Why do you hate EA?

[Bombchucker]

So last night I was watching a few jimquisition episodes on EA's marketing and it got me thinking about why I as a consumer hate EA's business practices. So I was wondering if we could make a list detailing all the reasons of why we as gamers hate EA and see how many reasons we can get.

So in this thread put down ONE REASON on why you hate EA and feel free to bad mouth them as much as you want. Ill start with my main reason for hating them:

Reason 1: Day one DLC

 

[Terminate421]

Reason 2-infinity

They fucked up Dead Space 3 AND are holding the franchise hostage.

 

[Keoul]

I don't hate them with an all burning passion.
I just dislike them for their business practices, they just seem so silly I mean all they do these days is either release sport games or consume a smaller company to make games for them.

 

[Kae]

Hate is a strong word, though I don't like them, anyway mostly because of Spore and everything about how they fucked up Spore and the DRM for Spore and all of that, also they fired Will Wright, that's not nice, I mean the man created SimCity, The Sims, SimAnt and a lot of other stuff, not to mention he's the geneticist that helps Mr. T save the world from the robot Nazis![footnote]Seriously this [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T_(video_game)] game needs to be happen, because I must play it!
Oh well that was a disappointment it would seem like it is cancelled, that's what I get for finding out today X_x[/footnote]

 

[Aris Khandr]

I hate that you can't gift games on Origin like on Steam. Does that count?

 

[SomeLameStuff]

How did they mess up Dead Space 3?

From all the things I've been reading, it looks phenomenal.

Well, they've stopped hiding the fact that it isn't a survival horror game I suppose. Eeh, flimsy reasoning.

OT: Considering my father knows some of the EA higher-ups personally, I cannot comment on whether I like or dislike EA Games' practices and dealings. >.>

 

[SciMal]

Reason 2-infinity

So in this thread put down ONE REASON on why you hate EA and feel free to bad mouth them as much as you want. Ill start with my main reason for hating them:

Reason 1: Day one DLC

Hate? Nah. Just dislike.

EA has always been the company who spent money on research to determine exactly how little a game is required for it to be successful. They were never over-achievers; always aiming for the curve and hoping its classmates failed the tests. They're the standard for 'adequate' and 'just enough' - not innovation or even above-average. You can always count on EA to be an mildly entertaining experience.

I always got the impression they operated under the same fundamental beliefs that frozen food companies operate under. You know right off the bat that any frozen meal is going to be worse than the real thing; no one has ever re-heated a Hot Pocket in the expectations that their taste buds will dance on the finesse of the flavors. So EA sets its standards to 'palatable' and finds inconsequential ways to dress its product up: "Enjoy our frozen steak 'n beans burrito - NOW WITH CILANTRO!"

Then when they buy other studios, who were producing artisan desserts or salmon with dill sauce thus far in my metaphor, and tell those companies "Now you're making frozen dinners of whatever you're good at." Of course the studios will tell their customers, "Don't worry, we'll totally put a lot of effort into it," but we know the truth - frozen fish dinners taste like shit, and you'll end up with rubbery meat and a sauce that's supposed to represent the previously fine dining experience. Since the companies don't have a choice, though, they have to do what EA says.

So the companies do. Then you end up with frozen eclairs with a "freezer friendly cream" and frozen salmon with a pilaf that still kind of tastes like what the studios produced before, but in your head you know the truth: No meal is ever going to taste as good as it would without a microwave, just as no game made by a studio under EA's banner will ever be the finely crafted product made to indulge and surprise your senses. EA's products exist to meet a need, nothing less - nothing more.

And it's the nothing more that bothers me the most.

 

[FalloutJack]

Some sort of mod should put this in gaming discussion, please.

OT: Honestly, it didn't start for me until they started opening their big mouths and acting like total dicks on camera. The PR guys over at EA are just stoned stupid. I don't have most of EA's games or an attraction to them in most cases. Red Alert 1 through 3 are great, I use to play Mutant League Football way back when, and there's probably a couple other titles. Mostly, I don't actually care that much...except that they're super-idiots and I see alot of people throwing around some often-repeated issues with them. Perhaps you would say that people just saying things isn't evidence in of itself, but I see almost everyone in these threads always complaining, nearly never defending. Eventually, you have to accept that enough people MAKE evidence by warrant of them being pissed off enough.

 

[Berithil]

Don't hate them. Don't even strongly dislike them. Yeah, I've got a lot of other companies that I would choose over EA, but I don't have this burning hatred for them.

Though I am irritated at them for running several companies I like into the ground (R.I.P. Pandemic ): )

 

[T_ConX]

On Disc Day One DLC
Origin
Slowly killing Bioware
Turning Battlefield into a CoD Clone
TORtanic
'Dead Space 3 is 2spooky4u!'

 

[Rawne1980]

Okay, i'll give you one word on why I hate EA.

Bullfrog.

 

[Legion]

There are many reasons, but wording them is somewhat awkward.

I guess it could be summed up with: "I dislike their attitude, towards gaming as an industry, towards it as a form of entertainment and towards their customers." as well as everything that entails. In short, I despise the way they do business.

Unfortunately they hold the rights to some amazing games.

Where? :O

I know you have a partner this time around, but the news I read last still showcased it as survival horror. Then again, it might focus on the atmosphere like the previous games. The scares themselves never got to me, it was always the atmosphere that did.

The game will feature cover based shooting as well as human enemies. This makes it seem like a much more action orientated third person shooter than the previous games.

Personally I don't dislike these changes in themselves as much as I do the obvious reasons for doing them. That they think it will help sales and bring in more people, as opposed to them thinking it will make the game better.

The reason I assume this is because nobody complained about the lack of cover based shooting in the first two, nor did anybody go into the second on expecting it. So to add it into the third one for no obvious reason suggests that they believe that it will improve marketability as cover based shooters are quite popular.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

Hate is a very strong word. I hate racism, hypocrisy, and international terrorism. I don't hate EA. I rather like them, as a matter of fact. They've published some great games.

 

[One Shot wonder]

I used to like Command & Conquer. [/thread]

In all seriousness I dislike them because of their utter lack of commitment to anything except short-term financial gain. They run franchises into the ground because it's cheaper to do and makes more immediate profit, not realising the IP itself had reuseable value in the form of a fanbase and good reputation etc. C&C took a nosedive when EA started interfering with the development process. Westwood were no angels, they were lazy and over-hyped things sometimes but they knew what they were doing with the series they'd created.

 

[Frybird]

I just care about the games. I'm rather thankful that EA picked up Brütal Legend when Activision ditched it due to not being "exploitable".

I'm not a fan of their often awful marketing campaigns as well as some of thier business decisions, but since they deliver some great games, i don't like or hate them more than i do Activision, Ubisoft (Although i'm still a bit mad at them for blatantly advertising future DLC for Assassins Creed 2 within the Story) or Microsoft Game Studios.

 

[Korolev]

Hate is a strong word. I hate criminals, I hate murderers, I hate rapists, I hate corrupt politicians, I hate fanatics.

I do not hate EA. I cannot muster that level of emotion for a VIDEO GAME PUBLISHER/DEVELOPER. You want to hate a company? Hate British American Tobacco, busy trying to get indonesian kids hooked on cigarettes. Hate Shell, poisoning coastal communities in Nigeria. Hate any number of genuinely evil companies who inflict genuine human suffering and misery on a large scale. AEGIS Security, a British PMC, is under investigation for mudering civilians in Iraq. Blackwater, now "The Academy" is also under investigations - investigations so seriously that the company founder has fled the USA, never to return - they also sent letters THREATENING US SENATORS (not smart on their part). Kellogg-Brown? When an employ complained of sexual assault, they locked her up illegally to shut her up (they couldn't be prosecuted for doing this, because they were operating in Iraq while not under US or Iraqi Law).

EA? I dislike them. I question their business practices. But. At. The. End. Of. The. Day. What. Are. They?

They're makers/sellers of electronic diversion. Toys, essentially - fun toys, toys I play, but toys nonetheless. Diversions. Play-time Software.

Who have they murdered? Shell has ACTUALLY murdered people in Nigeria - they bribed the Nigeria government to hang an activist it didn't like. BAT and China Tobacco? Willfully selling poison to MINORS in third world countries.

You want to hate something? Hate something worth hating.

EA is a bad video game publisher/seller who I mildly, MILDLY dislike - because I actually have a solid grasp on the world and know that it is bigger than games. Don't get me wrong - Love playing games. Play games a lot. Also know that there are larger things in life than my electronic diversions.