EA is going to die - and that will improve gaming

[Ishal]

While I see your argument, I don't agree with it. Vocal fanbases can have an effect. The latest God Of War game changed the name of one of its trophies simply because of one guy's review, the stink that it caused. Sure Adam Sessler's a pretty well known gaming journalist, but he's still just one guy.

Bioware ended up completely rejigging the ending of ME3 simply because of how vocal their fanbase were.

Money is of course the final word. Always will be. But that doesn't mean being vocal, and talking about why you're not buying from a company, can't have an effect. If EA want to know why people aren't buying their games, a glance at any online forum will show hundreds and hundreds of debates raging on about how their practises, their policies and their image all suck.

I genuinely hope EA die off. Not even because of their policies towards gamers. Enough developers such as Brian Fargo have come out of the woodwork and said how shitty the big publishers are to their own development staff, that it's clear that the exploitative, parasitic practises of EA and their ilk simply aren't conducive to a long term healthy industry. EA are currently trying to ride out the remains of a 'boom' period in gaming by pushing for as much short term profit as possible, but in doing so they're simply making things much worse for themselves when things inevitably go bust.

Eh, he's right. It's getting old. We don't need a fresh jeremiad every 24 seconds about how EA is evil, etc, etc. I think it's widely accepted that EA is evil.

And before you start in with "But people are still buying the games herp" the games are not universally bad, and people are gonna do what they're gonna do. The solution is not to turn on the hyperbole valve full blast. I'm gonna go full hipster here for a moment...I HATED EA BEFORE IT WAS COOL. And these threads are almost turning me into an EA sympathizer, because they're so extraordinarily emo. I miss the days when we could just have a chuckle about how crappy EA was and go on with our day. Not have these "WE MUST TAKE A STAND" and "NEVER FORGET" circle jerks on internet forums.

Maybe I'm just cynical. But I think it makes the participants look like clowns.

Captcha: HAVE COURAGE

Shut up, captcha.

Not intending to be an ass here at all, but you reference it in some of your posts that you've been around these parts for a while. I'd imagine your tolerance for this stuff has gone beyond the limit.

God I hate the term circle jerk, its just... I dunno. But I see your point. It tends to happen quite a bit, the only ones I absolutely love seeing are the DA2 threads that seem to pop up on a biweekly basis.

Isn't EA going to be bought by Exxon? That South Korean company? I remember when GW2 was about to release, their ever so lovely warm and fuzzy forums were talking about that. People could say many things about EA and argue/agree on all they want. However, I think the one thing almost everyone has to agree on at this point is their PR is just terrible. We all know what a colossal failure it is, so lets just have a laugh at that and continue on with our day.

captcha: live. love. type. <------ fukin' hippie captcha.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Not intending to be an ass here at all, but you reference it in some of your posts that you've been around these parts for a while. I'd imagine your tolerance for this stuff has gone beyond the limit.

God I hate the term circle jerk, its just... I dunno. But I see your point. It tends to happen quite a bit, the only ones I absolutely love seeing are the DA2 threads that seem to pop up on a biweekly basis.

Isn't EA going to be bought by Exxon? That South Korean company? I remember when GW2 was about to release, their ever so lovely warm and fuzzy forums were talking about that. People could say many things about EA and argue/agree on all they want. However, I think the one thing almost everyone has to agree on at this point is their PR is just terrible. We all know what a colossal failure it is, so lets just have a laugh at that and continue on with our day.

captcha: live. love. type. <------ fukin' hippie captcha.

Yeah I'm turning into the caricature of a cranky old man, I know. I'm not even THAT old. I'm just old compared to the main body of posters on this forum.

You're thinking of Nexon. Exxon is an oil company.

And yeah, Nexon and EA would go together like Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever and blood in your poop. Just a rumor though.

 

[Gatx]

EA isn't evil. EA isn't going to die anytime soon. Now, I know many have said this and I may just be repeating it, but it seems it needs to be engraved in your skull with an icepick! The ENTIRE POINT of a Company is to MAKE MONEY. Now you may not believe this, but EA is making money. They will continue to do whatever they can to make more money.

Also, here is another thing: EA doesn't hold every little creative right over the games. It wasn't EA's fault for the changes in the new SimCity: It was designed that way by Maxis itself. Not EA. MAXIS. The servers? Owned by EA, but managed by Maxis. There are many ways you can manage a huge load on a handful of servers. Mind you, none of them are easy and I am still learning myself, but the fact of the matter is that Maxis, NOT EA, was the one mismanaging the servers. They even admitted to it.

Refusing to buy games that you would enjoy just because of the company? Stupid. Very stupid. That lowers the chance of that franchise having future installments. It is even worse if it is a special-type of genre like say Horror or Turn-Based Strategy. Have your petty boycott. I will be over here, playing good games and having fun.

EDIT: Please note, the Sim City rant was just a recent example*

But EA as the publisher obviously has some say in what goes into the games, something along the lines of like "we'll publish your game, but we'd like to see you work microtransactions into it." That's just an assumption on my part though so if that's not how it works then okay.

As for companies existing to make money, true, but that doesn't give them an excuse to screw over the customer. And I don't want to be one of those guys because I think it's super annoying when people do this, but I'll just leave this here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6814-Companies-Exist-To-Make-Money].

 

[ThriKreen]

I've said as much myself in the past. The founders are gone. Many of the old-guard writing team and creative leads are gone.

Well that's incorrect, but hey, what do I know?

But on a serious note, for all the talk about this, has anyone actually bothered to track employee contribution and migration?

 

[barbzilla]

EA isn't going to die for one simple reason... Shit rolls downhill, and EA is at the top of the hill. I can extrapolate on that if you please, but I will leave you with a simple thought on it. What does an ethical person do when they screw up? They take the blame and bear it like a man/woman. What does an unethical person do? They shift the blame on to someone else. Who do you think becomes a boss? Not the person who has faults on their record, the person who has never been wrong because it has always been someone else's fault. If EA is the unethical boss, they will just continue shifting blame and destroying innocent companies while the purchase new ones and bring new names to the industry. At no point will EA accept the full brunt of any blame unless it goes to court, and even then with the amount of unscrupulous lawyers out there...

Well you get the picture

 

[Ishal]

Not intending to be an ass here at all, but you reference it in some of your posts that you've been around these parts for a while. I'd imagine your tolerance for this stuff has gone beyond the limit.

God I hate the term circle jerk, its just... I dunno. But I see your point. It tends to happen quite a bit, the only ones I absolutely love seeing are the DA2 threads that seem to pop up on a biweekly basis.

Isn't EA going to be bought by Exxon? That South Korean company? I remember when GW2 was about to release, their ever so lovely warm and fuzzy forums were talking about that. People could say many things about EA and argue/agree on all they want. However, I think the one thing almost everyone has to agree on at this point is their PR is just terrible. We all know what a colossal failure it is, so lets just have a laugh at that and continue on with our day.

captcha: live. love. type. <------ fukin' hippie captcha.

Yeah I'm turning into the caricature of a cranky old man, I know. I'm not even THAT old. I'm just old compared to the main body of posters on this forum.

You're thinking of Nexon. Exxon is an oil company.

And yeah, Nexon and EA would go together like Bolivian Hemorrhagic Fever and blood in your poop. Just a rumor though.

I just get a good chuckle out of it from time to time. You'll come in and straighten up some folks and cite when things were actually bad. Like when Steam first launched *shudders* I don't even want to think about that

Ah yes Nexon. I hear they have a history of making very grindy MMO's. I personally think that if their stocks take anymore major hits (and I do mean major hits) then they'll be in some serious trouble. I didn't realize Maxis was a part of EA for so long, nor did I realize that Sim City was such a big deal. The last one I played was Sim City 2000 on my ps1.

That video the OP posted ignores a bunch of other factors but does hit home on one key point. The way EA keeps churning out games. The new Command and Conquer game looks the same as the older Generals game just with the Frostbite engine. That is another thing entirely that might just fall flat on its face, EA pushing for Frostbite to compete with Unreal. I don't have any hopes for DA3 but I will rent it at least, and that goes for other games in the same situation. With ME and DA we have two great examples showing product degrade over time due to rushed development and efforts to make it "more accessible". I think eventually if EA doesn't get some great new IP's its just going to go the route of Nintendo and slowly decline. But like you said, industry is way too diverse and WAY too many demographics "game" now in one way or another. So yeah, EA looks like it may decline, but it won't die. And in no way is the industry going to crash.

 

[ThriKreen]

True, they have some say. However, it is not nearly as much as people would like to believe. I have quite a few buddies of mine going into game design and a few fresh out of college (mind you they are still "new" to the industry so I am unsure how solid this evidence is), but there is very little in terms of control the publisher has. Most of the things that you dislike in a game? They were put there by the developer, not publisher.

Geez, I've been saying that for awhile here, but no one ever seems to believe me. Apparently they think I'm some paid corporate shill that's astroturfing.

 

[Macgyvercas]

Much as I hate them, I kinda hope they don't go under. Shitty as Origin is, I kinda still want to be able to play ME3 (I liked the damn game, okay!)

 

[MrMan999]

Fun fact. EA spends more on marketing than they do actually developing games. And by God it shows.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Ah yes Nexon. I hear they have a history of making very grindy MMO's. I personally think that if their stocks take anymore major hits (and I do mean major hits) then they'll be in some serious trouble. I didn't realize Maxis was a part of EA for so long, nor did I realize that Sim City was such a big deal. The last one I played was Sim City 2000 on my ps1.

Nexon is the king of the gambler's micro-transaction and baked-in tedium designed to drive people to purchases. They make EA look like a plucky indie company with a heart of gold. You think EA is bad NOW, you wouldn't want to see them purchased by Nexon. Simcity would be FTP, but you'd have to buy "building packs" for $10 that would give you 3 random buildings. Whoops, you got the same 3 again! Better buy another pack!

 

[BloatedGuppy]

True, they have some say. However, it is not nearly as much as people would like to believe. I have quite a few buddies of mine going into game design and a few fresh out of college (mind you they are still "new" to the industry so I am unsure how solid this evidence is), but there is very little in terms of control the publisher has. Most of the things that you dislike in a game? They were put there by the developer, not publisher.

Geez, I've been saying that for awhile here, but no one ever seems to believe me. Apparently they think I'm some paid corporate shill that's astroturfing.

The publisher can control funding and deadlines, though. Tell a guy to build a house and give him 24 hours and shoddy materials. The next day, there's nothing but a wreck to show for it. Point a the developer and say "Well, HE built the house. Blame him!".

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I would blame him. I would also blame the publisher. People like you, however only seem to blame the Publisher. Both were in fault.

"People like me", eh?

That's quite a conclusion you are jumping to. Are you sure you can make that jump? Looks tricky. Maybe you should re-think it.