The Social Network 2: Enter the Banhammer

[trashcanman]

This is actually a bit of a sequel post to the topic The Social Network: A Horror Movie. This time, your very ability to game is on the line. So EA is among the biggest electronic entertainment companies in the world and they are swinging a lot of weight in terms of influence and power. Among the companies they have bought is awesome genius RPG sanctuary Bioware. Now Bioware is at the forefront of gaming innovation right now and one of their features is registering your games with an online account where you can have your gaming stats saved and access new content and receive updates straight to your xbox as well as other cool stuff. Seems like the next logical step in gaming. Well, turns out that this gives EA complete control of your game, including the ability to LOCK YOU THE FUCK OUT OF IT entirely. See the first casualty in the new gaming war.

social.bioware.com/forum/1/topic/141/index/6459941/1

Yeah, so this guy glibbly refers to a company who is currently charging people who buy games used instead of new to play online as "the devil" on Bioware's online forum and the parent company not only bans him from posting, but disables the new fucking game he registered that just came out days ago.


Not cool, EA. If a dude paid for a product, he has a right to use that product. If you buy a Prince CD and then go home and post about how Prince's anti-internet rants are insane or how his record company pisses you off, they should not have the right to come over to your house and smash your CD. It's yours. You paid for it. But even more disturbing is that this trend of registering games in order to unlock all of the content is now clearly some corporate bullshit that will be used to not only track our behavior, but can be used to attack us through our games if we do not comply with their standards and demands. What's next? Automated moderators?

[Ben]

Holy. Shit. This just reminded me how far out of the gaming world I actually am. I haven't played a game newer than a 2006 release in months, and I only own one.

I'm no law expert, but something about blocking someone from playing a game they've PAID FOR doesn't seem legal. I totally agree about EA using this shit to spy on the consumer too. Next thing you know they'll insert ads on the loading screens during online play and force you to answer a 10 question survey about your favorite game after every 5 online maps you play in CoD.

I'll stick to my PS2.

[trashcanman]

Might be a good idea. Considering that consoles have essentially become gaming PC's, I really shouldn't be surprised that it got to this point this fast. But you know what's really disturbing? A lot of gamers are supporting this. No joke. There are a lot of people on message boards saying that it served that guy right for "biting the hand that feeds him" and that EA had every right to "teach him a lesson". The lack of education is stunning.

Motherfuckers. Listen up.

EA is NOT the hand that feeds anyone (except their employees). They are a business. Businesses are fed by the consumers, not the other way around. If they stopped making games this very minute, the gaming world wouldn't pause for a second. Someone else would fill that gap instantly. But if gamers stop buying their products en masse, they die. Simple as that. It just so happens that the company is attempting to conglomerate a bit of a media monopoly a'la Disney so that they can pull shit like this and remain relatively unfazed. This is technically illegal, but the law has hardly ever been enforced since the Carter years and so we are seeing more and more abuses going on as competition is eliminated. This is the new American business model, guys. I'm afraid we may have to get used to it.

[The Curmudgeon]

That is pretty damn frightening, and I think Trashy's right, it IS going to get worse. The more online our gaming experiences get, the more our gaming experiences can be locked out if we don't EAT BREED OBEY.

And the most galling thing is how galling that comment was. The EA Devil? What the hell? You suspend an account for THAT? Power corrupts, man, and if these fuckers get away with it once..