Why do you hate EA?

[BoredAussieGamer]

So many reasons to pick from...

I guess I'll have to go with their fucking tasteless and terrible marketing. I mean, selling an MA rated game to 12 year olds with the obnoxious "Your mom hates dead space 2" ads...

 

[Sassafrass]

Nothing really makes me annoyed at EA. Sure, they've done some stupid shit but meh, I personally don't care about that side of things, just the "Is the game good/fun?" side of things.

That said, I don't buy their sports games new. FIFA games drop drastically in price when a new one is released. FIFA 12 is £6 now so I'd buy that over FIFA 13 instead, for example.

 

[Baldry]

I guess the fact that all they care about is money. Sure they're a company but that doesn't excuse their stupidity, creating sequels of games that didn't need them or sequels where the game is completely changed from the original game. And the fact they drive companies in to the ground, love you pandemic

 

[royohz]

My reason is that they make overall only shitty games, but if that wasn't enough, they also make plausibly good games into shit with their publishing. Well, it's not like I know the fuck I'm talking about. Over and out.

 

[Vrach]

Battlefield 3 Premium. Look, I'm fine with all the bollocks that Premium does... except one. Premium-only servers. If you don't have Premium, you literally can't play on them. Aside from being a real dick move by itself, it's also not even mentioned anywhere on the game or even in the Premium description. All it says is "server queue priority" and there's a big ass difference between saying "this guy gets in before you, he's VIP" and "fuck off, VIP only"

 

[Steppin Razor]

-snip-

Yep. Hating a publisher of video games is rather silly when you compare them to other companies that engage in human rights abuses.

 

[Legion]

I find that to be a welcome addition so long as it doesn't turn into Gears of War style. I very much like roaming and firing, but wouldn't mind more strategic encounters that needed cover based shooting to advance past. As for fighting other human soldiers, I feel that adds some realism to a series that has made you fight the same kind of enemies 2 times in a row. Where's all the soldiers, space terrorists, anti-religious fanatics and the like?

Cover based shooting could work very well if it were combined with a stealth element. Sections where you have to sneak past certain nercomorphs or avoid being detected so as not to set of an alarm. Thing such as that could work quite well.

I don't mind human enemies either to be honest, in the second one it would have made sense to have them anyway, seeing as there human bad guys to begin with.

I think the issue people has is more that the series has changed direction in regards to how it plays, where the original was very much survival horror and it's becoming more action orientated. It doesn't make the games bad, but it is not why people got into the series.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

I despise their business practices. I despise their tendency to mudsling at the competition.

 

[antidonkey]

I don't. I'm not a big fan of some of their business practices and decisions but none of it has irked me to the point of hate. I'd say I'm more annoyed and disappointed with EA. However, it won't stop me from buying a game they publish. Dead Space and NFS are games I'll very much enjoy.

 

[Durgiun]

Remember the Origin-Spyware fiasco? That's why. I can forgive day one DLC. I can forgive DRM. I can forgive running good devs into the ground, I can forgive streamlining.

What I cannot and will not forgive is spyware or anything related to breaching into someone's privacy. Whether it be digital of physical.

For that reason I do not buy anything related to an EA product. Mass Effect and Dragon Age comics, T-shirts, books, various paraphernalia, movies, games, condoms---all of that is off limits. I'd literally sooner shop-lift and risk jail time than give EA my money. That is how much I hate them.

 

[crazyrabbits]

The only reason EA hasn't been sued into kingdom come yet is because gamers are still (in spite of what they say) willing to put up with their garbage business practices in support of a handful of still-great games being marred by executive fiat.

Honestly, I'm surprised they haven't had a class action brought against them by gamers (not internally) - they've put spyware on their distribution system, tried to violate the rule of first sale, continually punished paying customers with DRM schemes, stuck game components on-disc and sold them piecemeal, made terrible lapses in PR judgement...I wouldn't be surprised if they fold within the next couple years.

 

[Mr.Squishy]

Genius Snip

Finally, someone else who's aware of reality!

CAPTCHA: I'm blessed

Don't ruin it, Captcha!

I'll echo the point made by these fine gentlemen, but would also say I wouldn't grieve if Bobby Kotick was to disappear completely. Why?
- On-disc/day one DLC
- Origin
- Holding the Dead Space franchise hostage
- Setting absurd expectations that they expect the developers to uphold (ties into above point)
- Bullfrog, Pandemic, Bioware etc. have been or are currently in the process of being fucked over by them
- "We'll stop making singleplayer games!!!!! BEST IDEA EVERRRRRR!!!!"
- No grasp of marketing or how to not come across as the stereotypical cabal of reality-distant suits who wipe their bums with hundred dollar bills
- Propagating the worst habits and features in games today (brown and grey gritty etc. zzzz) for a quick buck and generally seeming to stifle any kind of creativity both the developers and consumers might enjoy. Albeit, they alone cannot be blamed for this when jackfucks still buy their games, but honestly, I'd like them to try. There'd be a lot of money in making the video gaming equivalent of citizen kane or the godfather or Romeo and Juliet, ya know?

 

[felbot]

well how about the fact that they pretty much fucked the entire medal of honour series by making it current day.

the fact that they're completely against modding.

the fact that my copy of medal of honour airborne doesn't work, at all.

and of course hoarding brutal legend IP so that we now can never have brutal legend 2.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

All of a sudden their logo was stamped on all the games I was playing. It was disconcerting. Dragon Age, Mirror's Edge, Crysis. I really didn't like the required online accounts for DA:O/ME2.

And it seems like all these games I've listed above, which I liked -- the sequels just go downhill. Crysis 2 was a linear urban trek as opposed to the lush open Crysis 1. Dragon Age 2... we won't go there. I've heard ME2 wasn't as good as ME1, and thus I never got 3, which provoked this huge outrage. And I'm torn now between the desire for another Mirror's Edge and the desire for Mirror's Edge to not get a crappy sequel.

 

[MammothBlade]

Well, that's a false assumption if you're applying it to everyone. I don't really HATE EA. I just distrust them, due to their unscrupulous business practices.

 

[Padwolf]

Because they poisoned our water supply, burned our crops and delivered a plague on our houses!

But really I guess I don't HATE them. that's a pretty strong word all in all. I don't like their business practices. I question a lot of their decisions and a lot of what they say, such as them being happy about not making anymore single player games. They also seem to stifle some creativity. They just seem to be in it for the money.

 

[AltandKarma]

I dont hate EA. I just hate the fact that they generally try and rip off the consumer as much as possible, doing everything they can to squeeze more dollars out of the buyers.
Although Ea's hilariously bad PR means i can often just laugh at the company.

Karma: Plus i hear that the staff at EA kills kittens.