The story currently unfolding in terms of Origin / Forum bans:-

March this year: It is discovered that if someone gets banned from the EA forums, they get banned from using their registered games. EA makes a statement to the effect that it is intentional. Shortly afterwards, EA retracts their previous statement that it was intentional and say the system "had an error" and that it since has been fixed.

This month: It is discovered that EA's forum bans are STILL affecting games, and users are getting permabanned for supposedly minor offences. EA obfuscates the issue with a confusingly worded statement that doesn't directly address the issue.

Next month: Christmas and the release of SW:TOR.

I believe late last year people were claiming that EA's EULA was heavy handed even for a game's developer / publisher and that it had some interesting turns of phrase. When these were pointed out, some immediately said they were unacceptable and unthinkable even in a legal protection sense and others said they'd never get used. The latter has since been proven wrong, although whether that's intentional or not has yet to be seen.

This is extremely bad PR for EA, especially since, next month, we've got the rather obvious release of their first real flagship MMO. These policies will not necessarily be used for SW:TOR (and let's all hope not) but it's still got potential of showing a distinct vendor / consumer relationship with EA.

What do you all think? Does this affect your opinion of EA? If so, does it affect your opinion of SW:TOR? Does that lead on to the potential of you purchasing it?

TBH I think forum asshats should be banned from services be it the boards or the games. But that's just me.

Yea, it's very stupid, this is why Steam forum accounts are separate from your Steam client account.

[Mod Edit]

Simple solution,  Don't be an ass on the forums?

Why would I post on the EA forums?

Bioware has their own and they're quite reasonable.

Don't be an ass and you won't get banned from any forums.

Non-issue.

Originally posted by sigurd57

Simple solution,  Don't be an ass on the forums?

One of the guys was banned for QUOTING a guy saying "e-peen".

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Why would I post on the EA forums?

Bioware has their own and they're quite reasonable.

Don't be an ass and you won't get banned from any forums.

Non-issue.

I am not really broken up by jerks being banned from playing. If anything the game community will improve.  

Originally posted by ArEf

Originally posted by sigurd57

Simple solution,  Don't be an ass on the forums?

One of the guys was banned for QUOTING a guy saying "e-peen".

Was his ban overturned?

Originally posted by Distopia

Originally posted by ArEf

Originally posted by sigurd57

Simple solution,  Don't be an ass on the forums?

One of the guys was banned for QUOTING a guy saying "e-peen".

Was his ban overturned?

As far as we can tell, no. Nothing's happened, yet.

EDIT: I should also talk about EA's customer support system, which has such a bad case of Catch-22 I'm shocked anyone there is actually sane.

So to be clear here the game bans only apply to games that require origin to play. The ban is from your Origin account, not each specific game. So if you are banned from Origin you can't access the games that that account has access to. Since SWTOR doesn't require Origin to play it shouldn't (hopefully) affect SWTOR.

Yet another reason not to buy games on Origin or games that require Origin. Personally I'll just continue steer clear of the EA forums and not use Origin.

That being said this is an absolutely ridiculous business practice. It's getting a fair amount of press coverage so hopefully they will be pressured enough to change it.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun is doing an excellent job covering this and following up with EA. So far EA is not giving them a straight answer though.

Edit: I just realized that your SWTOR account and your EA account are one and the same. This would probably invalidate everything I just posted here!  We will have to see what happens I guess. Some news sites are really trying to get to the bottom of this.

Originally posted by zymurgeist
[Mod Edit]

What he's talking about is the initial issue that happened back in March. The first article was a user of Bioware's forums that this happened to. Now that I think about it your Bioware account and your EA account are one and the same now. If you change your SWTOR password it changes your Origin password as well. 

Even though I just posted that this might not affect your SWTOR access, I may need to reconsider that as the two appear to be linked. 

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Why would I post on the EA forums?

Bioware has their own and they're quite reasonable.

Don't be an ass and you won't get banned from any forums.

Non-issue.

“1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.

2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.

Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow.”

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Originally posted by ArEf

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Why would I post on the EA forums?

Bioware has their own and they're quite reasonable.

Don't be an ass and you won't get banned from any forums.

Non-issue.

You do realise this also covers the BioWare forums, too? And the BioWare social network (or whatever that's called)?

Maybe read the articles before posting something ignorant?

 And now you're just FoS (edited). Bioware handles their own forums.

Seconded.

   And besides, I am *all for* in-game banning if people are idiots on the game forums. How they want to set their standards for forum bans is up to them. If you don't like it, for god's sakes only post on MMORPG.com (plug) or some other indirectly affiliated site & not the developer's forums (unless you are going to behave in a professional manner.

  If you don't like that, vote with your pocketbooks. God knows, I vote with MY pocketbook when a game is great but the community is full of bots, goldfarmers, griefers, and A$$hats.

 And for the smartiepants that is saying someone got banned for *quoting* the word "e-peen" ... Well, yeah I personally think that *IS* a bit harsh.. but then again.. *taps pocketbook* HERE is your voting right.... and if you cannot behave respectfully in a place you know you will be punished if you get caught misbehaving (god help us for this being a BFD) ... and cannot resist posting in such a place.. well.. shucks. sux 2 b u.

This problem has a very easy solution. Behave and do not get banned ;)

Originally posted by veratutazz

Seconded.

   And besides, I am *all for* in-game banning if people are idiots on the game forums. How they want to set their standards for forum bans is up to them. If you don't like it, for god's sakes only post on MMORPG.com (plug) or some other indirectly affiliated site & not the developer's forums (unless you are going to behave in a professional manner.

  If you don't like that, vote with your pocketbooks. God knows, I vote with MY pocketbook when a game is great but the community is full of bots, goldfarmers, griefers, and A$$hats.

 And for the smartiepants that is saying someone got banned for *quoting* the word "e-peen" ... Well, yeah I personally think that *IS* a bit harsh.. but then again.. *taps pocketbook* HERE is your voting right.... and if you cannot behave respectfully in a place you know you will be punished if you get caught misbehaving (god help us for this being a BFD) ... and cannot resist posting in such a place.. well.. shucks. sux 2 b u.

Look up a post and be ashamed.

Originally posted by ArEf

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Why would I post on the EA forums?

Bioware has their own and they're quite reasonable.

Don't be an ass and you won't get banned from any forums.

Non-issue.

“1. BioWare community bans are forum-only and can be for as little as 24 hours. These bans should have no effect on your game, only your ability to use all the features of this website/community. these bans are handed out by BioWare Moderators as the result of our travels around the forum and/or issues reported by fellow community members.

2. EA Community bans come down from a different department and are the result of someone hitting the REPORT POST button. These bans can affect access to your game and/or DLC.

Because the BioWare community now operates under the same umbrella as all EA Communities, community members here have all explicitly agreed to abide by and be governed by both sets of rules. Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow.”

And again as I orginally said I think people who can't abide by simple rules should reap the consequences be it on forums or games, because they'll do the same in game.

Certain cases not withstanding such as the guy quoting someone else ( if that's the case) that's why mods answer to a higher authority and certain bans will be overturned.

Either way the part in yellow is key, that's the bottomline.

Originally posted by Distopia

TBH I think forum asshats should be banned from services be it the boards or the games. But that's just me.

Might as well take their home and car away from them too eh

I think it's a good practice, maybe it'll make people think about their actions before acting like jerks to others on the forums. Get banned on forums you lose your game access, makes for a better community and enjoyable gameplay experience.

Originally posted by Distopia

And again as I orginally said I think people who can't abide by simple rules should reap the consequences be it on forums or games, because they'll do the same in game.

Certain cases not withstanding such as the guy quoting someone else ( if that's the case) that's why mods answer to a higher authority and certain bans will be overturned.

Either way the part in yellow is key, that's the bottomline.

That'd be fine, if it wasn't for the fact that the EA user support is such a massive game of hot potato (or, if you prefer, pass the turd) that there's literally no way to get a ban overturned. You go to the phones, they direct you to an email, you go to the email, they direct you to the website, you go to the website and it directs you to the phones again.

It's ALL scripted (even, ESPECIALLY, what the employees are allowed to say) and there's no way out of it.