Originally posted by willo248

Well i was just about to buy this game...

 

Please tell me you were not persuaded otherwise by a first time poster, his typed out post, with no screen shots, names, or links to what parts of "ToS" were broken. 

This is clearly bogus, you are just making people alarmed and upset over nothing OP :-( 

People believing this without any proof doesn't surprise me at all.  People really need to start being a bit more skeptical when faced with such ridiculous claims. 

This is very likely to be fake.  I would not let *this* be the reason you don't buy TOR...

I bet the reason the guy posted this is to scare away any one else who woul dcome steal his chests. I have seen a few lowbis in illum doing this and its not agaisnt the rules

How is that so unbelievable?

EA in the past banned forum user from all his purchased Origin Games (which included Dragon Age 1&2 Mass Effect) solely for asking  Bioware if they had "sold their souls to the EA devil"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/11/forumite-gets-dragon-age-2-ban-after-asking-bioware-if-they-had-sold-their-souls-to-the-ea-devil/

And this is not the only case, there are lots of banned accounts by EA for posting something on the forum which EA didn't like.

This specific ban was lifted later on, since the user was actually planning to file a lawsuit against EA, and made a lot of public announcements, EA later said "it was never a permanent ban" even though he received an email stating it was a permanent ban.

“Please note that your account [e-mail] has been permanently terminated from the Electronic Arts Online service for violating the terms of services. The account will no longer be accessible in any way, and all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted. This action was necessary due to the repeated nature of the offense on the account. We regret having to take this final step, but it is entirely necessary on behalf of protecting the Electronic Arts Online community. The violation has already been discussed above so further communication on this matter won’t be entertained. We thank you for your understanding on all the statutes within the Terms of Service, and they still contractually apply to you as per the original agreement, especially the sections regarding terminated members of the service.”

This could be real but if so it just increases my faith in bioware and EA, why you may ask? because I in my own game had to deal with exploits like this, people using work arounds, exploits etc to not only reach higher areas but not even doing it for the challenge but doing it to farm gear, seeing a flawed game mechanic and not reporting it.

Oh customers are sooo innocent ??

Bull, yes alot of us do not exploit or play a game other than intended but there is always the crowd who will abuse or try to abuse any system in game be it high level loot they try to get to or a way to gain xp above what should be possible..Bioware can not catch every exploit or problem.

I myself got kicked out of an EQ2 guild in beta because guild members found a way on the newbie island to make 10g exploiting something and I reported the exploit to gm's while the rest of the guild wanted to keep it secret to use out of beta.

Somewhere in the eula it will state something like "any work arounds, exploits or bugs, anything gaining you an advantage over other players should not be used and reported to CS" which obviousely includes gaining high level items for selling etc.

kudos bioware for actually enforcing a level playing field.

I have an escape pod door in my ship  that is interactable ..but  tells me "Unavailable" when I try to use it..yet BIOWARE  left an entire planet meant for level 50 characters fully accessible to lower levels despite it being against the EULA?  It's easy enough to keep the planet  off the galaxy map until you reach level 50. I call bullshit.

ITs fake, still havent seen a real email screenshot. stop feeding the trols.

It's not real, the guy got banned because he and an other player of the opposite faction took turns exploiting a chest. One would loot then "flip" the zone then the other would do the same thing. They continued this back and forth for awhile until someone else noticed it.

The "ban" letter is fake too...

Originally posted by Thillian

How is that so unbelievable?

EA in the past banned forum user from all his purchased Origin Games (which included Dragon Age 1&2 Mass Effect) solely for asking  Bioware if they had "sold their souls to the EA devil"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/11/forumite-gets-dragon-age-2-ban-after-asking-bioware-if-they-had-sold-their-souls-to-the-ea-devil/

And this is not the only case, there are lots of banned accounts by EA for posting something on the forum which EA didn't like.

This specific ban was lifted later on, since the user was actually planning to file a lawsuit against EA, and made a lot of public announcements, EA later said "it was never a permanent ban" even though he received an email stating it was a permanent ban.

“Please note that your account [e-mail] has been permanently terminated from the Electronic Arts Online service for violating the terms of services. The account will no longer be accessible in any way, and all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted. This action was necessary due to the repeated nature of the offense on the account. We regret having to take this final step, but it is entirely necessary on behalf of protecting the Electronic Arts Online community. The violation has already been discussed above so further communication on this matter won’t be entertained. We thank you for your understanding on all the statutes within the Terms of Service, and they still contractually apply to you as per the original agreement, especially the sections regarding terminated members of the service.”

Precisely, EA has numerous times shown in the past that they do shady stuff because they know they can get away with it most of the time without any significant damage on their sales. It is a mild form of god-complex.

Edit: And who can blame EA for trying to solve "problems" in an efficient manner?

Originally posted by InFaVilla

Originally posted by Thillian

How is that so unbelievable?

EA in the past banned forum user from all his purchased Origin Games (which included Dragon Age 1&2 Mass Effect) solely for asking  Bioware if they had "sold their souls to the EA devil"

http://www.pcgamer.com/2011/03/11/forumite-gets-dragon-age-2-ban-after-asking-bioware-if-they-had-sold-their-souls-to-the-ea-devil/

And this is not the only case, there are lots of banned accounts by EA for posting something on the forum which EA didn't like.

This specific ban was lifted later on, since the user was actually planning to file a lawsuit against EA, and made a lot of public announcements, EA later said "it was never a permanent ban" even though he received an email stating it was a permanent ban.

“Please note that your account [e-mail] has been permanently terminated from the Electronic Arts Online service for violating the terms of services. The account will no longer be accessible in any way, and all property, items, and characters associated currently are or will soon be deleted. This action was necessary due to the repeated nature of the offense on the account. We regret having to take this final step, but it is entirely necessary on behalf of protecting the Electronic Arts Online community. The violation has already been discussed above so further communication on this matter won’t be entertained. We thank you for your understanding on all the statutes within the Terms of Service, and they still contractually apply to you as per the original agreement, especially the sections regarding terminated members of the service.”

 

Precisely, EA has numerous times shown in the past that they do shady stuff because they know they can get away with it most of the time without any significant damage on their sales. It is a mild form of god-complex.

 

Edit: And who can blame EA for trying to solve "problems" in an efficient manner?

Plus in this particular case, it was actually Bioware employee, Stanley Woo, who has been credited for several Bioware games, who closed the thread and issued the ban under the EA forum rules.

http://www.mobygames.com/developer/sheet/view/developerId,1221/

On the top of it, he further added before closing down the thread:

“Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you’re going to follow,”T

This is Bioware's attitude in action by one of their Quality Assurance Team. Fabulous customer relations, simply fabulous. Unfortunately 98% of their customers simply don't care.

here is why they wouldnt band u for going to a high level planet at a low level. they have stated u can do so many times if u want but u wont have any quests to do and the mobs will kill u in no time.

So there is no way bioware banned a guy for doing what they have stated u could do in the past. Sorry there is no way this is real.

12 pages and no ones bothered to copy and paste the specific point in ToS where it says this?

Originally posted by aleos

12 pages and no ones bothered to copy and paste the specific point in ToS where it says this?

it has been done twice...

12 pages but you only read one

If a lower level player is able to utlize their abilities to obtain high level gear without going through an obvious loophole (like making themselves somehow invincible by placing themselves in a wall etc) then it should be allowed... The email did not state that the player used an exploit.

Seeing how bioware hasnt refuted it, its probably real.

Will prolly get ban as well because there was a clickable chest in Empire (my) area on Belsavis and I got about 3k credits from it. As much I like the game itself I honestly think that it's customers service is the worst I've seen in any P2P MMO. 

Perhaps it is legit. But from my experience It is highly doubtful. Not to mention, most big time companies do nto explain why you were banned in the first place ...they send you a generic mail saying you violated policy so and so and enjoy your ban!

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by Zippy

I just gained some respect for Bioware.  Any player should know its an exploit to loot level 50 gear when they are a low level.  If they can get to Illum they should report and bug it, not exploit it.  BW did the right thing giving them a short term ban.  More games should do  he same and let people know any exploiting will result in severe punishment.  They are lucky it was not a permanent ban.

Why? It is easy to send money and gear to your character and that would be as wrong as this.

No, it sounds to me like the dude used a cheat to get the item and got banned for that, not for going to a high level zone and looting a chest.

Imagine if they would ban all people who gets help by higher level characters to powerlevel? They are plenty.

If you can use and equip  lvl 50 gear on a low level character it does not take a genius to figure out its not intended and therefore an exploit.  If he simply did it and did not equip the item reporting it he would have been fine. 

Seems silly to ban aplayer just because they went to a high level area and looted a chest. They can either wait and level up before using it, or sell it. If you can travel to an area much much higher level then you are, surely the spoils can be yours if you're careful? I'd bet this player got banned for doing something slightly more serious and he's pissed off.

Like all those cheaters in shooter games that get banned, go on a forum to try and claim their innocence and usually get caught out anyway.

Wait a minute, so now the thread indicates that there is an exploit to reset the zone and the lock box? Not sure if that was already mentioned in this thread but if that (and I mean "if") was the case then "yes" the ban is valid.

Personally, if I went to a high level planet and just happened to open a lock box and I got high level gear I "might" not think anything other than it was my lucky day.

In which case I would expect bioware to take the item back and give me a warning if i wasn't supposed to be doing this. Of course it would then behoove them to fix it.

However, if there is indeed more to the story and the above exploit is true (or something similiar) then shame, shame, shame.