EA might take my games away?

[Dionysos]

Dependencies like these are always going to be abused by those in power. But I guess people don't care enough, or it wouldn't work...

[Ark11]

Egypt and Tunisia have risen up, why doesn't the gaming community over throw the EA dictatorship!

you lead the way

Alright, just let me get something: *unlocks gun cabinet containing .308 Caliber Rifle with 36x Scope and 40mm Ninja Deathstar Flak Cannon Attachment* : Ok I'm ready lets go!

[ErikKiller]

Pretty sure not all of them are evil hungry beasts.

That's what they check first when you want to get a job there

[oliilo1]

But really people, does ONE pissed off moderator stand for the whole company?
I mean, they have about... 8,000 employees (Go Wikipedia!)
Pretty sure not all of them are evil hungry beasts.

I would assume its standard procedure to ban people from the forums when they use inappropriate language and the likes.
Which is reasonable.

However, seems like their "cover story" is that the system glitched, and that it turned a forum ban into a game ban as well.
I've had bad experiences with EA, so I don't believe it.

[marks]

I'm skeptical that its a technical error - although don't forget that they do happen. I just think it's a little too convenient.

[Ashfall_2008]

EA are the evil empire of the games industry. Take any innovative games company that creates a popular title and they are instantly swallowed up by this horrid giant and never heard from again.

They rip off gamers by releasing yearly updates to sports console games which should actually just be patches these days to the existing game (now that consoles are online etc..) and destroy innovation whereever it sprouts up.

The kings of the modern game franchises and lets face it games used to be a shit load better before EA became huge.

Thank god for Valve!

[MayheM]

Wow that is crazy, but the short answer to your question coder would be...

The courts would quickly rule against EA if they banned someone permanently for something like that. If it where for cheating or hacking, I could see them being justified, maybe. But a judge would laugh this right out of court. There is no law prohibiting someone from calling you names. And no laws in place regulating what can and can not be said on forums. They may have justification for banning them from the forums, but not the game. Since forums are free, while the game was payed for to ban the player from the game permanently would be on a par with say, theft...

Ok not as short as i thought it would be...

As far as the sports games, while some of the differences between versions are minor, many of those games have taken vast jumps in gameplay and graphics. Besides, I seem to have missed the time when companies made games and gave them away. I was always under the impression they tried to make a profit. I mean, I guess with the millions of people willing to work for free so that you can play your game at no cost it should be that way... Come on man... Many of the people on these forums are working to get into the industry. Companies can not hire them if they are giving shit away.

[marks]

There is no law prohibiting someone from calling you names.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defamation

And no laws in place regulating what can and can not be said on forums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel#Libel

They may have justification for banning them from the forums, but not the game.

Errr, yes they can, it says so in their EULA - the legal contract you agree to when you install EA's games.

And there’s no doubt that they can do this. It certainly does state this in the EA terms. They, without question, reserve the right to take away your access to games you’ve bought at their discretion, and no refund will be offered.

And here where the US 9th court upheld EULA's legitimacy in Autodesk's favour, which is basically precedent-setting: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news ... censes.ars

[MayheM]

Really? Come on Marks... Ok lets say the defense does in fact see this case on the merits of either Defamation of Character or Libel. In order for that case to be won, one would have to argue, and prove, that the person was actually saying they are the devil and not being figurative and that is for Libel. It is even more ridiculous for Defamation. One would have to prove that after reading someones post of "EA is the devil", someones view of EA was changed in a negative light. There is freaking way that would ever be heard in court. Now... If someone posted the EA CEO i a child molester, then yes... those laws come into play. But you know better than to think that calling someone the devil would actually fall under those laws.

As for the EULA, it actually says in it that if you say something we do not like on our forums we hold the right to ban you for life? Plus contracts like that are subject to being overturned in the courts. Just like I sign a contract when I moved into my apartment which states I am knowingly moving into a building that could have asbestos in it. If I was to get sick and go to sue, they would not instantly throw it out of court because of what I signed.

The court case you posted has little to do with this. Since, the person is not attempting to resell the game. They do not have the right to do that. But they have the right to play the game that payed for.

All that aside, if you don't like EA or think they are the devil, then don't buy their games. I for one enjoy playing Dragons Age II and feel it was worth the money I payed.

[cz_squishy]

EA is the devil

Only speaking the truth

[nub]

EA is just a mega corporation that exists only to capitalize on the gaming industry, but it's just something we have to live with.

I hate EA far less than I hate Craptivision though.

[Ashfall_2008]

OK.. I agree that the games industry is of course there to make money but its very much like the music industry in some respects.
You have a bunch of talented artists out there who want to get their content out to the world and you have the publishing companies who, by exercising their distribution power control the content. Games cost money to make. They always have but if you look around the mod community you can find a whole host of titles that really didn't cost anything more than peoples time and effort.

I am very happy to pay for a game to recognise that. What I'm not happy to do is fork out cash to a publishing firm who give nothing back to the gaming community.

Valve act as both publisher and content provider so they are in the wonderful position of actually giving a crap if the quality of the content represents value for money. EA have no interest in this. EA are only interested in squeezing as much money out of gamers as they possibly can.

Much as I hate sport games, what pisses me off is the fact that soccer nerds are forced to pay for a title the following year just to get the team rosters, kits and stats updated for a game they already own.

If you're re-writing the engine, fine.. fair enough its a new game but a simple stats patch shouldn't represent a whole new purchase. An expansion pack at half the cost of the original game, perhaps!

Add to this the soaring costs of games production these days which has been entirly created by the publishing megacorps. It's the reason that fantastic games like "No One Lives Forever" or "Syndicate" simply won't get made these days. The megacorps aren't interested in taking risks with all their huge resources to foster innovative game design. They simply want to milk the same old tired formats for all their worth.

That's what makes EA evil in my opinion...

[marks]

...if you look around the mod community you can find a whole host of titles that really didn't cost anything more than peoples time and effort.

1) Talented people's time and effort is generally worth a lot - thats why senior positions in industry pay out a lot of money.

2) Cost nothing else? What about all the pirated software which is used to make the game (which I can assure you is the case in the vast majority of cases). Much as I don't want to be on the "omg piracy is awful" side of the fence on this issue - licensed software costs money.

3) Mods have nowhere near the production values of retail games. There are very, very few exceptions to this.

[poisonic]

Pretty sure not all of them are evil hungry beasts.

Evil Antichrist

[Ashfall_2008]

...if you look around the mod community you can find a whole host of titles that really didn't cost anything more than peoples time and effort.

1) Talented people's time and effort is generally worth a lot - thats why senior positions in industry pay out a lot of money.

2) Cost nothing else? What about all the pirated software which is used to make the game (which I can assure you is the case in the vast majority of cases). Much as I don't want to be on the "omg piracy is awful" side of the fence on this issue - licensed software costs money.

3) Mods have nowhere near the production values of retail games. There are very, very few exceptions to this.

Hahaha so by your reckoning... everyone who mods on this forum is a software pirate???
Considering you have to own the original game to play a mod I fail to see how that holds up!