LOL.

You guys rock.  

The final game will be a real testiment to the value of public betas.

I'm going to be doing a post mortem on the game in a few weeks and the public beta was a crucial part of making the game turn out so well.

 

The problem with Bioware is that they actually BAN. Yes. BAN. you from playing your game if the developers or moderators want to. I will never, ever post on a Bioware forum, ever. 

Luckily, there aren't "that" many cases where people are banned for making an honestly constructive criticism but there have been cases like that. I have a hard time posting even on here because I know Frogboy can see exactly what games I have and could (probably) ban me if he wanted to. My saving grace is I know that I can just prevent Impulse from ever connecting to the internet and keep my games. Also, I haven't (yet) heard of people losing access to their games on this forum. 

Oh I ban people from the forums but banning from the game? That seems pretty harsh. You sure about that?

I just hope that Stardock never gets bought up by some big conglomerate like EA...

Bioware USED to be a great developer, and now since they've sold out they've gone way down the tubes...

 

Wow, that's insane.

I would also like to thank Frogboy and the Mod team for their wonderful work.

 

Although i feel afew things should have been done differently overall they have truly listened to the community and taken alot of our idea's.

 

It was a good experience being a beta for this game.

Why is it so hard believe? As long as your account is connecting to their servers, and there are several cases where a single-player game will commnunicate with their server (DLC), I can see how they would do it. All that "free" DLC with new purchases still requires you to create an account and get it after all.

I can attest that it does happen, because it happened to me. Not only was I banned from the Bioware forums, but my EA account was suspended, so I can no longer log into my Dragon Age/Mass Effect 2 accounts or access any of my DLC, most of which I paid for.

So yes, it does happen. Unless you want to call me a liar.

There was nothing poor about my behavior on the Bioware forums.

Confrontational, asshattardly, provocative, annoying and let's-throw-some-bricks-ery - but not poor.

Oh, I wouldn't worry about Frogboy. He's pretty awesome and not at all an asshat. He can be a bit of a douche at times but I'll take some honest douchery (which he is very upfront about) to the smile-in-your-face-stab-you-in-the-back asshat moderation that goes on on most public game forums these days, such as Bethesda, Bioware or Blizzard (Stardock doesn't start with a 'B', does it? I am seeing a pattern).

It helps that I can put a face and name to almost every employee and that they don't employ random users as moderators (although I am sure it'll come to that sooner or later, if Stardock keeps being awesome). Not that I'd show up with an I-beam at someone's house if I were banned, but it does help to have that (false) sense of security. It's familiar.

Why, just the other day, I was reprimanded by Jafo. Not a smile in sight. Refreshing.

Yeah, but I haven't actually heard of anyone having their account suspended after being banned on the forums. Getting banned in-game is also another thing entirely, since it's a multiplayer game. Now, I don't support banning even in multiplayer, but it's another climate, another social contract.

I consider the suspension of bought-and-paid-for singleplayer products based on the preferential whim of uppity forum moderators to be nothing short of theft. It underlines and have cemented my belief that digital distribution is bad, bad, bad news.

They are leaning against the EULA. Whilst that doesn't actually hold any weight here, there's not a whole lot I can do about it in Sweden. If they started to mass-ban people in that manner, it'd be possible to build some kind of bigger case against it, but as far as isolated incidents go, not a chance.

I do have plans to punch the first Bioware/EA employee I see in the face, though. I guess there's that.

But yeah, I was pretty shocked over the whole thing, too. I've been banned from a lot of places but this was the first time I've actually lost something I bought. I've heard rumors of similar things happening to people using Steam, but I don't actually know of it happening to anyone I know (which is why I never use it as an argument against Steam, of which I am not a fan).

But yeah. Don't buy from EA/Bioware. At least not if you have a problem with their business practices (i.e. if you consider it bad form to take away purchases due to moderation gone mad) or plan to use their forums.

Could at least have given me a warning. They kept banning/unbanning me without warnings and then suddenly it was permanent. It's somewhat true what you say, yeah, but who's to say you don't happen to rub a mod the wrong way one day?

It wasn't like I was the only one. I just happened to be singled out during a complete rebellion on the forums, following the Bioware Bazaar (which was an epic amount of trolling on part of the staff, I must say).

And it's not really so much "It may happen to you", because face it; if you're a spineless cockgobbler who's worst offense was walking over the University lawn, you're quite unlikely to have it happen to you (and by this I don't mean "you" you). But what about the solidarity, gentlemen? Solidarity towards.. well.. me! Even if this hadn't happened to me, but only one of my friends, I'd still be just as upset.

Or as I told the policeman just the other day; I don't abide thievery, no matter their uniform of the thief.

That's not a slippery slope, that's paranoia Frogboy has the power, are you saying sooner or later he'll start closing people's Stardock accounts for disagreeing with him on the forums?

The truth is the vast majority of the visitors on any given game forum have absolutely 0 reasons to worry. The only "slippery slope" is how much of a dick you can be before the banhammer, but they're not going to start banning people just because.

I think much is up to how things are structured. Who can do what in a system? What accountability are there? At some point, it's one big machinery, with zero accountability or control.

Will Frogboy one day develop into a megalomaniac grade A corporate stereotype, as Stardock develops into an enormous, ominous automaton of a company? I shudder to even imagine it!

That said, it probably wasn't a great idea to call the CEO a lying hack, even if it was true. But that's when I like to lean back on a piece of nordic wisdom; Do right, fear nothing. Or this old piece, which is a part of Frithiofs saga (Esaias Tegnér);

"Kort är hammarens skaft hos den segrande Tor, blott en aln lång är svärdet hos Frej;
det är nog; har du mod, gå din fiende när, och för kort är din klinga då ej."

Which translates loosely into:

"Short is the hilt of the hammer of the victorious Thor, merely one ell long is the sword of Frey:
it is enough; have you courage, move to your enemy close, and too short your edge is not"

Donald Duck laughs in the face of death - Didn't you know?