The bans on games They are very curious. There are some that give something to talk about because of their mistakes, others because of the curiosity of what has happened, and this one seems to be halfway between the two. An Apex Legends player was banned by Electronic Arts for typing “STFU” in the in-game chat. So far, a logical prohibition, but with unexpected consequences: a ban in it battle royale has been translated into a complete ban in all EA games.
The news comes to us from MeinMMO colleagues in Germany who, taking a look at reddit, they brought up the, let’s say, “tragedy” of the THEVAN3D player. As commented in the publication, the user only wrote “STFU” (shut the f*** up) in the squad chat, which led to the alert message from his teammates to EA and the subsequent ban.
If we take a look at EA’s rules for its games and platform, updated as of September 2023, the American company makes it very clear: “Our games are the place for you to express your personality freely. But it’s not just your space, it belongs to everyone. Each person plays a role in helping others feel like they fit in. Harassment, intimidationthe threatsthe abuse nor any other harmful behavior towards other people,” reads the company’s blog.
A complete ban for only 4 letters
With this in mind, let’s return to the situation at hand here. According to the player, after that game and receiving the confirmation report of having violated EA policies, his access to EA App was restricted. In fact, in EA’s Terms of Use message, Apex Legends is cited as a game, but the ban has led to a complete ban of EA services, both games and access to the application itself.
Given this, many players have cried foul over EA’s decision. If we go back to EA rulesthe following is specified in detail in the event of a negative and unfavorable resolution for the player: “we may limit certain functions of your account and cancel your access to some or all of the EA Services.
Although there are those who argue that “if you violate their language policy, they shouldn’t take away your access to your own library that you already paid for”, or they suggest the logic of “you shouldn’t be banned from playing The Sims 3 because you said STFU in Apex”, EA’s rules are clear. Which We do not know is if the player I already had certain prohibitions prior or attention touchessomething that, if true, could have aggravated the situation.
