…that treating your customers like shit and acting like a tyrannical despot is not the way to win the hearts and minds of gamers?
Kotaku posted this a few minutes ago and it had me shaking my head. In essence, if you back talk to a moderator or complain about DRM or what not on Electronic Art’s forums, you’re looking at getting your game account banned. What this means is if you “misbehave” on the forums, then Electronic Arts is fully endorsing removing your ability to play games like SPORE or Red Alert 3.
Honestly, EA, what the hell are you guys thinking? First you piss off the gaming community en mass by imposing a completely nonsensical and ineffective piracy countermeasure (which may or may not actually be spyware) and now this? Are you guys honestly trying to isolate your customer base one by one until all that’s remaining is a small entourage of sycophantic fanboys who don’t mind getting crapped on on a regular basis with your absurd, draconian concept of customer service?
Ignoring the whole entire DRM issue (and trust me I could rant for hours on that -in short though, it’s pointless and gamers have every right to be pissed off by it) EA’s inane attempt to regulate behavior on their message board is completely ridiculous.
Of course you should not be a complete douche bag on message boards (which admittedly happens more often than it should) but the fact is that behavior on a message board and property that you PAID for are completely unrelated. If you misbehave, you should get banned FROM THE FORUM. Not the games that you paid $50 a piece for. The punishment, in no shape or form, fits the crime.
Can you imagine how pissed people would be if Microsoft deactivated your Xbox 360 if they caught you flaming their message boards?
Can you imagine how pissed people would be if Dodge one day decided to confiscate your car if they caught you talk shit about them?
I don’t care if Electronic Arts’s decision is legally justified by their TOS -it’s still horrible customer treatment. How can they expect to nourish customer loyalty with gamers when they’re constantly treating them like criminals? If it’s not putting in inconveniencing anti-piracy software into their games, its striking fear into their hearts with the threat of banning their games if they misbehave on an internet chat board. Is this honestly any way to treat people who are giving you their money?
It’s like Electronic Arts has suddenly become my parents. They’re taking away my toy for using a cuss word or something. Is that what you want to become, EA?
You know what I hear though? There’s an easy way to get around EA’s stupid DRM and registration, AND you can have the freedom to post whatever you want on their message board without fear of getting your games taken away.
It’s called piracy. While I normally don’t endorse piracy, EA’s behavior is completely inexcusable, and in this case, I can entirely understand why someone might just go ahead and download the game and spare themselves all the hassle.
People who download the game and then crack it have all the conveniences of DRM (not having to have a DVD in the tray) with absolutely none of the bullshit. It’s ironic that someone who’s breaking the law gets to enjoy these luxuries while EA’s paying customers are consistently treated like rubbish.
I was just starting to like EA again. Dead Space was pretty awesome. Hell, even Madden 09 was a lot better than previous iterations. But this kind of stuff just makes me stop and wonder what the hell is wrong with the people running that company. It certainly doesn’t motivate me to go buy their games, regardless of how good they may be.
Mark Fujii: I'm your typical college student who plays too much video games. I also work as an electronic sales associate, meaning I sell Ipods and violent video games to your children when not trying to sneak off and play Super Smash Bros while the boss isn't looking. Oh, and I'm totally awesome. True fact.
Comments
nikki (nikki) says:
(Posted November 3rd, 2008 at 1:30 pm)
I just keep telling myself… eventually it will all come back to bite them in the ass.
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Mark Fujii
I'm your typical college student who plays too much video games. I also work as an electronic sales associate, meaning I sell Ipods and violent video games to your children when not trying to sneak off and play Super Smash Bros while the boss isn't looking. Oh, and I'm totally awesome. True fact.
Anon (Anon) says:
(Posted November 1st, 2008 at 11:37 am)
I’ve been an avid hater of EA since Battlefield 2. Such an awesome game and concept nearly perfect but tainted by EA.