EA Calls Developer Mentally Ill

[Bobic]

I don't even have words to express this so I leave you all with this~

Please, for the love of god tell me you're being ironic, or saying the news post as a whole gave you cancer. To complain about someone belittling tourettes with a comment belittling cancer, that is a level of bafflingly low self awareness and high hypocrisy that I can't even compute. So, I'm going to assume you are being ironic, in which case, well done. If not, see my first page comment, hang head in shame.

 

[AlwaysPractical]

Was I the only one that saw the picture in the article and thought "wow, Viggo Mortensen makes games?"

I guess my "indie cred" is a bit depleated.

 

[Lee Black]

Excellent!

The court of public opinion is now in session.

Both parties are accused of slander and being a dickhead. EA may have initially had the high ground here (a rare beast indeed) IF Lorne Lanning was in fact lying.
They promptly surrendered that high ground by going for a cheap shot at genuinely unwell people with no part in this.

The only matter actually in question is... Did Mr Lanning, in fact lie?
If he did then we have a good old fashioned two way shitfight.
If not then he's still kind of a twat but not a twat guilty of slandering EA (no easy task).

In summing up the only winners here are we the ladies and gentlemen of the jury coz this is gonna be one hell of a show.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

Comedians pull stunts like that to be funny, its their job.

Jeff Brown is EA's corporate spokesman, the 'voice' of the company if you will. He (and by extension EA) used it as an insult, something that I have stated before you would expect form a youtube comment, not from a large corporation.

I'm not going to debate whether or not it was justified, I will argue that it was petty, childish and unbecoming of Jeff Brown and EA.

I'm aware that comedians says things like this for a living. That doesn't change the fact that everyday people say stuff like this all the time. Yes, its Jeff Brown's job to be professional, but its kind of refreshing to see a spokesperson talk about someone in a way that you'd hear in any other workplace setting. It makes him seem more fallible and human.

And you're ignoring the fact that Lorne Lanning was stupidly rude as well. Its not like Jeff Brown goes out of his was to insult people using mental illness, he was fighting fire with fire. Its not "professional" but to be honest, there is such a thing as being too politically correct, and if it leads to people ignoring the fact that the offending party was provoked, then I'm not down for demonizing EA this time.

Jeff Brown is PR, the voice of the company, I get that. Lorne Lanning is president and co-founder, he is the company. He should have carried himself in a more professional manner rather than trying to look cool taking random childish swipes in the first place.

Both sides provided "youtube" style insults, either demonized both, or ignore it like you would on youtube.

"I'm not going to debate whether or not it was justified, I will argue that it was petty, childish and unbecoming of Jeff Brown and EA."

 

[MasterOfHisOwnDomain]

You never heard about Oddworld for almost a decade, and then suddenly it's absolutely everywhere. Conversely, there's barely a week in which you don't hear about EA being arseholes to somebody, so no change there.

 

[scorptatious]

As much as I love your games Mr. Lanning, I feel that this was a somewhat unprofessional thing to handle things. Even if it was EA.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

I don't even have words to express this so I leave you all with this~

Please, for the love of god tell me you're being ironic, or saying the news post as a whole gave you cancer. To complain about someone belittling tourettes with a comment that belittling cancer, that is a level of bafflingly low self awareness and high hypocrisy that I can't even compute it. So, I'm going to assume you are being ironic, in which case, well done. If not, see my first page comment, hang head in shame.

Yeah, the hypocrisy being shown be everyone here is astounding. It's like watching armed thugs being shocked at the audacity of police officers shooting at them after they've murders people.

 

[jpoon]

Regardless of what Lanning says, I'm with anything that is the antithesis of EA. They are the supreme asshats of the publishing (scumbags) community.

 

[MundaneOddity]

I am just going to support Lanning here, he seems to be acting more mature than EA here. On another note, does anyone else think that EA being in trouble with the mob is not that hard to believe?

 

[notimeforlulz]

Before reading this I was contemplating about whether I should or shouldn't tell the person I have a job interview with today about my mental illness. Regardless of whether they'd discriminate or not, I'd worry about being discriminated against anyway and I don't want to have that worry about it while I'm working there.

Thank you E.A. You have educated me to keep my problems absolutely to myself instead of letting an employer know that I need an especially safe work environment due to my illness.

Thank you so much. I'm going to go cry now.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

If Lanning's crying wolf I think a joke about mental illness is fair enough. EA is the devil incarnate, but that's a light reaction considering what Lanning said.

If it's true, then what Lanning said was completely justified and EA is a dick for having the audacity to deny it.

 

[Nami nom noms]

well if someone actually uses the term 'fuck you very much' in a corporate setting, then unless they have tourettes and cannot control what they are saying, then they are a bit of a dick.

TBH I think EA's approach was less about insulting mental illness and more about 'pretending' to be the bigger man(company?) in this case.

From reading that I get the impression he is lying, but who knows, except themselves?

 

[AT God]

Lanning always seemed kind of nuts, he made up a huge universe all by himself that was very odd, so I am not surprised he might make up a tale, especially with the jet and Ferrari part, however EA needs to shut the hell up.

Still hoping the Oddworld remakes come to Steam.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Eh, they were responding to a guy who told them 'Fuck you very much' and implied they were shit in bed. Clearly both parties here were being incredibly unprofessional, and they're arguing with each other on the same level. If you're going to call EA's behavior inappropriate, you have to say the same of Lanning.

This, really. Not only that but Lanning is essentially using the old "slate EA for quick cred" routine, not surprised EA are more than a little fucked off tbh.

Was EA's response unprofessional? Sure, but it was unprofessional to the level of amusing I'd say. Far as Im concerned, Lanning set the tone of this little spat so he cant start crying now EA have retaliated in kind.

This. Furthermore, this article itself is written in a, as you put it,"slate EA for quick cred" fashion.

It turns from a news article to a PSA on why making fun of mental disabilities is bad. I'm all for political correctness to an extent, and I'm betting that that author of this article, as well as anyone on this thread trying to act all high and mighty has laughed at the same kind of joke at least once in their lives.

 

[Strazdas]

there isnt a week that ea doesn't do that. its not even news, its just a standard ea life cycle. a deviation would be if they actually said something nice for a change. You know, soemthing like THIS. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/119692-EA-Signs-On-to-GaymerCon]

 

[karamazovnew]

Although I loved Oddworld 15 years ago, I've never heard the name Lorne Lanning until I read this article. Nor did I ever wonder if "that" guy was still making games. So, I my impression about this can be summed up in 3 points:
1. Publicity is good for business, especially when it's free and consists in controversy and insults.
2. Lanning is an indie developer, he can afford to be as nuts as he pleases. His comments were strangely fun, especially since they were directed at EA. The gaming industry surely lacks characters such as the ones we had in the 90's.
3. The EA spokesman represents a multinational corporation. His response was horribly inappropriate. This isn't Romanian politics, there's no excuse for such behavior.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

EA was arguably more polite, and less insulting in this argument. Oddworld guy was swearing and tossing out some really harsh insults, and EA responded with a very curtly "Fuck off, and have a nice day".

Normally I wouldn't support EA in a argument, but in this case I gotta say that everyone is making a big deal out of nothing.

 

[zombiesinc]

Fuckin' eh... you gone done it again EA.

I don't think anyone's surprised when an EA employee says something stupid, but now it seems they're trying their best to one-up themselves at every turn. Idiots.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

EA was arguably more polite, and less insulting in this argument. Oddworld guy was swearing and tossing out some really harsh insults, and EA responded with a very curtly "Fuck off, and have a nice day".

Normally I wouldn't support EA in a argument, but in this case I gotta say that everyone is making a big deal out of nothing.

Except that isn't how they responded at all, they responded by spewing out some vacant, incorrect, and offensive bullshit that trivializes a serious fucking medical condition.

I mean really, if he had made a joke equating Oddworld guy's appearance with a serious physical ailment, or about the guy going mad because he'd riddled with brain cancer, people wouldn't be trying to pull this bullshit equivocation, but because he's taking potshots at the mentally ill it's totes cool beans?

So it's okay to say he has brain cancer, and not the other condition? In the end it doesn't matter if EA went and bashed a kitten to death with a mallet as their response, cause the other party did the exact same thing in terms of trying to start a argument or a 'flame war'. So if Group #1 says "You're a asshole" and Group #2 replies "You're a big floppy dick", it doesn't really matter that Group #2 used a more graphic or vulgar insult, because they're both in the wrong.

If that Oddworld guy had been making a polite and honest statement of "EA has attempted to buy out my company with large cash offers and material bribing" and EA had responded with a "YOU ARE A TOURETTES RIDDLED CANCER PATIENT WITH DOWN SYNDROME!", THEN!!!! I would be offended and actually give half a crap about what they're saying. But no, that is not how it went down. It's just two kids sitting across a table from one another during middle-school recess, tossing insults back and fourth.

 

[Jaythulhu]

I'd even believe Gary Glitter if he said he wasn't a pedophile if it was EA accusing him.