Increased Harassment towards members of Dev Team
https://twitter.com/Battlefield/status/1657017752811450372
Forum Discussion
@Adamonic wrote:
@Prof3ss0r_M1k3yep, that's the way I take it. Like somehow Social Media, Twitter, Discord, Reddit, and these forums can possibly lead to your account being banned IN GAME.
well, i don't use twitter, discord or reddit. if i did though and a company banned me from a game that i paid for because they don't like something i said or did outside the game on a platform not controlled by EA and not subject to EA EUA i'd probably spend the money it takes to invoke the arbitration clause out of principle
Surprised to see this posted now. Even at its worst the EA Answers community is kittens and puppies compared to the darker corners of Twitter and Reddit (when filtered by new). Things seem far better now than a year ago
Consider:
- Dev's home addresses have been posted to Twitter.
- Someone was fabricating 'evidence' that one of the Reddit mods was a pedophile.
- Because the main 2042 subreddit was too 'tame' for some people a new hate focused subreddit was created. R/battlefieldboomers. I think Pappa Reddit had to step in on that sub, initially it was pretty unhinged. Human trash posting up the most hateful things they could imagine.
- During the Fawsi Mesmer news cycle all the racists came out on Reddit. 2042 was bad because brown people.
All of that over a toy. A toy that costs less than a tank of gas.
I think this DICE response is completely justified based on what I've seen.
@AngrySquid270 wrote:Surprised to see this posted now. Even at its worst the EA Answers community is kittens and puppies compared to the darker corners of Twitter and Reddit (when filtered by new). Things seem far better now than a year ago
Consider:
- Dev's home addresses have been posted to Twitter.
- Someone was fabricating 'evidence' that one of the Reddit mods was a pedophile.
- Because the main 2042 subreddit was too 'tame' for some people a new hate focused subreddit was created. R/battlefieldboomers. I think Pappa Reddit had to step in on that sub, initially it was pretty unhinged. Human trash posting up the most hateful things they could imagine.
- During the Fawsi Mesmer news cycle all the racists came out on Reddit. 2042 was bad because brown people.
All of that over a toy. A toy that costs less than a tank of gas.
I think this DICE response is completely justified based on what I've seen.
if that stuff was outside of game they have no grounds for any enforcement in game. is the conduct disgusting? yes. do they have the *right* to ban someone in game over something done on twitter or reddit? *NO*
there are other legal channels to go through for doxing, fabricating evidence etc. allowing a game company to kick people for stuff done outside of game will lead to people being banned for other reasons like "wrongthink" such as voting for joe biden or donald trump (depending on the perspective of the person with the ban button)
they put this in the EUA:
- Harass, threaten, bully, embarrass, spam or do anything else to another player or any EA employee or representative that is unwanted, such as repeatedly sending unwanted messages or making personal attacks or statements about race, sexual orientation, religion, heritage, etc. Hate speech is not tolerated. We won't tolerate any unwanted conduct against any EA employee and representative because of their affiliation with EA in EA Services or anywhere else.
i do not agree to these terms. i do not haraass anyone but i'm not going to be judged on what i do off platform. have fun, i'm done with EA permanently. they go in the bin with patreon and paypal for claiming the right to tie my ability to use a product to something not related to that product
@Prof3ss0r_M1k3 I suspect there's probably some vague statements in the EULA for EA/DICE to do whatever they please regarding player access.
DICE could flip the switch and turn off all of the 2042 servers tomorrow without reason. While we may have the expectation to access, I don't think the EULA entitles it.
- @AngrySquid270 I had no clue about most of that. The doxing stuff should be dealt with and directed towards those that did it.
Just like anything, address the problem head on. A blanket statement doesn't solve anything, and at the end of the day, normally empowers knuckleheads to double down on stupid activity.
All the things you listed should have been addressed swiftly and directly.While some of those restrictions are valid, some are not and what some would agree to violate our constitutional rights of freedom of speech by restricting us from fully express our opinions on open public platforms..
@fragnstein wrote:While some of those restrictions are valid, some are not and what some would agree to violate our constitutional rights of freedom of speech by restricting us from fully express our opinions on open public platforms..
Freedom of speech is a freedom from government retaliation to speech and even that freedom only extends up to the point of causing harm. Private companies like EA are free to censor/punish speech as they please within their power.
As a business I expect that EA has the right to refuse service (assuming they aren't basing the refusal on one of the protected classes).
But then none of us are legal experts. We can only speculate at the legal risks here. However as a company of 10k+ people I'd imagine EA has a more than a few legal experts - specifically legal experts in the field of video games - that would have been available to weigh in on this. Most large corporations are hyper sensitive legal risks. If there's even a whiff of legal risk then you need to run it by the legal department. No idea if that happened in this case, but my guess is that they did and it got a green light.
