I own many paradox games but HOI3 will be the last.  It should not have been released in such bad shape.

What in the hell? Banning from forum = banning from game? Class action lawsuit incoming? 

I was told via PM to my new account that I will get final decision on wednesday.

I was also told that my thread was seen as "inflamatory" by person who banned me - well posting about game still not working as it should (bugs, features not working correctly) and entire naval combat system being junk might be "inflamatory" but its not my fault those problems in game still exist. I paid 60€ (72$) for game + expansion and 10 months after release it still have major problems (gamebreaking bugs) - developer should expect people not to be happy with this state of the game. 

Edit: just gave away my Semper Fi CD key to one of my friends  in exchange for something less buggy... I wont bother with it untill game is fixed which will likely take another year...

I was wondering, too. Banning someone from a forum + withdrawal of acquired licenses (usually permanently bought) are two different things. However, I doubt a court has ever made a decision about this particular "grey" area of the law.

I bought Spore (yeah yeah, I know, I think the same of me too for that).  

Anyways, the game account is the same as the forum account too.  The game is registered to the account and can't be shifted.  I played the game for a couple months, and posted a couple of times on the forums.  Received no complaints, no warnings, I was polite and didn't break the rules.

I put the game down for a few months and when I came back to it my account had been deleted, taking my forum account out as well as my game account.  I sent an email asking for it all to be reinstated, to which I got not reply and no account back.  My Spore was dead!  What a complete waste of $110 AUD.

I will not buy another EA game again.

I will also not be buying another Paradox game again after being burnt by HoI3.

Yep. The choke hold is tightening. I find myself buying 1/4th the gaming software I used to for the increased hassle of stupid account set ups for single player, and all the DRM ridiculousness.

Thankfully, I love to read. No dumb account set up to read a book... well, an actual physical one anyway...

It looks like that this concept became very popular. I think that the first company who used this account/forum account merge "system" was Blizzard. [World of Warcraft]

Update:

I'd get a lawer, one of those small civil-suit ones.  You paid for the game, you should be able to play it.  Period.  Anyway I'm adding Paradox to my blacklist, right under Blizzard, EA, and Activision, because of what I read on this forum.   And so the list grows... yay.  At least you accomplished something with this vent.

Damn man, at this rate the only developers I'll still be doing business with will be Stardock & Firaxis.  I really can't see either of them ever being taken over by the 'corporate greed machine'.  I rue the day one of them ever goes this route, I'll be one depressed mofo. 

----Better yet, instead of a lawyer, try to dispute the charge on your card.  I know it's been months, and is well after the time allowed for disputing charges, but you can try anyway.  They can make exceptions - they did for me in the past (go Discover) when I disputed $300 I paid for a training course on how to become an online payment facilitator.  After a few months, it became obvious the system I was in was nothing but an elaborate Ponzi so I won the dispute.  Sometimes all it takes is a threat to get a lawyer. 

I paid by debit card so I cant do chargeback (live and learn....)

lawyer is not an option - they are in another country and it would just cost me too much money (I live in Czech Republic, they are in  Sweden).

They just wont get my money in the future... I am sure that developers which are not stupid (unlike Paradox and Ubisoft) will gladly take my money.

I'm not a lawyer by no means but if enough people get with you, is that not a class action suit?

I would be hard to sue them over here anyway and it would cost me at least few thousands € so thats not going to happen.

My current goal is to cause as much bad PR as possible so that they lose money on lost sales.

I would at least be making a complaint to the BBB or whatever equivalent there is in Europe.

Already tried - I was told that because Paradox isnt operating in this country they wont do anything with my complaint.

What I find strange is that you got officially informed to still be able to use their servers despite the ban. Basically, I find it hard to believe that an official lied purposefully to you - what would be his motives? He/She doesn't gain anything from it - but, on the other side, may face a minus if his/her unfounded dis-information reaches the boss.

Other people might have been banned there, too. Did they face the same results?

God me too. I though nothing of buying 2 to 3 games a month. Now I have no idea what new hoop a publisher will want me to jump through just to play a game that I bought. It has made me very cautious and wary of buying new games. I've slowed down considerably. Hey thanks for saving me money!! No soup for you.

I just sent email to Paradox CEO, I hope it will help.

Good luck, but I doubt it.

All arguing about the ban being just or not aside, multiplayer access being tied to forum access is alarming.  Basically, they (and I refer to all companies who do this) are/have created an atmosphere where their customers are afraid to post any negative feedback on their official forums.  Forum bans can certainly been deserved if someone is being excessively hostile, but a forum ban should be only that; a ban from the forums.  They should not be able to touch your game access until you are totally out of line in the game chatrooms or cheating.

I know a friend who got banned from the forums, but he still plays multiplayer with me.  Obviously, they are not linked and there is some other problem here.

This looks pretty bad for Paradox. I mean... they don't want certain topics brought up which essentially says don't question us and don't talk about bugs? Paradox hasn't been known for clean game releases for awhile now, and the OP's post looks pretty calm to me compared to what normally gets banned in forums. They did the same thing with Crusader Kings by the way, released an expansion pack with the original game littered with bugs and fairly unstable in multiplayer scenarios promising some fixes in the expansion. Is it just me or shouldn't fixes be available for free outside of expansions?

What should happen and what will happen are never going to be the same. A lot of what a sequel promises is to fix gameplay elements and interface design or general easy of life features so why not bugs?

Im glad BI Studio is such an amazing developer so I never get too depressed when thinking about the state of my PC games.

Never ever buy an expansion pack that promises fixes, thats a definite rip off.

Patches are for fixing bugs and changing gameplay

Expansions are for adding content

If a contractor came to do a addition on my house and messed it up, then promised to fix it all if you want your bathroom redone. You know what you get? A crap addition with a crap bathroom.

Thanks for the heads up on these shady ass dealers.

Paradox USED to be awesome.  But they've gone downhill fast the last few years.  I would say EU2 and HOI2 were their last great games, made mostly so because the patches were freely available (not locked off except to those who register all their private information with them) and they issued patches that actually fixed things.  Since then, their games have been rip-off alpha versions, with no intention to fix them.

Paradox locking up their forums made me extremely angry as well. I used their forums to see how bad their releases were, to see what kinds of problems people were having with the new game. They're really not big enough for those kind of things to pop up as frequenty on other gaming sites. I sent them a polite e-mail about my displeasure with the situation and my reasons why. Naturally, they could care less, and I haven't purchased a game from them since.