What's in a name?
Apparently quite a bit.
I am a BF fan. Bought all the games on Steam, including spending the $70 pre-order for BF6. I was a play tester for BF6 too. Playtesting used BFLabs, and so my EA username.
Apparently the open betas, however, became an issue for me, because the EA launcher isn't involved and my Steam username, which tbh tends to be a bit hit or miss when it comes to whether games allow it to be used or not, seems to be a problem for EA. Typically though, games that find it a touch too spicy have a way to change names in the game. Turns out 4 days or so after the last open beta ended, I received a warning for "Inappropriate content" which was never actually transmitted to me. I never got an email alerting me or anything. If I had, perhaps I could have avoided this issue. So sometime after that, I bought the pre-order, and was in the game on release day. Two weeks later to the day, I get an email with a 3day temp suspension for "Inappropriate content" which I've really no reason to suspect is anything other than my Steam name, a gamertag I have used for decades and the only one I have ever used on Steam. I've never had so much as a warning in decades of gaming.
An important aspect of this, is that when I received the suspension, it covered my entire EA catalog, not just BF6, even though my EA username is something more mundane. And there was an implicit threat that further violations would result in stiffer sanctions, which means playing BF6 risks my entire EA catalog. This is unreasonable and unfair. I should also add that I was explicitly denied any information about the actual reason for warning/suspension. I had to arrive at it through deduction. I've only ever had one Steam name. I don't think I should be required to change it in order to play a single title. Changing your player/character name in a game has to be one of the oldest, most basic settings, and EA apparently omitted it. I was unable to refund because I had played more than 2 hours and it was on day 14 that all this came to light.
So, I'm feeling pretty ripped off. I could have at least gotten a few moments warmth if I'd just set the $70 alight. The policy where EA sends you a " Violation context" that is nothing more than your username, a hash, and a bunch of random letters is unhelpful and provides zero information on how to come into compliance or not repeat a genuine mistake. It's just a really customer unfriendly way of going about things. There should be a way to change your name in the game. The Advisor I chatted with gave me information that apparently neither Anonymous nor Streamer mode is even a solution. If anyone knows otherwise I'd love to hear about it. I'd like to be able to play BF6 without worrying I'm risking all my other titles.
