http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/12/05/ea-origin-bans-update-edition/
I'm building up quite the portfolio of affected gamers, who find after a forum violation they're unable to access their Origin games. And within this is a more disturbing trend – those who are finding that their forum bans are, without explanation, becoming permanent bans. Permanent bans from accessing their Origin accounts, their Battlelog accounts, and therefore downloading purchased games, and playing online. Something which obviously raises serious questions about consumer rights, which is of course another angle we're currently investigating.
The pattern tends to go like this:
Person says a naughty word on an EA forum.
Person receives 72 hour ban from forums, which blocks Origin too.
Person contacts EA customer support and is told "tough".
Person writes to RPS.With the occasional addition of:
Person finds their ban has become permanent with no warning, and no option to appeal.
Of those people who contact us, we tend to get two types. The first who write invective-speckled fury on the forum, and then to us, and obviously entirely deserve their forum bans. The second are those who have done absolutely nothing wrong on the forums, but are punished erroneously, either for quoting an insult someone else has called them, or doing nothing offensive whatsoever. But neither group, according to EA's words to us in March, should be being banned from Origin or accessing their games. A statement, however, that EA doesn't appear willing to repeat nine months on.
So there's Rob, who was accused of posting a commercial to his support site – a site that EA links to itself in its own support site FAQ – who received a ban. And James, permanently banned (until his account mysteriously popped back to life recently, with no communication from anyone) for saying "e-peen". We've heard from Alex, who put a sweary joke on the forum, not directed at anyone, and found himself locked out of his games. Toma got in touch to say that after previous bans for what sound like entirely unacceptable forum posts, months later he has now found himself banned because of his Gravatar logo – a Reddit troll face. Buh? Pointing out that one of the main devs at EA uses the Me Gusta face got nowhere, and he has been told he'll learn of his account's fate in seven days, so certainly longer than the traditional 72 hour ban, potentially permanent.
Most exceptional perhaps is Aaron, who after receiving a 72 hour ban was told by EA support they couldn't help because "the game developers control this". Pardon? His crime? Someone else swearing on the forum, with his username in their post. Trying the live chat support instead, he was then informed that his account was permanently banned, and that "all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted." Followed by, "Is there anything else I can do for you?" Aaron tried again, pointing out that forum bans shouldn't affect games. And then came this incredible reply:
"Please be informed that your account not only suspended, But it is also Banned, So you will no longer to play the game in single player."
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.328868-EA-now-issuing-permanent-Origin-bans-through-content-filter?page=1
So, not only do they ban you from accessing the games you paid full price for if you break their forum rules, but sometimes it is completely unjustified. Someone swearing with your name in THEIR post is somehow your fault. And, if you contact EA for an explanation, you get a "tough luck", a sudden perma ban and lose the ability to ever play your games even in singleplayer.
Think about it. Imagine if someone posted "godamn it F*** you Ravenloud" on the steam forums and suddenly I won't be able to play Counter Strike, Team Forteress 2, Portal 2 or any valve games in my library, even if I bought them on disk!
Plus
Get auto-suspended from BF3 forums based on their content filter? Had that suspension result in your account deleted and characters terminated (according to Abdul in support)?
BONUS! The ban also will wipe out your access to Bad Company 2, even if you bought it through Steam like I did!
-From escapist link above
This is a utter insult in the face of consumers. It's "you're paying for a license" accompanied with a massive middle finger while dancing in front your face with a rickrolling trollface.jpg.
Why should anyone buy any of EA's games with their non existant customer support and disturbingly milked franchises anyway?
(Getting this post up was a complete struggle against HTML errors, apparently the escapist link just won't work no matter what due to some characters in it, GlitchSpot I am dissapoint :evil: )
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