How EA Can Regain Trust on the PC

[Callate]

I'd put, "Stop buying and liquidating beloved studios" on this list, but honestly I don't think there are many independent studios left, so that advice doesn't really apply anymore.

I think this is part of the reason why when EA started to try to make a pass at the "indie" scene, many people's responses was a fire-breathing "F$%& YOU!!!!!!"

There may not be many independent studios left, but if the little guys are left alone, some of them might become something more recognizable as a studio. If they're left alone.

In the broad sense, I think most of EA's troubles can be boiled down to: what has being a fan of [franchise] gotten you?

What has being a fan of Battlefield gotten you? A buggy, unstable game that wanted more of your money.
What has being a fan of Dead Space gotten you? Being told that 4,999,999 more of you needed to buy what many consider the weakest game of the series if you ever wanted to see it again.
What has being a fan of SimCity gotten you? A demand you log into EA's inadequate servers so you could experience product branding and traffic congestion from badly planned AI.
What has being a fan of Command & Conquer gotten you? A series that faded with a whimper into a bad attempt at multiplayer e-sports and a continual undead moaning from an alleged online-only spinoff.
What has being a fan of Plants vs. Zombies gotten you? The abandonment of the original platform for mobile freemium money, the unceremonious dismissal of the game's creator, and a series of mediocre third-person shooters.

...And on. And on. And on.

You know that scene in the movie where the bad guy says "You will learn the price of your loyalty...!" before crushing someone's windpipe? The crushee is supposed to be someone on the good guys' side, not one of their own henchmen. That's, like, Villain 101.

EA has spent the last decade and a half or more showing their own customers that the price of loyalty was punishment.

I would like to see them get out of the habit. (EA has made good games in the past, and they may well in the future.) But I am no longer even a little bit willing to take that on faith. Expressing that I am not going to passively put up with their business policies by way of not buying their products has actually become something approaching moral high ground.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Unpopular opinion time!

I actually like that BF4 was broken, and that Hardline and Battlefront are haemorrhaging players.

Desperation does wonderful things for a game.

BF4 has been massively improved with lots of free new content, Hardline has something like 15+ free weapons and few free maps, and for Battlefront I am just waiting to see what EA is gonna do to try and bring back players.

 

[votemarvel]

I think anything EA tries to win PC customers is just going to be crippled right out the gate by origin. They can release the best game at the best price, but I don't have origin installed, do you, dose anyone? Odds are I won't notice most games EA puts out on PC because I'm not looking at origin.

I have Origin installed and it's a nice client these days, I actually prefer the UI it has, with the box art for the games better than the list style of Steam. There are certainly ways for it to improve however, I'd love a screenshot function built in for example. Plus they give away from good free games with the On the House promotion.

There really is no reason however not to have Origin installed these days, unless you are one of those folk who are "I won't buy a game unless it is on Steam" of course. Which is madness in itself as Valve can hardly be called a consumer champion either.

For me EA could regain trust by giving the studios they buy more creative control. I don't believe for a moment for example that Bioware wanted to add multiplayer into Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition (at least not the Horde mode RNG versions that are there). This would not only help PC gamers but those on a console too.

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

I think anything EA tries to win PC customers is just going to be crippled right out the gate by origin. They can release the best game at the best price, but I don't have origin installed, do you, dose anyone? Odds are I won't notice most games EA puts out on PC because I'm not looking at origin.

I have Origin installed and it's a nice client these days, I actually prefer the UI it has, with the box art for the games better than the list style of Steam. There are certainly ways for it to improve however, I'd love a screenshot function built in for example. Plus they give away from good free games with the On the House promotion.

There really is no reason however not to have Origin installed these days, unless you are one of those folk who are "I won't buy a game unless it is on Steam" of course. Which is madness in itself as Valve can hardly be called a consumer champion either.

For me EA could regain trust by giving the studios they buy more creative control. I don't believe for a moment for example that Bioware wanted to add multiplayer into Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition (at least not the Horde mode RNG versions that are there). This would not only help PC gamers but those on a console too.

It's not a hardware issue. (Well it kind of is in my case*) It's more of a store front issue. I browse humble and steam because I find games there. There is just a ton of verity. Last time I looked at origin, I see battle front, the sims**, and fifa... They need more games and they need to give other games more billing


*I have origin installed on my laptop, but it doesn't let me log in. (If it's installed but broken what dose that count at?) There is some issue that I haven't bothered to fix because I haven't needed to.

**I really hate how there isn't a all in one bundle for the sims 3. The bundles they have are complex and so much is left out or overlaps.

 

[cynicalsaint1]

Hiring even one person who knows the hobby and culture could have saved you millions, It won't stop you from making mistakes.

You know.
I have a REALLY hard time believing that absolutely no one at EA in general or especially at Maxis specifically didn't see the fiasco with SimCity coming.

I just doubt the execs cared to listen.

 

[Zipa]

I think anything EA tries to win PC customers is just going to be crippled right out the gate by origin. They can release the best game at the best price, but I don't have origin installed, do you, dose anyone? Odds are I won't notice most games EA puts out on PC because I'm not looking at origin.

I have Origin installed and it's a nice client these days, I actually prefer the UI it has, with the box art for the games better than the list style of Steam. There are certainly ways for it to improve however, I'd love a screenshot function built in for example. Plus they give away from good free games with the On the House promotion.

There really is no reason however not to have Origin installed these days, unless you are one of those folk who are "I won't buy a game unless it is on Steam" of course. Which is madness in itself as Valve can hardly be called a consumer champion either.

For me EA could regain trust by giving the studios they buy more creative control. I don't believe for a moment for example that Bioware wanted to add multiplayer into Mass Effect 3 or Dragon Age: Inquisition (at least not the Horde mode RNG versions that are there). This would not only help PC gamers but those on a console too.

Just an FYI, you totally can show the box art in Steam, theres an option called grid view on the far right of the library screen. Its like 4 squares like the Windows icon.

 

[Jute88]

You wanted more people playing multiplayer, but rather than making great multiplayer and allowing people to choose to play it, you made it so that single-player fans would need to play Mass Effect 3 multiplayer to get the "best" ending of their single player game.

I can't source this - because the quote is somewhere in the Bioware Forums and I have no idea which thread I saw it in - but a developer said the multiplayer requirement for ME3's 'best' (if you want to call it that) ending was an accident. They'd intended for it to be available to all players, but messed up the maths on the War Assets. Hence why it got fixed in the free Extended Cut.

There's no justification for SimCity's online fiasco though.

I don't understand this argument. I played through ME3, my War Assets were very high (can't remember the figures), I got the option to choose between 3 colors at the end, and I never played multiplayer. Or was there something else I missed?

 

[votemarvel]

It's not a hardware issue. (Well it kind of is in my case*) It's more of a store front issue. I browse humble and steam because I find games there. There is just a ton of verity. Last time I looked at origin, I see battle front, the sims**, and fifa... They need more games and they need to give other games more billing

I imagine it is harder for EA to get third party games on their service, if they want them of course, because people at publishers/developers may also fall into the "if it's not on Steam..." mindset that many gamers are trapped in.

Just an FYI, you totally can show the box art in Steam, theres an option called grid view on the far right of the library screen. Its like 4 squares like the Windows icon.

When did they add that? It's brilliant, thanks for the information.

I don't understand this argument. I played through ME3, my War Assets were very high (can't remember the figures), I got the option to choose between 3 colors at the end, and I never played multiplayer. Or was there something else I missed?

If your war assets were high enough you would get an extra scene at the end of the Destroy ending showing someone in N7 armour taking a breath. It's often referred to as the best ending because it is the only one where Shepard has the possibility of survival.

When Mass Effect 3 was originally released there were not enough war assets in the game, even with a 'perfect' trilogy run, to unlock that scene without playing either the multiplayer or iOS apps. That was because without them the value of your war assets was halved by Galactic Readiness being at 50%.

They lowered the needed amount of war assets for that scene with the release of the Extended Cut DLC.

 

[Reasonable Atheist]

What are they going to do? Buy firaxis and release a civ game where you play as a soldier in a multiplayer only action rpg setting, include no map generator so they can sell maps for extra, require you to use origin to enable the use of swords, and then close the studio because the game failed, ending one of the most iconic pc titles of all time?

Thats what i immagne when i read your announcement ea.
Fuck you ea.
Remember westwood studios!

 

[nomotog_v1legacy]

It's not a hardware issue. (Well it kind of is in my case*) It's more of a store front issue. I browse humble and steam because I find games there. There is just a ton of verity. Last time I looked at origin, I see battle front, the sims**, and fifa... They need more games and they need to give other games more billing

I imagine it is harder for EA to get third party games on their service, if they want them of course, because people at publishers/developers may also fall into the "if it's not on Steam..." mindset that many gamers are trapped in.

It can't be that hard to get games. Just offer them a bigger cut them steam. The games might not come, but they could go find the games. They don't even need all the games they could set themselves apart by only selling the good quality games. Heck they could simply sell steam games like humble store.

 

[Jute88]

If your war assets were high enough you would get an extra scene at the end of the Destroy ending showing someone in N7 armour taking a breath. It's often referred to as the best ending because it is the only one where Shepard has the possibility of survival.

When Mass Effect 3 was originally released there were not enough war assets in the game, even with a 'perfect' trilogy run, to unlock that scene without playing either the multiplayer or iOS apps. That was because without them the value of your war assets was halved by Galactic Readiness being at 50%.

They lowered the needed amount of war assets for that scene with the release of the Extended Cut DLC.

Ah! Okay, that explains it. Thanks for clarifying.