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POLL: What are you doing EA?!
  • Current rank: 2 Stars. Next Rank at 1000 Posts.
    Send a message to Shotgunmaniac
    CHEATMASTER
    Shotgunmaniac posted on Dec 08, 2011 1:13:50 AM - Report post
     
    EA's honestly been getting a bit of a god-complex since around when Xbox Live first came into service. "Our games can't use Xbox Live, they simply can't! Not if we can't have complete control over the servers and the users, no, that won't work!" Microsoft still kind-of held their ground and made EA supply their own servers but use XBL for friends lists/reports of cheating, etc. - but EA could still ban your EA account, and still shuts down the servers for their games after about two years, usually on sports games. Yeah, if you try to argue that it's because it costs oh-so-much money and that it's because "better" versions have come out... Well, okay, I doubt anyone is going to take that stance, but that's EA's statement every time - when even games that don't have yearly installments of the same type with no plot (Army of Two, Need for Speed) get shut down, it's pretty obvious that they're just trying to get people to buy the sequel/newest version. Not to mention their servers are usually crap at launch and can't handle any significant number of concurrent players until they're "updated."

    The bans from Origin are well in line with EA's thinking, and I doubt it's about to change due to public outcry. I mean, we're talking about the service that had a clause in its EULA that let it look at your hard drive. They're also investing a pretty penny in The Old Republic - these kinds of bans (eg: at any whim a developer or moderator has) are the norm with MMOs, so if they can keep any really significant action on the part of the users or someone wrongfully banned with the stones to hire a lawyer until launch, they'll simply be able to point to the fact that Origin is used for an MMO, and that Blizzard has a similar banning clause - thus, they're just protecting the entire service with the industry standard!

    I think it's also worth mentioning that the banning for forum posts happened with DA2 as well, and they were reverted since it was a "system error" that BioWare forum bans also applied to EA accounts, but in this case, one of the guys that got press for being banned on the forums got banned for a thread about rational, calm criticism of Dragon Age II. That was locked before anyone else could post in it and thus quote him with a swear.

    And, doubly worth mentioning: last I checked, their updated EULA does not change the part where they can invalidate the keys for your games on your Origin account after a period of inactivity. For the old EADM it was 6 months, now I don't know if there actually is a required timeframe - but I do know that I purchased The Saboteur through EADM (which transferred to Origin and used the same account email) when it was released, and when I got into the BF3 Alpha it was magically invalidated, along with my BF2 microexpansions. The latter were patched into the game for free anyway, but when I contacted EA support, they pointed me to that section of the EULA, and promptly told me to off in a somewhat polite manner, as the keys had not recently been activated and were thus "retired." They wouldn't even remove the games from my account, so they just sit there, taunting me. I can even download them, but not play.

    I'm not terribly broken up over it, though. I know the people at my credit union quite well, and I asked them if it was possible to dispute a charge as fraudulent after over a year. Turns out, (varies by bank/union of course) they will, and the companies are legally bound to inform them of the transaction and current state if possible. Good luck stealing my money again, EA.
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    Send a message to Mirraluka
    VETERAN
    Mirraluka posted on Dec 08, 2011 6:31:17 AM - Report post
     
    quote:
    originally posted by Shotgunmaniac

    EA's honestly been getting a bit of a god-complex since around when Xbox Live first came into service. "Our games can't use Xbox Live, they simply can't! Not if we can't have complete control over the servers and the users, no, that won't work!" Microsoft still kind-of held their ground and made EA supply their own servers but use XBL for friends lists/reports of cheating, etc. - but EA could still ban your EA account, and still shuts down the servers for their games after about two years, usually on sports games. Yeah, if you try to argue that it's because it costs oh-so-much money and that it's because "better" versions have come out... Well, okay, I doubt anyone is going to take that stance, but that's EA's statement every time - when even games that don't have yearly installments of the same type with no plot (Army of Two, Need for Speed) get shut down, it's pretty obvious that they're just trying to get people to buy the sequel/newest version. Not to mention their servers are usually crap at launch and can't handle any significant number of concurrent players until they're "updated."

    The bans from Origin are well in line with EA's thinking, and I doubt it's about to change due to public outcry. I mean, we're talking about the service that had a clause in its EULA that let it look at your hard drive. They're also investing a pretty penny in The Old Republic - these kinds of bans (eg: at any whim a developer or moderator has) are the norm with MMOs, so if they can keep any really significant action on the part of the users or someone wrongfully banned with the stones to hire a lawyer until launch, they'll simply be able to point to the fact that Origin is used for an MMO, and that Blizzard has a similar banning clause - thus, they're just protecting the entire service with the industry standard!

    I think it's also worth mentioning that the banning for forum posts happened with DA2 as well, and they were reverted since it was a "system error" that BioWare forum bans also applied to EA accounts, but in this case, one of the guys that got press for being banned on the forums got banned for a thread about rational, calm criticism of Dragon Age II. That was locked before anyone else could post in it and thus quote him with a swear.

    And, doubly worth mentioning: last I checked, their updated EULA does not change the part where they can invalidate the keys for your games on your Origin account after a period of inactivity. For the old EADM it was 6 months, now I don't know if there actually is a required timeframe - but I do know that I purchased The Saboteur through EADM (which transferred to Origin and used the same account email) when it was released, and when I got into the BF3 Alpha it was magically invalidated, along with my BF2 microexpansions. The latter were patched into the game for free anyway, but when I contacted EA support, they pointed me to that section of the EULA, and promptly told me to off in a somewhat polite manner, as the keys had not recently been activated and were thus "retired." They wouldn't even remove the games from my account, so they just sit there, taunting me. I can even download them, but not play.

    I'm not terribly broken up over it, though. I know the people at my credit union quite well, and I asked them if it was possible to dispute a charge as fraudulent after over a year. Turns out, (varies by bank/union of course) they will, and the companies are legally bound to inform them of the transaction and current state if possible. Good luck stealing my money again, EA.

    On reading this last paragraph and i know this might sound sad to some members but i am so glad i do not play games on-line or download games to my hard drive, i only use disc's that i have purchased via a store,i have had one situation similar to the last paragraph, thats when i was a yearly paid member with IGN i had not used IGN for over a year and i had cancelled my subscription, i kept all my contact details to and from IGN,so one day about 8 months ago my wife noticed an amount of money had gone out from my credit card account and low and behold IGN had taken another years subscription (this was after i had cancelled my account),so then i got on to my credit card company sent them all the communications i had done with IGN and bingo after 4 weeks i got a full refund to my account and all i did was give the details to my bank,so folks if you can always pay for things on-line via your credit card thats if you have got one off course,also the message is when you pay via credit card these people keep your details on file just to do what they did to me,sorry for the long explanation,i hope it helps some members in the future.

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