the older games. And while many of them are playable, there's always that unavoidable "What a steaming pile of crap" element to something (or, in the case of MoH - everything) in the game that just turns people right off. And yet, we hope for the best every time a new title comes out, and buy it with excitement. In some rare occasions, we get our wish. But for the most part, it's as I've described - mediocre titles that differ little (if at all) from their earlier 'EA-ified' predecessors.

Thankfully, while Bioware's plots are predictable and their characters are recycled, they've at least managed to keep the prying, ruinous fingers of EA out of their product. But for how long?

Once they're gone, I doubt there'll be any reason for me to buy much else from EA. At least if other companies screw up, they'll admit it.

**Kanluwen**

Quite frankly: this is awesome.

I love it. If you're going to be an idiot and get a forum ban for ragging on a game you've yet to install, this is one of the single greatest consequences I've seen yet.

But yeah. First thing you see upon installing/playing the game is a big "To fully utilize this game, you need to be connected to the EA Network." and it promptly tells you that the game falls under the umbrella of the EULA for the EA Network.

**case013**

E A sports its in the game. freaking jerks

**thedude**

For all we know it could be some idiot who couldnt figure out how to install the game properly, although that said I would not be surprised in the least to find out this is an accurate account of what happened. I have had a personal animosity toward EA since I got Spore came across the whole rootkit DRM fiasco

**metallifan**

Pretty sure not being able to log into your EADM is very, very different from just being to dumb to keep clicking "Next" on an installer.

**Kanluwen**

metallifan wrote:Pretty sure not being able to log into your EADM is very, very different from just being to dumb to keep clicking "Next" on an installer.

But again: it's not like it's rocket science to realize that if you get banned from the EA Community sites and you attempt to install a game where one of the first things they do is ask you to connect to the EA Community and register your game--you're going to have issues

**metallifan**

Well that's generally a given. Though some D2D services with a forum can ban you on the forums without affecting your use of whatever platform installer they use.

**Kanluwen**

Yeah, which I feel is too nice.

Plus there's the irony factor here.

The guy was telling people that they "sold their souls to Satan"(EA) to play the game.

Banned from installing it, who's he gotta cry to?

**metallifan**

I think he was asking Bioware if they've sold their souls to the EA devil.

Otherwise, buying the game, asking people if they've sold their souls to the EA devil for buying the game, and then complaining when you can't play the game yourself because you've been banned...

Now that's just silly. That would never happen on the internet.

**case013**

because we all know what a nice and respectable place the internet is

**Kanluwen**

You know the funniest part?

I read BioWare's response to this on Twitter--and the guy had asked other players if they "sold their souls to the devil" for it.

He was banned, and was trying to play it on a console

**Requia**

Well, I suppose this confirms that EA is gonna pull the same BS they did last time and keep me from playing with no net connection on my XBox.

**Kanluwen**

Nope.

You just can't play using DLC.

**Requia**

Which will be at least 1/5th of the game, in any EA title.

**Kanluwen**

You mean in any title period these days.

But, it's not like they won't make the DLC available down the road as a disc.

**case013**

sometimes its like they didnt even finish the game they just said screw it lets release it now then make em pay for the rest of it later

**Requia**

that stuff doesn't bug me nearly as much as the 'free' DLC that's meant to screw people over if they deal in the used game market.

**metallifan**

Requia wrote:that stuff doesn't bug me nearly as much as the 'free' DLC that's meant to screw people over if they deal in the used game market.

*COUGH*CerberusNetwork*COUGH*EA'SFIRSTGROPEOFBIOWARE'SSMOOTH,UNMOLESTEDFLESH*COUGH* Sorry, I've got this terrible cold...

**Kanluwen**

Requia wrote:that stuff doesn't bug me nearly as much as the 'free' DLC that's meant to screw people over if they deal in the used game market.

Honestly?

I'm fine with that. It's not so much that it "screws people over" if they buy a used game.

It's that it screws over places like GameStop.

Anything that screws over GameStop is a good thing in my book.

**Asherian Command**

"Have you sold your soul to the EA devils?"

What an idiot. *wipes tear away* This has to be one of the dumbest people in history this guy should get a idiot of the week award.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Please excuse my ignorance.

Did he buy a copy of the game and then was unable to use it?

Is saying waht he allegedly said really so detrimental to a corporation that it warrants such action?

I assume the ban is temporary and he will be able to access the game?

It seems rather draconian to me (pun intended)
I am not a gamer so this is baffling to my unititiated eyes.

**case013**

he said something stupid and got a fairly stupid reaction.

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Hmmm
If everyone got banned because they said something stupid, it would be the end of civilisation as we know it!

We don't know what was said and in what context.
He may have been intending malice or he may have been making an ironic statement.

Cripes and lawks a lummee I have just thought of all the negative things I have said online about GW!!!
The Inquisition man cometh and the Inquistion man taketh away!

**Kanluwen**

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:Please excuse my ignorance.

Did he buy a copy of the game and then was unable to use it?

Is saying waht he allegedly said really so detrimental to a corporation that it warrants such action?

I assume the ban is temporary and he will be able to access the game?

It seems rather draconian to me (pun intended)
I am not a gamer so this is baffling to my unititiated eyes.

What he said was in violation of EA Community rules.

Said game has DLC/online features that fall under the auspice of the EA Community Rules.

He was banned from using EA Community; thus could not use the EA Community features for said game.

It's like getting forum banned for being a douchenozzle in Blizzard's Warcraft forums and being unable to post on any of their Battle.Net associated forums.

**Requia**

Not quite, dragon age is a single player game. There is not one single legitimate reason for EA to have the ability to shut the game off.

**metallifan**

However, the difference in that example being that you can tell Blizzard they suck, right to their faces, and they'll begrudgingly admit it, because they know it's true.

**Kanluwen**

Requia wrote:Not quite, dragon age is a single player game. There is not one single legitimate reason for EA to have the ability to shut the game off.

They don't. They shut off the DLC.

If your saved game features DLC, well tough crap. You should have thought of that before you broke the EULA

**Chibi Bodge-Battle**

Thanks Kanners. I understood that
Though tbh surely criticising a company that size will have zip effect. It appears unduly censorious to me. (Assuming any alledged criticism was not using offensive language.)

But am I correct in thinking this game was not a MMORPG?
I don't quite get how it should affect a solo player game bought for private use.