Are you kidding me EA/Bioware?

[maniacalpha1-1]

I'm very sure it was in response to the exploiting in Ilum and not just players accidentally wandering into an area they shouldn't be in.

As for the rest of their responses to issues, it's their game and policy and regardless of the legalities of the TOS the right for a business to refuse service has been around for quite a long time. We are after all simply paying for a service and the rules of no shirt, no shoes, no service still apply.

Now, I'm not saying they are morally right in all the instances. They are after all owned by one of the bigger douche companies around now. But at least we know they aren't as bad as Activision.

Hah, well, to be sure, I'm not picking on EA specifically. If there was a thread about WoW bans, I'd say the same thing. or EQ or any other.

I assume you're talking about WoW when you say Activision, or does it go far beyond just WoW?

 

[Merad]

Why do people keep playing a game they hate? lmfao

Seriously... there have been 3 or 4 other thread on the official forums where people were called out by mods for trolling claiming that they'd been banned when they hadn't.

 

[-Slacker-]

So EA is going to pull a first and punish their customers for their own #&%**^ design and coding ...

They are imposing rules of gameplay that are not part of the actual gameplay because they can't be bothered to fix whatever exploits that are braking the game balance? Imagine if Blizzard did that instead of constantly releasing patches and fixes on a regular basis to make their games a more solid experience.

"Say what? The game mechanics are incomplete? No problem, just shove the rest of the code into the EULA and ban whoever didn't feel like reading and memorizing dozens of pages of corporate mombo jumbo and had the audacity to expect that they could just sit down and play the game the same way you play every other damn game in existence.

You know, this gives me another great idea: Since we didn't have enough time to put a soundtrack in the game because we dicked around on the job instead of doing what we were supposed to, all players are now required to sing the tracks out loud while playing - we'll just include the compositions in the EULA and let them work it out from there"



Honestly, you know you messed up when you can't even include the rules of gameplay in the actual gameplay, something that games should excel at since they are, by definition, just a body of binary rules displayed on the screen.


edit: I take back whatever positive thing I said about this game in previous threads.

 

[-Slacker-]

I'm very sure it was in response to the exploiting in Ilum and not just players accidentally wandering into an area they shouldn't be in.

As for the rest of their responses to issues, it's their game and policy and regardless of the legalities of the TOS the right for a business to refuse service has been around for quite a long time. We are after all simply paying for a service and the rules of no shirt, no shoes, no service still apply.

Now, I'm not saying they are morally right in all the instances. They are after all owned by one of the bigger douche companies around now. But at least we know they aren't as bad as Activision.

*removed*

 

[sash1]

i find this ban to be the most hilarious: http://i.imgur.com/SBjrT.jpg

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-w2tOW0Xrk)

so funny bioware can't understand meme's and ban over them

 

[Bateluer]

Srsly are you kidding me?
Click

I think I'd be contacting my bank on that one. The others are BS, but the last one is outright theft.

 

[Pia]

They are imposing rules of gameplay that are not part of the actual gameplay because they can't be bothered to fix whatever exploits that are braking the game balance? Imagine if Blizzard did that instead of constantly releasing patches and fixes on a regular basis to make their games a more solid experience.
...
Honestly, you know you messed up when you can't even include the rules of gameplay in the actual gameplay, something that games should excel at since they are, by definition, just a body of binary rules displayed on the screen.

I'm not sure if the above is intended as sarcasm, but Blizzard always had bullshit terms of service in place of actual game rules in WoW.

 

[Dumac]

That has nothing to do with the topic at hand. That's just your bias coming through again.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. You took the troll bait...

Unfortunately you ignored the rest of the post that refuted all of your points.

 

[Dumac]

Let's pull this back to the topic at hand. TOR. EA banned players for what is essentially MAV riding. That's their position, any theoretical position about DICE is inconsequential.

DICE doesn't ban people for MAV riding, which is the whole entire point.

That is like Valve VAC banning you for quickswitching your AWP

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Those aren't really similar at all though. Both Counter Strike and Battlefield are round based - using your glitch will get you an advantage in that round...and that's it. Once the devs get around to fixing the bug, the problem goes away instantly.


TOR is persistent. Which means that even if/when the bug gets fixed, the problems don't go away. Tricks like this cause massive inflation, and the game's economy stays borked after the bug is fixed.

Attempting to repair all the damage it would do is practically impossible, since the effects eventually reach everyone, and not just people directly involved in the exploit. Money becomes less valuable, and thus people who have never traded at all with an exploiter, much less used the exploit themselves, are negatively affected.


Anything less then a zero-tolerance policy is a recipe for disaster. No product is ever free of bugs, glitches or exploits. If Bioware just closes the bug and lets the exploiters keep their ill gotten gains, then every exploit will be used to the maximum since there is no real penalty for doing so. That distorts the games economy to the point where exploiting becomes a necessity to remain competitive. Prices balloon to the point where trading is essentially impossible unless you're exploiting too.

So they do the only thing they really can. Ban the exploiters. At least this way any credits left on their accounts don't make it out to further damage the game's economy and future exploits are less likely to be used since they carry a risk of being banned for it.


There are a lot of things wrong with TOR, and lots of things where Bioware is doing a poor job. But banning for exploits ain't one of em.

 

[sandorski]

Star Trek/Stargate>>>>>>>fluffy kittens>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Hitler>>>>>>>>>Star Wars

 

[J-Money]

It's hilarious how dumb posters become when EA is involved. The haters that is. Normally people require proof of something, but with EA it's just EAs fault. Then it's shown it's false. Yet people CONTINUE to say it's EAs fault and skip over the proof.

Then you get hilariousness like this:

So EA is going to pull a first and punish their customers for their own #&%**^ design and coding ...

Where apparently because it's EA this person lives under a rock suddenly and doesn't realize every MMO ever would punish those who used exploits.

"going to pull a first" LOL

Here is a quick example:

EVE online banning for exploit: http://www.gamefront.com/ban-hammer-falls-as-eve-online-starbase-exploit-crumbles/
WoW suspensions for exploiting: http://www.freefrag.com/world-warcraft/20868-patch-4-3-lfr-exploit-gear-stripping-bans-begins.html
Everquest suspensions for exploiting: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/1...nsions-to-over-700-players-as-a-first-warnin/

Pull your heads out of your asses people. Right or wrong, love it or hate, this is how all MMOs are run. Live with it or don't play MMOs at all.

 

[-Slacker-]

Whatever. Then they all blow donkeys, but they still need a lot more talent at blowing donkeys if they want to blow more donkeys than Electronic Arts.

 

[JimmiG]

This is why I only play single-player games.

 

[PrayForDeath]

The account suspension due to age violation on the forum poster who said "I'm 12 and what is this" is both real and sad.

 

[maniacalpha1-1]

It's hilarious how dumb posters become when EA is involved. The haters that is. Normally people require proof of something, but with EA it's just EAs fault. Then it's shown it's false. Yet people CONTINUE to say it's EAs fault and skip over the proof.

Then you get hilariousness like this:



Where apparently because it's EA this person lives under a rock suddenly and doesn't realize every MMO ever would punish those who used exploits.

"going to pull a first" LOL

Here is a quick example:

EVE online banning for exploit: http://www.gamefront.com/ban-hammer-falls-as-eve-online-starbase-exploit-crumbles/
WoW suspensions for exploiting: http://www.freefrag.com/world-warcraft/20868-patch-4-3-lfr-exploit-gear-stripping-bans-begins.html
Everquest suspensions for exploiting: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/1...nsions-to-over-700-players-as-a-first-warnin/

Pull your heads out of your asses people. Right or wrong, love it or hate, this is how all MMOs are run. Live with it or don't play MMOs at all.

It's definitely wrong. And just because we don't have a choice in the matter (other than not playing ) doesn't mean we have to stop speaking out.

However, I clicked on that link you gave from Everquest and it does not actually say what those suspensions were for. One of the commenters said it was for various forms of hacks, and if that's true, hacks aren't exploits. Hacks require a bit more effort and knowledge of wrongdoing than an exploit. But even if that's wrong and it was for exploits, this was 700 suspensions, not bans. My point all along is that a gaming company should never, regardless of severity(because if an MMO player is going to do something they are going to do it ad nauseam), be able to ban for a first offense of an exploit. The fact that the exploit exists is definitely the gaming company's fault, no matter what criminality people try to put on a player, and a company should adopt at minimum "no ban on first offense" procedure as an acknowledgement of the company's share of responsibility for the existence of the exploit.

But, no, you're right, ALL gaming companies commit atrocities in their management of their MMOs. At least with TOR you aren't losing much since it only takes 3 weeks(for someone kinda slow, too) to get 50, unlike other games where getting max level can take months.

 

[drebo]

Claim: Banned for being in a high level zone while low level!
Debunk: Bans were for exploiting a PvP zone causing loot containers to instantly respawn.

God damnit, I hate it when developers "decide" that a certain "zone" of their game is only for a certain class of players (and by class, I mean any arbitrary grouping, whether it be gender, profession, level, etc.)

Games, particularly games which claim to be a sandbox, should have worlds that are open to everyone at any time. Whether the restrictions are artificial (you can't pass this signpost until you're level 30 otherwise you hit a blank wall) or "enforced", it's stupid. If I want to go to the last dungeon as a level 5 nub, I should be allowed to. Let me make my own effing decisions.

This "policy" alone makes me glad I didn't buy the game.