In a somewhat shocking turn, it seems that EA has blocked an official BioWare forum user from activating his purchased copy of Dragon Age 2 on the grounds that he left a snarky comment about the developer and publisher in the forums.
A reddit user reposted the ordeal, and it does indeed seem that a Bioware forum user calling himself vware has had his Bioware account temporarily suspended, and is hence unable to activate his copy of Dragon Age 2. Visual proof.
Vware claims that an EA support operator told him that his account was suspended because he posted the following:
“Have you sold your souls to the EA devil?”
Vware has admitted that the comment was inappropriate (was it really? – Ed), and accepts his 72 hour forum suspension. However, when he tried to install his recently purchased signature edition of Dragon Age 2, he discovered that he could not activate it online due to his account being suspended.
Whether or not he will be able to activate the game once the 72 hour ban has been lifted remains to be seen.
BioWare representative Stanley Woo posted the following response in the forums:
Please review the EA Community Terms of Service, particularly sections #9 and #11. There are two levels of enforcement here:
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 forums 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 ave 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.
If there are further questions or concerns, please send them to me via pricate message. Thank you.
End of the line.
This response seems to confirm that the user was indeed banned not only from the forums, but from activating his copy of Dragon Age 2 for posting a facetious comment in the Bioware forums.
Should your actions in forums be able to prevent you from accessing a game you paid money for (of course not) << Share your views in the forums