So IGN decided to ask "why do people hate EA"

[Aurora Firestorm]

The question really becomes here...why *don't* people hate EA?

They treat their employers like absolute ass, is my reason.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

The reason for the hate is because of what they do to our games, namely ruin them by removing the things that made them great. By trying to "broaden appeal" to the "mass market", adding coop gameplay where none is needed, by turning ME3 into a military shooter complete with obligatory turret sections, marines LZs evac points and other garbage they turned a brilliant sci fi RPG into a miilitary shooter with RPG elements. DA:O, another great BW title should have enjoyed at least one or two more expansions, instead we got a rushed, half arsed sequel that removed almost all the great things of the original.

They've just announced they plan to do the same to Dead Space. They destroyed Westwood, Pandemic and BioWare (reputation at least) because they let shareholders design games. Stop it EA, this is why you're hated. Let the game's developers, new blood and old hands alike come up with ideas. Let them get creative like Valve does. Let them create the games we want to play instead of slapping multiplayer onto everything. Let them polish said games till they shine and you will have our thanks, our money and maybe even our goodwill again.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Also, forgot to mention, Online Passes, Day 1 DLC, removing sh*t from Steam to try and push your Origin spyware onto people's hard drives. Too many reasons for the hate.

Why did you bother releasing Syndicate, while we have this one-way dialogue? Instead of reimagining/reinventing the original, brilliant, inventive 4 character, tactical combat with upgradeable agents, possibly working in 4-player coop into a game it would have worked brilliantly in, you made a bland, unoriginal, unimaginative FPS. You have these wonderful IPs and you drag through the mud, almost intentionally.

 

[Apollo45]

snip

It is the business model for ALL services, and entertainment has always been a service before it was a product. Services doesn't allow for refunds.

A ticket is a ticket.

Games used to be sold by ticket form in the arcade, but changed as the experience of the "Home system" became indistinguishable from the that of the arcade and cheaper long term. With the internet gaming became an even more of a "personal" (individual expression) thing and going back to Ticket system became impossible.

And therefore it stopped becoming a service. We're buying the games, not access to the games like we did when arcades were popular. I'm sure if an arcade were to purchase a defective game system they would be able to return it, and it should be the same way for other consumers since we're the ones buying the actual games now. Hell, even if it could still be considered a service, I can elect to not pay for my service at a restaurant if I was served something absolutely disgusting, or get my money back at a theater if the projector breaks. When Blizzard's servers shut down, however, I'm shit outta luck despite doing nothing wrong on my end. When Origin is down, or if their games are glitched beyond playability, I can't play them despite having paid for that "service". In any other service industry I would be entitled - yes, entitled - to a full refund. In this one? The company laughs at you and continues on their merry way, and if i have the gall to complain about it I get called childish by both the media and other more "mature" consumers.

Like I said, it's absolutely ridiculous on so many levels. Doesn't matter if it's a product or a service (it's a product for the most part, with elements of a service at times, but I'm still purchasing a product with the intent of using said product for my personal entertainment), either way there are major issues with the standard business model that need to be addressed.

 

[Suncatcher]

First I'd like to say that I have no issue with companies making money. DLCs aren't robbing you once you've bought something, they're changing what the product is and offering you more if you want it. But a lot of what they've done isn't just annoying, it's clearly unprofitable. How many sales did they lose by switching their games to Origin instead of putting them on Steam, just because they hate sharing? How many customers do they lose by taking the brilliant original properties they own, all with built-in fanbases, and turning them into idiotic FPS clones? How much do they have to spend on PR just to slightly mitigate one of their DRM failures?

Yes, EA is a corporation. But unlike Valve, CDProjekt, and the hundreds of other game companies that have never been voted worst in america, they're just a corporation, and not a very smart one at that. They aren't artists trying to make some money, they're just trying to maximize profits. They don't raise goodwill and grow a loyal customer base like google or other highly profitable "good" companies, they just squeeze for every penny they can at every moment with no thought for the future. And along the way they've completely destroyed smaller companies that were making good games.

I used to love Bioware games, but I strongly suspect that ME3 is the last good thing they'll ever make and even that was filled with executive meddling. And now that the last EA series I've played is over (and it is over. Yes, they'll keep trying to exploit the name, but the story is done), I'm free to never give them money again and watch them continue their death spiral.

 

[Jason Luu]

I just hate EA because they're fucking hypocrites, they keep saying that games need to be cheaper then go and charge people ridiculous amounts of money for a product that to me is rarely worth the cost, and they wonder why piracy is a problem.

Also I'd like a gravity rush shirt.
and also Jim Sterling is one sexy beast.

 

[fireaura08]

I'm just going to say a few names:

Bullfrog
Pandemic
Westwood
......
Bioware

That is all.

*bursts into tears*
Command and Conquer was my childhood, and EA shat all over it back in 2010. At least CnC3/KW was pretty good.

 

[MrFalconfly]

I'm just going to say a few names:

Bullfrog
Pandemic
Westwood
......
Bioware

That is all.

*bursts into tears*
Command and Conquer was my childhood, and EA shat all over it back in 2010. At least CnC3/KW was pretty good.

The only one responsible for Westwoods fall is Westwood.

THey were performing poorly to say the least (they were trying to launch three projects, MMO's and FPS's, that got nowhere, essentially turning them into a moneysink that broke deadlines) not to mention the fact that one of the most popular C&C games (Red Alert 2) wasn't made by Westwood.

People were also complaining that the C&C games were too much alike (same gameplay and such) and that got to EA who then followed the wishes of those people and completely redesigned the gameplay (making C&C 4). So yes C&C 4 was a response to the people saying that the previous C&C games hadn't evolved enough.

And personally I don't hate EA but I do find some of their business practices annoying (resulting in me basically not buying their games unless they're absolutely stellar).

 

[BeeGeenie]

According to me, this part is the key:

As companies go, EA is not as cuddly and nice as, say Valve. But then, Valve isn't publicly traded. Valve isn't owned by banks.

That's the problem right there. EA isn't owned by people who are passionate about the medium of videogames. The people who keep that business afloat probably haven't touched a videogame in their life. And for a business that's engaged in a creative industry that is dangerous.

Of course I understand that thanks to those unaffiliated people we get increased budgets. But that doesn't change the problem that the people who ultimately rule over EA just don't get the industry and it's customers.

I don't think that companies should be there and inherently exist to "just make more money", I don't think that's a healthy way of conducting business and there should be company values, business ethics and morals to uphold.

And I don't think having those would drive them bankrupt or anything of the likes, just have to look at other companies like Valve and CDProjekt and they've seemed to manage fine so far without employing business practices that piss of a large part of consumers and without gouging either, not to talk about smaller development studios or indies.

That's exactly why I hate shareholders. They just want to make more money. They have no other interest in the company. And they ultimately decide the course of business, because what are you going to do without investors when you're a public company?

I honestly I have no doubt that the majority of EA's actual employees are passionate about videogames. But they're not on top of the food chain, and that's an issue.

Very true, but this is because big corporations forget that Customers are more important than Shareholders. The company won't make money unless the Customers are happy. Happy customers = happy shareholders. Unhappy Customers = EA driving itself into the ground and ruining even more games while it tries desperately to squeeze more money out of fewer and fewer consumers until it collapses... or gets a gov't bailout... and then collapses.

 

[ThriKreen]

EA, of course, decided the best way to react to this was to submit thousands of bot generated signatures. How? By having PCs that were running Origin submit them automatically.

Or maybe it was due to someone hijacking an ad that ran on the Origin service? We never did see what the cause of the thing was. The whole report could have been faked just to drag EA's rep in the mud some more.

We've already seen evidence of people faking that already (case in point, how the said petition came about in the first place).

Or that guy complaining that Origin was scanning his financial records, and it turns out Origin was scanning for any hacks in C:\Program Files\ and his files happened to be in the same folder.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Very true, but this is because big corporations forget that Customers are more important than Shareholders. The company won't make money unless the Customers are happy. Happy customers = happy shareholders. Unhappy Customers = EA driving itself into the ground and ruining even more games while it tries desperately to squeeze more money out of fewer and fewer consumers until it collapses... or gets a gov't bailout... and then collapses.

Well, they won't get a government bailout (not enough pull in Washington), but the gist of your point is solid.

There's this growing mentality in the business world that goes "Hate your customers, but love their money."

And it works just fine when things are functional; the stupid consumer masses rarely notice anything is amiss until something breaks.

But the more obvious this relationship becomes, the less people trust companies. To the point where the rational reasons for hating a business are far outweighed by irrational reasons.

Case in point, the article that brought us here.

In the IGN article, the author does his best to flat-out marginalize the complaints as "A vocal minority".
And this begs the question: If the complaints don't stem from a significant proportion of EA's market, (or even gaming as a whole), then why address it so broadly?
Hell, why address it at all if it's just a tiny minority who make complaints?

 

[ThriKreen]

In the IGN article, the author does his best to flat-out marginalize the complaints as "A vocal minority".
And this begs the question: If the complaints don't stem from a significant proportion of EA's market, (or even gaming as a whole), then why address it so broadly?
Hell, why address it at all if it's just a tiny minority who make complaints?

Because that tiny minority engages in blowing news out of proportion and some even go so far as to fabricating evidence to support lies and a lot of other conspiracy theories.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Because that tiny minority engages in blowing news out of proportion and some even go so far as to fabricating evidence to support lies and a lot of other conspiracy theories.

So they do. And yet, some of us still don't bother getting our news from huge mainstream sources like FOX and CNN for the same reasons.

Heavy bias exists even in "Accredited sources". The shit pot stirs both ways.

 

[Antonio Torrente]

You know what if EA went bankrupt and goes under, it's gonna be pretty cathartic when it does happen and we laugh and celebrate at its demise.

Although I will feel sorry for the people that will lose their jobs in the process if this ever happens.

yeah and they will hold all the cool IPs in their dead hands, like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Mirror's Edge, Dead Space... really great moment.

At least they are dead right? right?

sigh.........now you made me depressed.

They can die after they let all those things go.

Read about Interplay (iirc) holding rights to FreeSpace even though it has no interest in it. Just because.

Being the greedy fucks that they are they will hold on to those franchises to their corporate grave.

Oh wait I forgot I only cared about Mass Effect and that's over. So, let them die. Or let them live. I don't care.

I don't know, as far as I'm concerned Bioware is already indoctrinated with the EA corruption so they are already a lost cause and that includes the Mass Effect series.

Alright then. You bring the gasoline, I'll bring the flamethrower then.

before it lays eggs.

Just two questions, how much? and what else can I bring?

A cistern will do. Bring marshmallows.

Oh yeah, let's bring it on!

 

[aestu]

Pure propaganda. IGN is a corporate BS machine.

Why do people hate EA? People hate EA because they suck.

They treat their employees like toilet paper, they make horrible games, they destroy good franchises and never build decent new ones. They gouge their customers by charging for stuff that should be included with package and treat honest gamers like crooks by banning them for circumventing their own bugs and the general public like fools by BSing them with "Dear Leader"-type propaganda like the nonsense in that article.

Good enough reasons for ya?

 

[wintercoat]

Pure propaganda. IGN is a corporate BS machine.

Why do people hate EA? People hate EA because they suck.

They treat their employees like toilet paper, they make horrible games, they destroy good franchises and never build decent new ones. They gouge their customers by charging for stuff that should be included with package and treat honest gamers like crooks by banning them for circumventing their own bugs and the general public like fools by BSing them with "Dear Leader"-type propaganda like the nonsense in that article.

Good enough reasons for ya?

...I knew I remembered your name from somewhere! The avatar cements it! God, I haven't been on the Wowhead forums in forever...

 

[KarlMonster]

I really don't like IGN, I mean, they are owned by the same people that owns FOX.

This article also reminded me a lot of something that I would hear on FOX news...
EDIT: It'd also be nice to know if the entire article is a quote from the guy, or if it is author speculation...
If it's a quote, then we're right, EA is owned by dicks
If it's author speculation, then he is terrible at his job.

Hear! Hear! Well spoken, Bruce! Because...

OK, that stuff in the first post, was that the *entire* article?

Because if that is the entire article, then it is worse than most of the IGN game reviews.
"I wanted to talk about this with Peter Moore ... and he was big enough to tackle the uncomfortable question head-on." Except they didn't talk about it, he's only got 2 quotes from Moore, and in one of them he dismisses the entire issue as the sentiment of a fringe minority. That is not talking about an issue.

I want to say that I can treat EA fairly. But I'm currently playing Need For Speed World. The developers seem to spend all their time coding the virtual cars, and none at all improving the client software. There appears to be no movement at ALL on the issue of security/account hacking. Not to mention that the in game global chat has been non-functional for... is it two months now?

I couldn't make this stuff up.

 

[ThriKreen]

Sorry, but it's sufficiently difficult for me to trust EA over the word of this random stranger's virus report. That's how bad their situation is: they don't earn the benefit of the doubt any more. If it's fake, then the burden of proof is on them (and subsequently, you, since you're the one suggesting the possibility of it being fake) to prove otherwise. Do you have any evidence to support the notion that this virus report was faked for malicious purposes?

I am skeptical in that only one report was ever brought up. You'd think there would be more incidents being reported about it. I doubt it's an intentional fake for malicious purposes, but again, we've already seen people online doing exactly that so that is still on the table. Unfortunately we have no context on what the guy was doing - I don't recall seeing ads in Origin, however he could have had a web browser up in-game and that's how it was hijacked.

I'm more inclined to believe it was an in-line ad that was hijacked somehow (as well as being easy to deploy to all browsers, not just Origin), than EA deliberately faking petition signatures with a bot net. There's really no benefit for them to do so - EA didn't make the petition, it was AllOut.org who was going to delivery the list to EA ... but EA was already on their side, soooo... why pad a petition to give to themselves?

Not to mention the rather obvious fakeness of the names, even an EA PR would recognize blatant astroturfing is a Bad Idea. We still have no idea who the culprit was, it could have very well been the anti-gay groups that were trying to undermine the legitimacy of the petition.

Which brings it back to my main point: You'd notice that I'm trying to see it from all angles. Yet many people here are no longer thinking and being skeptical when it comes to "EA is doing Bad Things": their default tinfoil hat conspiracy state is to blindly believe and attribute everything as "EA is Evil" and stop looking for evidence, or worse, casually dismiss any contrary evidence.

That state of thinking and myopic viewpoint says more about you than it does about EA.