back to article EA coughs to Dragon Age II user ban 'mistake'

EA has responded to the Bioware forum user banned from installing Dragon Age II - by apologising for the "mistake" and reinstating the account. After asking on the forum if BioWare has "sold their souls to the EA devil", user 'Vware' was promptly banned, albeit only on a temporary basis. However, this affected the install of …

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  1. This post has been deleted by its author

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Okay, next question: what was the profanity?

    Sounds like a bunch of shit to me...

  3. PaulR79
    FAIL

    Unbelievable ...

    It starts here then. Be careful on their forums lest they stop you playing a game you physically own. Or in this case ALL games of theirs that you own... A perfect way to discourage piracy, yes?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Grenade

      ALLOW NULL IN THE RUDDY DATABASE!!!!

      They'll clearly never break that ever *sigh*

  4. Cameron Colley

    What was the "profanity"?

    I'll admit to being too lazy to read the original Reg article and links -- what was thw alledged "profanity"?

    1. Piezor

      profanity

      There wasn't any. The user asked if Bioware had sold their soul to the EA devil and that was that. 72 hour ban.

    2. lglethal Silver badge
      Joke

      I think...

      I think it was the word "EA"...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    woof woof

    bark bark bark

  6. Guido Esperanto

    I dont like the precedent this sets

    I also dont like the control that a company can have over its product.

    EA have effectively shown that if they do not like what you say, they will render your PURCHASE obsolete.

    It's scary how they have the power to do that.

    If I tell ford that I think their cars are shit, will they via telemetry disable my car?

    1. bazza Silver badge

      software licenses

      They can try to do it by putting conditions in the software license. However that might be classed as an unfair contract (at least here in the uk). A complaint to the local trading standards officer or a test case in the courts would probably secure a refund and possibly compensation.

      The tricky bit is that compulsory membership does not mean you actually have to contribute to the forum. One is still free to contribute elsewhere.

      On the whole companies would be better off not making forum membership compulsory because their actions to ban users are vulnerable to judicial review probably leading to compensation payouts.

    2. GuyC
      Joke

      Fords

      generally do this of their own accord, without any help via telemetry(or even a remote kill switch)..........not sure I'm joking though!!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    If they remove your product....

    in the UK and Europe at least you can get all your money back in the event that a company removes a product and local laws trump any restrictive contracts, sadly the US consumer is woefully unprotected.

    Steam, EA etc have a strangle hold on US game buyers as the gamer's contracts state that they own nothing but a subscription to use the online services. These services can be removed at a whim and so until someone takes them to court these companies will continue to contract away US consumer rights.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    (untitled)

    Would hope this 'register an account' nonsense only applied to those opting for a Net download purchase. Gawd 'elp us if companies are insisting you have an Internet connection to play a game, or use an application, you bought on disk from a shop. Yes, most immoral to insist on control of customer's property. Ought not be legal.

    1. LINCARD1000
      Terminator

      Problem Being...

      ...that more and more games (on the PC at least) require internet activation, at least to begin with. Then there are the games that tie into Steam, even if you buy them on disk (HL2, Just Cause 2, Fallout NV etc). Then there are companies like Ubisoft who introduced a scheme where you couldn't save progress at all if you were not connected online (Assassins Creed 2). Although I believe Ubisoft later relented a bit on that one, I think...

      Welcome to a brave new world :-(

    2. Liz 1
      Thumb Down

      Gawd 'elp us indeed :-(

      Civilization V, which is supplied as a physical CD, can't be installed without an account on Steam. You are permitted to play it offline, but Steam must be running on your PC.

      The rules seem to change every time I start a new game, in ways that make me suspicious that the code is being changed frequently.

      1. CD001

        Erm...

        ---

        The rules seem to change every time I start a new game, in ways that make me suspicious that the code is being changed frequently.

        ---

        Civ 5 has been heavily patched since it was released - if you go to you Steam library and right-click on your Civ 5 game to bring up the context-sensitive menu, you'll see there's a link to 'news'. The Civ 5 news page contains all the patch notes... the last patch was quite a biggy and changed some of the social policies and techs amongst other things.

    3. CD001

      Yup

      Yup - a BioWare account is required to install Dragon Age 2 even the DVD-based version. You don't need to be online or connected to the account ONCE you've installed it (just means your achievements aren't recorded on their servers basically).

      However - I _think_ that if you have some additional DLC, like the DA2 signature edition content, that content is tied to your BioWare account - so if you DON'T log into your account when playing the game that extra content isn't available (which means any save games you've got with that content aren't available).

      This isn't just a PC-only issue as I understand it - you have to register the PlayStation 3 version with BioWare as well (maybe only if you want to use DLC - not sure) - but it ties your PSN account to your BioWare/EA account.

      This is the wonderful world of copy-protection that we live in now; no longer is a CD key required but that key is registered with an online server - at least there are benefits to using Steam, like Steam Cloud saves and being able to play your games on any PC.

      The only benefit to having an EA account (BioWare accounts ARE EA accounts now) is that if their shitty disk protection system falls over on a game you can download the digital version of any game you've registered (which Steam does as well on many games if you register their CD keys with Steam).

  9. C. P. Cosgrove

    Profanity ?

    Unlike Cameron Colley, I have read the original article in 'The Register' and I am just as puzzled as to where this profanity came in, unless of course, EA are of the Satanist persuasion.

    More seriously there is the problem of banning someone just because their opinions disagree with yours. I am a member of several forums, all of which have conditions and codes of practice. Since I have this weakness for reading the small print, a common thread in all of these terms is banning 'flaming' and offensive contributions but certainly not banning anyone, or their contributions, for disagreeing with the operators' positions.

    It is one thing for the Moderators ( bow, scrape, the Mighty Moderatrix of El Reg ) to pull a thread or a contribution for breach of conditions but another thing to prevent the use of an asset which you have bought. There might be a case for action under the Sale of Goods Acts.

    Guido - please don't slag off Ford. They might get our IPs mixed up and turn off my trusty Mondeo !

    Chris Cosgrove

  10. P Zero
    Pirate

    Purchase/License

    So, paying for a license on an offline item that can be affected by online discourse has led to the offline item being unusable. I'd get a refund and then some.

    Furthermore, if they don't want people to pirate their goods, why treat the average consumer as a registered sex offender. Stuck on their list, can only do what they say.

  11. EvilJason
    FAIL

    This shows....

    That the pirate copies end up being the superior product lol

    But it raises an interesting question.

    What happens in years to come when EA no longer wants to keep the support servers up and running will they release a patch that allows install without been online or just kill the ability of people to install or even play the game anymore?

    It has happen games that there multiplayer servers on consoles where after 2 years or less they kill the multiplayer servers and you can't play online anymore. Interestingly enough they do this after a new version of that game comes out primarily sports titles.

  12. Heff
    Thumb Down

    dipshits

    the mistake was having EA rush this cobbled together, repetitive, unworthy, 'Konsole Kidz' sequel and then expecting people not to be pissed about it.

    its juat another example of how the purchase of media has changed; doesnt work? you cant take it back to the shop. Dont like it? you cant say anything or its not yours anymore. want to sell it on after you've used it? licensing and registration keys ensure 100% depreciation as soon as you register online. these things would perhaps not be so irritating were they charging us less for a digital distribution, but often its in fact MORE than a hardcopy in a store (how can I buy a hardcopy of DA2 for $40, in a lit, heated store, employing 2 guys, but if I wanted to buy it online its $50 or $60 for a Direct Download?)

    thee's not a single other product on the face of the earth as divorced from consumer rights as digital media has become and distribution and publishing companies are surprised there's piracy?

  13. The Original Ash
    FAIL

    We all knew they could do this

    Yet we still paid full whack for their rentware.

    Ah, sorry. By "we" I mean "you" as I'm not buying it for exactly this reason.

  14. David Cantrell
    Thumb Up

    Pointless title, which must contain letters and/or digits.

    Stopping someone from playing a stupid video game is good for them. Hurrah for Bioware! Now go and play cricket or chess or cribbage with actual real-life friends. If you have any.

    1. IsJustabloke
      FAIL

      I refuse to enoble a simple forum post!

      Just because someone plays a video game doesn't automatically make them friendless nerd. Your post says more about you than anythign I can say about playing video games does about me....

      OT. I've not bought DAII mainly cos its not my kind of game but I stopped buying EA related products a long time ago because they were largely crap.

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