EA Really Doesn't Want to be The Worst Company In America

[SteewpidZombie]

"Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It's not. People still want to argue about it. We can't be any clearer - it's not. Period."


Response: It IS a DRM scheme, and it IS a complete farce to try and tell us that it can't be fixed. We've already seen individuals who've made their own versions into a offline/singleplayer game.


"Some claim there's no room for Origin as a competitor to Steam. 45 million registered users are proving that wrong.
Some people think that free-to-play games and micro-transactions are a pox on gaming. Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games."


Response: But you forget, people HAVE to sign-up for Origin if we want to play games such as Batman: Arkham City (Even though I bought the game through Steam). Origin will never directly compete with Steam BECAUSE EA is just trying to force it down our throats.


"We've seen mailing lists that direct people to vote for EA because they disagree with the choice of the cover athlete on Madden NFL. Yes, really..."


Response: That's a small handful of idiots on the internet, and can also be attributed to the fact that Madden NFL games are BASED around the idea of favorite athletes/teams. So obviously people will disagree with your choice regardless.



"In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we're seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America."


Response: LGBT (Lesbian,Gay,Bisexual, and Transgendered) characters are a obvious controversy that YES people will have a issue with. EA gets ALOT of flak (or rather Bioware in particular) for having LGBT characters in it's AAA titles. But that is a aspect that has probably more support than those who appose it. It's a concept that some people still aren't comfortable with, and yet it shows a maturity and respect to be able to openly support and portray LGBT in videogames. So regardless of how "Evil" or "Terrible" people claim EA to be, players are still for the most part supportive for the right to create LGBT characters. If EA would more strongly and agressively promote the equality of LGBT in videogames, then I am sure that overall gamers would find more reason to defend and support EA.



To conclude: I think that if EA would be more open to gamer feedback (Such as "Always Online" being a terrible idea), and also showed a more definitive stance with things like LGBT (don't remove or side-step the issue, just raise your middle fingers to the homophobic people out there), than EA would have a solid and successful fan-base.

 

[Sonic Doctor]

EA shouldn't even be near the top of the list. Comcast yes, they should be there.

Comcast is constantly trumping up mine and my friend's bills.

Then when we tell them what our bills should be and ask where the extra charges come from, they are like, "I don't know, but you still have pay us the extra money."

One month I've caught them giving me a larger cable TV package that I never asked for because I know I didn't talk to them about it, and then they expected me to pay extra at the end of the month, even though I didn't even know I had the extra channels, because I don't surf, I just click the numbers I my usual channels.

Ha, EA is small potatoes.

 

[Archemetis]

I can't be the only one who read his bullet points going "bullshit....more bullshit....padded numbers.....and more bullshit"

EA has got to stop trying to justify themselves because they can't. I am sorry the decisions they are making are not justifiable so please stop it. We arn't going to buy your crap opinions on the matter.

Nope, I did it too. I looked specifically at his "45 million people use Origin" comment and automatically said to myself: "You mean 45 million people are FORCED to use Origin. One of the major reasons I didn't buy SimCity was because it was required to download Origin, something I'm happy I've managed to avoid for this long.

 

[KingsGambit_v1legacy]

Well written, and in context I understand his points. But the "worst company in America" is presumably from consumers point of view. We aren't talking the magnitude of the misdeeds, but the nature of them. No company has so alienated its customers, ruined its own products and done so much HARM to the very industry in which it does business.

The comment about Origin...none of us have a problem with having a competitor to Steam. Competition is good and healthy. What EA have done however, is to REMOVE their games FROM Steam and make all new games Origin ONLY. Add to that the spyware in Origin and the frequent, well publicised bans locking gamers out of their single-player games, there's an issue. Sell your games on Steam again WITHOUT an Origin requirement, maybe I will buy the good ones.

Speaking of good games, can you stop making bland, samey military shooter after bland, samey military shooter. If I want to play Call of Duty, I won't buy Dead Space 3 or Mass Effect 3. Seriously. And stop adding multiplayer to everything, end project $10, no more microtransactions in single player games. Then you'll be almost back on the right track.

Learn EA, then maybe next year you won't be the worst anymore.

 

[Defeated Detective]

The tallest trees catch the most wind. At EA we remain proud and unbowed.

The Tree and the Reed

"Well, little one," said a Tree to a Reed that was growing at its foot, "why do you not plant your feet deeply in the ground, and raise your head boldly in the air as I do?"

"I am contented with my lot," said the Reed. "I may not be so grand, but I think I am safer."

"Safe!" sneered the Tree. "Who shall pluck me up by the roots or bow my head to the ground?" But it soon had to repent of its boasting, for a hurricane arose which tore it up from its roots, and cast it a useless log on the ground, while the little Reed, bending to the force of the wind, soon stood upright again when the storm had passed over.

So, EA can't even get their metaphors right? Awkward....

That bothered me too, although our version is called "The Mango Tree and the Bamboo

 

[TomWiley]

He is right about micro-transactions which is working great for EA, particularly when it comes to Dead Space 3 where it's actually helping them make up some of the millions they lost on poor sales, ironically.

If it's true that we vote with your wallets, people are voting for both micro-transactions and DLC. Simple as that.

 

[Therumancer]

See, this incident is a perfect example of my distaste for EA as a whole. Instead of admitting their mistakes and seeking to rectify them and avoid making them in the future, They blame others for it then double down on the mistakes. They say they want to improve but make no effort in doing so and say it's our fault for not recognizing it.

They've said they'll rectify them. They're also saying that most of it is not their fault (which it isn't).

1. Simcity is an MMORTS, they've been clear about this, go whine about WoW being always-online. They've made it into an MMORTS, get over yourself.

2. They were one of the first companies to have LGBT in a game, when Americans were still complaining about marriage for it.

3. They're becoming better and better lately, yet their reputation is getting worse. I'm pretty sure Valve have done some very shady things too, nowhere near as much, yet no one seems to care when Valve are more unethical than your local big-supermarket chain due to a number of reasons like forced DRM, they pay a variable cost price compared to others like GMG that pay a set price, they touted steam greenlight as some great thing when indies have been doing fine through word of mouth, Steam doesn't allow refunds (EA have for 2 of my purchases) except when it suits their publicity, Valve allowed War Z on steam purely for money and not sense of helping the consumers, they employe psychologists to help them construct Steam so as best to get money from you for games you won't play, and more.

4. He's also saying that the title is completely undeserving when there are far worse companies out there, and that the poll is enormously biased (which it is). EA are at least trying to rectify things; hell they gave 900,000 games out for free, and you ingrates still despise them.

5. Oh boohoo they shut down unprofitable studios, that's how business works.

Simcity was labeled an MMORTS simply to justify the DRM practices they wanted to put into the game. There was no reason for it to be put online, nor is it something the user base wanted. The desician was entirely made by EA in an attempt to increase their profits. That said EA's reputation comes from a LOT more than just one incident.

For the most part people are pissed at EA for forcing games online, adding microtransactions to everything, cutting content for DLC, and numerous other things like totally destroying game series based on some bean counter's idea of what is going to be best for franchise potential. They have gone around, looked for successful, independant developers, bought them out with promises of being "hands off" and nothing changing, and then trying to micromanage things from a business perspective until those companies are nothing like what they once were, which cases them to fail, taking their games and IPs with them. Bioware is simply the latest in a long line of aquisitions following this pattern, and gamers are tired of losing their favorite games, series, developers, etc... to EA aquisition, basically a lot of truely awesome developers and their games died because they were succesful enough to get EA's attention. It's not so much a matter of them cutting unprofitable studios, but being responsible for buying those studios and then making them unprofitable, most of these developers were doing just fine before EA got their hooks into them.

Simply put you can find the origin (pun intended) of the hatred for EA as far back as their aquisition of "Origin Systems" from Richard Garriot. Followed by their aquisition and treatment of studios like Bullfrog, and numerous
others.

What gamers want is to have control over their own games, MMOs are fun, but at the end of the day gamers still want to be able to play their games offline, and on their own. Gamers want to buy complete products, but have things shaved off and then sold seperatly, or microtransactions built into the game design. When someone designs a game so that you either have to spend hours doing boring glitch grinding OR pay additional fees to the company to get everything out of the game (Dead Space 3) that tends to seriously slot people off.

To be honest I think Simcity would have been water under the bridge if it wasn't for all of the Bioware stuff (Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3, The Old Republic, and their respective contreversies) the Dead Space 3 microtransaction fiasco, and everything else. It's non-stop, one thing after another.

As far as the LGBT thing goes, that's a double edged sword. To be honest the US population is roughly divided 50-50 on that paticular issue, and globally speaking trends are pretty much against it, especially when you look outside of the western first world. EA let it become an issue, and then chose a side, instead of keping their games about what the developers wanted (ie Bioware who had done LGBT stuff in previous games said they as creators did not want it in ToR, and were forced by EA under duress to insert this retroactively, creating even more drama as the LGBT community is apparently unhappy with a political concession). A lot of EA's flak here (which they mention themselves) is the result of their own stupidity when they should have just let what they had done before stand, and kept the attitude that "we'll let developers put in LGBT stuff if they feel it fits their work, but otherwise we will have no involvement". They try and present this as some bold political move, when really it was them trying to play the market, and now they are getting burned since they are learning that there are just as many people who are on the opposite side who are now involved where they otherwise wouldn't have been if EA had just kept their bloody mothes shut and their hands off as opposed to pretty much telling Bioware that they had to create content they had no desire to create for political reasons.... it's not sympathetic in EA's case, it's a defensive reaction. They are trying to use "support of LGBT rights" as a sort of shield for other criticisms, when in reality they thought they could make money by political concessions and the other side wouldn't notice.

 

[mrhateful]

I think the title should be changed to "EA doesn't want to be KNOWN as the worst company", since everything they say points to them not actually caring about their ethics that makes them the worst company.

 

[Carlston]

?Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It's not. People still want to argue about it. We can't be any clearer - it's not. Period.

Yes it is. PEROID. Now this is where you go wrong. Not only is the customer always right, you want it to be over "period" because you can't defend it at all. I NEVER should have to wait to play a 1 player game 45 minutes or more. Even such a simple game of simcity.

That is your problem. You refuse to LISTEN to the people who buy your products. You made a remake of a game, hoping to coast on name alone, and sorry pirates.... that's getting old when your DRM is more punishment for the legit player than a pirate.


Sorry EA you lose again... PERIOD.

 

[Terminate421]

Part of me feels a sense of actual apology but then part also sees this may just be editing dust. EA, I don't hate you. I do however think you need to stop shutting people out.

 

[Khrowley]

In response to Peter Moore:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KP2VsjiMbgY

 

[weirdee]

Is there anybody who isn't being paid by EA that is actually defending it? I think that be a sign that the situation isn't just about being "a tall tree".

 

[Jennacide]

Some claim there's no room for Origin as a competitor to Steam. 45 million registered users are proving that wrong.

Well the clearly Origin isn't a piece of shit. I mean, it's not like you didn't release a series of titles that outright forced people to install it. Games that straight up weren't on other PC distrobution platforms. Games like Battlefield 3 or Mass Effect 3.

Nope, that never happened. Oh wait, yes it fucking did. Origin is a piece of shit not because it's trying to compete with Steam. It's a piece of shit because it's REALLY BADLY MADE. This is a supposedly "professionally" built piece of software that runs on a shoddy XML backend, and is still notorious for having one of the worst performances of all the major digital distrobution platforms. Go ahead. Anyone that has Origin and Steam both installed, open your Task Manager for a laugh. When in the foreground, Steam takes 37MB or RAM and 12MB when minimized. Origin takes 110MB no matter what it's doing. A program that doesn't offer 1/10th the amount of features Steam does. Oh, and funniest part to me at least, I have 5 friends it needs to track in Origin, and over 200 on Steam.

Also Peter, stop defending SimCity. You can rationalize it's not DRM all you want. It's still super scummy.

 

[kouriichi]

Dont wanna be the Worst Company? Lets start with small steps and not be seen as "Satan Incarnate" first.

Start by allowing offline play on registered copies of SimCity. Its been proven to work without being online just fine. Yes, you arnt forcing people to buy your game. Yes, it is their choice to buy a game with DRM. But youre trying to be nice here right? You want people to not hate you? Good. Remove the always on DRM, or allow a longer "Offline Gameplay" period. Stretch it to 12 hours AT LEAST. Not like people have to be connected nonstop to get updates from you.

Then follow through by, oh i dont know... Not lying to our faces? That would be a pretty good follow through.

Better customer service is a must of course. Trying to get in contact with a competent human is like doing a triathlon with your legs tied to your neck. Im not even that flexible, so you can guess how uncomfortable it is.

And lets finish it off with, "Dont make these mistakes in the future". Thats not too hard is it? To not try and f*ck your customers for profit? Maybe after all of that, you might be seen as "Not Satan", and then you can run for "Not the Worst Corporation in America".

 

[Boogie Knight]

I know there was a phony study which argued for never apologizing, but dammit EA this is outright delusional. These constant instances of screwing over the consumers wouldn't be so bad if they would twirl their little mustaches like Saturday morning cartoon villains and laugh heartily as they boast about screwing us. To be honest, I think I won't even preorder the next Dragon Age while I wait and see what happens.

 

[Arrogancy]

Im sure that Activision is a taller tree than EA, yet theyve done nothing to piss off this many people over the last 2 years.

I'm sure there are other companies far more deserving than a VIDEO GAME PUBLISHER.

This poll is by The Consumerist, it's a poll about companies who treat their consumers like shit. Yes, there are worse companies than EA from a moral and operations perspective. That fact is not contested, however, as far as being a dick to their consumers, endorsing policies that actively harm their customers, generally treating the people who buy their products like shit, and ignoring and/or being apathetic toward any criticisms raised by their customers? No, EA takes the cake on that one. They deserve this trophy.

 

[duchaked]

still not getting it? or just not admitting it? >:/

 

[-Dragmire-]

Simcity was labeled an MMORTS simply to justify the DRM practices they wanted to put into the game. There was no reason for it to be put online, nor is it something the user base wanted. The desician was entirely made by EA in an attempt to increase their profits. That said EA's reputation comes from a LOT more than just one incident.

I don't think that EA forced it, they just said they wouldn't green light any projects that didn't have an online focus which is.... different, I think? So instead of forcing the DRM into a developer's design, they're only listening to design plans that can have DRM as an incidental side effect to the developer's goals.

Can't say that feels any better on the consumer side of things...