EA: Dungeon Keeper Failed by "Innovating Too Much"

[Dalisclock]

I think we should lobby for a new rule in the world that if you are going to call something 'innovative' you also have to say how it is innovative, because I really don't see how Dungeon Keeper was in any way innovative.

You gotta admit, the way they wanted to use it as a rip off app was pretty "innovative".

 

[Something Amyss]

I do, and it's just as you said. EA is trying to shape consumers to be barfing wallets, and we just aren't ready for that yet. What it innovated was the ways a game can monetize its customers, and in that respect, it was too innovative.

I shudder to think that they might be right in thinking that way, because people are buying their shit, or they would have been bankrupt years ago.

Touché, though I really hope you're wrong. Then again, I hoped we'd never get to this point. This was the sort of thing people worried would come at the beginning of the modern era of DLC. So I certainly don't think it's impossible that we'll get to the point that this sort of practice is acceptable.

But it won't stop me from hoping we don't.

 

[Dalisclock]

Whoever is in charge of the PR department seriousl?

Actually, it would make sense that there's no PR department with EA.

I just wondered something. Is it possible someone important in the company is trying to destroy the company without making it look like that's their goal? It would explain all these moves that serve no purpose but to piss off gamers while also making it look like they're just trying to squeeze more money out of gamers?

 

[Flammablezeus]

Is there anyone, anywhere, who believes this one bit? Anyone at all?

And just when will we be "ready" to be nickel and dimed to death?

I'm not defending EA on any level, but gamers do seem to embrace it with open arms for the most part. How else can we explain the popularity of multiplayer on any console that charges extra for it? How else is WoW the most popular MMO, even though you have to buy the game, every expansion, pay for a subscription and yet they still have "micro"-transactions (although I don't think you can consider USD$25 mount skins to be micro in any way.)

The only difference with Dungeon Keeper is that they were called out on it so vocally. If that didn't happen with this game specifically, I have a feeling it would be as successful as the countless other "free"-to-play apps.

 

[Denamic]

Oh my fucking god. Words are failing me. I cannot express just how much bad in the terrible and oh my fucking what?

 

[Tanis]

I never realized 'innovation' involved killing a developer, poisoning a respected franchise, AND pissing off any 'fansboys' you might have had left.

Clearly, Websters needs an update.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

At this point, it's likely best if EA just stops talking about Dungeon Keeper all together and moves on.

I think it'd be best if EA just stops talking PERIOD.

Business talk aside, sometimes, I like to think they say such monumentally stupid things on purpose in lieu of silence because something compels them.

Like the last tiny shrivel of humanity they have left has just enough pull to make them open their mouth and say ANYTHING, no matter how arrogant or stupid, just to let the rest of humanity know what goes on inside the soulless hollow shell it's trapped in.

Action through desperation.

Yeah, but I prefer the axium "better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it." ...or in this case, a soulless monster.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Yeah, but I prefer the axium "better to keep silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and prove it." ...or in this case, a soulless monster.

Well, it took Activision what? Two years of ridicule before they just stopped letting Kotick address the public.

Though EA has always been a bit more pigheaded than Activision, and their reputation was falling before the end of the PS2 era; at this point if they're still making money they probably feel as though they have nothing to lose.

Considering the source of the article and interview, I have the feeling his comments were directed towards other suits and investors, not the people actually buying the games.

 

[JCAll]

We have to admit, they innovated in the field of scamming players for 5-Star reviews.

 

[rvbnut]

I never knew having to sit through a 24 hour lockout in order to do anything was considered innovative. Plainly we have been looking at this the wrong way the whole time.

Spoiler: What i actually think.

And the subject of next weeks Jimqusition is...

Ah it fits rather well with this week's subject on the Jimquisition huh?

 

[Signa]

I do, and it's just as you said. EA is trying to shape consumers to be barfing wallets, and we just aren't ready for that yet. What it innovated was the ways a game can monetize its customers, and in that respect, it was too innovative.

I shudder to think that they might be right in thinking that way, because people are buying their shit, or they would have been bankrupt years ago.

Touché, though I really hope you're wrong.

So do I. I've been watching this stuff too closely for the last decade and, unfortunately, I don't think I am.

 

[Strazdas]

Well hes right about one thing. we werent ready for it. after all, it has made profit. if we were ready, not a single copy would have been downloaded.

I can't wait for EA to try it's hand at innovating the MOBA fad by introducing PAY-TO-CLICK options on a full $60 game. I wonder if we'll be ready?

anouncement: League of EA is coming out. only 5 dollars per 100 clicks!

...

You know how gamers reacted to the xeroxed ending of ME3 by sending cupcakes, can we send dictionaries to EA with the word 'innovation' highlighted?

but that would mean that there is enough people who actually like EA games so much that they are willing to put actual effort in it. By now the only people that are so invested with EA games are people who dont put the effort to read EA statements to begin with.

 

[gamegod25]

At this point, it's likely best if EA just stops talking about Dungeon Keeper all together and moves on.

I think it'd be best if EA just stops talking PERIOD.

Or even better if they just went bankrupt and were branded as outcasts to society.

 

[Callate]

"I think we might have innovated too much or tried some different things that people just weren't ready for... I don't think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be."

Why does that sound an awful lot like "Their spirits weren't sufficiently broken to accept the cruel reality of the new paradigm of so-called 'free-to-play' games, but they will be, oh yes, they will be... "

As one of my bigger issues with the current incarnation of Electronic Arts has to do with their assumption that it was up to them to dictate what their customers wanted and the customers' role merely to accept what they were given without query or complaint, this seems like an unfortunate return to form.

 

[Geisterkarle]

Actually this responds is quite familiar. Just look at politics!
All those discussions about ACTA, TTIP, ... every time the politicians just tell "us normal people", that we just don't understand it why it is good for us and be happy and ... other sh**!
So let EA have this too! Politics don't have a monopoly for that ... sadly!?

 

[Naeras]

"I don't think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be."

Although Gibeau didn't mean to, he neatly summarized the problems of having salesmen running video game companies in this sentence.

 

[masticina]

Hahaha oh they keep digging this is good this is to good

Yeah keep on digging I am sure you hit gold one day. Or diamond as they do in the minecraft community. Really keep on digging.

Geesh dungeon keeper IOS yes was an abysmall failure and such an outright cash grab that it gave EA yet another good thumbs up for a golden poo. Go ahead.. really go on.

Backtrack what you want EA you done it, you fucked up. And seemingly you are not learning anything from it. Ah so 2014 another golden poo? And in 2015 another golden poo? What IP are you going to squander next, mmm an IOS game of Command and Conquer, oh I can feel that already. Remember to put 24 hour timers in the game and make sure that the in game coinage is so hard to get or so worthless that they have to buy "crystals"

Good good...now then defend the game for another 6 months before finally saying after one year "Eh we might have gone to far this time" Yup.

Go ahead EA go crash and fail..how earlier your body is rotten and being picked out by scavengers how better.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

So shameless greedy money-grabbing through disgustingly excessive micro-transactions to such a degree that said micro-transactions are the entire core of this horrendous thing you're charitably trying to call a "game" is just too much innovation for us gamers to handle, EA?

I said I wasn't going to join in with the gifs, but...

 

[karma9308]

Guh? I thought EA had hired a PR team a couple of months ago? I guess they thought it was too expensive and decided to fire them since...good lord. I mean, where do you even start with a whopper like that? Failed by innovating... That's why you had false marketing allegations (which were upheld) brought against you. That's why people are hating you EA, because you're just an innovator...and I'm sure next week people will hate you because they're entitled, or homophobic, or manchildren.

I need a drink.