Playing the Sim City Beta? Forgot to tell EA about a bug? EA will ban you company-wide - Polidicks

[URL]http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/01/sim-city-beta-eula-includes-company-wide-ban-for-unreported-bugs/[/URL] [QUOTE]Here at Ars Technica, we're no strangers to [URL="http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/01/lawyer-ibooks-author-eula-restrictions-could-raise-antitrust-concerns/"]overzealous[/URL] [URL="http://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2006/08/7447/"]EULAs[/URL]. But a clause in the EULA for the beta version of Electronic Arts' new [I]Sim City[/I] might take the cake for punishing users for seemingly innocuous actions... or lack of actions.As Twitter user Dan Teasdale [URL="https://twitter.com/deliciousbees/status/293033348765474817"]tweeted[/URL] recently (and [URL="http://www.sidequesting.com/2013/01/ea-reserves-the-right-to-ban-simcity-testers-from-all-ea-products-for-not-reporting-bugs/"]SideQuesting[/URL] promoted), the end-user license agreement you have to sign to get access to the new [I]Sim City[/I] beta mentions that "it is your responsibility to report all known bugs, abuse of ‘bugs’, ‘undocumented features’ or other defects and problems related to the Game and Beta Software to EA as soon as they are found ('Bugs')." [B]That's not so bad, but it gets a little bit more concerning when the EULA lays out the penalties for failing to report a bug you come across. "If you know about a Bug or have heard about a Bug and fail to report the Bug to EA, we reserve the right to treat you no differently from someone who abuses the Bug. You acknowledge that EA reserve the right to lock anyone caught abusing a Bug out of all EA products."[/B] That circuitous language obscures a simple fact: just coming across a bug in the Sim City beta and not telling anyone about it is enough to [I]ban you from all EA games[/I]. This kind of language isn't exactly new; players noted a similar clause [URL="http://www.atu-clan.com/showthread.php/284-BF3-Beta-EULA-Highlights"]in the agreement for the[I]Battlefield 3[/I] beta[/URL]. It's not the first time EA's EULAs have attracted controversy, either; [URL="http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/24/eas-origin-eula-proves-even-more-sinister/"]in 2011[/URL], the Origin user agreement let the software collect data from anywhere on your hard drive and upload it to EA. EA [URL="http://www.giantbomb.com/news/ea-revises-origins-eula-to-make-it-sound-decidedly-less-sinister/3624/"]quickly revised that language[/URL] days after widespread player outrage over the clause. We have yet to hear any reports of players being banned for simply stumbling upon an unreported bug. In fact, it's hard to imagine how EA would actually detect that a player failed to report a game-breaking bug that was encountered. More than likely, the company would only make use of this company-wide ban if someone started spreading word of a beta bug publicly, rather than simply telling EA about it. Just because some overprotective lawyer stuck this language in the EULA doesn't mean EA plans to use its power punitively. Still, the revelation helps highlight just how many powers software makers like EA reserve for themselves when you click that "I accept" button. Let's be thankful that no one has yet put a sentence in a EULA saying the software maker has the right to remove your kidneys in the dead of night.[/QUOTE] im scared to try out the sim city beta now if i get it. i usually never get bugs in betas for some reason.

Typical EA

I suppose this is to prevent users from reserving a number of bugs which they may later abuse.

It's because they don't want you to cheat, now that they have it all linked up and shit. Social gaming killed cheats and I fucking hate that. [editline]21st January 2013[/editline] I'll get the game though. Banning for exploiting things in a game like this is stupid though.

How could they know that you know about a bug? EA beta managers have ESP?

This is getting blown out of proportion, how is EA going to enforce this, how will they know?

How am I supposed to tell features from bugs?

Not a single person will be banned for this. People are overreacting once again.

[QUOTE=PieClock;39307324]Not a single person will be banned for this. People are overreacting once again.[/QUOTE] But.. but..but its EA! How can you not be mad at EA!!

What kind of company is this?

I'm guessing this is mostly to cover them in case someone finds a truly bad exploit such as free access to additional content, or cheating rankings etc. etc.

Whether or not people are blowing this out of proportion, including a statement such as this in a game's EULA is just despicable.

even if nothing comes of this, it is still mind-blowing that someone wrote this and thought it was actually a good idea. the fact that it is there is still the most aggravating part.

Why do people constantly overreact to EULA's that practically already allow companies to ban you for whatever reason anyway? The Steam Subscriber Agreement literally says [QUOTE][B]Valve may cancel your Account or any particular Subscription(s) at any time.[/B] In the event that your Account or a particular Subscription is terminated or cancelled by Valve for a violation of this Agreement or improper or illegal activity, [B]no refund[/B], including of any Subscription fees, will be granted.[/QUOTE] The language does come across as stupid; how are they going to know that you know about a bug? But it's far from tyrannical. This is pretty standard fare for game service user agreements.

but who cares if valve or anyone else does it, if it's ea it makes them literally the devil

[QUOTE=PieClock;39307324]Not a single person will be banned for this. People are overreacting once again.[/QUOTE] Indeed, this is obviously aimed at people who come across exploitable bugs and abuse them by not reporting them and using them in the retail game.

[QUOTE=Raidyr;39307918]Why do people constantly overreact to EULA's that practically already allow companies to ban you for whatever reason anyway? The Steam Subscriber Agreement literally says The language does come across as stupid; how are they going to know that you know about a bug? But it's far from tyrannical. This is pretty standard fare for game service user agreements.[/QUOTE] b-but gaben is the god of g-g-gaming... he can't do anything wrong or treat c-customers bad... valve is perfect! [editline]21st January 2013[/editline] [QUOTE=Jsm;39308121]Indeed, this is obviously aimed at people who come across exploitable bugs and abuse them by not reporting them and using them in the retail game.[/QUOTE] Yeah. Most games, especially MMOs and shit, will permaban you if you've abused a gamebreaking bug. Doesn't matter if you dropped 60 bucks on the game, you cheated, so you fucked up.

They are probably going to put bugs in the game, If you find it and report it, It unlocks a "Bug Fix DLC".

[img]http://www.philetzel.com/gallery2/d/638-3/eanazi.gif[/img] Meine EA! I have done nothing don't ban me!

[QUOTE=The golden;39307689]EA games. You know, the company which treats their customers like criminals and piles of shit and yet the customers just keep jizzing all over their games and begging EA to take their money.[/QUOTE] I've never been wronged by EA, I get treated the same by them as I do by any other game dev.

Hey cool I got a beta key! i'll just plop into origin and Hey wait what the hell [t]http://i.imgur.com/tMldZG5.png[/t] am i missing something here

[QUOTE=mopman999;39308687]Hey cool I got a beta key! i'll just plop into origin and Hey wait what the hell [t]http://i.imgur.com/tMldZG5.png[/t] am i missing something here[/QUOTE] You lucky lucky lucky son of a biscuit.

[QUOTE=mopman999;39308687]Hey cool I got a beta key! i'll just plop into origin and Hey wait what the hell [t]http://i.imgur.com/tMldZG5.png[/t] am i missing something here[/QUOTE] Better report that or else

But how can they ban someone for not reporting a bug? They don't know that some of the bugs exist in the first place so how can they tell if someone abuses it?

[QUOTE=teh pirate;39309274]Better report that or else[/QUOTE] It ain't a bug, he got a key from somewhere else.

[QUOTE=tomj;39309332]But how can they ban someone for not reporting a bug? They don't know that some of the bugs exist in the first place so how can they tell if someone abuses it?[/QUOTE] fear based treat, they dont know how, they just treat you like that hoping you do as they say because of fear.

[QUOTE=Altair_PT;39309439]It ain't a bug, he got a key from somewhere else.[/QUOTE] i did, but the key is legit, why is it showing this lol

This happens all the time with EA. They add a dumb line to their EULA, people get angry, they remove said line from EULA, everybody goes back to playing shitty EA games.

[QUOTE=The golden;39307689]EA games. You know, the company which treats their customers like criminals and piles of shit and yet the customers just keep jizzing all over their games and begging EA to take their money.[/QUOTE] I was being rhetorical.

oh they want people to do work for them for free