Last night, Electronic Arts beat up Sony in their first-round Worst Company In America fight, much in the same way your average 9-year-old makes me look silly playing Madden NFL. But one reader says that his post in a Sims forum about EA’s involvement in WCIA got him a warning slap from the company.

Marty says he had long been a fan of the Sims, which is published by EA, but that the company’s “greed completely ruined the franchise with overpriced downloadable content, and releasing stuff packs and expansion packs with minimal content.”

Thing is, he didn’t even say anything that mean-spirited when he went onto the Sims forum for the first time in months to post a message about WCIA.

Here is what Marty posted:

Every year during the NCAA playoffs, The Consumerist has their own competition whereas they have the worst companies in America competing against each other for the grand prize. EA made the competition this year, and currently they are whipping Sony by 81 per cent to 19 percent. Tells you what most people think of EA when they are consider worse than a company as bad as Sony. Can’t wait to see who they will face in the next bracket. Don’t forget to vote…. Oh, and of course, congratulations to EA and JR. Can’t think of a more deserving team.

We added the italics in the above quote to highlight the section of the post that apparently set off alarm bells at EA, because not long after Marty wrote this statement did he get an e-mail letting him know that the section in italics had violated the forum’s Terms of Service.

Why? It appears that the mention of “J.R.,” a reference to company CEO John Riccitiello, counts as “Flaming of EA Employee.” Marty was warned that further violations could lead to additional action.

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