Player banned from Dragon Age 2 forum 'accidentally' loses access to entire game

by Randy Nelson on Mar 11th 2011 7:30PM

There are bans, and then there are bans. One user of BioWare's forums found himself facing one of the latter after having his account suspended for allegedly using inappropriate language in a post -- but instead of just keeping him from socializing temporarily, it prevented his PC copy of Dragon Age 2, purchased online, from running entirely.

EA has acknowledged that this actually happened to the affected user, but calls it an error. While it says it intended to temporarily ban the individual for violating the forum code of conduct, "there was an error in the system that accidentally suspended a user's entire account."

"Immediately upon learning of the glitch, EA took steps to restore the user's macro account and apologized for the inconvenience," the publisher told Joystiq. What it didn't say is what -- if any -- steps are being taken to prevent similar mega-bans from happening in the future.

[Thanks, Jeff]

Source: BioWare Forums

Tags: ban, bioware, Dragon-Age-2, ea, electronic-arts, forums, pc, rpg

Reader Comments (94)

This is why accounts for games and forums should be separate.

@Sleepyperson
Hmm...so I shouldn't be posting this from my new awesome Joystiq app on my 360?

Nah, what the %^#@ could I be banned for?

@Sleepyperson
No, this is why accounts for access to games are bullshit. If I pay for a thing I should be able to play it no matter what. Maybe take away my online capabilities if I'm a douche to people online, but I should still have access to the CORE game.

@Sleepyperson
Maybe a little bit of devil's advocating here; but if you buy a game and that price includes access to multiplayer, in theory shouldn't you be permitted to play it forever, no matter how much of a douche you are or whether you make the game unenjoyable for others?

And thus, DA2 has incited the magnitude of nerdrage typically reserved for the likes of Bobby Kotick and/or Gabe Newell.

@TheRedComet
I guess EA is tired of Activision getting all the bad press. "We can be evil too!"

@Special Agent Bob ROFL! My thoughts exactly.

wait. what?! how?

@Mr Period
Right, so lots (and lots and LOTS AND LOTS) of websites have been halfassedly reporting this story.

Here's what happened in point form.

-Man buys Dragon Age from EA online store
-Man tells EA they are Satan incarnate on the Bioware forums
-Post is reported, not to the Bioware mods but the EA mods (different buttons)
-EA suspends his account for 72 hours because they're only Satan's cousin, not Satan himself.
-While his account is suspended, man realizes he cannot download or authenticate (which happens the first time it's run ONLY) DA2.
-Man facepalms at his stupidity so hard, that the whole internet hears it.
-You are here.

Gots it? Good. :)

@MachDelta
*facepalm*
yeah, got it, sorry, i thought for one second something along the lines of the game booting up with the main character Showing the midle finger to the player in the title screen

...i guees i'm on one of those days

(door's is open internet, go for it)

@MachDelta

You know you've a poorly written article when I have to go to the comments section to learn the true nature of the story. Let's step it up, Joystiq.

@MachDelta

Actually he jokingly said they sold their soul to satan.

So your version is just as half assed and seems almost approving of this ridiculousness.

@Haizeus
Hear hear.

Wonder if EA would have even bothered to do anything had this not been spread around on the net like it did. Some seriously bad PR for EA.

@zerokku hardly... its a glitch, a glitch we only know about because some a-hole got banned for being an a-hole, I have zero sympathy for a-holes ruining my interwebz...

@guyver unit 4

Yes, he got banned for being a dick on the forums. Thats all well and good. In no way shape or form should that ban remove access to anything he's purchased legitimately like that.

If hes a dick on the forums, ban him from the forums, if hes a dick on the game, ban him on the game. The fact that this kind of thing could happen at all is incredibly worrying.

And I doubt it was a glitch, as the mod clearly said as per EA's community rules -

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.

@zerokku
You kind of refuted your own point by posting that last quote from the community rules. HE signed up for the forums (something he was never forced to do), and even if he didn't read the rules, he explicitly agreed to them during the registration process.

While it's annoying to read tons of tiny print all the time, you really don't have a leg to stand on when the terms and conditions come back to bite you in the ass after you've agreed to them. It's called personal responsibility, and this guy obviously doesn't have a lot of it. Maybe if he did a little less hiding behind a keyboard he wouldn't be in this situation in the first place.

@aristokrat

Except that my point is that they should never be linked in the first place. Your actions in one arena should not affect it in something completely different, Particularly when it deals with goods you purchased legitimately.

@zerokku

It's called karma. You act like a prick, you get screwed. Let's just say his forum ban was his punishment for breaking the ToS and the game ban as God saying "Stop being a dick".

@Emokitteh

The fact that people like you would rather side with faceless mega-corporations, than stand up for basic consumer rights, makes me scared for the future of gaming, and consumer entertainment in general.

@zerokku

I'm not siding with anyone, I'm standing against people being pricks.

You are scared for the future of gaming? I'm scared for the future of gamers. More and more kids get into gaming and they think the Internet is this magical fairy tale land where they can go and be anonymous, so who is going to stop them from acting up there? You? Me? No, we respond to someone to try and show them the error of their ways and that is like pouring gas on a fire, they feed off of it.

I would be happy as a pig in #$%@ if everyone who made a racial slur/homophobic remark on XBL was banned. It's not funny to listen to and even more so, it's offensive when it is directed at someone in particular.

In this case, I guess it's like buying a ticket to the zoo, climbing the fence to the bears cave and poking it with a stick. Not only do you get banned from the zoo, you get eaten by the bear. It's his fault for stirring it up. If he never acted up, he would never have had the problem.

@Emokitteh "I'd like to thank God for banning me from my game to alert me of my improper comment on a forum. It is through His righteousness that all is justified, including the stripping of my consumer rights. Amen."

People always try to justify their own ill will against others through God, it's all he's really good for I guess.

@jsx

I was joking about God. I was serious about karma. Karma is the universe correcting itself. I don't think God cares if someone gets banned.

I don't try to justify my ill will, it just turns out that way.

@Emokitteh

Really? Karma? I find it hard to believe anyone is so pathetically naive to believe a crock of shit like karma, especially when its not true 9 times out of 10 (case in point: Wall Street).

@guyver unit 4 It's not a glitch. It was part of their policy until The Internet got involved. Thanks for being douche-y EA/Bioware.

BANHAMMER OF THE GODS

@Ryuk
me thinks that ban hammer is what caused the tsunami.

..... wow thats in bad taste on my half.

@Thesushiroll
Too soon.

Talk about big brother. EA has taken good strides not to be evil anymore but the fact this would happen at all is alarming. Just another reason to own physical media I suppose.

I read the quote from EA as "Immediately upon seeing that the ban was made news on many forums and blogs, EA took steps to restore the user's macro account and apologized for the inconvenience"

@VIDEOGAMES Exactly.

@VIDEOGAMES
People on Joystiq have this utterly bizarre fascination with viewing the developers and publishers of the games they enjoy as evil bastards out to get them in any possible manner, instead of normal people with jobs who are blamed for problems they had nothing to do with. Why give the benefit of the doubt when we can just make assumptions and assert them as facts?

Yes, Joystiq readers, EA accidentally banned a user and restored his account. Why? SH*T HAPPENS, that's why. EA is not going to kill you in your sleep, I promise.

@VIDEOGAMES

how immediate is immediately though? like when they got wind of it 4 days later, they immediately restored access? or like immediately after realizing the guy how pushed the ban button restored access... immediately...

not that it matters... dude got his crap back... Gods in his heaven, all's is right with the world.

@Danthaman
You think we're bad go read the comments on kotaku post trust me they make some of the trolls here sound smart.

@Special Agent Bob It was a joke man. Chill out.

So if I swear on Joystiq what game do I get banned from? hehe

Suuuuuuuper Baaaaan HAMMMERRRRR

@The Only Girl And now I've read that with the voice of the Super SMash Bros announcer.

anyone else see this post as a completely different font as all the other posts?

@BLipp18 Yes.

@BLipp18

Yup. I kinda like it to be honest.

I hope I'm not the only one that noticed the different font in this post.

@chuckharms

Just saw your comment right after I hit submit. I hope others are as observant--or there's a problem.

Hahahaha, that 'end of line' post in the Bioware site by the mod is so unintentionally appropriate for the situation

Anyone else getting a different font in this article? (As in, a different font than the other's.)

He was apparently banned for saying:

"Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?"

Perhaps that hit a little too close to home...

@Arsenal I would like to see your source on that... he was probably being a racist flaming homophobic a-hole, ya know the default type most trolls divert to when ranting...

@guyver unit 4 No, that's exactly what he said. It was all in the original Bioware forum thread.

@Shinta

And the moderators have said that wasn't why he was banned, the poster just says that's why he was banned. He was swearing and being vulgar, which does deserve a ban.

The guy just has a victim complex and believed himself a victim that he got banned for breaking the rules.

@Mama Luigi
He's being vulgar? Heh, you should see the shit Tali fans write on those forums.

| 1 | 2 | Most Recent | Next 50 Comments

Dragon Age 2

Player banned from Dragon Age 2 forum 'accidentally' loses access to entire game

Reader Comments (94)

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:35PM Sleepyperson said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:51PM Crimsic said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 4:29AM Demaar said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 12:29PM Haggard said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:35PM TheRedComet said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:18PM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:50PM Imdavid said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:36PM Mr Period said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:43PM MachDelta said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 9:37PM Mr Period said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:38PM Haizeus said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:52PM Cleric said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 10:43AM VeeDeeVee said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:37PM zerokku said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:22PM guyver unit 4 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:32PM zerokku said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:53PM aristokrat said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:08PM zerokku said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:12PM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:23PM zerokku said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:44PM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 11:53PM jsx said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 12:43AM Emokitteh said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 10:24AM Apakal said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 4:19PM BigD145 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:41PM Ryuk said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:08PM Thesushiroll said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 2:37PM supersonic124 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:43PM Johnnynumber5 is powered by cell said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:44PM VIDEOGAMES said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:31PM Shinta said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 9:29PM Danthaman said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 9:36PM KiraXD said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:58PM Special Agent Bob said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 3:06AM VIDEOGAMES said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:47PM bloodlinejake said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:47PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Mar 12th 2011 9:51AM GuitarHero666 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:47PM BLipp18 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:54PM chuckharms said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:55PM Burnflare said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:53PM chuckharms said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:02PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 7:54PM Drake Lake said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:01PM Shadowbender said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:02PM Arsenal said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:24PM guyver unit 4 said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:32PM Shinta said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 8:37PM Mama Luigi said

Posted: Mar 11th 2011 10:30PM Drake Lake said

Dragon Age 2 Info

Description

MSRP

Release Date

Genre

Developer

Publisher

Rating

Breaking News

WB conjures up Harry Potter for Kinect this fall

Featured Stories

Silver Lining: I Am Alive's unfeeling world

Game Of Thrones and the paradoxes of adaptation

Super Joystiq Podcast 004: 38 Studios meltdown, Gravity Rush, Civilization 5: Gods & Kings, Dragon's Dogma

Engadget

TUAW

Massively

WoW