Gamers Uncomfortable with Change, Says EA's Peter Moore

[Sansha]

We don't dislike change; we dislike change for change's sake, or messing with a working formula. Look at Banjo Kazooie Nuts n' Bolts for example.

We like change. We like new, interesting environments, stories and gameplay mechanics. World of Warcraft is hugely successful because it constantly changes and adapts, but it ultimately doesn't mess with the core formula - joining forty friends to go stomp on a Night Elf's face.

 

[A-D.]

If you make a black, female, or LGBTQ character for the sole reason to "represent" them, then you are not helping anyone.

I'm just going to say what someone else said on this matter.

As someone who has a total of maybe 5 characters in the entirety of video game history representing me as a whole, I'd rather take one mediocre shoehorned character that represents me than nothing.

So you would be totally okay with a Character in a game who's sole defining trait and feature was that they were gay? Or black? Or if a character was a stereotypical portrayal of a gay person or a black person while not being downright offensive?

After all, you were "represented" but thats hardly what you'd want i imagine. So my point stands, first a character has to be a character, a person cant be reduced to skincolor, gender or sexuality, there is more to it than that and we shouldnt expect less of fictional characters in games.

 

[insanelich]

He's entirely right. This is just gamers being uncomfortable with change.

To be specific, this is gamers being uncomfortable with handing over a chunk of change every few minutes for the game to stop irritating them. And gamers being uncomfortable with spending some change on a game only for the game to be designed to irritate the player unless they spend some more change every so often.

 

[Fdzzaigl]

There are definitely a number of gamers who have a problem with any change, just like you have people like that in any society.

To call them "the core" is jumping to conclusions however.

 

[truckspond]

Well of course we would be uncomforable with change if said change involves attempting to squeeze every cent out of the customer by making them pay upfront for an app and then spend more than the app's initial cost in a single day to actually do anything!

 

[circularlogic88]

Please purchase additional content to continue this rant.

 

[Little Duck]

I don't think we have issues with change (see dota and tf2 for adopters of free to play). I think we have issues with change done poorly (see zynga).

 

[stroopwafel]

Gamers aren't uncomfortable with 'change' just b/c EA's business model sucks. Selling a game at full price and locking away content deliberately left out of the game to sell as overpriced DLC isn't 'games as a service' its ripping your consumers off.

EA only embraces business models that is beneficial to them as a company, which is understandable from their perspective but calling gamers who criticizes their questionable methods 'uncomfortable with change' is really hypocrisy of the highest order.

I'm not gonna lie I really enjoy EA's Need for Speed series(the latest one made by Ghost and all the previous ones by Criterion) but in many ways this company's relentless greed is examplary of everything that's wrong with the current state of the gaming industry.

 

[Little Duck]

I have problem with change in gmaing industry. This is because change in gaming industry is very well represented by this picture:

This is the change i am very uncomfortable with. And if you want to push this change, your going to loose me as a costumer.

Not all change is good, and the trend in gaming right now is nowhere near what i would consider good. Fix that and then maybe we could see how people adapt to change. What we got right now is somone taking you into slavery and then complaining you "just dont like the change".

Bare in mind in the UK it's more like this:

 

[K12]

This is about on the same level as black person (or someone in any disadvantaged minority) saying "you're just racist" when someone disagrees with them.

We don't hate change, we hate your terrible terrible decisions and business practices.

 

[Trishbot]

It's not gamers that fear change, Mr. Moore, it's you guys at EA.

Unless those changes are for the worse, in which case of course we don't like it.

EA's policies are to basically FORCE terrible, universal, anti-consumer business models and features into games, franchises, and genres that have no business having things like online multiplayer, online passes, DLC microtransactions, intrustive DRM, always-on requirements, and the worst in F2P money-grabbing schemes.

Funny how gamers weren't "afraid of change" when companies like Blizzard, Valve, Nintendo, and so many others built empires on bold, daring, original ideas, concepts, and play methods...

... Or could it simply be that those companies put the gamer experience first and married their business with pleasing their fanbases, giving them what they asked for while respecting their intelligence, offering VALUE in return instead of bold-faced attempts to milk a fanbase or a franchise into the ground?

It is actually EA's HOMOGENIZATION that gamers have been most upset about. In fact, it is the LACK of change with this policy that has earned EA so many dubious "worst company" awards.

Take a good, long look back at your history, EA, and do me a favor: count the number of dead franchises and dead studios you personally sent off to die. Look at the reasons why they died. Even if gamers do fear change, almost every dead franchise and studio is dead because you forced terrible changes upon winning game formulas and businesses.

Change must be organic, Mr. Moore. We all know you want to beat Activision at their own game, but changing all your franchises, no matter how unique and beloved, into the same Call of Duty business model and F2P money-grabs is not the answer and will never be the answer.

If anything, I think gamers worldwide would prefer YOU guys change. And soon.

 

[Lightknight]

Saying that people have a problem with change isn't a positive or negative statement. If you like what you've got then change can oftentimes be pretty bad.

But in this scenario, it's a specific kind of change we're lashing out against. The games as a service model bastardizes our games and makes sure that we never feel like we've finished playing them. While that's fine for games that are multiplayer games at their core, it really cheapens single player experiences. That's not saying that games with shoehorned in multiplayer experiences are exempt, that's oftentimes another way to cheapen what should just be a great game that doesn't need multiplayer.

Basically, EA has turned the game into something less clear. The change is in no way positive to gamers because they actively hold back content they would have otherwise released so that they can release it later under this guise. Saying that people who are getting significantly less for their money just don't like change is one of the most ridiculous things a person can say. Maybe they just want to get what they paid for and don't want to get nickle and dimed for the content being held hostage. It's unfortunate that the game medium makes it possible to do this. If people tried doing this with things like Movies then people wouldn't go see them because the original movie isn't that good and the withheld content isn't worth getting.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

It's pretty true that a lot of the core gaming audience doesn't like change. The casual market can handle change because their video games aren't a tentpole of their lives; the hardcore type people just don't want things to change when they are already comfortable with the way things are. This is not a good or bad thing, despite how EA wants to frame it; it's human nature to be wary of changes, since chances are roughly 50/50 that a change is not going to improve things.

That said, EA and their CEOs and COOs and marketing team and everyone there who ever opens their dirty mouths can stuff my dick in it. What they want isn't a changing landscape of gaming. They want to continue to exploit as many gullible people as they can reach, and they want their customers to bend over and take it, and when EA has finished shaking them upside down and grabbing every penny that falls out they want us to thank them.

This statement is meant as an excuse to go ahead and do whatever they want to tear our wallets a new one, damn the ethics and anyone who doesn't like it is a whiny, entitled, neophobic little shit.

 

[conanthegamer]

That must be why we line up in to buy new consoles.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

We like good change, not bad changes. An as the future seems to be buggy games, a dependency on patching, micro transactions and day one dlc then yes we hate change.

 

[lacktheknack]

Eh, he isn't wrong.

Like any competent politician, he's entirely dodging the main problems that gamers have with EA, but he's not wrong.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

My my...that's a lovely jacket you're wearing there, Mr Moore. Oh! Those trousers...just splendid! Is that a rather chunky, possibly rolex, man-watch too? You sure know how to treat a man, Mr Moore!
Now if us gamers could have some fraction of that respect...we would really appreciate it. Really...we would!

Have to admire the photographer for capturing the smuggest (is that a word?) moment from him though.

 

[Ashannon Blackthorn]

No wonder I tend to buy Steam games, and have recently got back into collecting old NES games. None of the claptrap that has been mentioned already.

Though I still have a weakness for Blizzard products

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Of course they are. Take a look at any new vs. old thread around The Escapist. 20 pages of passive-aggressive dissent.

 

[marioandsonic]

Well...I'd be lying if I said this wasn't true at all. I still enjoy playing my old SNES and Gamecube games, and I've downloaded some of my past favorite PC titles from Steam. (Oh, Age of Empires 2, how I've missed you!)

Of course, that doesn't mean I want the kind of change that EA wants, as in paying $60 for a game, and then have that game riddled with mircotransactions and/or server issues that prevent me from playing the game in single player.