EA Updates Their SimCity EULA as a Result of Gamer Outrage

[rudie75 8]

I usualy don't post anything, but i thought i would share this.

If you’ve been following the news here, here, and here, you’ll see that EA—considered the worst company in America in 2012—had inserted some extremely harsh language in their end-user license agreement (EULA). This clause would have banned players from all EA games if they failed to report a bug.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolpinchefsky/2013/01/22/ea-updates-their-simcity-eula-as-a-result-of-gamer-outrage/

* Note: Personaly i don't have anything against EA, and i have not regirstered for the beta.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Thanks for the information, rudie.

TBH, I don't think that this clause would have been enforceable or even legally relevant at all. You should think that a mega-company such as EA has an army of lawyers - probably more than programmers, haha. Therefore, I was pretty surprised to see such an outright stupid regulation. Stupid because of its irrelevance, and stupid because of the trouble it stirred up. If I were EA's CEO, the person responsible for this unfortunate sentence would be requested to have a nice little chat with me in my office...

[Wiecher 192]

After reading the stories I think the problem is (at least in the first place) not EA, but the gamers themselves. EA can do whatever the hell they want and people still pay for it because they want to play a game so badly. People have absolutely no backbone when it comes to this, and indeed, for every person who refuses to be abused, there are a 100 who will.

These self proclaimed gamers who pretend to be the new internet generation, and act like they adore things like Anonymous and Wikileaks, are exactly the opposite of what they claim they want to be. Because they support companies like EA in choking off all creativity and freedom in software and games.

And when some information about a new game comes out people first say: what the hell is this, they ruined it, or: why do they think they can trick us with an unfinished game we need to buy extra DLC for to make it work? Why do we need to make an account on Origin, that can track everything we do on our computers? And then they all sign up for the beta release...

[ROFLyoshi 1,760]

After reading the stories I think the problem is (at least in the first place) not EA, but the gamers themselves. EA can do whatever the hell they want and people still pay for it because they want to play a game so badly. People have absolutely no backbone when it comes to this, and indeed, for every person who refuses to be abused, there are a 100 who will...

I think the problem is that us, the people who are still keeping a 10 year old game alive and adding to it do not support the new changes, yet the overwhelmingly larger category of casual gamers will eat up these user friendly games. It's proven: there have been some critically acclaimed games that don't sell well, and the best they do is a cult following.

These self proclaimed gamers who pretend to be the new internet generation, and act like they adore things like Anonymous and Wikileaks, are exactly the opposite of what they claim they want to be. Because they support companies like EA in choking off all creativity and freedom in software and games.

Blame the pretentious hipsters. It relates to a phenomenon called slacktivism.

[Herdervriend 46]

It's just the same with everyone.

Give a person money.

Give a person power.

And things will be happening that isn't good for anyone, ever.

[Wiecher 192]

These self proclaimed gamers who pretend to be the new internet generation, and act like they adore things like Anonymous and Wikileaks, are exactly the opposite of what they claim they want to be. Because they support companies like EA in choking off all creativity and freedom in software and games.

Blame the pretentious hipsters. It relates to a phenomenon called slacktivism.

I at least tried to help by voting Pirate Party in the national elections.

Sadly, not enough people did.

[Hoipus 292]

After reading the stories I think the problem is (at least in the first place) not EA, but the gamers themselves. EA can do whatever the hell they want and people still pay for it because they want to play a game so badly. People have absolutely no backbone when it comes to this, and indeed, for every person who refuses to be abused, there are a 100 who will.

These self proclaimed gamers who pretend to be the new internet generation, and act like they adore things like Anonymous and Wikileaks, are exactly the opposite of what they claim they want to be. Because they support companies like EA in choking off all creativity and freedom in software and games.

And when some information about a new game comes out people first say: what the hell is this, they ruined it, or: why do they think they can trick us with an unfinished game we need to buy extra DLC for to make it work? Why do we need to make an account on Origin, that can track everything we do on our computers? And then they all sign up for the beta release...

I remember that there was an attempt at an organised PC Modern Warfare 2 boycott due to the removal of dedicated server functionality. A steam group was made for it. Upon release day over half of the people in the group were shown with the status "currently playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer". Depressing.

[baertooth 330]

I created cities in Simcity that were based on exploiting the engine and making a city that wasn't "normal". Could the creation of such cities warrant EA banning me from my game? Or all ORIGIN games I own?

Aside from the legality of it, what's done is done and how many people who are now bound by arbitration via the new EULA are willing to go to (EA friendly/biased)court with EA over this if they get banned from their account?

[snwboardn 18]

I created cities in Simcity that were based on exploiting the engine and making a city that wasn't "normal". Could the creation of such cities warrant EA banning me from my game? Or all ORIGIN games I own?

Aside from the legality of it, what's done is done and how many people who are now bound by arbitration via the new EULA are willing to go to (EA friendly/biased)court with EA over this if they get banned from their account?

Nowadays yes... It is no longer considered clever, but instead it is an exploit that can, however unlikely, be grounds for dismissal and forfeiture of your games associated with your account. It won't be long and the MMO mentality will make it to the single player experience.

[Hoipus 292]

I created cities in Simcity that were based on exploiting the engine and making a city that wasn't "normal". Could the creation of such cities warrant EA banning me from my game? Or all ORIGIN games I own?

Aside from the legality of it, what's done is done and how many people who are now bound by arbitration via the new EULA are willing to go to (EA friendly/biased)court with EA over this if they get banned from their account?

Nowadays yes... It is no longer considered clever, but instead it is an exploit that can, however unlikely, be grounds for dismissal and forfeiture of your games associated with your account. It won't be long and the MMO mentality will make it to the single player experience.

Didn't they ban people who took part in some entrepreneurial activities in The Old Republic (no real money involved)?

[RyanMorgan95 144]

Oh EA, will you ever learn?

Edit: the following video seems appropriate to this topic:

[snwboardn 18]

I created cities in Simcity that were based on exploiting the engine and making a city that wasn't "normal". Could the creation of such cities warrant EA banning me from my game? Or all ORIGIN games I own?

Aside from the legality of it, what's done is done and how many people who are now bound by arbitration via the new EULA are willing to go to (EA friendly/biased)court with EA over this if they get banned from their account?

Nowadays yes... It is no longer considered clever, but instead it is an exploit that can, however unlikely, be grounds for dismissal and forfeiture of your games associated with your account. It won't be long and the MMO mentality will make it to the single player experience.

Didn't they ban people who took part in some entrepreneurial activities in The Old Republic (no real money involved)?

That is exactly what I had in mind when I made that statement

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Glad this has been sorted out. I thought something wasn't quite right, as the reasoning didn't make any sense whatsoever.

But really, this is quite poor. It just makes you wonder who actually writes, checks and approves these agreements in the first place. If it takes a public outrage to raise EA's awareness, it makes you wonder if they read their licence terms themselves. Based on this, there could be doubts over the validity of other sections in the EULA.

Quite simply, this is a perfect example of why it always pays to carefully proofread documents. Failure to do so can have disastrous results, as demonstrated here.

[Zukunftstraume 220]

Even someone who abuses an in-game bug a couple times does not deserve such a ridiculous punishment: Banned from all EA games

If I was a developer for any game and someone abused a bug (and even had 100 people do it as well), I would consider it fair game since it was something missed early on and ultimately our own faults. I might give the more hardcore abusers of the bug a 24-hour ban and a warning at most... But, EA apparently is the Wal-Mart of gaming (a close second going to Blizzard), always having to go over-the-top with things like this.