Therumancer said:
The issue is EA constantly pushing for more and more money, the way how they are behind a lot of the current trends towards microtransactions, day #1 DLC, and similar practices has had people POed at them for years. Gamers ultimalty being put in a "pay more, or go without" position which constantly seems to be increasing, with this being done by a company that is already making scads of money and doesn't really need to increase it's profit margins.
To put it into perspective, what has Bank Of America or Haliburton actually done to YOU recently that you can point a direct finger at, and say "this sucked". A lot of people aren't going to be able to find anything, and even if they can, millions of people are liable to think back and find more situations where they have been POed at EA over the last year or two than any other company. Mass Effect 3 had it's craptastic ending, but also had it's day #1 DLC contreversy, and the same can be said of microtransactions that have been attached to nearly every EA product for years now... not to mention forcing millions of people onto their "Origin" service which is totally borked.
Speaking for myself, when ToR came out EA screwed up their pre-order codes with Gamestop. I purchused a collector's edition, but the code Gamestop gave me was for a regular edition. Something I did not realize until after I input the code on their site since the receipt didn't specify. This happened to a lot of people apparently. EA *DID* correct the problem and I received a proper collector's edition code, *BUT* I could no longer insert it into my account because you can't register two versions of the same product. Tech support told me the only way to resolve this was to create a second account, and they would later figure out a way to merge them. I did this, and wound up with two EA accounts, one with ToR and the other with all my other EA games. I have to switch between Origin logins depending on what I play, and due to this being annoying I've screwed up and installed things like Kingdoms of Amalur into my ToR account by accident. This becomes annoying because when EA does cross promotions like getting the Todd Mcfarlane weapons and armor for ME3 I can't do it when my games are under seperate accounts, and even seperated I can't seem to DL and play things like the Amalur Demo when I already own a full version of the game (I've tried). When I've contacted Tech support about account merger after all these months I get non-answers. Last time I tried I got no response, and then some automated query checking back with me "because they hadn't heard from me recently regarding this issue" when they never responded to begin with.
The point of my story is that I doubt I'm the only one here since the ToR forums were full of people with the same Gamestop order issues at one point, and it's wall-punchingly annoying. Where Bank Of America has tried to sneak in fees (and then gave up under protest), EA manages to pretty much piss me off on a daily basis. Haliburton I can at least get, they are bastards but it doesn't come into my home much. EA on the other hand aren't just bastards, they are basically too lazy to even support their own products and fix their mistakes (of a sort that go beyond the ME3 ending issue... they won't even make things right with this forced account splitting which happened because they told me too).
So yeah... I back EA as worst company in the US (if not globally), and I can see why a lot of other people on an internet survey would do the same thing. The very fact that EA doesn't seem to give a crap just reinforces the point of why they deserve that dubious "honor". A company that gets told that and then has the audacity to point at it's numbe rof customers (overlooking that the people complaining are those same customers) is pretty much sinking to all time lows.
Extra Creditz covered the day 1 DLC, and I can say it is one of their few things that I agree with. If you do have a point where the dev team is unable to work on the game, such as it being sent for testing on the various platforms and certification that it works and meets the standards, them why not start making DLC?
I have had the thing where I have had games that I would rather pay a few bucks for some cool extras now instead of months later. After all, more people do buy dlc the sooner it is released, so it makes sense from a monetary perspective. Plus, that is more people who gain something else to enjoy in a game, and that isn't bad either.
I had forgotten that microtransaction thing with the original Battlefield:Bad Company, where it became pay to win. Yeah, that sucked. It isn't like they then went and added buyable weapon packs to any other games, like Bad Company 2 or Battlefield 3. Oh wait, they did.
Well, they are weapons you do unlock eventually, so really, they suck a few bucks off of people who want the stuff now instead of later, which are generally the people who just want to have fun for a bit then move on to something else. I had my fun with Bad Company 2, and I am nowhere near having all the good stuff unlocked. And I will be happy to never play that game for at least a couple more years. In that regard, five bucks for the cool stuff would have made that fun time a fun time with cool stuff, and five bucks spent to have fun with cool stuff instead of less cool starting stuff.
After all, the weapons are balanced so as not to be overpowered, where you could then pay to win.
and microtransactions? seriously? most games with those are free to play and free to get. For some of the things they offer, forking over a couple bucks to the developers as thanks and getting something is nice.
"Hey, I love your game. Have some money."
"Thanks! Here, have some stuff in return."
"Sweet!"
Honestly, my big peeve is pay to buy and pay to play games. Not only do you ahve to buy it, but you then have to pay for the privilege of playing a game that you already own. Battlefield has free multiplayer with a $60 game. Warcraft is a $15 a month multiplayer, plus the cost of the game.
Honestly, I buy a game, then I can't play it unless I continue to pay? There is no game so good I should have to continue to pay every month for the privilege of playing it. Honestly, I dislike Blizzard and CCP much more than EA. At least EA doesn't charge you a monthly fee to own their games.
And it's why I dislike the iPhone: $20 a month JUST TO OWN ONE. That doesn't count the mandatory unlimited data plan (naturally the most expensive one) and the mandatory mid level or better service plan if you ever want to use the phone.
Service fees there are fine. But charging me for the privilege of owning your product is just over the top.
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