With Sony apparently now holding stricter rules regarding the names of PlayStation Network accounts, one unfortunate individual has felt their wrath as his 8-year-old account (and its hundreds of dollars worth of games) was permanently banned for its offensive username.
According to the sad man’s Reddit thread, he admits he knew it was a stupid username but he made it when he was the unwary age of 12 (8 years ago):
This morning I received an e-mail from PlayStation informing me that my account was permanently banned due to violations of the PlayStation Network Terms.
Of course they didn’t bother to inform me in the e-mail why exactly I was banned so I had to call PlayStation Support.
In that call they told me that my account I was banned for life because my online ID violates the Code of Conduct. My online ID is (was) KingMADAFAKA.
I admit that it is a stupid username, but I created when I was only 12.
I asked them if there was a way to change the username in order not to lose every game that I had on my account (my FIFA account was amazing, I had a really good Ultimate Team) and all the money that I invested in the account, but they said that I can not change the online ID, therefore my account is banned for life and I have to create a new one from scratch.
Naturally many believe this permanent banning to be excessive and cruel, especially due to it merely being a case of an “offensive” username no more offensive than the streams of invective players can expect during regular online play – though the worst part may be the fact that his banning was inevitable since PlayStation has yet to allow users to alter their usernames…
If this was on Steam, the most you would get would be a 1 month community ban, thats why pc is the master race. Oh, and you can change you nickname freely anytime you want.
My steam name was “Some Cock Sucker” for 2 days and it actually got changed by a mod to some random numbers instead. Didn’t get a ban just a warning
Thats a funny name. These mods have no sense of humor.
chance is that’s your steamID
Steam sales often undercut the console game port prices too. Got my Hyperdimension collection on Steam for a lot less than PSN have charged during the recent sale.
You are aware that the Hyper Dimension Re1, HDRe2 and HDRe3V are not the same games as HD1, HD2 and HD3V as chronologically the Revision series takes place after HD 3V, aka the event that fucked up the timeline.
This guy here thinks Neptunia is a franchise with actually consistent lore.
There is a story?
Sad but true, but I believe Xbox live is worse than PSN
nope you are wrong xbox has better TOS and actually lets you change your name
Being able to change your name doesnt make it better or worse (the dickhead himself created his nickname, and excuses about being a kid are bullshit). Its all about games that you can play. What good games are on xbox?
Xbox? Plenty, including anime ones. 360? Still quite plentiful, including anime ones. One? Plenty of worthless nothings, with no backwards compatibility for anime games nor non-shat games from the Xbox or 360 era.
KingMADAFAKA? Really? REALLY???
I could understand racial slurs, something with r♥♥e, laughing at mentall illnesses… Fuckton of hatefull things. But fucking KingMADAFAKA?
Can’t wait till they start to ban names like poopy99.
Your PSN name is totally poopy99 isn’t it…
kids today are soft
sony is just complying with the demands of whinny sjw libcuck faggots
one more reason not to buy digital content
Yeah! f♥♥k steam!
f♥♥k sony, i would not let this slide if i was the guy, Sony doesn’t stand above the law.
Actually the way the law stands currently they probably didn’t do anything wrong. When you buy a game especially one bought online through Sony OR Steam you are buying a revocable license to the game. He violated the license terms so they revoked the license all perfectly legal under current law. Now this law could always be changed and he should consider taking them to court…(I also happen to be a lawyer)
I think you’re right, Daniel. While it was unfortunate and dumb, Sony didn’t break any laws, and banning a gaming account doesn’t even rise to the level of lawbreaking in the first place.
On top of that. All of the money for all of the games and dlc are just gone. Sony pretty much stole from him because of a name he couldn’t change.
8 years it was ok and now they banned him, cause some rules changed… In proper deals, if you gonna change the rules/contract you should give a warning and a possibility for people to adapt to it.
Actually no – I expect like in most license agreements (which people should really read) they have a perfectly legal clause that says they have the right with or without notice to change license terms and you are expected to go and look at them periodically to make sure you are abiding by them. Remember as I stated above all you are buying when you buy a game online is a revocable license…
that works in a lot of cases but when you do a username term change without a way to fix said username your TOS is worthless the courts(in the EU atleast) have found just because a tos or eula says something doesn’t mean its allowed or enforceable ie the right to redress and other normal rights cant be negated by a private companies eula. Beyond that changing a policy that makes a name which has real money associated with it bannable without offering a fix is likely something he could sue over the 8 year gap from creation to the ban would likely have him win if he can take it to court.
Nazi salute was cool in Germany 75 years ago. Do it now you go to jail. Things change
That analogy was as bad as your dad’s pull-out game.
Ex post factos are explicitly forbidden by law.
When the ex post facto is a law change yes. Contracts are not laws just rules between individual parties that you both agree are enforceable by the courts. See my discussion above. Is a subtle but extremely important legally difference. Difference between civil and criminal law.
The difference is that there is adaption period and the option to change. The user in question had no option to change and no direct warning from Sony.
Even now the police in Germany will ask you to refrain from making that salute before arresting you. And unlike the situation here I don’t there there is a single person who has their arm locked in the salute by the German authorities, like is the case with the unchangeable username.
Well there are some rules in law to control legality of such pacts with devil in different countries. Law can not work backwards etc, but in nazi capitalist countries somehow it works.
But i just need to recall old thing. US stereotype story from movies:
“Student got arested because police found drugs in his school locker.”
Did he signed a contract with school, that he is responsible for safety of the locker, when he is not in school? Who can guarantee, that no one from school has an extra key? Why he will get arrested? Because he is a looser. You don’t know how justice system work? Looser.(such thinking is just disgusting) You don’t have to, when U are <18 etc. in USA (Japan too) education system you are just like public property! Contracts signed by unauthorized units are void. Yes! this works the same. Only in nazi rogue states underage peoples can make any final deals. In my country person can proove, that earlier, in time when the contract has been concluded, person was involuntary, and any company, which was the second party, have to withdraw the contract avoiding losses by agreement of the parties. I have same problem in one of mmo's – stupid character name which can be sexual offensive, but good it is inexplicable, because it is written in language with additional slang, which game moderators just don't know. But it is risky and i cannot change it.