According to section 6.2 of the SimCity beta EULA, it is consider ‘exploiting a bug’ if you ‘fail to report a bug’. It is our ”responsibility” to snitch on anything that looks like an ‘undocumented feature’.
Now EULAs are already notorious for including rather strident language when it comes to this stuff, but EA claim to ”reserve the right to treat you no differently” from an exploiter.
That’s right, should you fail to report a bug you’ve come into knowledge of then you may as well have authored the dirty exploit yourself and be selling detailed ‘how to’ guides at $60 a time, fuelling your dirty, dirty lifestyle of depravity. Apparently this same type of language was in the Battlefield 3 beta EULA.
SimCity beta EULA section 6.2: ”It is understood and agreed that, as part of your participation in the Beta Program, it is your responsibility to report all known bugs, abuse of ‘bugs’, ‘undocumented features’ or other defects and problems related to the Game and Beta Software to EA as soon as they are found (“Bugs”). If you know about a Bug or have heard about a Bug and fail to report the Bug to EA, we reserve the right to treat you no differently from someone who abuses the Bug. You acknowledge that EA reserve the right to lock anyone caught abusing a Bug out of all EA products.”
Fortunately these are only implied threats, and unless someone is blabbing precise details of how to screw over those innocent doe-eyed EA lines of code, then absolutely nothing will happen.
”So, it’s a beta test, but if you end up hitting a bug and don’t report it, EA reserves the right to ban you from all EA games,” tweeted Dan Teasdale of Twisted Pixel. Of course the reason this is a rather abhorrent EULA clause is because an EA account ban would lock you out from accessing your Origin activated titles, all because of a bug.
SideQuesting has posted the full SimCity beta EULA and is yet to receive comment from EA or Maxis.
SimCity’s beta officially commences this week on the 25th, and will let those accepted play for one hour sessions. It includes a tutorial that explains a number of new mechanics Sim Mayors will need to deal with.
SimCity releases on PC in early March.