The Alphaville Herald

To recap what is now common public knowledge, Dr. Peter Ludlow contacted me about a disturbing situation he encountered on TSO, which I also play. A player reported to him, outside the context of role-play, that he had been abusing his sister (“put her in the hospital” was the basic content of the message). Dr. Ludlow contacted Maxis, who sent him a series of inane form responses. I continue to be extremely disturbed by this situation, and your lack of *any* reply to my concerns. Upon hearing about this incident months ago, I immediately expressed my outrage to you, and told you that I thought this was an unconscionable, misleading, and unacceptable policy.

Upon receiving no further word from you, I contacted you once again, in a more tempered fashion. I decided that it was possible that you had a rationale behind your actions, and I would ask you for it. It seemed to me only fair to give you an opportunity to respond. You failed, once again. No word came to me at all.

So, here I go again. You seem to have a real hard time getting the point of my messages (as did Maxis totally miss the point of poor Dr. Ludlow’s concern, so it appears). This is the point: Your privacy policy indicates that you may release information to civil authorities if you have reason to believe you can help prevent harm from occurring to a third party. Yet, your Maxis division received such notification from Dr. Ludlow, and Maxis told *him* to contact the police if someone he knew was in danger. He did so, even though it was *not* someone he knew, rather it was a game player in TSO and your company is the *only* entity who holds such information to supply to civil authorities. There is a real problem here that we need to address.

What is your explanation for your actions in this case? Why does your privacy policy read the way it does regarding third-party harm when you have no intention of passing on cases of reported abuse that come through game players to a civil authority? If you only mean that you will do so if *compelled* by a law enforcement agency, I suggest you craft that into your privacy policy. Can you please explain your rationale to me on this issue?

Quite frankly, this is a very serious issue and your lack of response is not only exasperating but also sickeningly disturbing. I literally lose sleep over this issue, yet everyone at EA must be sleeping so well (on comfy beds from the money your customers provide to you, it might be noted) that no one can even bother to reply to my inquiry. I’m imploring you to take the time to explain your rationale to me now. The customer is indeed not always right, but doesn’t she at least deserve a reply to a legitimate inquiry? (Most helpfully, you might also explain to me how it takes several attempts over an extended period of time to receive any reply from you).