Wait, what?

[twist_shimmy]

Oh look, Loghain snapped. THIS IS YOUR FAULT, EA.

I was browsing the Nexus to re-download my favorite Velanna morph (she looks SO much better with short hair) when I stumbled across this:



"Gamingbolt reports that EA has banned a player from accessing his Bioware social account needed to activate Dragon Age 2 for a negative comment posted on the Bioware forums.

QUOTE

In what appears to be a totaly unfair practice, it appears EA are banning people from accessing their legally purchased copies of Dragon Age 2 if they were vocal about their displeasure regarding the game over at the official Bioware forums.

One particular case in point is of VWARE, a user who got banned for accusing Bioware of “selling their souls to the EA devil”. He agreed that it was fair to ban him from the forums for 72 hours, however was shocked when he realized that he can’t access his Bioware social account and activate his recently purchased copy of Dragon Age 2.
 

 

A Bioware moderator responded to the poster's complaint on the Bioware forums.

QUOTE

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 forum 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.

Consider it an added incentive to follow the rules you say you're going to follow.

The case raises questions about the legality of preventing people from using a legally purchased product.

By preventing a game owner from playing their game EA may be violating the implied warranty of merchantability. Under international sales law a seller must provide goods fit for their ordinary purpose. By preventing the user from playing their game EA is violating the ordinary expectations that a buyer would be able to play their game.

It should be noted that VWare's case is not the only one to have been reported on the Bioware forums."



I've heard about the inhumane conditions EA puts their game designers through (dating one, how can I not; he comes home from work late and says "at least I don't work for EA!"), but can they seriously expect to deprive people of playing legally purchased content?

What do you guys think? I don't frequent the BSN, so I'm sure there's more to the story.