According to a gamer identified as Roger, he was being banned from Battlelog, as well as the multiplayer component of Battlefield 3, for 72 hours over using the word “badass” on the Battlefield forums. In the forum post, he wrote in an Off-Topic forum “almost as badass as germany. Switzerland: they do a lot of stuff I think that just about sums up europe.”
This earned him a ban from Battlelog by EA, receiving an email stating, ”Your Electronic Arts account has been suspended for 72 hours for violating the Terms of Services for Electronic Arts Online. Violation:Inappropriate language (almost as badass as germany. Switzerland: they do a lot of stuff I think that just about sums up europe.)”
The hypocrisy comes from anyone who’s played the single player campaign of Battlefield 3, which has wall-to-wall actual profanity. This, in light of the fact that “badass” is technically not a profane word. The root of badass is “ass” as in donkey, with the term meaning a donkey that won’t behave or listen to orders. Even if the word is taken to mean “buttocks”, is anyone truly offended by terms like “kicked his ass”? Doubtful, and it’s highly questionable that there would be anyone offended by profanity in a Battlefield 3 forum.
Analysis: The solution to the problem, aside from not buying Electronic Arts products, is to simply never post in Electronic Arts forums. There’s simply no reason to put yourself in the position of idiotic bans from playing games, not with plenty of non-official game forums out there to join.
