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Bioware bans SW:TOR player over internet meme

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Meier

Member
They sold a customer a game. Then took away their right to play it with no recourse and a flimsy justification.

That is unequivocally stealing.

Bioware are thieves.

If you go to a Newcastle match and punch someone, they'll kick you out without a refund. There are rules to retain "eligibility" in lots of things in life regardless of whether you've paid to gain it in the first place.
 

bhlaab

Member
If you go to a Newcastle match and punch someone, they'll kick you out without a refund. There are rules to retain "eligibility" in lots of things in life regardless of whether you've paid to gain it in the first place.

What if you go to a Newcastle match and tell a bad joke so they kick you out without a refund because I'm pretty sure nobody got punched via the medium of Star Wars Forum.
 
Do I expect everyone on the internet to know about every random joke? Of course not. No rational person would. However, I would highly expect a moderator who manages the official forum to a very popular online-only game to be very fluent in internet-only customs and expressions simply due to exposure.

How about this, as a native English speaker from the US if I were to get a job that involved deep customer interaction overseas in another English speaking country, such as England or Australia, I personally believe that it would be expected of me to be familiar with the phrases and customs of the local population. I am in their "world", so to speak, thus I must be able to understand them. It is because of this I find it strange that the moderator wasn't familiar with a joke while I am sure the majority of the users were. That is all I am saying.
And while your expectation would be fine for many purposes it'll still miss most memes and other fly by night internet fads.

The true answer here is for the internet to have a sarcasm font.

I've got wonder how many accounts/relationships/lives would be saved just by proper smiley and emoticon use alone.
 

Meier

Member
What if you go to a Newcastle match and tell a bad joke so they kick you out without a refund because I'm pretty sure nobody got punched via the medium of Star Wars Forum.

There's a terms of service that people agree to when they create an account. There's a terms of service on tickets or posted by entrances at events. Break posted rules and you'll get thrown out without a refund. That's life.
 
I'm still not sure why so many on GAF hate BioWare. Was Shit Mountain that bad?

It's not as bad as it sounds. Yeah, it smells like shit, looks like shit, and even tastes like shit, but you know, they are a very good company that is part of an even better publisher.

And apparently another group will white knight them no matter how many shitty things they manage to do in the span of a week.

I wish those :lol smileys still existed.

Seriously, I'm a person that believes companies like MS, Sony, and Nintendo should defend the security and integrity of their console, and having "Modding" not allowed, but EVEN I can CLEARLY see this shit is just stupid.

If this isn't anti-consumer, I don't know what is.
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
This is kind of like going into a club, paying the cover fee then later telling the bouncer jokingly that you're 17

Yeah.. I'd say more often than not you'd soon be back outside, looking in.

You think they'd want to check your ID again?
 

bhlaab

Member
There's a terms of service that people agree to when they create an account. There's a terms of service on tickets or posted by entrances at events. Break posted rules and you'll get thrown out without a refund. That's life.

Yes, and sometimes your stock price drops by 3%. C'est le vie
 
It's a little sad to see some people try so hard to defend blatantly anti-consumer behavior.

This is kind of like going into a club, paying the cover fee then later telling the bouncer jokingly that you're 17

Yeah.. I'd say more often than not you'd soon be back outside, looking in.

You think they'd want to check your ID again?
Like they'd really give a fuck the next day? This is just sad
 

DopeyFish

Not bitter, just unsweetened
It's a little sad to see some people try so hard to defend blatantly anti-consumer behavior.

It's really sad that people would expect a company to not act on something like this, especially when it concerns the protection of children.

Sorry but I jump on the BioWare shit kick bandwagon almost every time, but bitching about this? Fuck that. Good on BioWare.
 
There's a terms of service that people agree to when they create an account. There's a terms of service on tickets or posted by entrances at events. Break posted rules and you'll get thrown out without a refund. That's life.

Look, there is a difference between Preventing someone from hacking in your game, or yelling racial stuff or calling people all sorts of whatever, exploiting, this and that, versus using a non-harmful internet meme.

What about the guy that got banned for using profanity on the BF3 forums... which is for a game where even in multiplayer the players are programmed to yell "FUCK" every minute or so.

What about guys getting banned for even QUESTIONING the company? How the fuck would I feel if I got banned from playing GT5 because I said Polyphony Digital needs to fix some stuff.

There is a ToS

and then there is straight ABUSE of EULA's.
 

hamchan

Member
I can't insult Bioware for this because they actually have to take all of this underage stuff seriously. The guy can try to get his account back by contacting them but apparently he doesn't want to do that, so no sympathy for him.
 

Lothars

Member
Ah yes, the expert internet lawyer brigade.

this is not anti consumer, Bioware did nothing wrong now if he proves his age and they deny to reinstate his account than absolutely that's wrong and they should be taken to task about it.

The onus is on the guy that got banned because he was the one who said he was 12, the onus is not bioware or EA for this instance.
 

Freshmaker

I am Korean.
well for starters you should never bought the game in the first place if your underage, if you're pretending to be underage then you deserve for it to be taken.

I wonder what would happen if someone posted "Dick Grayson. Age 12."

I figure it's likely they'd be banned for swearing for using the word "dick" and some random user with the handle Dick Grayson would be banned for being 12.
 

Codeblue

Member
Consumers should be protected from Terms of Service that remove access to their games for using memes.
They didn't ban him for using a meme though. He didn't post Advice Dog. To someone less versed in stupid internet phrases it would look like he was proclaiming that he is 12.

They should correct it, but you can't fault them for not knowing internet references.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
I'm sure they use some shitty template for their CS infractions that doesn't account for any specific type. Just a "contact us here if blah blah blah" canned line.
Because it's the only logical next step. You've been banned for being under 13 when you obviously aren't. It's a grievous misunderstanding. The next logical step is to contact those who banned you to see what can be done.

Instead, this guy decides to make a youtube video.

Apparently I should be angry at BioWare for this.

The bold: That's likely true.

The rest: Still, something along the lines of "If you wish to discuss this matter further" substituting "Should you have any questions about this message" would communicate better the availability of recourse. Then again, perhaps I'm just nitpicking. :p

The thing is, there is a law involved - COPPA

http://www.coppa.org/coppa.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COPPA

Basically if you collect any information about a user, they have to be 13 and up or the website needs the permission of their parents. Since actually getting that permission from a parent is a pain in the ass, it's easier to just ban people under 12.

If they violate this, they can get fined by the FTC. So they pretty much have to react when someone says they are underage. How do they know the guy is joking or not?

Ah, the more you know. :)
 

fanboi

Banned
Why oh why are people trying to get at Bioware for everything?

Being under 13 = Bannable.

User said = I'm 12

= Ban

Where did Bioware do wrong in this?
Yes its a missunderstanding... but ya know, that shit happens when you fool around. Just call customer service, sort it out and stop complaining when it is your own damn fault.
 

antonz

Member
Why oh why are people trying to get at Bioware for everything?

Being under 13 = Bannable.

User said = I'm 12

= Ban

Where did Bioware do wrong in this?
Yes its a missunderstanding... but ya know, that shit happens when you fool around. Just call customer service, sort it out and stop complaining when it is your own damn fault.

The WoW Kiddies are desperate for anything to lash out at Bioware over. 95% of You have been banned images etc so far have been false bullshit made up by people.

It is not Biowares job to teach its worldwide Moderation staffs Memes and other stupid things. Considering a Meme is not even constructive posting in the first place who cares. Guy decided to be stupid and it bit him in the ass.
 

Codeblue

Member
/smh @ the Bioware defenders. Takes all kinds, I guess...
I've never even played a Bioware game and refuse to buy any EA games until they fix their awful policy of banning for stupid reasons.

If they don't fix if that's one thing, but their initial reaction was the correct one.
 
The WoW Kiddies are desperate for anything to lash out at Bioware over.

WTF does WoW have to do with anything? It's not even made by the same company, ffs.

Bioware did nothing wrong, but it is just another step of their CS being "clueless". Yes, it's a meme, but a pretty popular one. Probably a couple of posts later the poster or another guy explains it, you could've just scrolled down when in doubt.
 

Anteater

Member
Actually I didn't realize this was a meme...

Pretty much this, it's just a joke that's been used widely (i guess hence it's a meme), but just like "my virgin ears!" it shouldn't be taken seriously/literally and have always thought they're obviously jokes =/
 
If they ban people this easily for things they say in the forums, you can assume that they can ban people just as easily for doing the same things in a game if one get caught doing it, and that is why I won´t use Origin more than I absolutely have to. Luckily no game requiring Origin is a must buy for me yet.
 

Keasar

Member
Mental notes:
1. Never ever go near a EA or Bioware forum.
2. Use Origin only to a minimum of starting Battlefield 3 and *sigh* Mass Effect 3.

Bioware and EA kinda deserves this attention of their silly and stupid reasons of banning people. I am close to thinking that if I would happen to somehow just start Origin.exe wrong they would ban me.
 
This is why TOR will never beat WoW.

They weren't going to beat WoW anyways. You can't beat WoW by being exactly like WoW but with a different setting. Plenty of other MMOGs have tried and failed the WoW-clone route, SWTOR was just the biggest profile one because of the setting and the budget and the hype.
 
I would guess that a title that says: "Bioware bans user SW:TOR account, because he claimed to be under age" makes more sense.

Expecting everyone to be aware of memes is not reasonable.
 

Card Boy

Banned
The WoW Kiddies are desperate for anything to lash out at Bioware over. 95% of You have been banned images etc so far have been false bullshit made up by people.

It is not Biowares job to teach its worldwide Moderation staffs Memes and other stupid things. Considering a Meme is not even constructive posting in the first place who cares. Guy decided to be stupid and it bit him in the ass.

This is the post insecue post in the thread. It reeks of the same console fanboyism that the people over at N4G and other forums argue over.

Why do you care if people rag on Bioware or SWTOR?
 
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