Giving the Devil his Due...

[rwllay]

From the title i'd assumed either EA or Microsoft had done something good for once.

I admire your goodwill and envy your optimism, but i doubt the gaming community could afford a big enough share to matter, and even if it did how long before we got bogged down into resurrecting Pandemic to make a new Battlefront, or rewriting the spending all if EA's resources to rewrite Mass Effect a thousand times to please everyone, or solve each of our various grievances with EA in a bankruptingly expensive fashion.

 

[DevilWithaHalo]

I was expecting unmarked bills, or at the very least a parade for something. /disappointed

Why do you want to own EA?

 

[Lunar Templar]

Spoiler: EA

Spoiler: OP

Yep, great plan you've got there. I don't see anything wrong with it. Get back to me later and tell me how that works out for ya.

that applelox thing reminds me of Mother Brain from Captain N .....

OT:
best thing way we could save EA, is take kill it, and burn the HQ to the ground with accelerate and matches blessed by the pope to cleanse the place of all evil

oh. and


more BOC

 

[Ratwell]

Ok. Let me start by saying I'm not trolling, just trying.

I was a kind of hyped up on sugar and caffeine so I may not have come a cross as clearly as I had meant to.

Thank you to those of you who actually gave it some consideration, whether you thought it would work or not. Ampule consideration is always appreciated.

The idea was not so much to own, though that is pretty exactly what I said, as to make us, the consumers, a driving force in an industry that seems to care less about what we want and more about what will make the most amount of money. From what I see, in EA especially, is a lack of love for consumer loyalty and a near complete disregard for service, GameStop is a good example of the last one being voted one of the top ten worst companies to work for because of their customer service. It seemed that if EA won't listen to the consumer then probably they will listen to the share holders.

This is a long haul idea it would require time, and lots of it. We would each have to buy a little at a time. Also keep that stock and make our voices heard all that while so as to encourage good ideas and avoid backsliding to practices, such as online passes for example, that discourage the consumer and harm the industry as a whole.

There is nothing wrong with making money, when I invest, and I still plan to, I hope EA will continue turning up profit. But their practices don't respect games and gaming as a medium. If we want to change something we can't just sit and complain loudly every time, or we will be ignored, not just by EA but the industry as a whole. Games are not just for children any more, and we have the ESRB M for Mature to prove it. If we are not willing to become a force for change when we want it then we have no right to complain when we are unhappy with it.

If this Idea really won't work, and I believe it is worth trying, then I hope others will come up with ideas that will be tried so we, the consumers, the players, the gamers, can make, not just EA, but the whole industry what we really want it to be. Better.

"Save the Games, Save the World" I like that, I like that a lot.

 

[The White Hunter]

But...
Bu...
Nggghhh...

The OP clearly shows a lack of understanding of just how ENORMOUS EA really is. That's all I have to say. Also you joined in 2010 and this is your first post? Srsly?

Not sure if troll...

(Oh and I saw the title, knew this would be a friggin EA thread...)

 

[sanquin]

Owning shares in a company is not as simple as 'I own 51% or more of the shares, so my voice counts the most'. It does not work that way. Otherwise -everyone- that has the money would do it that way. they would just get 51% of the shares and be able to guide the company in whatever direction they wanted.

Face it, unless you're actually on the board of directors at the company, you won't have that much of a say in what does or doesn't happen in the company. As, what are you going to threaten them with? Selling your shares? There's plenty of people that will want to buy them from you.

Not to mention another problem with millions of people owning shares separately. As much as you'd like them to be one driving force, they won't be. People vary greatly in opinion. In what should or shouldn't be done.

 

[electric method]

Sadly, the way the stock market and share holders boards actually works precludes this from happening. Even if you did manage to buy 51% of EA's I don't think you realize exactly how expensive that would be. Assuming that the stock value remained unchanged by the run on it and that the price was say, $10 a share, and that it's 3.2 million shares to be had. One would need to be able to buy 1.6 million shares of stock. 1.6 million x $10 = 160 million dollars needed, roughly.

Never mind the fact that if that all went down in one big hit, or even over the course of a year, it would strengthen EA's stock values. Yes, you personally would make a lot of money in the long run, but you still wouldn't be able to effect change the way you are thinking. Besides, there would be a conflict of interest involved in this too. If you made that much money the focus would shift from changing EA to ensuring you made even more money.