Lately, EA has been getting all sorts attention – the wrong kind, mind you – over its forum policies. Because EA forum logins are tied to game ID’s, those who get banned from the forums have been getting permanently locked out of the games that they’ve bought through digital services like Steam and Origin. That’s not cool.
It doesn’t seem like EA’s intent on fixing that any time soon. In fact, the problem’s getting worse.
It looks like EA’s started using a content filter to initiate its bans – leading to some rather trouble, unwarranted shut outs, and quite possibly, a whole lot of trolling. As spotted on Reddit, a gamer by the name of Aaron has now been banned from his games because somebody else swore. A fellow forumite hurled text-based abuse at Aaron, including his username at the end. Rather than use logic, and ban the offender, the system went and banned Aaron instead. He’s now been locked out of Battlefield 3 and Bad Company 2 – games he’s paid for. It doesn;t really matter whether Aaron himself swore or not on the forums. If he did, he should be banned from the forums – not for games he’s rightly purchased a licence to play.
This is increasingly becoming a problem with digital distribution; You no longer own any of the things you buy. If the server disappears or, as is the case with Aaron, you get banned for no good reason, you’ve effectively been swindled.
Here’s a tip though; stay the hell away from EA’s forums.
Last Updated: December 6, 2011