The link above describes in detail how one guy was banned from playing his store-bought copy of DA2 (Including the DLC), due to criticizing Bioware and EA. How the hell can you defend these companies for doing shit like this?
Who are 'these' companies and who is defending them from what? If this is related to your silly goose Dragon Age 2 statement then no, this doesn't suddenly make it a bad game. Try again.
PD’s February numbers illustrate continued growth of the entire PlayStation 3 ecosystem, including increases in hardware, software and peripheral sales. PlayStation’s exclusive titles, combined with stereoscopic 3D and precision motion controlled gaming, continue to resonate with consumers, and we look forward to furthering the momentum with MotorStorm Apocalypse and SOCOM 4 next month.
-- Patrick Seybold, Sr. Director of Corporate Communications at SCEA
I'll just leave this here...
Wait, they didnt even bother to write up some PR? Just provided a quote? Did they let their subscription to the service lapse or something?
No, they know full well what their numbers are, they just chose not to provide them now that NPD's gone all stealth on us. Probably because they weren't terribly flattering compared to the other guys.
At any rate, it's hard to tell with no numbers, but it's looking like Just Dance has longer legs than Dance Central.
CODBLOPS squeezed out another million or came damned close to doing so.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 was a big hit. Did it do better than SF4?
Dear God, Just Dance 2 is unstoppable. So is Zumba.
Killzone 3 and Penisstorm were kinda meh.
Competitive multiplayer. Include it in your violent, penis joke filled shooter, or fail.
Ok maybe I was a little to harsh on Dragon Age 2 and I've realized now it wasn't that bad of a game, but stuff like banning people from playing the game just pisses me off and really disappoints me that a great company like Bioware would do something like that.
dbrock270 on
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Dr Mario KartGames DealerAustin, TXRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
huh, NPD was today.
To answer your question, Street Fighter 4 did 849,000 across two platforms (446k/403k-360/ps3), so slightly worse. Both were released nearly dead center in the middle of the month.
Banning somebody from playing a game they bought and paid for over something they said on a forum is pretty ridiculous. Hell, if people spent more time playing their games they would have less time to act like douchebags on the internet. Taking away their games ain't gonna help anything.
Just as well I have no interest in DA2 or anything else on the current BioWare slate.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
I like how nonchalant the moderator was about it, like "Whatever dude, should've read the rules."
Far be it for me to turn it into (another) DRM fight, but yeah, thanks DRM.
The odd part is complaining about being banned from playing a game released by a company they didn't like. You'd think they'd be happy about that.
And we shouldn't forget that whatever the situation, the only side of the story we know of is the dude who was banned. Their tone hardly suggests 'innocent lamb'. I'd find it hard to believe they were actually banned solely because they were anti-company.
The odd part is complaining about being banned from playing a game released by a company they didn't like. You'd think they'd be happy about that.
And we shouldn't forget that whatever the situation, the only side of the story we know of is the dude who was banned. Their tone hardly suggests 'innocent lamb'. I'd find it hard to believe they were actually banned solely because they were anti-company.
Well, the moderator kind of had the opportunity to explain the other side of the story, but apparently chose not to, instead preferring to basically confirm that the dude had been locked out of his game because of a stupid forum post.
The odd part is complaining about being banned from playing a game released by a company they didn't like. You'd think they'd be happy about that.
And we shouldn't forget that whatever the situation, the only side of the story we know of is the dude who was banned. Their tone hardly suggests 'innocent lamb'. I'd find it hard to believe they were actually banned solely because they were anti-company.
Well, the moderator kind of had the opportunity to explain the other side of the story, but apparently chose not to, instead preferring to basically confirm that the dude had been locked out of his game because of a stupid forum post.
Ask any mod here if they want to openly go in to details about their corrective decisions.
I would surmise that the player in question did multiple things and was sent to the corner for a bit. That it was the forum post that was the last straw. The mod simply decided (whether they knew all the reasons or not) to simply go with what was posted as the reason and leave it at that.
I'm not saying EA/BioWare is guilt free, but I highly doubt it was just because somebody posted negatively about the company. If they did that, they'd be banning nearly everybody. Some people simply go to far with it.
Is banning someone from your forum a free pass to stop them from using the game they bought on that same account though?
Yes, this is the problem here. I don't know whether the ban was justified, I don't know what it was for. There is no excuse for that locking a person out of their game. I'd say I was going to boycott Bioware's games if I hadn't already decided I wasn't going to buy another Bioware game since they've been making their games less and less enjoyable over time.
Is banning someone from your forum a free pass to stop them from using the game they bought on that same account though?
I think the point Santa's making is that the scenario you described is probably a crock.
It has a high chance that there's definitely more to it than 'woe is me'.
As far as being able to lock people out of even single-player, offline experiences? Such a thing is bullshit. But even then, we're looking at both a terrible design choice and one that will probably become more and more common. Something that will simply be a risk that PC players have to factor in. Sad, but true.
I would surmise that the player in question did multiple things and was sent to the corner for a bit. That it was the forum post that was the last straw.
Quite possible, perhaps even probable.
The mod simply decided (whether they knew all the reasons or not) to simply go with what was posted as the reason and leave it at that.
Yeah, and that is really poor PR from someone who is serving as a representative of BioWare/EA, albeit probably not a paid one. If there were some, more substantial reasons for locking the guy out of his game, then the mod made a mistake in furthering the impression that it was because he wrote a douchey forum post. If the mod has no idea either way, better to say nothing than to say something that gives and impression which may turn out to be false and reflects badly on the company.
So either BioWare/EA really did do something absurdly spiteful and draconian or they just have really stupid and thoughtless people moderating their forums.
I don't think the single player portion of a game legally bought should be able to ever be locked by any company for any circumstance. It's friggin ridiculous and it's why I'll keep buying my games on physical medium (that don't require online activation codes) for as long as possible.
Am I the only one astounded that Mario Sports Mix made the top ten?
I'm surprised it is not higher if that is what you mean.
Except that the game is apparently terrible (Which is disappointing given the quality of most of the other Mario sports titles.
It seems fun, but has gotten mostly mediocre reviews. Yea, it does seem to lack the polish of other Mario sports titles, but either way I wasn't expecting it to crack the top ten like that. It seems to be selling better than I assumed it would.
Okay thread, I'm going to bed now. When I wake up tomorrow, and go to work, there had better be a FLOOD of awesome announcements from PAX East.
A FLOOD.
I look forward to it with much glee, not being able to attend PAX myself.
My god, CODBLOPS. It's hard to imagine another game topping this one in sheer sales, as far as your typical retail games go. The Wii stuff was definitely a weird homegrown mutant of success, but just a straight up game-game taking the cake (in the U.S. at least)? I hope I'm still into gaming when we see that get topped.
It's exciting to see MvC3 do so well. Hopefully it did better than expected in the eyes of the Capcom officials and they don't feel the 'grass is greener' effect from the continued dominence of COD and Just Dance. I wonder how the ratio 360 to PS3 versions was split.
Mario Sports Mix may be in the top 10, but right now it's unconfirmed if that's 100,000+ or not right? I imagine it wedged itself in there pretty tightly.
Eh, I really doubt they'll bother with Dissidia, given that there's no plans to continue the series (Nomura said any future FF fighting game would be named something different) and Japan was the main market for them anyway. That's probably why they've actually been released on the PSN, because Square Enix have no real future plans to further monetize them. Crisis Core and Birth By Sleep though? I think they've been held off the PSN specifically so Square Enix can re-release them on the NGP. The 3DS wouldn't be a huge leap though, but I think we can rule out consoles.
Quite so, though I suppose I was looking at it from a more general view. Old Game + New Platform = Cha-Ching'aling.
Agreed with the console comment. There's a distinct line between what stays on handhelds and what gets on the consoles. Constructing games hand-in-hand between two portable devices, though, should offer more of a 360-PS3 (or maybe XBLA-PSN would be more apt) relation with regards to the offerings.
I have now vowed to steer clear of that Dissidia FF name generator after the last one produced for me the word "Viagra" in the title.
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The link above describes in detail how one guy was banned from playing his store-bought copy of DA2 (Including the DLC), due to criticizing Bioware and EA. How the hell can you defend these companies for doing shit like this?
The mod in question (Stanley Woo) is a paid Bioware employee, but I don't get the impression from his post that he has any say in who EA's customer service reps choose to ban for violating EA rules. He specifically said that those come down from a different department.
Honestly, it sounds more like a technical oversight than a malicious act. It's pretty common these days for community logins to be coupled with digital distribution platforms (Steam, Live, ect.) I imagine that EA has a similar system for their DRM and there's a good chance that whatever customer service guy did the banning wasn't even aware that he was locking the guy out of the activation system when he did it. I'd say he should contact customer support, but since the ban is only 72 hours it would probably have expired by the time they got to his case.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
The link above describes in detail how one guy was banned from playing his store-bought copy of DA2 (Including the DLC), due to criticizing Bioware and EA. How the hell can you defend these companies for doing shit like this?
They chose...poorly.
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.
This is the one that can affect his game.
Basically a bioware mod did not ban him. It got sent to someone from the "EA Community" department, not the "Bioware" department. I get the feeling the bioware mod has no choice or ability to appeal these kinds of bans.
It's an EA thing. Which isn't really news.
They seem to be forced to follow these things wether the like it or not. I kind of feel sorry for them in this case if it is actually an EA department like the wording suggests because their hands would be tied.
That said WHAT THE FUCK EA. It's not news that they would do stupid shit like this but the stupidity of it still needs reiterating.
Morninglord on
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The mod in question (Stanley Woo) is a paid Bioware employee, but I don't get the impression from his post that he has any say in who EA's customer service reps choose to ban for violating EA rules. He specifically said that those come down from a different department.
Honestly, it sounds more like a technical oversight than a malicious act. It's pretty common these days for community logins to be coupled with digital distribution platforms (Steam, Live, ect.) I imagine that EA has a similar system for their DRM and there's a good chance that whatever customer service guy did the banning wasn't even aware that he was locking the guy out of the activation system when he did it. I'd say he should contact customer support, but since the ban is only 72 hours it would probably have expired by the time they got to his case.
I completely understand that might be the case, but fuck ups like this (especially ones that leak out and get some coverage) are an easy way to get a reputation as draconian fuckbags. Even if it's just a technical screwup, some damage control would be advisable.
Edit: So it's EA's baby? Well, Bioware are the ones looking like dicks to a certain extent. Sadly.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
Especially given that a huge % of the population will not differentiate between "EA Community" and "Bioware community" and will paint everybody under the same brush.
Morninglord on
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Oh yeah, they should definitely do some damage control, and soon with that that link making the rounds. I just think it's important to get mad at the right people (not Bioware) and not to assume evil when a technical screw-up is just as likely.
IGN: After the game is finished, do you go back through a play it again with all of the music in place?
Zur: Sure thing. I'm actually really anxious for the game right now, so I can pop it in and start playing. I'm really looking forward to see it. I know there are a few bugs that still need to be fixed. Unlike other titles from Bioware, this [score] was kind of a rush job. EA really wanted to capitalize on the success of Origins, so the game was really being pushed hard to be released now. So I'd like to know if there are bugs, or if there's anything we could patch or fix.
Mike Laidlaw: We're just very happy to see it out. What we're seeing is something not really a surprise to us: we're seeing a bit of polarisation. It's not radical, it's not like people are bursting into open warfare about things, thank god. We knew going into Dragon Age II we were making some changes. I wouldn't necessarily say changes to make it more accessible, but to make it present itself in a different way.
There are some things I think that are certainly fair criticisms: the re-use of the levels is something we knew was a bit of a risk, but we wanted to make sure there was more content rather than less, so re-using some of the spaces and coming to them again was certainly one we were careful about and tried to re-use as artfully as we could.
According to one player:
I was headed to some outlying area, but was ambushed. My original destination ended up being exactly the same as the ambush area.
But it was done artfully!
And just because:
Mike Laidlaw: I've certainly seen a fair amount of feedback that says, "I couldn't play Origins, I thought it was too slow, the story was too plodding, too typical, and Dragon Age II is awesome by comparison!" For those people we don't want to create this swathe of content that is closed off and exclusive.
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Zxerolfor the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't doso i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered Userregular
edited March 2011
Nah, the artful content is the one they cut off for DLC. /gross cynicism.
(Dunno why I'm picking on the game, it's not like I have a stake in it either way.)
Eurogamer: I've seen scores as low as a 6/10 - what do you think when you read those?
Mike Laidlaw: Well it's hard to know exactly what's going on with scores that are really, really negative.
Guess they're not use to anything but the regular 9-10 game score huh.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited March 2011
It's hard to know what's going on with any score.
It's great! Is worth about a zero on the detail-a-thon, same as "it sucks!".
I have to read a hell of a lot of reviews to even begin seeing where the biases might lie, let alone get an accurate impression.
Morninglord on
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Posts
Seriously United States? Seriously?
Who are 'these' companies and who is defending them from what? If this is related to your silly goose Dragon Age 2 statement then no, this doesn't suddenly make it a bad game. Try again.
No, they know full well what their numbers are, they just chose not to provide them now that NPD's gone all stealth on us. Probably because they weren't terribly flattering compared to the other guys.
At any rate, it's hard to tell with no numbers, but it's looking like Just Dance has longer legs than Dance Central.
Competitive multiplayer. Include it in your violent, penis joke filled shooter, or fail.
Then I live in Bizarro world, because I see commercials for KZ 3 everyday on MTV.
To answer your question, Street Fighter 4 did 849,000 across two platforms (446k/403k-360/ps3), so slightly worse. Both were released nearly dead center in the middle of the month.
Just as well I have no interest in DA2 or anything else on the current BioWare slate.
Far be it for me to turn it into (another) DRM fight, but yeah, thanks DRM.
And we shouldn't forget that whatever the situation, the only side of the story we know of is the dude who was banned. Their tone hardly suggests 'innocent lamb'. I'd find it hard to believe they were actually banned solely because they were anti-company.
Well, the moderator kind of had the opportunity to explain the other side of the story, but apparently chose not to, instead preferring to basically confirm that the dude had been locked out of his game because of a stupid forum post.
Believe one you gotta believe them all.
Ask any mod here if they want to openly go in to details about their corrective decisions.
I would surmise that the player in question did multiple things and was sent to the corner for a bit. That it was the forum post that was the last straw. The mod simply decided (whether they knew all the reasons or not) to simply go with what was posted as the reason and leave it at that.
I'm not saying EA/BioWare is guilt free, but I highly doubt it was just because somebody posted negatively about the company. If they did that, they'd be banning nearly everybody. Some people simply go to far with it.
I think the point Santa's making is that the scenario you described is probably a crock.
It has a high chance that there's definitely more to it than 'woe is me'.
As far as being able to lock people out of even single-player, offline experiences? Such a thing is bullshit. But even then, we're looking at both a terrible design choice and one that will probably become more and more common. Something that will simply be a risk that PC players have to factor in. Sad, but true.
Quite possible, perhaps even probable.
Yeah, and that is really poor PR from someone who is serving as a representative of BioWare/EA, albeit probably not a paid one. If there were some, more substantial reasons for locking the guy out of his game, then the mod made a mistake in furthering the impression that it was because he wrote a douchey forum post. If the mod has no idea either way, better to say nothing than to say something that gives and impression which may turn out to be false and reflects badly on the company.
So either BioWare/EA really did do something absurdly spiteful and draconian or they just have really stupid and thoughtless people moderating their forums.
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Am I the only one astounded that Mario Sports Mix made the top ten? O_o
Also congrats Retro for the continued success of DCKR, you guys rock.
And 8 million NSMB sold to date...that is crazy sauce.
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I'm surprised it is not higher if that is what you mean.
Except that the game is apparently terrible (Which is disappointing given the quality of most of the other Mario sports titles.
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It seems fun, but has gotten mostly mediocre reviews. Yea, it does seem to lack the polish of other Mario sports titles, but either way I wasn't expecting it to crack the top ten like that. It seems to be selling better than I assumed it would.
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A FLOOD.
?
My god, CODBLOPS. It's hard to imagine another game topping this one in sheer sales, as far as your typical retail games go. The Wii stuff was definitely a weird homegrown mutant of success, but just a straight up game-game taking the cake (in the U.S. at least)? I hope I'm still into gaming when we see that get topped.
It's exciting to see MvC3 do so well. Hopefully it did better than expected in the eyes of the Capcom officials and they don't feel the 'grass is greener' effect from the continued dominence of COD and Just Dance. I wonder how the ratio 360 to PS3 versions was split.
Mario Sports Mix may be in the top 10, but right now it's unconfirmed if that's 100,000+ or not right? I imagine it wedged itself in there pretty tightly.
Quite so, though I suppose I was looking at it from a more general view. Old Game + New Platform = Cha-Ching'aling.
Agreed with the console comment. There's a distinct line between what stays on handhelds and what gets on the consoles. Constructing games hand-in-hand between two portable devices, though, should offer more of a 360-PS3 (or maybe XBLA-PSN would be more apt) relation with regards to the offerings.
I have now vowed to steer clear of that Dissidia FF name generator after the last one produced for me the word "Viagra" in the title.
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"Did ya hear the one about the mussel that wanted to purchase Valve? Seems like the bivalve had a juicy offer on the table but the company flat-out refused and decided to immediately clam up!"
They chose...poorly.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Honestly, it sounds more like a technical oversight than a malicious act. It's pretty common these days for community logins to be coupled with digital distribution platforms (Steam, Live, ect.) I imagine that EA has a similar system for their DRM and there's a good chance that whatever customer service guy did the banning wasn't even aware that he was locking the guy out of the activation system when he did it. I'd say he should contact customer support, but since the ban is only 72 hours it would probably have expired by the time they got to his case.
This is the one that can affect his game.
Basically a bioware mod did not ban him. It got sent to someone from the "EA Community" department, not the "Bioware" department. I get the feeling the bioware mod has no choice or ability to appeal these kinds of bans.
It's an EA thing. Which isn't really news.
They seem to be forced to follow these things wether the like it or not. I kind of feel sorry for them in this case if it is actually an EA department like the wording suggests because their hands would be tied.
That said WHAT THE FUCK EA. It's not news that they would do stupid shit like this but the stupidity of it still needs reiterating.
I completely understand that might be the case, but fuck ups like this (especially ones that leak out and get some coverage) are an easy way to get a reputation as draconian fuckbags. Even if it's just a technical screwup, some damage control would be advisable.
Edit: So it's EA's baby? Well, Bioware are the ones looking like dicks to a certain extent. Sadly.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Game was rushed, still bugs in the game.
Bioware's Mike Laidlaw does interview to defend Dragon Age II
According to one player:
But it was done artfully!
And just because:
(Dunno why I'm picking on the game, it's not like I have a stake in it either way.)
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
Guess they're not use to anything but the regular 9-10 game score huh.
It's great! Is worth about a zero on the detail-a-thon, same as "it sucks!".
I have to read a hell of a lot of reviews to even begin seeing where the biases might lie, let alone get an accurate impression.