One of the most common tips sent to the MMO Fallout email address (mmofallout at gmail) relates to Terms of Service and End User License Agreements, and people (understandably) have a tendency to take the wording of said documents as an open door for the company to abuse its customers down the road, rather than its real intention: Covering the company’s collective asses.
The reason I’m writing this article today is because of a recent discovery in EA’s Origin download manager that states your account may be deleted for inactivity after two years of no action by the user. After many contacts to EA’s customer service, by myself and others, I can conclude that EA has no intent of following through and deactivating accounts for anyone with games. Doing so would cause irreparable harm to the company’s reputation among gamers.
Steam, EA, and virtually every company have clauses where your license can be terminated for any reason whatsoever, and in some agreements for no reason whatsoever. This doesn’t mean Valve or John Smedley are going to one day say “hey let’s ban ten thousand people and see how many buy their games back,” rather I can say from someone who has worked customer service in the gaming industry, that it’s an end-all beat-all for people who try to circumvent the wording of the Terms of Service to evade a ban. It’s similar to when you would try to get around your parents by saying “well you didn’t specifically say I couldn’t do this,” and they would respond with “well I’m the adult and what I say goes in this house.”
For the record, such a clause is indeed legal. It’s similar to how EA can shut down online services for various games each year but retailers can keep the games on shelf with their original box art, or how an MMO can shut down without legal repercussion (they do have to take the boxes down in that case, however). The biggest drawback to terms of service and EULA’s is that they always favor the company, no exceptions, and will always grant full control over the game to the company. In the case of MMOs, this translates to you own nothing regarding your account, your characters, your items, etc. What you, as a consumer, must take into consideration is how much trust you put in that company.
But as I have always maintained here at MMO Fallout: Vote with your wallet. If you still don’t trust Origin and want to buy The Old Republic or a similar game, buy the boxed copy. Or don’t buy it at all. It might also be productive to email EA to express your discontent for the service.
MMO Fallout 