Jimquisition: EA & Ubisoft: A Cycle of Perpetration and Apology
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I have to wonder where a lot of this originates - yes, it's in the end the entire company, but who's really to blame here? Executives? Marketing? Development? I can almost see perhaps companies being so large and ponderous that the "guys, we've been voted the North Korea of companies for the umteenth time in a row - wtf?" memo might just be getting lost in the shuffle.
On one hand it's easy and very tempting to blame malevolence, but really, I think incompetence deserves more credit for this than perhaps it's getting. Perhaps the right hand is clutching a rosary in penance, unaware that the left is still jerking off. In the end, it's probably a bit of both, but I've just seen too much raw stupid in management in my time to not attribute a good helping of this travesty to that.
On one hand it's easy and very tempting to blame malevolence, but really, I think incompetence deserves more credit for this than perhaps it's getting. Perhaps the right hand is clutching a rosary in penance, unaware that the left is still jerking off. In the end, it's probably a bit of both, but I've just seen too much raw stupid in management in my time to not attribute a good helping of this travesty to that.
Disagree about Battlefield 4.
Believe me, I was FUMING at the state the game was released...but they did a bit more than toss empty apologies.
They released the Community Test Environment (CTE) initiative, an entire separate version/instance of the game created solely for making huge changes, testing them and then rolling them out to the live game. So far multiple patches have gone through it's results have been excellent, though a lot of work is still to be done. There are several devs dedicated to CTE initiative, reading forum feedback through every step and taking lots of suggestions on board.
EADICE definitely had to go out of their way to do something like this, it would not have been cheap.
Yes, CTE came out 7 months too late and should've been part of basic QA before BF4 was even released. Yes, EADICE are basically asking players to beta-test the game for them 7 months after the game's has been on the fucking shelves. I'm not praising EADICE for CTE.
Partly I know it's because they still have 2 DLC's to sell (Dragon's Teeth and Final Stand) and BF4 population is reducing at an alarming rate considering only 2 out of 4 DLC's are out. A LOT more people were playing BF3 when it was 7-8 months into it's life. After BF3's recent free offering the number of people playing BF3 occasionally overtakes the number of people playing BF4. I bet EA pulled that purely to check statistics on how fondly-remembered BF3 was and how many people would play BF3 instead of BF4. I bet they were surprised.
But it's better than nothing, or just having empty apologies thrown at me. Standards have been lowered, I know...but I'll take what I can get since I already blew money on BF4 and the game definitely has it's fun/amazing moments. CTE will only improve it.
There's a limit to how much bullshit EA can pull, there's a limit to how much they can apologize. It has already taken it's toll on Battlefield Hardline. As far as I can see, the reaction to Hardline has been largely a negative one. Based on playing just the beta there is a huge number of people saying they simply aren't interested in buying that game. This is partly due to the fact that the game does look and feel like a lazy BF4 re-skin, but it's also accompanied the massive pile of shit that is EA's reputation.
Believe me, I was FUMING at the state the game was released...but they did a bit more than toss empty apologies.
They released the Community Test Environment (CTE) initiative, an entire separate version/instance of the game created solely for making huge changes, testing them and then rolling them out to the live game. So far multiple patches have gone through it's results have been excellent, though a lot of work is still to be done. There are several devs dedicated to CTE initiative, reading forum feedback through every step and taking lots of suggestions on board.
EADICE definitely had to go out of their way to do something like this, it would not have been cheap.
Yes, CTE came out 7 months too late and should've been part of basic QA before BF4 was even released. Yes, EADICE are basically asking players to beta-test the game for them 7 months after the game's has been on the fucking shelves. I'm not praising EADICE for CTE.
Partly I know it's because they still have 2 DLC's to sell (Dragon's Teeth and Final Stand) and BF4 population is reducing at an alarming rate considering only 2 out of 4 DLC's are out. A LOT more people were playing BF3 when it was 7-8 months into it's life. After BF3's recent free offering the number of people playing BF3 occasionally overtakes the number of people playing BF4. I bet EA pulled that purely to check statistics on how fondly-remembered BF3 was and how many people would play BF3 instead of BF4. I bet they were surprised.
But it's better than nothing, or just having empty apologies thrown at me. Standards have been lowered, I know...but I'll take what I can get since I already blew money on BF4 and the game definitely has it's fun/amazing moments. CTE will only improve it.
There's a limit to how much bullshit EA can pull, there's a limit to how much they can apologize. It has already taken it's toll on Battlefield Hardline. As far as I can see, the reaction to Hardline has been largely a negative one. Based on playing just the beta there is a huge number of people saying they simply aren't interested in buying that game. This is partly due to the fact that the game does look and feel like a lazy BF4 re-skin, but it's also accompanied the massive pile of shit that is EA's reputation.
And then today EA said that it was shipping The Sims 4 without Toddlers or Pools because it focused so darned hard on 'revolutionizing' the game.
So the excuse has been launched. Wait one or three months after launch for the $20 DLC pack that includes toddlers and pools to hit retail :1
While this week's episode is, in some ways, a retread of some of Jim's old points, I think it bears repeating since EA and Ubisoft... well... keep repeating themselves.
So the excuse has been launched. Wait one or three months after launch for the $20 DLC pack that includes toddlers and pools to hit retail :1
While this week's episode is, in some ways, a retread of some of Jim's old points, I think it bears repeating since EA and Ubisoft... well... keep repeating themselves.
Yacht Club Games released Shovel Knight and included a 'butt' mode.Chosenagain said:
Crate Entertainment announced Transmuters, which make some skill viable as LMB instead of auto-attack.
http://www.grimdawn.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15216
Perihelion Interactive came up with a partial way to easily rig male/female characters in their upcoming game The Mandate.
http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/3/5863785/ubisoft-female-characters-assassins-creed-the-mandate
Cloud Imperium games asked me to participate in the Arena Commander Multiplayer Alpha test.
If you look past the larger corporations there is a wealth of games made by people who love making them.
Neither genuine malevolence or incompetence. Painting EA, Ubisoft or any other company (gaming industry and otherwise) as 'malevolent' just starts to conjure Pentex-style boardrooms filled with insane vampires, morally dubious werewolves and tentacled monstrosities. I'm pretty sure (well, fairly sure... kinda) that EA board meetings rarely have "How can we fuck our customer base (who we hate) over more and faster?" as their lead agenda point. I am, however, pretty damn sure that they do have "How can we maximize our profits and minimize potential collateral damage to us and our bottom line?" in there somewhere.Necris Omega said:
Put another way; when some thing happens that, from the gaming community's perspective is a terrible outrage for which recompense must be demanded, the reaction of the parts of big companies like EA and Ubisoft who actually make the Big Decisions? is not to ask "How did this happen and what can we do to stop it from happening again?" but instead to say "How many units are we not going to sell because of this and what is the least expensive, least involved and complicated way to make it go away for long enough to get the next product moving?" That's not actually evil or malevolent, it's just selfish and capitalist.
So far, these calculations have always come up in the companies' favour. While there's definitely some stupidity involved somewhere along the line, because these things keep happening and the cycle between them seems to be getting shorter and almost all of them appear to be really simple things to fix or things that should never have been issues to begin with, at the base it's less stupidity and more cupidity that's at fault.
The video game industry thinks you're an idiot... and you're not
Jim's dog lay down, get a treat.
Hardcore Gamers lay down their cash, get shit.
Great job letting your own pooch destroy your argument, Jim.
***
You know who did this right? Square Enix with Final Fantasy XIV. A terrible launch in 2010, but brought forward a redevelopment with what is a great game. They apologized but they made up for it and continue to keep themselves in line.
FF XIV was released way too early so it could be on the shelves before Cataclysm: it's the perfect example of a company's suits screwing the work of its craftsmen.
Jim's dog lay down, get a treat.
Hardcore Gamers lay down their cash, get shit.
Great job letting your own pooch destroy your argument, Jim.
***
You know who did this right? Square Enix with Final Fantasy XIV. A terrible launch in 2010, but brought forward a redevelopment with what is a great game. They apologized but they made up for it and continue to keep themselves in line.
FF XIV was released way too early so it could be on the shelves before Cataclysm: it's the perfect example of a company's suits screwing the work of its craftsmen.
Sony and Microsoft accepting indie developers after they decided to tweet at the company that they want to be one.Chosenagain said:
But you also forget that this forum is only used by a minority. The majority sees the games they sell through their adverts on TV.SnowWookie said:
Yes companies do exist to make money, but that doesn't give them an excuse to screw over their customers in a manner THIS ridiculous. Also "existing to make money" doesn't justify terrible behavior. Dog fighting exists to make money. Illegal drugs exist to make money. Human trafficking and slavery exists to make money, but we don't go around defending those do we?geier said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/6814-Companies-Exist-To-Make-Money
Also we shouldn't need to do as much research as we do for video games these days. It should be someone could just look at a review or two and that would give them as much information as they need, and that's all a lot of people do these days. However, reviews rarely cover all the issues in the game anymore, so before I buy a game I have to dig through forums, reviews, word of mouth, and countless other things before I can be sure the game will even run well, be a stable and somewhat bug-free experience, and not have gratuitous amounts of content cut out to be sold back as DLC. And even THEN, after HOURS of research, there's still a good chance that even with a lot of positive info behind the software, the game will turn out to be a dud. (I'M LOOKING AT YOU FAR CRY 3!)
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/jimquisition/8974-Buyer-Beware
The idea of "Buyer Beware" is a true enough statement, but the AMOUNT of awareness we need these days for fucking video games of all things is just getting absurd.
I've mentioned this on the Escapist before, but really, I don't understand the huge backlash against Battlefield 4. Its a great game with small but intelligent advancements from the last, and I never once experienced a glitch or any interruption of play. I bought it the month it was released. Either I'm the luckiest man in the world or the issues weren't as calamitous as the Escapist in particular out of all gaming zines seems to think.
I think "Sorry" means "We will do something else with ultimately the same result"
So for Example Blizzard removed Real Money AH from Diablo but instead they sell the Expansion at a higher price, and gate content so that some of it is sold on another Expansion(s)and also exploring paid DLC, even publicly asking their cusomer what they would like to pay for post-launch.
So for Example Blizzard removed Real Money AH from Diablo but instead they sell the Expansion at a higher price, and gate content so that some of it is sold on another Expansion(s)and also exploring paid DLC, even publicly asking their cusomer what they would like to pay for post-launch.
Because video game journalists are a dime a dozen. If you try to hold a company responsible they simply don't speak to you anymore, and stop sending you games to review.Lord_Jaroh said:
There's plenty of game "journalists" willing and eager to take your place and suck the publisher's teat.
Given how this keeps happening I sometimes wonder if Blizzard takes a page from Peter Molyneux putting mouth in gear before the brain has even had time to wake up. Blizzard did this with Path of the Titans which once they started actually working on the thing turned into little more than the existing glyph system on massive steroids and they rightly killed it. Many of the numerous changed in Warlords can be put down to practicality (allowing garrisons anywhere was going to be a coding nightmare) mixed in with a good amount of 'let's trim the bloat and fix various issues with classes while we are at it.owbu said:
This is why I only buy games when they are very cheap either through Steam or GOG. I haven't bought an EA game other than dragon age origins since they screwed up the Ultima and Ultima Online series with Ultima IX and Ultima Online Age of Shadows. I hope EA dies a horrible death one of these days for killing my favorite franchise. And this happened back in the early 2000s btw.
In the business world that's essentially saying the same thing. These business', as shown in practice, do want to get you paying as much as they can while having to give you as little as possible. In fact that is the best way to maximize profit. Anyone who has decided that they will put their benefit exclusively above others, which in this case is actually directly detrimental to the opposite party, is saying that they just don't care whether you die and rot. And to be fair they aren't exactly expected to care but when your actions, directly or indirectly, cause you to have to lie, cheat, or rip off people then you are responsible for that. Holding these companies accountable for that isn't by any means wrong or unjust. In fact its really the only thing that makes sense.trouble_gum said:
Being selfish or capitalist isn't a justification for any of this. This is as much the "gamers" culture as it is theirs. What they release and what practices they inflict on us does have an effect on the 'whole' community. That's the entire point of getting outraged about it in the first place. This doesn't just happen in a vacuum. You can't cut corners, take out features, and "monetize" your users and expect the games to be okay and the industry to go untarnished. Especially when there are plenty of examples, past and present of games that were fantastic games. And before the old "you aren't owed a game" comes out, these companies aren't owed money or appraisal for what they do.
And they (calculations) will continue to come up in their favor alone and no one else's for as long as they are allowed to be 'selfish' as you said earlier. They can't be allowed to screw people and lie to them and it just "be okay" simply because its a company. Playing to victim blaming doesn't work.
I completely understand that our current "economic system" (if it can be called that) allows lying, cheating, and manipulation but it certainly doesn't make it okay or justified. And a lot of us here will continue to fight it until something is done about it. Personally I would love to see the day when its no longer allowed to manipulate people at all in the market.
Which is my point. The majority of gamers (like the majority of people) *are* idiots.hydrolythe said:
The entire crux of Jim's rant seems to be "gamers are smart but game companies think you're dumb", but then his rant goes and basically proves the complete opposite point.
I hate to tar all gamers with a large brush, but if these companies continue to release broken and problematic games that don't do what they're supposed to do, then apologize and say they'll fix it next time but NEVER do, but people KEEP buying them by the millions, over and over and over again, who are the dumb one(s) here?
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, it sounds to me like it's the gamers here who are the crazy ones, not the companies. The companies have simply figured out that they can continuously get away with it.
I hate to tar all gamers with a large brush, but if these companies continue to release broken and problematic games that don't do what they're supposed to do, then apologize and say they'll fix it next time but NEVER do, but people KEEP buying them by the millions, over and over and over again, who are the dumb one(s) here?
If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, it sounds to me like it's the gamers here who are the crazy ones, not the companies. The companies have simply figured out that they can continuously get away with it.