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EA Blocks entire
country from Origin
robin wilde
A
n Origin user from
Myanmar has taken to Reddit, claiming
that the service's owners EA have blocked all
access for their country.
The user, who goes
by the screen name
trivial_sublime, posted on the site on 30
October, claiming to
have about 20 Origin
games to which they
have now been denied
access.
With its combination
of EA, controversy and
the whiff of internet
censorship, the story
blew up to the front
page of the website
calling itself the front
page of the internet.
Users
enquiring
about access on the
Origin forums were
originally told: "with the
Origin 10 update, US
laws (which is where
EA is based) forced
them to block certain
countries. Unfortunately you live in one of
those countries. I'm sorry but there is nothing
we can do here to allow you access again."
This
immediately
raised objections while Myanmar (formerly known as Burma)
spent several years under US sanctions, the
last of these were lifted on 7 October, so
should not have affected Origin players.
By 3 November,
access was restored
following the outrage,
according to an EA
Community Manager,
EA_Kristi. They said: "
For players in Myanmar this issue should
now be resolved.
"Please let us know
if you are still having
trouble with accessing
Origin and the games."
It appears the decision to embargo Myanmar was taken under the assumption that
trade restrictions were
still in place, though
an EA representative
said they were "internally reviewing the
situation and looking
into whether and when
service can be restored
to Myanmar residents.
"It's unclear to me
whether we can do anything for residents of
other countries that are
still similarly embargoed, but I'll bring the
topic up for discussion
internally."
A number of coun-
tries are subject to
trade restrictions by
the US government in
response to various geopolitical situations.
The four countries
currently subject to US
sanctions are Syria,
Iran (where Origin users have also reported
a loss of access), North
Korea (where home internet access does not
exist) and Cuba.
Myanmar was originally sanctioned under
the Clinton administration in 1997, due
to stated repression
carried out by the military government which
ruled the country until
2011.
Since then, with the
adoption of multi-party
democracy, sanctions
have been slowly lifted, culminating in the
complete removal of
restrictions at the start
of last month.
Although Burmese
residents can now
access their Origin libraries, the country's
internet
connections
remain poor, with ping
times of over 100ms
being standard, and
often running as high
as 350ms.