EA did some things good.

[bigfatcarp93]

They did make my second favorite game of all time.

EDIT: Er, PUBLISH. Still.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

1. I don't think EA is malicious in their practices, just run by Marketing Execs who know little about games and pay more attention to profit margins.
2. Some of the developers they have bought may be at fault for their own demise. Generally a company doesn't sell to a larger conglomerate unless there is a huge need for money. I'd bet a lot of dev's reach exceed their grasp and as Curt Schilling proved even a great game may not save a failing developer.
3. Origin isn't as bad as people spew vitriol about, its just an easy target for misanthropic gamers who are still on the "its cool to hate corporations" bandwagon. Surprisingly Valve isn't on that list. What am I babbling about? CounterStrike was a MOD, so was Team Fortress. They were FREE until Valve bought them and put a pricetag on them. If EA did that you'd be hearing about how evil they are. Of course Lord Gabe is infallible and his incessant dangling of HL2:EP3/HL3 is just "oh that charming Gabba the Hutt". OH and they split HL1's DeathMatch from the original game and also put a price tag on it. I personally don't care, but its interesting to note those discrepancies.
4. I do think EA is in need of some restructuring, that they suffer from the same stupidity the US Government does. I do believe that dev's should be independent from publishers and allowed to fail on their own, like banks. Sometimes things grow beyond their means and become leeches rather than productive and beneficial entities. Death with dignity > flailing around in death throes.

Of course rational discourse isn't encouraged by some people around here, just parroting hate speech. I'm glad I do not fit into that mold.
I'm also not apologizing for EA, they still owe me a Mutant League sequel.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

EA published this game.

The greatest modern military shooter ever made IMO. So for that they have my gratitude.

 

[Orks da best]

I was hoping that people would post some fun or good games...
Guess there is still too much bad blood going around

your talking about EA here, on the valve headquarters forum. What did ya expect? Also this is gamer culture, where complaining comes first and whining comes second, and cheering comes in dead last...

What can I say about EA, they have published games I like and support homosexuality, which means lesbians, in which everyone wins. In society politics they aren't backward in that regard.

Unlike most of gamer culture...

 

[FalloutJack]

Look umm, Red Alert 3 is pretty good. Me and my girlfriend like it, but uhhh....yeah, it's still a shit company.

 

[Trinab]

I will un-apologetically announce that I quite enjoyed the Sims 3, made by Maxis under EA. The gameplay was amusing and lighthearted, very 'simmy' in the vein of the first sims game.

Their over-priced expansions, sims store and in-game shop got annoying however.

I may be a bit odd though, as I judge a company primarily on what it releases that I'm interested in. Since the Sims 3, they really have not made a game that got me invested enough to care. I tried with Mass Effect 2, could not complete it. Didn't even bother with Mass Effect 3, and I normally love RPGs.

Capcha: tum signal... what the hell does that mean?

 

[FalloutJack]

Look umm, Red Alert 3 is pretty good. Me and my girlfriend like it, but uhhh....yeah, it's still a shit company.

Give the old RA2 a shot, it's really even more fun.

Have it. I'm just pointing out a rare exception in which an EA game is good. They're still a shit company, of course.

 

[Silly Hats]

EA Skate basically sold the PS3 for me and I am still a massive fan of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. I don't play other EA titles like Battlefield/Crysis/Sims/etc. I don't condone them but I won't bash them.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

I was hoping that people would post some fun or good games...
Guess there is still too much bad blood going around

These are "Gamers".

If a company is successful at all in the games industry, they are labeled as 'the man' and must be evil. Valve is about the only company to have avoided this.

Just about every company out there has made both great and terrible games, as well as had great and terrible business ideas. EA, Activision, Blizzard, Take Two, Rockstar, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, the list goes on.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

They still screw over consumers and employee's alike. Not to mention their unfortunate habit of buying up developers on the cheap, squeezing them dry and dumping the carcass as they move on.

Overpricing games, excessive DLC, microtransactions, always on drm, online passes (which they only removed because MS is basically doing it for them. So transparent, EA) The list goes on. Even I've enjoyed some games published by them (Published, remember that. Not developed) but that doesn't change what they are.

Overpricing games? I'm sorry, where are you from because every single EA game I have bought have been either on par or even cheaper than other video game titles. Mass Effect 3 cost me $78 on release, as opposed to Black Ops 2 ($99), Assassin's Creed 3 ($88), and Far Cry 3 ($90).As for the DLC, you could say they do produce excessive amounts, but if you don't want it, don't buy it. Same goes for micro-transactions, don't like it, don't use it, I didn't when I played Dead Space 3 and I enjoyed the hell out of that game. Always on DRM, sure, has it's issues, but EA aren't the only company doing so. Online passes, it's funny that you mention how transparent they are for removing this practice because of the Xbox One, you know, one of 3 possible consoles to play AAA games on. So in reality, PS4 and the Wii U users should be smiling, as no more online passes means that they will definitely get all the benefits of that practice.

What they are is a very successful business, they're not suppose to be our friends, this is not a buddy relationship, this is a business transaction. Yes, you can very well complain when they do things wrong, I would think you'd be crazy not to, but to say that they're evil, horrible, terrible, blood thirsty, greedy is unfair. Hitler and Stalin were evil, the bank of America is evil, EA make business decisions in hopes of maximizing their profits so that they can make more games so that they can make more money. This isn't good, it isn't even bad, it's just life, and the world will keep spinning with or without one/all of us.

You said just about everything I was about to type as I read this thread. You are now my favorite person for having common sense and understanding how the world really works. Thank you sir.

 

[DeeWiz]

Look umm, Red Alert 3 is pretty good. Me and my girlfriend like it, but uhhh....yeah, it's still a shit company.

Give the old RA2 a shot, it's really even more fun.

That pretty much sums up my opinion of EA.

I think the current "Evil" EA is because of COD. No hear me out... COD4 comes out is highly praised and does ridiculous numbers then before anyone can breath we get the financial crisis of 2008 paired with a new CEO in John Riccitiello. He see lower numbers for everything but COD and decides that the reason COD is so popular is the multiplayer/friend/perk aspect (not wrong) and says everything must be made like COD to succeed (wrong). Thus the current EA is born.

 

[Ben Saville]

I was hoping that people would post some fun or good games...
Guess there is still too much bad blood going around

These are "Gamers".

If a company is successful at all in the games industry, they are labeled as 'the man' and must be evil. Valve is about the only company to have avoided this.

Just about every company out there has made both great and terrible games, as well as had great and terrible business ideas. EA, Activision, Blizzard, Take Two, Rockstar, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, the list goes on.

Sometimes that is justified, though. I can't understand why it's apparently terrible to object to EA's business practices. Just because other companies have made bad choices too doesn't mean that EA should be above criticism, that's ludicrous. The reason that people get pissed off at EA is while they didn't necessarily pioneer stuff like microtransactions in full price games, or online passes, or day 1 DLC, they were clinging to it when other publishers were abandoning those practices. Don't get me wrong, all games companies should be beaten for their bad choices as equals, but just putting the issue down to gamers being unduly entitled (how dare I compain about a product I purchased...) is oversimplifying things.

OT- Battlefield 2, Mirror's edge, C&C: Generals, C&C: Red Alert 2, Dungeon Keeper, Need for Speed... There are some truly great games that were developed/published by EA or under EA's banner. EA used to be the good guys in the games industry. That doesn't make up for the dumber business practices they've been endorsing, but EA used to be a great company.

 

[PxDn Ninja]

I was hoping that people would post some fun or good games...
Guess there is still too much bad blood going around

These are "Gamers".

If a company is successful at all in the games industry, they are labeled as 'the man' and must be evil. Valve is about the only company to have avoided this.

Just about every company out there has made both great and terrible games, as well as had great and terrible business ideas. EA, Activision, Blizzard, Take Two, Rockstar, Nintendo, Sega, Sony, the list goes on.

Sometimes that is justified, though. I can't understand why it's apparently terrible to object to EA's business practices. Just because other companies have made bad choices too doesn't mean that EA should be above criticism, that's ludicrous. The reason that people get pissed off at EA is while they didn't necessarily pioneer stuff like microtransactions in full price games, or online passes, or day 1 DLC, they were clinging to it when other publishers were abandoning those practices. Don't get me wrong, all games companies should be beaten for their bad choices as equals, but just putting the issue down to gamers being unduly entitled (how dare I compain about a product I purchased...) is oversimplifying things.

OT- Battlefield 2, Mirror's edge, C&C: Generals, C&C: Red Alert 2, Dungeon Keeper, Need for Speed... There are some truly great games that were developed/published by EA or under EA's banner. EA used to be the good guys in the games industry. That doesn't make up for the dumber business practices they've been endorsing, but EA used to be a great company.

Oh, I'm all ok with disliking a company for business practices, I'm just pointing out the inherent hypocrisy within the gamer community when it comes to hating on the successful companies.

Even in this thread, go through and count how many times people effectively say "I love X game by EA, but to hell with them anyway".

The general feel is, whatever EA releases well is in spite of EA, what is poor is all EA's fault. This is expanded by many people not understanding how the industry works. Take the NFL exclusive license for example. EA got that license because the NFL was tired of competing games, and said they were going to limit the license to one company. EA took the chance to grab it. Thus, they are evil.

And this goes for every company. Activision has done some shady stuff, but they have released fantastic titles and terrible games as well. Even Valve has had their ups and downs. My point ultimately was that expecting a forum such as this to go "Yeah, I don't agree with some of what X company does, but they have done some pretty awesome stuff too," is a futile effort at best.

 

[Holythirteen]

The general feel is, whatever EA releases well is in spite of EA, what is poor is all EA's fault. This is expanded by many people not understanding how the industry works. Take the NFL exclusive license for example. EA got that license because the NFL was tired of competing games, and said they were going to limit the license to one company. EA took the chance to grab it. Thus, they are evil.

And this goes for every company. Activision has done some shady stuff, but they have released fantastic titles and terrible games as well. Even Valve has had their ups and downs. My point ultimately was that expecting a forum such as this to go "Yeah, I don't agree with some of what X company does, but they have done some pretty awesome stuff too," is a futile effort at best.

Unless the thread starter was just trolling for badges, then the effort was spot on!

I'm pretty sure Activision is just as hated, but spends less time in the spotlight due to being smaller.

It's not like we're some high school clique and Gabe Newell told us to hate EA because he saw them touching themselves. EA made BAD decisions that struck a nerve with a large number of gamers, and the people in charge refused to acknowledge it and make a decision to mitigate that damage. I can't say for certain that it was more out of ignorance or out of greed, but does it matter? Call it circular logic, but if they actually cared about being hated they wouldn't be hated. They had the money to buy an exclusive Star Wars deal with Disney, if they had put that money into Simcity 5 I don't think it would've got to this point.

 

[Callate]

They kicked Tim Langdell's ass in court, up, down, and sideways. This is an entirely unvarnished good, in my book.

 

[lacktheknack]

I liked them better when they were Electronic Arts, and were releasing Bullfrog games.

That said, Mirror's Edge is my favorite game ever, so...

 

[TheCommanders]

-snip-

No I'm saying a 10 pound porcupine would be very easy to drop.

I always over think these things

 

[Strazdas]

All madmen do some good things in their lives. noone is pure evil. that does not make the thing good though.
They published San ANdreas, and is till see their logo of "EA - Challenge Everything" Each time i turn that on, so almsot daily. and i think that logo was awesomely done and they shouldnt have changed it. so there, they created a great logo.

Even in this thread, go through and count how many times people effectively say "I love X game by EA, but to hell with them anyway".

There was Elelctronic arts - pre 2007, which released great games and were well liked.
There was EA - post 2007 (AKA The reign of John Riccitiello) - which only good games were those they published (not created inhouse) and bad decisions were a plenty.

 

[Ben Saville]

The general feel is, whatever EA releases well is in spite of EA, what is poor is all EA's fault. This is expanded by many people not understanding how the industry works. Take the NFL exclusive license for example. EA got that license because the NFL was tired of competing games, and said they were going to limit the license to one company. EA took the chance to grab it. Thus, they are evil.

And this goes for every company. Activision has done some shady stuff, but they have released fantastic titles and terrible games as well. Even Valve has had their ups and downs. My point ultimately was that expecting a forum such as this to go "Yeah, I don't agree with some of what X company does, but they have done some pretty awesome stuff too," is a futile effort at best.

I do agree with that. It is a rather popular thing to hate on EA. I just think that using the fact we're "gamers" as a reason isn't fair. It is, after all a thread about EA. I wouldn't go onto an EA thread and ***** about 2K in the same way I wouldn't ***** about 2K on a rockstar thread. At the end of the day, EA has piss all to do with a lot of the actual games. they make sure some things get released. they do the marketing. they make funding decisions. That doesn't mean that the games are their responsibility any more than THQ. Yes, they have taken risks, but the devs should be thanked as well as EA.

Also, there are people saying that they the exact thing that you think is a forgone conclusion. The current climate is not exactly one of acceptance for EA either, with many broken promises. That's something to consider.