I Was Banned for 72 Hours from Battlelog for using The Word "Badass" in the Forums

[Nalano]

It's not overrated since Hart's Concept of Law...which was written a damn long time ago.

But you've still got to admit: law without enforcement is more or less useless. Although only something like 1% of the world population are murderers, consider the number of people that participate in riots (like the one in UK earlier). Looting, burning, and all sorts of stuff that they've always wanted to, but were ordinarily oppressed to suppress. But once a crowd starts gathering and that kind of behavior seems to be taken for granted all around you, it becomes apparent that laws are merely a form of deterrence - there is no immediate, physical force physically stopping you from doing the immediate thing you want to do.

So don't under rate enforcement, I say.

Ah but this is off-topic.

As somebody who's been put in front of the classroom for the last four years, I know that enforcement is a thin veneer - a con game - over the unenforceable.

But riots are the venting of a deep-seated grievance that enforcement was only keeping the lid on. Enforcement, then, isn't the solution, but rather merely the holding pattern 'til one finds the problem and solves it.

But yeah, this is kinda off-topic.

[deano2099]

Sorry officer I know you can't drive without insurance but It was only for a short distance. yeah not going to happen and you can appeal to EA so Im not quite sure what your point is.

"Sorry officer but my wife was dying and this was the only way to get her to the hospital quickly enough" might work though. In UK law the only time a case isn't judged in context is if it's over a law where someone is held strictly liable. The interesting thing about strict liability is it only applies to laws with very firm, clear definitions. Not just "don't be rude".

Once again the rules have been posted for here in this thread how are they clearly defined? love the different rules that are put on to different sites by people.

Well I haven't paid for RPS (well I have, but I could easily have not had).

[Keep]

only something like 1% of the world population are murderers

Jesus! That means there are...70 million murderers in the world! That means in my small city right now, there are...150,000 murderers! Yikes. That means when I go to a concert of 2,000 people, I'm surrounded by, yikes, twenty real actual murderers!

I'm never leaving the house again...

[Nalano]

That means when I go to a concert of 2,000 people, I'm surrounded by, yikes, twenty real actual murderers!

Yell "fire!" in that concert and, believe me, there will be.

[metalangel]

It occurred to me that the only industry I can think of that absolutely, positively wants to keep customers are cell phone carriers, and they do it in the most boneheaded way possible.

Oh man, the story I could tell you of how one lost my five plus years of loyal custom. Perhaps I oversell it with an intro like that, but it would make good reading for a businessy person.

I'm not a pointy-haired CEO or anything, but it seems to me that it would be a smart strategy to maintain successful franchises and expand via new franchises, rather than risking existing ones. Have a portfolio of games that each satisfy a different market segment, rather than trying to make everything appeal to everyone.

I think their thought process goes that anyone who is already a fan is now committed for life, and they can now tweak the formula to bring in even more people by removing what their focus group has told them were unwelcoming elements.

Somehow, Valve does this and retains most of their artistic vision while EA produces a nice looking thing that you only interact with some of the time, but it sure looks nice on 'leaked' videos and Digital Foundry 'comparisons'.

[Keep]

I think their thought process goes that anyone who is already a fan is now committed for life, and they can now tweak the formula to bring in even more people by removing what their focus group has told them were unwelcoming elements.

I put the blame on society's emphasis on consequentalist ethics above virtue ethics.


:-|.

[pabloottawa]

EA will eventually be sued for this. It's just a matter of time.

[KeefRoll]

Just responding to say that I got a 72 hour ban for talking about sex with my girlfriend in the forums. I cannot access any of my EA games. Customer service told me that there was nothing they could do but escalate it, which would probably take 72 hours anyway; I asked for a refund and was told I could probably get one if there was a legitimate problem with my game :DERP:

Could someone please get to the bottom of this?

[metalangel]

Just responding to say that I got a 72 hour ban for talking about sex with my girlfriend in the forums.

Why on earth would you want to talk about that on a Battlefield 3 forum?!

[Drake Sigar]

Because he's getting laid. Everybody NEEDS to know!

[glenn37216]

I recently reported someone for Inappropriate language on the battlog and it backfired on me. EA banned me for 72 hours instead. Here's the actual email :

Hello ,

Your Electronic Arts account has been suspended for 72 hours for violating the Terms of Services for Electronic Arts Online.

Violation:

Inappropriate language:
Post:What a cock. I can tell if were ever unlucky enough to visit your house i`d imagine it being pristine clean with your cooking appliances in alphabetical order based upon what country it was manufactured, let alone the tins of food in chronological order and your DVD` stacked up from what you`d `approve` as best to worst.... You have spent 10 fold the amount of time as i have writing this message to your trolling first post on what seems to be the most ridiculous points to rage at because the game doesnt maintain to the standards of your pathetic lifestyle. Get a life you cocksucker. Its a fucking game that has minor errors; which of course is completely contrary to the life you lead..... .... you cum guzzling, spunk sniffing, lady boy fingering, anal dwelling, fat slutty fuck face penis, whore bag, crack pushing, sleezy shit pie. Thats all.

I quoted his post and then posted the following :
Reported for offensive language.

..and I was the one banned ... for reporting offensive language. wow. lost for words here. Ea's servers tagged me as the offender because I quoted the poster?

[Nalano]

Clearly you were not clever enough in your insults.

[trjp]

What we need are people who've bought games through Origin (and not in any other way) to besiege UK Trading Standards (closest office to EA UK HQ if there is such a place) because...

UK Consumer Law relates to the retailer/customer relationship - and by making themselves the 'retailer' they become directly responsible for the items they sell (games) working properly (and banning your account clearly violates that!)

People who buy games from other sources (shops, online, other DD services) don't have quite the same relationship - they'd have to taken action against their retailer and not EA directly - that said, if enough people take action against GAME (for example) they'd probably have to do something also.

End of the day, if you're banned and can no longer access your games - UK Consumer Law has been broken (your item is not "fit for the purpose") and you'd be entitled to a full refund of the purchase cost (you can then buy the game without another account if you choose to).

It's not complicated - you bought something and it doesn't work - TS need to help you remedy that, get onto them.

If they don't help - contact the UK Press - they like a good 'big company stealing from parents and kids' story too :)

[Szakal]

Hello, I decided to register here just to share smiliar expirience with EA.

At beginning - I want to apologise for my not excelent english - it's not my main language.

So my ban is even more stupid. See it for yourself.
Mail:

Hello ,

Your Electronic Arts account has been suspended for 72 hours for violating
the Terms of Services for Electronic Arts Online.

Violation:

[Suspended {72 hrs} For posting other forum sLink
Link:http://www.xfire.com/profile/0szakal0/]

You can read the Terms of Service for Electronic Arts Online by going to
the following web address.

http://www.ea.com/global/legal/tos.jsp

If you feel that this action is unwarranted, or if you wish to dispute the
claims of this email, please submit a dispute form by using the following
link:

http://help.ea.com/

The Electronic Arts support team is available at http://help.ea.com/
should you have any general questions or concerns about the rule or its
enforcement in the game, as we feel it is important to understand the rule
completely before returning to the game world.

Sincerely,
Customer Support
Electronic Arts, Inc.

EA.com Customer Relations

This link is placed in my battlelog profile in "describe yourself" you can check it for yourself - my battlelog name is "Szakal0x"

I read thoughtfully whole ToS in my own language to find the reason of my ban. I found NOTHING.
So simple facts:
1. Xfire website itself and my profile which is the issue is not a forum.
2. There are no rules about linking to the third party websites in profiles.
3. I got banned for something - does not even matter what it was - and this thing is not removed??? What kind of twisted logic is that?

So I tried contact ea support regarding this issue. And the funniest part starts here.

First time I contacted them yesterday. I forgot to save the chatlog. Whole discussion was something like this:
-She keeps repeating herself that I need to wait 72 hours
-I am asking how to appeal
-She tells me that she gave my issue to senior team and i should just wait.
She didn't cared about my explenations or reason itself. Like chating with a bot.
Whatever,
I tried contact them today. And this is the results.

Second time:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...xMzYw&hl=en_US

Third time: (Long but godly. best part is when they add their own ban reason)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...2MGRm&hl=en_US

So in the end I need to wait "NOIDEAHOWLONG" till someone will contact me.

[Vexing Vision]

Cheers for sharing, Szakal.

Being banned for having an xfire-link (which officially supporst some EA games) is kind of bad.

[Circlestrafe]

Hello, I decided to register here just to share smiliar expirience with EA.

At beginning - I want to apologise for my not excelent english - it's not my main language.

So my ban is even more stupid. See it for yourself.
Mail:



This link is placed in my battlelog profile in "describe yourself" you can check it for yourself - my battlelog name is "Szakal0x"

I read thoughtfully whole ToS in my own language to find the reason of my ban. I found NOTHING.
So simple facts:
1. Xfire website itself and my profile which is the issue is not a forum.
2. There are no rules about linking to the third party websites in profiles.
3. I got banned for something - does not even matter what it was - and this thing is not removed??? What kind of twisted logic is that?

So I tried contact ea support regarding this issue. And the funniest part starts here.

First time I contacted them yesterday. I forgot to save the chatlog. Whole discussion was something like this:
-She keeps repeating herself that I need to wait 72 hours
-I am asking how to appeal
-She tells me that she gave my issue to senior team and i should just wait.
She didn't cared about my explenations or reason itself. Like chating with a bot.
Whatever,
I tried contact them today. And this is the results.

Second time:
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...xMzYw&hl=en_US

Third time: (Long but godly. best part is when they add their own ban reason)
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&p...2MGRm&hl=en_US

So in the end I need to wait "NOIDEAHOWLONG" till someone will contact me.

Under Section 11 of the ToS:
Post messages for any purpose other than personal communication, including advertising or promotional messaging, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other commercial activities.

The link to xfire could possibly be interpreted as 'advertising' by EA. So, yeah, technically you violated the ToS. Not that I think you should've been banned for it, I agree that's pretty lame, but it's their ToS and you agreed to it, so I guess we have to deal with it and/or try to get it changed.

[Szakal]

Under Section 11 of the ToS:
Post messages for any purpose other than personal communication, including advertising or promotional messaging, chain letters, pyramid schemes, or other commercial activities.

The link to xfire could possibly be interpreted as 'advertising' by EA. So, yeah, technically you violated the ToS. Not that I think you should've been banned for it, I agree that's pretty lame, but it's their ToS and you agreed to it, so I guess we have to deal with it and/or try to get it changed.

Isn't that rule related to chat or forums? Not personal description?

[halmosi]

I'm not condoning EA's seemingly blanket approach to banning but coming to this late and reading the posts that the OP made on the BF3 forums I am not surprised that he was banned.

I would uphold that ban in any online environment that EA had, but it shouldn't affect solo gaming.