Is EA Really That Evil?

[LaSelaMelvins]

Howdy.
I run into EA hate threads every single day nowadays, and, while I have this tingling regret that I'll soon be smeared with my own malappropriate schizotypal wordings, I remember that they released immensely satisfying games for years ago. One of my favorite yet remains the original two Playstation Medal of Honor titles, as well as Command and Conquer: Generals.
But then I heard about a new Sim City. I didn't look it up prior and bought it, only to be greeted with innumerable connection issues. It's been about a year since I've played it and have come to understand why it's so messed up, but I expected that, at some point, EA rectified their mistakes. The only other issues I've researched is that EA relies heavily on microtransactions and DLC (particularly the disc-locked content kind? Or am I confusing them with Volition?) Heavily as in "We will mug you then charge you for the mugging, then maybe steal your kidney and sell it back to you only for you to discover we just smacked some spoiled ketchup on your ribs and sold you an empty Doritos bag."

But my ever-malphilic interest in "The Satanic Practices of EA" didn't reach absurd levels until I saw extremely negative and pessimistic comments towards the Oculus Rift when it had been announced that a former EA head was now working for them, particular in their marketing and publishing sector (unironically, the same that would be responsible for things such as DLC and microtransactions)

Oh, that and the mindnumbing discovering that Fifa 13 was copy-pasted from Fifa 12.

Because I've been a bit out of the gaming loop, and because I'm a tad more forgiving than the average human, may anyone inform me why exactly EA is this bastion of evil, ENGSOC's Ministry of Fun, per se?

 

[FinalDream]

Evil? No not really. They just made business decisions others disagree with (including myself). However I actively dislike them for the most part (ever since they released the horrible Tomorrow Never Dies on PS1), but for a business of their size I can understand some of the choices they have made over the years, again even if I disagree on a personal a level. But when I stop to think about it for a while I have enjoyed a lot of their games over the years, just the bad tends to outweigh the good. Like most things on the internet their reputation has just got out of hand and everything they do is scrutinised more intensely than other companies (say Valve - who are truly evil for not releasing that game yet ).

Apart from the years of buying, only to close some iconic studios after one or two mediocre performances, or just lowering the reputation of those left behind (Bioware) to the 'mass appeal = more money, so forget the fanbase' mentality, to the online only fiascos they have found themselves annoying people all over the place. All they are really doing is what any other business of their size is doing, chasing the big money. And are they really evil for that compared to the others? I don't know.

I'm sure they employ a lot of really good and passionate people, and they have made some good games, but I think maybe it's the bad management decisions over the years that have lead them here?

 

[LaSelaMelvins]

Yes, looking at EA's stock returns, I'm noticing that there does seem to be some naddling bits of desperation to gain money, and yet they seem to prefer "ignore the fattened cow, get the sheep!" by releasing hashed game after hashed game with experimentally, poorly received "money-making schemes" instead of taking their time.
But with stocks as low as EA's, I can understand. Somewhat. It just seems that, if following one method only results in plummeting consumer confidence and possibly lower future sales, that would suggest that following a more successful method would be of value. Instead, EA's playing the grunge game: "We do this, and everyone else will soon follow." Now the whole industry's suffered.
I'm almost inclined to start an AAA Games thread, but that would be too pedestrian.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

First, define "evil". EA is a publicly traded company. They are functionally amoral. They have repeatedly prioritized profit over serving the needs or desires of their customers (or, in some widely publicized situations, the health and welfare of their staff). Naturally, this has done nothing to endear them to anyone outside their shareholders. And as their vaguely customer-hostile stance has been hypothetically robbing them of some profit and getting them a lot of bad press in recent years, it's probably not endearing them to their shareholders, either.

I think "Is EA Really That Stupid" would be a more informative and on point discussion.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

"The Satanic Practices of EA" didn't reach absurd levels until I saw extremely negative and pessimistic comments towards the Oculus Rift when it had been announced that a former EA head was now working for them, particular in their marketing and publishing sector

The marketing and Executive sector of EA is where a lot of the biggest complaints originate. They had a very corrosive top down business approach in the 90s and 00s where they would worm their way into their developers games and generally muck it all up by using every rotten trick in the book to maximise profits and minimise spending.

When EA bought Westwood studios one of their first moves as the new publishers was to push forward the release date of the game they were working on (C&C Tiberium Sun) leading to a lot of problems in it's release (many features not implemented such as unit's attack and sight ranges being affected by night/day cycles and height) and a lot of these features were released later... as the Firestorm expansion pack!
These types of situations were common in EA games, leading to many instances of games rushed out the door in states of ill completion. (most recent example being Battlefield 4, which was so bad with game breaking bugs it lead to an actual admission by Dice that the game wasn't fit for purpose and work on DLC was suspended until the game was up to scratch.)

Terrible working conditions of developers came into focus in 2004 with the "EA spouse" scandal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Hoffman, which exposed how the developers working under EA were working in unfair environments, and led to 3 class action lawsuits (although it is stated that this led to industry wide changes, so other companies were guilty of at least some of these malpractices, EA was definitely guilty of all of them.)

Oppressive buyouts of good developers leading to studio closures is another point against EA, as they have admitted to bullying Origin systems into submission to force them to sell (Company created by the Peter Molyneaux, mastermind behind the ground-breaking Ultima games, and breaking his promises)
They gained control of successful Pandemic studios in January 2008 and shut them down in November 2009... 17 months later! (Pandemic made the phenomenal Star Wars Battlefront games)

Their other practices, like embracing microtransactions, invasive DRM, forcing multiplayer into every game etc. just makes them quite anti consumer, so most gamers have in some way other another fallen foul of EA's bad practices and are probably still nursing their wounds a bit.

 

[Auron]

Considering they had spearheaded every single bad business practice in the game industry as well as dicking their customers over and killing some great franchises and companies?I'd say they are only slightly worse than Capcom.

Activision's to blame for the 60$ game far as I'm aware, also modern franchise annualization and selling pixels for 20$ and unnecessary map pack DLCs and Premium subscriptions to games you already have(started with MW).... Hell I don't know how EA is more maligned than Activision!

EA did eat a lot of studios and franchises in the late 90's early 2000's though, sadly to end some of them like Bullfrog, Maxis(it came back recently but for a long time it was just a the sims department.), Origin, Mythic and my beloved Westwood...

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Oppressive buyouts of good developers leading to studio closures is another point against EA, as they have admitted to bullying Origin systems into submission to force them to sell (Company created by the Peter Molyneaux, mastermind behind the ground-breaking Ultima games, and breaking his promises)

Good stuff, but you're getting your wires crossed on this one. Peter Molyneux started Bullfrog, also an EA casualty. The "mastermind" behind Ultima was Richard Garriott of Origin, who also had a very acrimonious relationship with EA. Although you could probably credit Ultima's success as much to Warren Spector, who oversaw the watershed games in the series, roughly around the time Garriott was losing his mind and spending all his time in his lavishly appointed castle, playing with his secret doors.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Oppressive buyouts of good developers leading to studio closures is another point against EA, as they have admitted to bullying Origin systems into submission to force them to sell (Company created by the Peter Molyneaux, mastermind behind the ground-breaking Ultima games, and breaking his promises)

Good stuff, but you're getting your wires crossed on this one. Peter Molyneux started Bullfrog, also an EA casualty. The "mastermind" behind Ultima was Richard Garriott of Origin, who also had a very acrimonious relationship with EA. Although you could probably credit Ultima's success as much to Warren Spector, who oversaw the watershed games in the series, roughly around the time Garriott was losing his mind and spending all his time in his lavishly appointed castle, playing with his secret doors.

Ah bollocks you're absolutely right. My bad.

Spoiler

After a while all the companies EA bought over kind of blur into each other (figuratively and literally considering their merging practices.)

 

[Phrozenflame500]

Honestly? They're not nearly as bad as Activision, as a matter of fact Activision exemplifies unoriginal for-profit game making even worse then EA.

The big difference is that EA is incredibly stupid. I mean really, really dumb. Activision cuts corners and milks cash cows when they see it makes them a profit, EA does it right up right up until the franchise dies and the developer houses are closed. That's what pisses gamers off, not just that they're screwing them but also because they're screwing themselves.

That's ignoring the fact they often continue to release games in unplayable states, and still push the always-online shit (to be fair Blizzard still does that but at lease they make decent enough games to get away with it).

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

Isn't EA the one most people are blaming for Battlefield 4 shipping chock-full of bugs and imbalances? I'd say that's a pretty horrible thing to do, especially since I don't have Battlefield 4 yet, and every day I don't is a day EA could have spared me the longing for it.

 

[Hero in a half shell]

Considering they had spearheaded every single bad business practice in the game industry as well as dicking their customers over and killing some great franchises and companies?I'd say they are only slightly worse than Capcom.

Activision's to blame for the 60$ game far as I'm aware, also modern franchise annualization and selling pixels for 20$ and unnecessary map pack DLCs and Premium subscriptions to games you already have(started with MW).... Hell I don't know how EA is more maligned than Activision!

EA did eat a lot of studios and franchises in the late 90's early 2000's though, sadly to end some of them like Bullfrog, Maxis(it came back recently but for a long time it was just a the sims department.), Origin, Mythic and my beloved Westwood...

I think you may have just defined the reason for the hate compared to the other companies like Activision:

Activision tend to keep themselves to themselves, and ruin their own games. Where they have partnered and bought other studios it doesn't seem to have ended as quickly or as badly as EA's reapings.

EA ruin other peoples games, by buying over beloved companies in the middle of their franchises, and then excreting their corporate policies all over the new instalments they make. People who buy franchises owned by Activision know they are buying Activision. People who buy other franchises can suddenly find they have EA forced upon them if they want to continue their previously-EA-free franchise.
It happened with Command and Conquer fans, Bioware RPG fans, Simcity fans, Ultima fans, Battlefront fans, and I'm sure many, many more.

All of these found their beloved franchises ruined by EA, when EA had had nothing to do with creating them.

That fosters a very particular kind of hate, one which I suffer from, and I'm sure a lot of others in this forum.

 

[lacktheknack]

Nothing is ever, EVER as bad (or as good) as the internet says they are.

EA included.

Especially, EA, actually.

 

[RandV80]

It's a cumulative thing. Maybe I'm wrong but EA seemed to be the first developer that used their 90's success to start buying up other development studios, sucking the life out of them, and running them into the ground. That was about 15 years ago, with game series such as Red Alert and Ultima dying a quick death (or sometimes a slow one) shortly after being acquired be EA.

 

[barbzilla]

I would say they are trying to right their wrongs now that Riccitello is gone, but I do think they are still a company with a huge overhead and will likely participate in some underhanded practices from time to time to ensure their wealth. As for being the bastion of evil that is so reviled around here, I think it stems from a period of really poor PR choices from them over the past 4 years (or so) with Riccitello at the head of the corporation, and their habit of buying up successful game studios who subsequently start pushing out games faster and faster with lower and lower quality. That said, how much of the push was on the part of EA telling them what to do, and how much was the smaller company wanting a larger taste of what was at the table is largely up for debate.

In short, they are just like any other massive corporation, gaming or otherwise. They have goals, ambitions, and large overheads, so they tend to end up with this obsession with larger and larger numbers that can sometimes lead to poor choices. EA made quite a few of these in recent years and as such seem to be pretty much top of everyone's poop list. As for my personal feelings, I think they are doing a good job at trying to restructure the way they do business to still remain profitable without screwing over as many customers.

[Edited for Idiocy!]

 

[Naqel]

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

 

[BloatedGuppy]

After a while all the companies EA bought over kind of blur into each other (figuratively and literally considering their merging practices.)

Origin is a particular sore spot for me, as I was a HUGE Ultima fan. They ate my childhood.