EA is going to die - and that will improve gaming
- Thread starter Sansha
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Yet.Sansha said:
The instant they do, I'll be there buying their things.
For example, the instant that SimCity's always-online DRM (it's NOT proper integration, don't pretend it is) is repealed, I'm buying it. Possibly even at full price.
Welllllll... their main Spectrum computing assets got bought out by Amstrad rather than collapsing completely (and it was about equal parts the QL and the C5 that did for Sinclair Research), and Spectrums and games were still being made into the early 90s. But yeah, a stream of those companies are still around.CrystalShadow said:
If EA is to die, let its sad corpse it be an example of what poor choices and equally questionable business practices in all areas of operations will do to a company.
If it dies, by God I hope the industry learns something from it.
If it dies, by God I hope the industry learns something from it.
as despicable as their recent behavior has become I still dont want to see EA go under mostly because for the same reason I wouldn't want most large companies to go under and its because of all the people who would loose their jobs over a couple of choices that they had no input into making. I would rather them change the executives of the company or see a higher up take responsibility then have all the people suddenly given pink slips
Maybe it's a good thing that EA dies, if it allows for new and talented game developers to enter the market. When only a handful of companies control the majority of an industry, it inevitably leads to stagnation in terms of design.
It's not just a video game, it's that EA screws its customers over and over, and they're able to treat people like sentient wallets, because people see a shiny new game and horde over it backed by falsified reviews, and are surprised every time when the game turns out to be garbage and they get told by customer service to eat it.Tom Waits said:
I'll not do business with them. It's that simple.
EA will have to do a massive overhaul of their business model before become a customer, which they won't because they're just trying to survive their recession, but do they deserve to?lacktheknack said:
Two years ago, CCP (makers of EVE Online), started practicing the same shoddy business, by ignoring the player's concerns, focusing too hard on the bottom line, releasing faulty content - a non-optional feature that even my high-end computer could not handle (some people's GPU's even burned out from the stress!) - and trying to sell us micro transactions - character clothing - for between $30 and $80.
The result was a massive outpouring of anger on the forums and a few people protesting in-game.
Then a leaked email from the CEO saying, I quote: 'stay the course', 'greed is good' and 'watch what the players do, not what they say'.
What we did was stage a furious protest in one of the key areas of the game, effectively shutting it down through massive lag and murdering other players, preventing them from playing, which only waned as our cancelled subscriptions ran out and the playerbase dropped by the thousands. I did not return to the MMO for six months, when a patch repairing the shoddy content and public apology was submitted. They even re-modelled a statue in the game to be partially destroyed as a result of the riots, so everybody could remember what happens when you fuck with your players.
Poor customer relations, greed and unacceptable content nearly killed EVE Online, and only by fixing their immediate mistakes, changing how they receive feedback from the players permanently, and most importantly, swallowing their pride and apologizing for fucking with us did they regain our trust. I was one of the players who said he would cancel his subscription until the problems were fixed, and I stood by it, and by our combined efforts we got what we wanted.
Sansha said:
The consumers always have the choice not to purchase the game or the in-game DLCs. EA doesn't have control over consumers' credit card. So, I made a bad choice in in my purchase, based on EA advertisement or the "falsified reviews", who is it to blame but myself. Because at the end of the day, I'm the one that press the purchase button, not EA.
EA is not going to die BECAUSE of their DRM. Their DRM is a side effect of them dying.
Gaming is not crashing in the same way as the 1983 crash. In 1983, gaming was a hobbyist thing. The people that supported its market would be comparable to what we hardcores are now. These are people whom actually gave a shit about their product, and when their product started to suck, they stopped buying.
Now, gaming has gone mainstream. The mainstream consumer does not care about DRM, DLC, or quality. The mainstream consumer cares about 1 thing, and that thing is price. Why is IOS gaming still happily plowing along, with an abundance of huge hits and unlimited potential? It only costs a dollar. Look at other entertainment industries. Why is the standard movie theater struggling to get by when Netflix and Redbox also are happily plowing along? BECAUSE REDBOX IS $1. Netflix offers TENS OF THOUSANDS of things you can watch, for a minimal monthly subscription.
Hardcore gaming doesn't appeal to the mainstream consumer, and the mainstream consumer market is much bigger than us.
My personal belief is that we're in the final years of the remnants of VG companies of old desperately struggling to keep up with the new, cheaper, faster, more accessible companies but not quite knowing how.
While yeah, there will always be a little bit of market for us, and they'll always be indie titles, but the successful companies will be the ones that embrace the new, "Casual" market first. We see it everywhere, the "casual" or "COD"-ification of titles that used to be extremely hardcore.
So...enjoy what you can while it lasts I guess?
Gaming is not crashing in the same way as the 1983 crash. In 1983, gaming was a hobbyist thing. The people that supported its market would be comparable to what we hardcores are now. These are people whom actually gave a shit about their product, and when their product started to suck, they stopped buying.
Now, gaming has gone mainstream. The mainstream consumer does not care about DRM, DLC, or quality. The mainstream consumer cares about 1 thing, and that thing is price. Why is IOS gaming still happily plowing along, with an abundance of huge hits and unlimited potential? It only costs a dollar. Look at other entertainment industries. Why is the standard movie theater struggling to get by when Netflix and Redbox also are happily plowing along? BECAUSE REDBOX IS $1. Netflix offers TENS OF THOUSANDS of things you can watch, for a minimal monthly subscription.
Hardcore gaming doesn't appeal to the mainstream consumer, and the mainstream consumer market is much bigger than us.
My personal belief is that we're in the final years of the remnants of VG companies of old desperately struggling to keep up with the new, cheaper, faster, more accessible companies but not quite knowing how.
While yeah, there will always be a little bit of market for us, and they'll always be indie titles, but the successful companies will be the ones that embrace the new, "Casual" market first. We see it everywhere, the "casual" or "COD"-ification of titles that used to be extremely hardcore.
So...enjoy what you can while it lasts I guess?
Well if EA dies, I hope all the bitching and drama goes down with it.
EA is using questionable business practices?
THE GAME INDUSTRY IS GOING TO CRASH!!!!11!
Aliens: Colonial Marines turned out to be less than what people expected it to be?
THE GAME INDUSTRY IS GOING TO CRASH!!!!11!
That's pretty much what I seem to be getting from all this.
EA is using questionable business practices?
THE GAME INDUSTRY IS GOING TO CRASH!!!!11!
Aliens: Colonial Marines turned out to be less than what people expected it to be?
THE GAME INDUSTRY IS GOING TO CRASH!!!!11!
That's pretty much what I seem to be getting from all this.
I'm pretty sure we had this same discussion last quarter so I'll just throw the question out there - does anyone have any actual proof that EA is "dying"? Is there a balance sheet I can't find somewhere that shows that they're not still turning profits with plenty of money in the bank? Because last I remember looking that was the case for them - they had plenty of money in the bank, they were still turning big profits and they didn't really have anything to worry about.
In some quarters those profits may have been smaller than the equivalent quarter from the previous year, or they may have been smaller than projections. But they're still profits, and IIRC they were still pretty big profits too.
The fact that their share price may or may not have dropped doesn't really indicate anything about the fundamental strength of the company. It's just an indicator of shareholder sentiment.
EA isn't dying. Get used to it.
In some quarters those profits may have been smaller than the equivalent quarter from the previous year, or they may have been smaller than projections. But they're still profits, and IIRC they were still pretty big profits too.
The fact that their share price may or may not have dropped doesn't really indicate anything about the fundamental strength of the company. It's just an indicator of shareholder sentiment.
EA isn't dying. Get used to it.
That's part of my point, that people keep lapping it all up despite getting screwed. Devaluing the entire industry by making it clear that it doesn't matter what garbage you throw out the window, you'll still get huge bank for it.Tom Waits said:
This.Pugiron said:
The reality is that propping up a company to keep its workers going is inevitably going to keep the executives in power.proctorninja2 said:
And I'm doing a much more passive version of that.Sansha said:
If they do it right, I buy.
If they don't, I don't.
I find massive protests to be irritating and annoying to me, the observer, so I don't participate. And really, it wasn't the "riots" that made them rethink their strategy, it was the plummeting usercount. I'm contributing to the important part.
Well that depends on the advert or review. There are laws against false advertising. Not that I have any sympathy for the forum goers who periodically declare their disdain for EA then once again buy their products.Tom Waits said:
I hope EA dies too, for their treatment of not only consumers, but also of developers and IPs, and I hope their entire mode of operation dies as well, but I don't give vocal, opinionated, serious gamers - like most of us - as much credit as this guy does. I think there's a larger portion of consumers that don't entirely care or know about the detrimental effect of DRM and online passes, who don't mind microtransactions despite the opportunity for exploitation, and who are not looking at each game and questioning the amount and quality of content they're getting each year.
I find EA as a whole to be in the wrong. It's a black and white issue to me - they practice bad business, they get none from me.lacktheknack said:
That was the point of the protest, to damage CCP's bottom line and annoy the player base as much as possible. And it worked - it made the economic hub for the entire game grind to a halt, and that the developers re-modeled something we fired upon as partially destroyed shows they definitely took notice.
Exactly why I haven't purchased any of their products since the last expac of Sims2 and never will again, despite my wanting to play some of their titles. I intend to stand by my word and moral perspective.WoW Killer said:
And a thing of beauty it was.Dryk said:
The population of EVE Online is wannabe businessmen, killers, thieves, politicians and bullies, all enjoying the environment where they can play at being as despicable as they pleased - exactly the kind of people who don't appreciate their playground being fucked with.
Look up 'Jita Riots' if you want to check it out for yourself.