18 year age restriction on spores online functions!

[galaxyAbstractor]

It happened again! I have written about the 18 year limit in skate to play it online and now they did it again! This time they did it on Spore.

You actually need to be 18 to take part of the online functions of spore, according to EAs rules.

I can't see why there is an age restriction of the online part. You can't buy anything, you can't be abused in any ways. You share your creatures FFS!

Well, you could lie about your age, but if EA finds out they going to permanently ban you from the online functions.

In Skate you can't lie about your age without creating another gamertag and another xbox live.

EA needs to stop these unneccesary restrictions!

Sorce: http://jagf.net/games-f156/dictature-t626.html

I can't see why they do that! It's so dumb. From now I am not gonna buy ANYTHING from EA again.

Sign the petition if you agree! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/eaage/

 

[Smith6612]

If what you're saying is true, that's going to seriously stink. Wasn't planning on buying Spore anyways, but just wait to see how much negative backlash they are going to get considering that people less than 18 years old are the real money makers (and I can say that off hand. People older than 18 years old have better things to do and don't game as much as the teens. Me, I have over $600 worth of video games sitting right next to me). If they're worried about what Livewire stated, all they need are in-game moderators and they're all set.

When are they going to start making games like Halo again? That game is still so fun because there's no DRM on the game, there's no PunkBuster or other programs of the sorts, and you don't need to register online (except on Halo 2) to play online, and there is no age limit.

 

[Livewire]

Sorce: http://jagf.net/games-f156/dictature-t626.html

I can't see why they do that! It's so dumb. From now I am not gonna buy ANYTHING from EA again.

Sign the petition if you agree! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/eaage/

One word: Sporn. Seriously, theres a reason they started keeping an eye on things, especially after gamers-at-large proved that all they could think of was ways to use Spore's creature designing abilities to make it appear as though a creature was either a representation of a particular anatomical body part, or was having relations with itself.

I won't blame them for it, especially when they've been given a reason to keep an eye on things.

 

[JKnife]

*thinks, maybe we can have decent gaming now...*
Come one, you know how annoying 12 year olds are in Counter-Strike

One word: Sporn. Seriously, theres a reason they started keeping an eye on things, especially after gamers-at-large proved that all they could think of was ways to use Spore's creature designing abilities to make it appear as though a creature was either a representation of a particular anatomical body part, or was having relations with itself.

Ohh well we have ebaums for that

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

One word: Sporn. Seriously, theres a reason they started keeping an eye on things, especially after gamers-at-large proved that all they could think of was ways to use Spore's creature designing abilities to make it appear as though a creature was either a representation of a particular anatomical body part, or was having relations with itself.

I won't blame them for it, especially when they've been given a reason to keep an eye on things.

Well then, then they maybe can figure out a way to filter out those creatures from the kids.

Sharing your creations with friend is one of the main thing IMO. It isn't really fun to copy your creations file to a USB, get to your friends house and transfer it to his, if that would even work that way.

And really, who doesen't lie? When they see that they can't signup, they automatically change the year to something like 1980. So it is totally useless.

 

[Spartan Erik]

They don't want some family filing a lawsuit because some kid got cursed at or something, hence the arbitrary age restriction.

You can still lie, how would EA find out your real birthdate? They're not going to go out of their way and hunt everyone down.. it's simply a legal matter

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

They don't want some family filing a lawsuit because some kid got cursed at or something, hence the arbitrary age restriction.

How can a kid get cursed at without a chat function? And can't that happen on MSN?

 

[Kayos]

I personally don't mind this at all. As Livewire said, this is mostly cause by the whole Sporn thing and I have no problems with it.

That said, it sucks if you're a minor.

From now I am not gonna buy ANYTHING from EA again.

This age restriction isn't the only reason not to buy EA games.

 

[Clinton]

Like Spartan dude above mentioned, I'm sure it's simple legal issues. I don't see any reason to complain about such a thing, it's not a new process in games.

 

[Sharky]

And as I said on IRC, and Spartan Erik says here, how can they verify that your age/DOB that you enter is actually your real age/DOB? IE., why not lie? And anyway, isn't this grounds for a refund?

 

[GG-Xtreme]

One word: Sporn. Seriously, theres a reason they started keeping an eye on things, especially after gamers-at-large proved that all they could think of was ways to use Spore's creature designing abilities to make it appear as though a creature was either a representation of a particular anatomical body part, or was having relations with itself.

I won't blame them for it, especially when they've been given a reason to keep an eye on things.

Happens a lot on the Mii Channel if you own a Wii.

 

[enraged]

Oh no, guys!

Look!

A small amount (in comparison) of barely recognizable body parts!

Man the age limit harpoons!

 

[kkenny]

Nice enraged

Anyways, I think EA is just going out of their way to prevent any angry families playing EA, and seeing body parts and things happening. Kinda pathetic of them to do 18, I mean 13 would be reasonable, maybe 14. BUT 18?

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

Nice enraged

Anyways, I think EA is just going out of their way to prevent any angry families playing EA, and seeing body parts and things happening. Kinda pathetic of them to do 18, I mean 13 would be reasonable, maybe 14. BUT 18?

yes. And I actually tried doing a creature with "body parts", and it got filtered out instantly. So the age restriction isn't because of that.

 

[Livewire]

yes. And I actually tried doing a creature with "body parts", and it got filtered out instantly. So the age restriction isn't because of that.

When Sporn first came around though, there was tons of it until they started banning the CD-Keys for the Spore Creature Creator; banning the key means the creator can't share via the normal EA distribution system.

Same applies for the Spore game; part of the 18 restriction is to avoid the family issues with custom content. They got away with not having it in The Sims and The Sims 2 because the content EA was releasing was NOT pornographic, and not released via an EA system.

Because Sporn would go through EA's distribution system, they need to make sure everyone using the game is 18 and thus responsible for any content they create. The main reason is bound to be because of the risk of a Spore game downloading the Sporn before it gets taken out of the EA distribution system; far as I know, once it's on the system, the user has to see it and ban it manually. Granted if it doesn't get from EA to the Spore install, problem solved. Internet's really fast though and theres a good chance it'll get downloaded by at least one system before they get it erased.


Recap: 18 limit is so anyone seeing Sporn is of legal age, because the stuff gets redistributed via an EA system that's built into the game - the player wouldn't really have an option to either enable Sporn or disable it (Sims 2 and Sims have 3rd party unlockers for said material, however it's not released via a system EA endorses - EA's covered simply because it's not their system, whereas the Spore one is).

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

I just saw, that the age restriction is only in sweden. In the swedish TOS, it's stated:

Some of our sites/services may not be used at all of the children who are 12 years and younger. In some cases we do not allow children who are 14 or 18 years or younger participate on our sites/services.

This isn't stated in the english TOS. In the english TOS, it's only stated that they don't collect information from children under 13.

And I called them asking why it was, they stated that you aren't allowed to buy things online if you are 18 (that's a swedish law), and spore and skate should have shops in it in the future.

 

[Livewire]

...Huh, almost sounds like EA's leaving themselves open, unless they've got another way of covering themselves regarding the content being uploaded so there's no way for Sporn to get to a user's pc before its filtered?

But shops in Spore in the future? That's gunna be interesting...

 

[fempower]

If people wouldn't always overrun user-generated content games with stuff inappropriate for kids, there wouldn't be a need for such restrictions. Though maybe they could get some editors to rate content and only allow kids to access the rated content. I mean, however they'll determine the age limit probably isn't foolproof anyway.

 

[galaxyAbstractor]

If people wouldn't always overrun user-generated content games with stuff inappropriate for kids, there wouldn't be a need for such restrictions. Though maybe they could get some editors to rate content and only allow kids to access the rated content. I mean, however they'll determine the age limit probably isn't foolproof anyway.

well, this time it is because a swedish law stopping people under 18 to buy things online. Same in skate

 

[kkenny]

18 seems like the new 13. Every site/game who has staff who don't want to deal with teenage drama are making their services 18+, this goes for some XBOX Live games, some Online games and even online sites...