Aussies Give EA The Shonky 2013 For Unfair Play

[samuraiweasel]

Hah! I thought Shonky was referring to the sonky of Discworld (read The Fifth Elephant if you want to find out )

 

[FoolKiller]

At $2.48 I would expect a lot of sexy talk too.

 

[major_chaos]

Yawn. Another day, another "EA is Satan" thread. Do I get some kind of trophy if I have bough a bunch of their games and never had any problems at all? And while I don't like the idea of charging for customer support, its hardly something EA invented, and at least unlike some people *coughfucksteamsupportcough* their support isn't totally shit.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

2 Turds in a row, and then this.

Can EA possibly get any more cartoonishly eviller than this?

 

[Vivi22]

So...australia taxes the shit out of every thing and gets a shity hand from just about every game company...and EA gets blamed. Just another reason to not take anything that the australians do or say seriously.

Yeah, because $2.48 a minute to call tech support about a problem that's the companies fault to begin with is perfectly reasonable right?

Honest question here: are you on crack, and if yes, will you share? Because it must be some really good shit to make you think that Australians are being unreasonable here.

 

[Last Hugh Alive]

Being charged for customer support of unknowable helpfulness would be irritating. Being charged for support for a product that was faulty would be insulting and rage inducing. It's no wonder the customers feel like sticking the finger up at EA for the hassle., and it's not like EA suffers any damage or inconvenience themselves by winning a mock award.

On that note, I'm Australian and I've never heard of the Shonky awards.

 

[gigastar]

It was a studio they themselves started, originally called Bioware Victory when it was opened 2 years ago, they quickly dropped Bioware from the name when fans really started to realize Bioware was just a husk of its former self and the branding wouldnt bring extra sales.

Victory was actually formed about 3 or 4 years ago, which was also when we had confirmation of a new C&C title after... urgh, Twilight.

They obviously were not in the spotlight until the big announcement back in 2011 when they were rebranded Bioware Victory.

 

[Dr. Thrax]

EA really like coming across as bastards as they have closed another developer Victory games and cancelled the new command and conquer game.

http://www.polygon.com/2013/10/29/5043244/ea-cancels-free-to-play-command-and-conquer

I am equally filled with joy and sadness. More joy than sadness, though.
I do want a new CnC game (I thought RA3 wasn't that bad. (ALL HAIL EMPEROR TAKEI)), and a sequel to Generals would have been fantastic, I love Generals.
The moment I saw that it was suddenly going F2P I started to worry. EA just does not do F2P well at all.
I thought I'd at least give it a chance, since I wouldn't have to pay anything, but honestly I'm just glad I don't have to go through the disappointment of a shitty CnC game. I'm looking at you, Tiberian Twilight.

Back on topic:
$2.48 per minute for a tech support call? With them charging more for calling from a mobile phone?
Are you fucking kidding me?

And yes, there are indeed companies who do worse than EA, however with most other services/products/whatever, you have multiple options.
Bank A fuck you over royally? No problem! Bank B is happy to have your business with them now.
Store A's business practices abhorrent? No problem! Store B is grateful that you've decided to shop at their store.
Game Publisher A has abhorrent business practices, and is infamous for killing off some of your favorite developers? WELL FUCK YOU THEN.
If we could have gone to another place to get the same game from some other publisher, we would have.
However, if you want Game Q but Q is only published by Publisher T, and you don't like T, you either suck it up and get Q, giving your money to T in the process, or you don't get Q at all.
It's the sheer fact that we have no other option of either giving T our money, or not getting Q, that makes the situation a bit worse.

 

[Neta]

This is all very well and good, but will there be any REAL repercussions from this?

 

[Shamanic Rhythm]

So...australia taxes the shit out of every thing and gets a shity hand from just about every game company...and EA gets blamed. Just another reason to not take anything that the australians do or say seriously.

And that is infuriating. They see what the problem is. It is related to how Australia conducts business with foreign groups with high taxes of imports, yet the blame isn't going to the government as it should. They are putting it on a game company and all that company is doing is showing the symptoms that the Australian government is causing.

http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/statis_bis_e.htm?solution=WTO&path=/Dashboards/MAPS&file=Tariff.wcdf&bookmarkState={%22impl%22:%22client%22,%22params%22:{%22langParam%22:%22en%22}}

Australia has one of the lowest average import tariff rates of any country. But hey, don't let facts get in the way of your little anti-Antipodean rant.

 

[Neta]

Wouldn't that just make it "podean"?

 

[bug_of_war]

Because people abhor the idea of Government regulation on businesses and want these 'Feel Good' laws passed though what they think is "Good" regulation. Such as laws that state that banks should give loans to those that could never hope to pay it back. Also the people tend to have a shit idea about the economy and how it works. They think that never spending is good and that money is infinite because we can continue to print it. That and the effect that the baby-boomers are having in the health field.

So what's your point? America gets away with seeming like a fool for something that is damning as all hell but Australia must be mocked because our government makes taxes?

Well then...

 

[snekadid]

Wouldn't that just make it "podean"?

I've never heard of antipodean before and hearing it now.... it sounds like the name of some species that has an exoskeleton.

 

[Agayek]

Until they do something truly illegal, I doubt that is going to happen.

OT: Well, it looks like EA is desiring to continue adding to their trophy case. I wonder how long it will take before those trophies pile up to the point that it brings some real change over there (in all fairness, they did get rid of online passes shortly after the last award).

No they didn't. They renamed Online Passes to "Extreme Edition" or somesuch, depending on the game. You still need to buy new or pay an extra $10-15 to get online access.

Though admittedly the "Extreme Edition" gimmick isn't only online access. They generally include one or two small cosmetic DLCs or what have you along with it.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Until they do something truly illegal, I doubt that is going to happen.

OT: Well, it looks like EA is desiring to continue adding to their trophy case. I wonder how long it will take before those trophies pile up to the point that it brings some real change over there (in all fairness, they did get rid of online passes shortly after the last award).

No they didn't. They renamed Online Passes to "Extreme Edition" or somesuch, depending on the game. You still need to buy new or pay an extra $10-15 to get online access.

Though admittedly the "Extreme Edition" gimmick isn't only online access. They generally include one or two small cosmetic DLCs or what have you along with it.

Are you able to back this up? I literally cannot find anything on an "extreme edition" replacing EA's online pass system.