EA has threatened to permanently revoke access to my entire account because I dared to play Battlefield 6 with the Steam username "Aunt Jemima." You just can't make this up.
"Warning" email
[puu.sh]
These heavy-handed, 100% AI-driven moderation actions are their terribly poor solution to a problem that they themselves created: by removing dedicated servers in favor of matchmaking, they removed the ability for the community to set and enforce their own rules to police themselves and their communities against cheaters/hackers and intentional bad actors. There is already barely a community in this game due to this design, and everyone is afraid to chat for fear of using some no-no word that will get their account flagged.
I've read countless posts by people who've had their accounts temporarily or permanently banned with no recourse as a result of equally harmless names and chat messages. Frankly, I envy those of you in an EU member state who are likely in a better position—you actually have better consumer protections, and submitting a complaint will likely get at least some of your money back and a potential account resolution. Here, we somehow believe these corporations should have the power to take away the products we've paid for at any time and for any reason! And not enough of us are willing to push back on these unfair (and what should be illegal) actions.
I will say... it's awfully funny that the only 2 times this sort of moderation action has been taken against me by EA was immediately after I criticised them and their actions, both on Discord and after a poor experience with customer support. They deserve to lose customers for their actions, and some of those customers also deserve to be compensated for the loss of their games or accounts.
I won't even bother to argue about how unreasonable their rules and enforcement of such are, as I think that's pretty obvious, and I don't expect they will change it at all. If anything, they will get worse and what little community exists in these games will deteriorate as a result. There is no "good, clean fun" in a system where the owner sets unclear expectations, and then punishes you for playing their games.
Electronic Arts (EA) was infamously awarded the "Worst Company in America" title by the consumer advocacy blog Consumerist for two consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.
As far as I'm concerned, they continue to vie for that title to this very day.
We should all expect better. EA has earned their poor reputation through these repeated bad actions, so I encourage you to vote with your wallet, because money seems to be all they care about these days.