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Bioware Locks Critical Posts, Alleges Spam
Bioware Locks Critical Posts, Alleges Spam
10 March 2011
Labels: RPGs, Gaming Culture
Bioware forum moderators have thrown down the gauntlet on the Bioware Social Network. Stanley Woo, a Bioware moderator, has locked in excess of forty threads criticizing the game, the development thereof, or the moderation of the forums; further still, the vast majority of threads that have been locked were legitimately critiquing the game's execution and offered suggestions for future patches.
Locked threads were stamped with an axiomatic copy/paste response (above), stating only: "Spam. End of line." It is likely that Woo's allegations of spam can be attributed to the dozens of other 'player reviews' within the forums (thus appearing to be duplicates), however, positive posts have -- by-and-large -- remained unlocked by moderators. A thread entitled "Bioware, I'm Sorry. I like this game," which remained unlocked, praised the game's cinematic execution and, in essence, reviewed the title from a non-press perspective; meanwhile, a post titled "Why I humbly believe Dragon Age 2 isn't very good" was locked within the span of a few hours for "spam," despite the author's pleas to permit constructive discussion among peers.
Not unlike the time when Infinity Ward mysteriously lost data to critical threads, the actions of moderators suggest that Bioware doesn't tolerate the negativity surrounding some of the controversial decisions implemented for the latest game.
We attempted to investigate the Terms of Service upon registration, but were presented with an "error loading content" message. However, upon checking the 'Rules of Conduct,' Bioware defines spam as follows:
"1. No Spam. Spamming can be defined as posting multiple times about the same thing, starting multiple topics about the same thing, posting off-topic posts in other people’s discussion threads or topics, or providing links that have nothing to do with the forum, topic or subject at hand. Spam will be deleted without warning. What constitutes Spam is up to the discretion of staff and moderators. A person or persons found to deliberately or repeatedly post Spam or Spam others may be banned from these forums at the discretion of the staff."
Within its own rules, all posts 'reviewing' Dragon Age 2 -- both good and bad -- should be locked and merged into the primary User Reviews thread; unfortunately, it would appear that the negative reviews have been entombed within the pruning pages of the forums forever. Bioware, the very least you could do is explain the reason for locking the thread to your users, and thereafter, merge their thread with the above linked User Reviews thread.
In a post of his own, Woo stated his reasoning for locking negative posts: "There are those who believe that prefacing their posts with 'this is not a troll post' and 'this is constructive criticism' automatically makes it true." He's right, but positive comments are not necessarily inherent truths - no matter how pleasing they seem. Woo further stated, "don't want to see so many threads get locked? [...] be excellent to each other. That means no platform wars, no name-calling, no sarcastic spam remarks, and post constructively so people are more inclined to respond in kind." This is the Internet, and as in Sparta, trolls should be dealt with individually through employ of historically-inaccurate bottomless pits. Locking an entire thread that follows the rules because of one angry fanboy just isn't nice. The mantra of a relative comes to mind: "throw me in the pool, throw all my clothes in the pool!"
What do you think? Is the reaction acceptable, or should there be more explanation behind it? Is Bioware treating its forum members fairly? Respond in the comments below. I'll delete your post if it's negative.
Just kidding.
~Steve "Lelldorianx" Burke.
Comments (17)
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2012-01-15 03:02:57 | Mikemo
Same thing is happening on the SWTOR official forums. Anything negative is being locked as "Off topic" They're even closing threads talking about game breaking bugs. A 55 page "Customer Service is Horrible" page was closed earlier today too.
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2011-03-10 21:39:50 | BOB - kgkf
:arrow: Everything past KOTOR was a complete disappointment im just surprised it took them so long to get to this point. :arrow:
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2011-03-10 17:22:35 | Mark
"...Spamming can be defined as posting multiple times about the same thing..."
When you get new accounts started where the game is not registered (registered game users have their game icons displayed) just to start a new thread I think the moderators are quite within their rights to lock them as spam. Especially the case when a thread "Your Dragon Age II Review *NO SPOILERS PLEASE*" is available as a sticky at the top of the first page. This thread contains both good and bad reviews.
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2011-03-10 17:21:32 | Volpes
Good. Forum moderation is almost always deserved. Take your spam elsewhere.
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2011-03-10 17:08:33 | mike - jason2444
You're leaving out all the positive threads they lock...
The reason he locks them IS BECAUSE THERE IS AN OFFICIAL FEEDBACK THREAD. They don't need every retard spamming the forums because they saw a pixel out of place
Take off your god damn tinfoil hat
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2011-03-10 17:07:49 | Anonymous
Many threads have been closed containing good and bad reviews. Stating that that it's only bad review threads is poor reporting. The threads which generally get closed are those where the fors and againsts tend to get nasty with one another.
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2011-03-10 13:30:15 | Tribar
I understand why they're doing this but it's really the manner in which their are that is bad.
Like if instead of "Spam End of Line"
Woo put something like this is a multiple topic about the same thing. Please post these under the review forum, then I wouldn't have a issue with it. But as it stands Woo should be stripped of modhood.That being said I think DA2 is Bioware's weakest game yet.
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Really?! That's insane. I'll have to go look into that and see what's going on, it may be worth a new post.
Thanks for the tip, Mikemo!