Just wondering, which are the "evil" gaming companies?

[Reggie Rock]

Flawless? Working DRM?

Valve does everything people hate about video game companies, but valve gets away with it because they're valve.

Valve is the emporer palpatine of vidya companies.

Provide me an example of their shitty DRM, if you would. Because to me it really seems like the only reason you think it's bad is because DRM carries a negative connotation.

And if you really wanna throw down the Star Wars, the only reason people hated Emperor Palpatine was because he wore black. He never really did anything that could undisputedly be called evil.

People see finger lightning and they freak the fuck out.

Trying to defend the leader of the fucking sith there? You are seriously saying the sith never did anything bad, ever. Nor the leader of the most organised sith collective. Wow.

Valve have been effectively releasing the same game for several years now, with 1 gameplay difference in each. There games get undeserved praise and the pinnacle of unbalanced gameplay. The only reason any of the things they do is ok, is because they are valve and are like the bad guy from lethal weapon 2.

 

[Abedeus]

I think the hatred for Blizzard is lessened a bit due to the fact that all of their games were critically acclaimed masterpieces. Diablo changed the way RPGs worked, Starcraft RTS games, Warcraft indirectly created entire new genre (MOBA games). WoW basically kickstarted MMOs from slumber into the mainstream, and Starcraft 2 continued the predecessor's work in competitive scene. Diablo 2 is probably THE best game I've ever played, and Diablo 3 is looking great. And I say all this having never played more than an hour of Starcraft (I wasn't interested in sci-fi when my cousin played it, I liked Diablo and Diablo 2 more) and disliking WoW for what it did to the general difficulty and achievement-whoring among MMO players.

But you can't hate a company that made games that basically were a huge part of your childhood. Same reason people don't hate Square-Enix, because of the previous games. I don't hate SE because their latest MMO was a shitty pile of garbage that wasted more of my time being downloaded than played.

So what you're basically saying is that Blizzard is being given a pass over and over again because they used to make great games. If anything, a developer I loved turning to shit would enrage me, not make me soften my judgement.

A little disclaimer and a reiteration of what I said. In the case of Starcraft 2 specifically, the gameplay is rock solid. It is, it works great for the competitive scene. And yet, everything except the gameplay itself is garbage. The story sucks balls [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.343289-I-finally-got-to-play-some-Diablo-3?page=2#13807197], the entirety of Battle.net "2.0" is designed to be used by 5 year olds, including the "competitive" aspect of the service that does everything in its power to appeal to non-competitive players, the game is region locked for no reason, the mapmaking community is burdened by the idiotic restrictions Blizzard put on Battle.net and the world editor itself, and more!

So uhh. 93/100 from 81 reviews on Metacritic is... bad? Okay...

If you say Blizzard is bad now, then I dunno what you call Ubisoft, who went from one of my favorite companies to one that will never receive another penny from me, ever again. I loved Rayman, I loved BG&E, I loved Prince of Persia, I... liked Tom Clancy games, except Ghost Recon which was very fun, and I still like Assassin's Creed.

But they keep proving they don't give a shit about PC gamers, they are incapable of making games on all platforms on same month (or even within 6 months...), then unless it's an AAA title like Assassin's Creed, it will be a poorly ported, buggy and backwards-coded pile of garbage. Rainbow Six: Crapdown.

I am so angsty over this, I didn't even bother to pirate their latest Rayman game. Yes, a huge fan that played all Rayman games (besides the rabbit ones obviously) and I didn't pay for $15 game nor did I bother illegally downloading it. Just to show them that they did not lose sales to pirates, but to themselves.

 

[Abedeus]

EA made Mirrors Edge possible and funded Dead Space 2 despite Dead Space 1 selling under expectations.

Atari "saved" Ghostbusters:The Videogame.

...so who cares what company is "evil", all companies are evil and all companies are not evil. It's not that easy. But it's easy from a consumer perspective. If you don't want to put up with shit, don't buy it.

But saying "Boo, the Internet says that Electronic Ubivision is evul!!" is just childish

EA also forced Mythic to release Warhammer Online when it was a good three-four months unprepared. They had to wait almost a year to re-add the classes that didn't make to the release. And by then it was too late to even bother making cities for other races, since not only they had to lay off a shitload of employees, but the subs dropped from a million to few dozens of thousands and nobody cared anymore.

 

[Dandark]

Flawless? Working DRM?

Valve does everything people hate about video game companies, but valve gets away with it because they're valve.

Valve is the emporer palpatine of vidya companies.

Provide me an example of their shitty DRM, if you would. Because to me it really seems like the only reason you think it's bad is because DRM carries a negative connotation.

And if you really wanna throw down the Star Wars, the only reason people hated Emperor Palpatine was because he wore black. He never really did anything that could undisputedly be called evil.

People see finger lightning and they freak the fuck out.

Trying to defend the leader of the fucking sith there? You are seriously saying the sith never did anything bad, ever. Nor the leader of the most organised sith collective. Wow.

Valve have been effectively releasing the same game for several years now, with 1 gameplay difference in each. There games get undeserved praise and the pinnacle of unbalanced gameplay. The only reason any of the things they do is ok, is because they are valve and are like the bad guy from lethal weapon 2.

He wasn't defending the Sith, he was defending Palpatine.
What series are you talking about? I assume you mean that they are milking Half life 2?
No. Notice how the episodes are called "Half life 2: Episode 1/2", this is because they are not sequels but continuations. They are pretty much huge DLC packs which is why they don't change anything.

 

[ChildishLegacy]

In all reality, I'd say most publishers. They are corrupt, only in it for the money.

Why the hell else would they publish things? They're businesses. Last time I checked any entertainment company is in it for the money.
The people that want to make games are the people that work for these companies, and they wouldn't back the people that make the games unless they are popular/good games that they know will make them money.

Greed, even though it sounds pretty evil, can often mean good products.

 

[tippy2k2]

- A company making "spyware"? They want to make money (and it's not spyware if for any other reason, Spyware is something you don't voluntarily put on your computer)

Wrong. Spyware is software that monitors what is happening on a computer without users knowledge. I believe that Origin counts as spyware because they (Electronic Arseholes) never told anyone that Origin does anything spyware-like. The only reason you would know it is spyware would be if you frequented sites like The Escapist or if you did some research before installing Origin, which most people wouldn't because it is a "legit" company and it installs on their computer with whatever game.
tl;dr EA didn't say it was spyware, it was discovered by individuals and a n00b ain't gonna know about it.

Now, I don't PC game so I could be incorrect on this but is this not the same data that companies like Valve collect with their all-mighty Steam program? I get that you might not TRUST EA with this data and are willing to trust Valve with it (the same reason I won't install Zynga games on my phone) but that doesn't make them evil; it makes them a standard in the gaming world. They want to know what your system runs to make sure that the games will work properly.

 

[Frybird]

EA made Mirrors Edge possible and funded Dead Space 2 despite Dead Space 1 selling under expectations.

Atari "saved" Ghostbusters:The Videogame.

...so who cares what company is "evil", all companies are evil and all companies are not evil. It's not that easy. But it's easy from a consumer perspective. If you don't want to put up with shit, don't buy it.

But saying "Boo, the Internet says that Electronic Ubivision is evul!!" is just childish

EA also forced Mythic to release Warhammer Online when it was a good three-four months unprepared. They had to wait almost a year to re-add the classes that didn't make to the release. And by then it was too late to even bother making cities for other races, since not only they had to lay off a shitload of employees, but the subs dropped from a million to few dozens of thousands and nobody cared anymore.

Well, they also pushed out Ultima 8 and 9 WAY too early back in a time when you pretty much had to buy Updates and Bugfixes, as well as trying to sell cheat codes at the dawn of DLC micropayments.

You missed my point.

Now and then just about every publisher pulls off some shit that is horribly evil, and sometimes they do great things (i mentioned Atari because the company does usually god-awful things like the broken, pushed-out-unfinished messes that are Driver 2, Driv3r and TDU2....yet they saved Ghostbusters by buying it off Activision who found it not "exploitable" enough).

As a customer who understands the relationships between Devs and Publishers, i can't and shouldn't worry about if a company is considered "evil" by the great vocal internet, and instead decide on a case-to-case basis if i am willing to buy games from them or not.

EDIT: Especially since declaring something "evil" usually is very, very stupid

 

[Abedeus]

EA made Mirrors Edge possible and funded Dead Space 2 despite Dead Space 1 selling under expectations.

Atari "saved" Ghostbusters:The Videogame.

...so who cares what company is "evil", all companies are evil and all companies are not evil. It's not that easy. But it's easy from a consumer perspective. If you don't want to put up with shit, don't buy it.

But saying "Boo, the Internet says that Electronic Ubivision is evul!!" is just childish

EA also forced Mythic to release Warhammer Online when it was a good three-four months unprepared. They had to wait almost a year to re-add the classes that didn't make to the release. And by then it was too late to even bother making cities for other races, since not only they had to lay off a shitload of employees, but the subs dropped from a million to few dozens of thousands and nobody cared anymore.

Well, they also pushed out Ultima 8 and 9 WAY too early back in a time when you pretty much had to buy Updates and Bugfixes, as well as trying to sell cheat codes at the dawn of DLC micropayments.

You missed my point.

Now and then just about every publisher pulls off some shit that is horribly evil, and sometimes they do great things (i mentioned Atari because the company does usually god-awful things like the broken, pushed-out-unfinished messes that are Driver 2, Driv3r and TDU2....yet they saved Ghostbusters by buying it off Activision who found it not "exploitable" enough).

As a customer who understands the relationships between Devs and Publishers, i can't and shouldn't worry about if a company is considered "evil" by the great vocal internet, and instead decide on a case-to-case basis if i am willing to buy games from them or not.

EDIT: Especially since declaring something "evil" usually is very, very stupid

But... They KEEP ON DOING THAT... It's not a one-thing hickup. It's not "Oh Starcraft is so bad man Blizzard sucks". It's "Ubisoft makes shitty port, THEN they ignore PC market, THEN they create mandatory DRM that everyone hates and pirates anyway so it hurts only the legit customers, THEN they lie about From Dust not having DRM and implementing it anyway (and only a heavy backlash caused them to "gracefully" give refunds to anyone who wants)... and THEN one of their guys insults PC gamers and blames it on translation."

Also, Atari... why did you sell Neverwinter Nights to those buffoons at Obsidian...

Oh, and Obsidian. Nobody hates them as much as they should. They keep getting sequels and those sequels are to GREAT games. Sequels are two or three times worse than original games. I think maaaybe Fallout NV was almost as good as F3, but others like NwN 2 or KotOR 2...

 

[Erttheking]

Well the companies that you listed are pretty much hated on this website, but considering that the people on this site tend to get seriously biased and overemotional, take what they say with a grain of salt.

 

[major_chaos]

Trying to defend the leader of the fucking sith there? You are seriously saying the sith never did anything bad, ever. Nor the leader of the most organised sith collective. Wow.

Valve have been effectively releasing the same game for several years now, with 1 gameplay difference in each. There games get undeserved praise and the pinnacle of unbalanced gameplay. The only reason any of the things they do is ok, is because they are valve and are like the bad guy from lethal weapon 2.

Wanna be edgy? Do you really want to say that HL2 (a peak in interactive narrative, animations [too many FPS devs still don't get the hang of characters looking at you when talking to you, they look at the point the devs thought you'll most likely stand in] and character design [HL2 is until today one of the FPS with the most realistic character designs]) = TF2, the second best competitive FPS after CS 1.6 = L4D2 = Portal series? Pinnacle of unbalanced gameplay? WHAT?

Sorry, I can't take you serious. You hate Valve because it is one of the most liked companies out there. You hate DRM because it's DRM. Bring valid complains or at least answer the post you quoted:

Name some examples!

well i'm bored so I will name some examples of what is wrong with Valve games:
HL2: boring story that completely failed to make me care, starring a generic mute protagonist who is only well known because of the memetic bad-ass status the internet has given him, not to mention it crashes and glitches more often then fallout NV and the awful vehicle sections that make up half the game

L4D2:came out way too soon after the original, adding very little and butchering the atmosphere and characters

TF2: micro-transactions, horrible weapon balance, crates

CS:S : awful, awful community, and the dominance of cheap tactics

portal 2: massively overpriced for something that is not that long and has absolutely zero replay value

on the non-game side there is the fact that I have had nothing but bad experiences with their customer support, and the fact that they are working on an absolute monopoly on the digital distribution market and contrary to what the fanboys say that is not a good thing

and finally Steam itself is a platform I will never understand the praise for: it's slow, clunky, you can't chose where to install your games, the servers are woefully inadequate dragging the whole thing to a screaming halt if there is above average traffic, downloads are slow even on a good day, and you need to jump through hoops to play a game and DL a game at the same time,there is also the annoying "first time setup" every time you get a new game wasting time for no good reason, steam games start up slower then their non-steam versions, and valve is open about the fact that they can take away all your games at any time for any reason, finally while this is not technically Valve's fault their annoyingly rabid fan base does nothing to endear the company to me.

 

[major_chaos]

snip

while I concede that most of my complaints are a mater of opinion I feel the need to clarify some things: first my problems with HL2 are not my "broken machine" have a played HL2 on three increasingly nice gaming PCs and have had the same issues on all of them. second my compliant with L4D2 was that the new characters are not half as good as the old ones and are all a mix of unfunny and annoying. third I envy you if you have not noticed the examples of bad weapon balance in TF2, some glaring examples are the massively annoying dead ringer, enforcer, spycicle spy and the fast deadly tomislov, sandvich, GRU heavy. fourth forgive me if i'm being dense but what do you mean by " and it would've helped if your boredom could've kicked in a little bit sooner."? finally I would say that the RPS article you drew my attention to certainly seems to help my case that Valve is not nearly as infallible as some people would like to believe.

 

[Instant K4rma]

Bethesda.

Skyrim took my life away and never gave it back.

In all seriousness, most of my animosity is directed towards EA. Those guys, with their fake protesters, their Origin spyware, their insultingly childish marketing... The list goes on.

EA either needs to step down or grow up, in my opinion.

 

[Griffolion]

Don't forget that EA has basically turned call of duty in to Madden, another pile of shit that's squeezed out every year where your hard pressed to find new content amongst bits of corn.

Umm, you know that Activision is the publisher for CoD, not EA, right?

EA do Battlefield.

 

[Bvenged]

You know, companies that do a number of things wrong and they are the most evil company ever. Stuff like:

Activision - franchise milking, cash cow tactics.
EA - Origin Spyware, buying out competition, one-use multiplayer codes.
Ubisoft - broken and insulting DRM
Capcom - Megaman Trolling, shovelware, disc-locked content.

You know, companies that are not really evil, but do some dumb things that are kinda serious, but kinda trivial at the same time. Are there others? are all companies guilty of something?

I've updated your current list with my own opinion. I suppose another contribution or the list exemplifies Activision's points; and that's Apple.

 

[tippy2k2]

- A company making a shit-ton of Mega-man games? I don't know why this was a specific example since that sounds like milking their franchise, but they want to make money.

The problem isn't that they're milking the franchise. It's the exact opposite problem. Capcom has been pulling constant dick moves with the franchise by doing things like cancelling Megaman Legends 3. The only thing they themselves have made in recent history relating to Megaman (someone might need to fact check this) is Megaman 9 and 10, something which while nice, probably didn't require a whole lot of time to make in comparison to most games.

They also didn't include Megaman X in Marvel vs Capcom and instead put in Zero. HUUUURRRRRGH.

To GeneralFungi:
See, I don't see that as being evil. It's a dick-move for sure but it's their property, they can do whatever they want with it just like you can choose not to purchase their product because you don't like what they're doing.

To everyone else:
The reason why a game company really can't be evil is because the product they are selling is an optional one. No one is forcing your hand and making you purchase these things. The closest thing game companies can get to being evil is to either

A. Release literally broken products:

B. Illegal business practices (Zynga comes to mind with "allegedly" stealing of other peoples games; The "not getting paid" issue that seems to crop up in game development every so often)

If the game company does not break one of these two rules, I can't see how you could possibly consider them evil.

 

[Zantos]

I'm really wondering how Activision can be marked as franchise milking when EA are on the list. I swear at least half of their new releases every year from EA sports would come under 'patch' or 'DLC' for every other company.