Comments on: EA fails to recognise Ireland (updated)

By: sam

sam — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 14:52:05 +0000

Northern Ireland is not part of Great Britain. It is, however, part of the United Kingdom. Which is why my passport says “The United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland”. There is certainly some ignorance surrounding these issues – but it’s not just EA – half the time Britons themselves don’t understand the subtle differences. Also – software systems in use for selecting countries online are often third party, an outside service, (ie maybe not developed by EA) and therefore require time and tussles with bureaucracy to be changed. It’s not as easy as pushing a button or switching a switch. FOr example, I have been having trouble sending stuff to my sister in Dublin from online companies in the US for years because Ireland doesn’t have zip/post codes and most online addressing software requires them. It’s a pain all round.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 22:15:48 +0000

@ Fin and Rob

The issue seems to affect only some players and it *does* affect players in the ROI. I’ve spoken to Ben at some length about this and verified his location. He not only lives in Dublin but he also insists he signed up to both PSN and EA with his location set to ROI.

EA have now been back in touch with him and agreed something is amiss

Full update here > http://www.seenit.co.uk/ea-and-that-little-question-of-irish-sovereignty/073925/

Oh and Rob… I’m saying nothing about those stats!

By: McG

McG — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:33:34 +0000

Absolutely ludicrous. I mean its common sense that Ireland is a republic, its in the feckin name. This is just laziness and ignorance on EA’s part.

By: danny

danny — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:32:55 +0000

i won’t buy another EA product untill this has been sorted out. i’m not trying to get into any kind of political argument on the legality of what they have done, that is completly irelevent. i am not satisfied to have my details on the displayed on the internet describing me or seeming to describe me as british. and will not give money to any company who refuses to accept my true identidy. danny belfast.

By: Fin

Fin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:08:35 +0000

I don’t understand EA’s response to this at all – my profile is fine:

http://fin.ie/pics/1943.png

(can’t figure out how to get a permlink to my profile)

I think the EA employee made a mistake and thought Ben lived in the North (which would explain everything).

By: Seán

Seán — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:58:36 +0000

This is absolutely disgusting behaviour on EA’s behalf. I was planning on buying Battlefield 1943, (Big fan of the original 1942) – but I refuse to buy it after this complete disrespect towards the Irish national identity.

By: Rob Velocity

Rob Velocity — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 13:35:32 +0000

Your article is wrong. Check out my profile here – http://www.battlefield1943.com/soldier/profile/169829571/360

Ignore the fact that I’m a pretty poor player and focus on the Irish tricolour.

By: Martin P

Martin P — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:40:01 +0000

In an update to this story – I’ve now managed to contact the the gamer in question and it turns out he lives in Dublin.

I can only assume that some kind of administrative error/ignorance is at play here

By: Martin P

Martin P — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:08:59 +0000

Keith some very good points. I don’t doubt that a lot of this comes down to the logistics of the existing structure which EA currently operate their customer database. Yet it somehow just doesn’t “feel” right and jars with the sentiments of the Belfast Agreement.

Many other games allow players to choose their own identity – useful if you are living abroad but still want to record your identity in an accurate way.

By: Keith Ruffles

Keith Ruffles — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 10:36:19 +0000

In some ways EA, historically speaking, might be right – the Republic of Ireland was neutral during world war II and so the easiest way for Irish soldiers wanting to fight was to join the British armed forces – which they did in their thousands. There were no ‘Irish’ soldiers in 1943, in that de Valera’s country did not take part in the war and thus did not send their own forces.

Further, whilst citizens in Northern Ireland have the right, under the GFA, to describe themselves as ‘Irish’ and to hold passports of the Republic, the fact remains that they reside in an integral and constituent region of the United Kingdom and thus it is reasonable for corporations to regard them as such. If anything EA are guilty of erroneously interchanging the terms UK and Great Britain, the latter of which explicitly excludes Northern Ireland.