Jimquisition: EA versus Zynga - The Lesser of Two Evils

[Illessa]

I don't agree that Zynga does no harm to the part of the game industry we care about. I think it was in one of the Double Fine Adventure documentary episodes, Tim Schafer was talking about how excited he was to be designing a game again, and listing his CEO duties the last of which was "Persuading people not to leave for jobs at Zynga". Obviously he said it as a joke, but given they're both San Francisco companies I'm sure it must have happened in the past.

Add to that the numbner of legendary game designers who are making similar sorts of games and I really do think that the initial runaway success of companies like Zynga has lead to some of the best and brightest minds in gaming being lured away to the casual, freemium market. We can only hope that their now seemingly inevitable downfall alleviates that a bit, making it seem like a somewhat riskier prospect (even if Zynga is more an example of how sooner or later, shady people at the top and ludicrous purchases of companies whose success you don't understand = failure).

Of course, I have no doubt that the draconian, cut-throat business practices of publishers like EA have resulted in plenty of people leaving the AAA game out of disgust or neccessity, so seriously, screw the both of them.

 

[Kapol]

While I'm not going to comment on the actual topic because I'm cool like that, I will wonder aloud if Jim has seen the Rifftrax for "Spider-Man." The main reason I bring it up was because the William Dafoe bit reminded me of it. Especially the whole 'rawr' bit that made up most of mini-Dafoe's speaking. Because, to put it as they did in that riff, "Willian Dafoe, when you need a movie monster but can't afford make-up."

Anyways, good episode all and all. Though every time I watch an episode I'm half-tempted to just close my laptop and simply listen because I can't stand some of the images that are used. >_>

 

[GonzoGamer]

Sue me Jim! SUE ME!

The worst part of this is that by suing Zynga, EA is saying they own the entire sim genre. That is not something anyone should fight for.

Granted, the plagiarism is a big deal too, but Zynga I'm sure still built the game from the ground up.

That's what worries me. This means that no other dev is going to try and do what Sims does, but better.
It actually sets an even worse precedent than that. A lot of games are very similar; is R* going to sue Just Cause 3 out of existence? What about all the military FPSs? Which one is going to sue first?

 

[Beryl77]

People were actually rooting for EA? Oh great, now whenever they'll announce something it will start with "EA, the great and humble company which defeated the devil named Zynga in a battle of epic proportions for the gaming community, is happy to announce..."

 

[ElPatron]

The worst part of this is that by suing Zynga, EA is saying they own the entire sim genre.

No, just the intellectual properties EA owns.

You're free to make any social sim you want, but if the game is just a re-skin it doesn't matter how much of the game was written from scratch.

I can't just grab a load of cameras and then start remaking all the popular films to introduce them as my creation. I can write a book in a magic castle, I just can't call my character Harry Potter and give him a fore-head scar.

 

[lord.jeff]

I'm glad Zynga is going down, I actually like social gaming itself, but Zynga got such a strangle hold, it was near impossible for any company that couldn't make games within one of three frameworks to get any notice, it's similar to what happened with MMOs and WOW. Hopefully if Zynga moves out of the picture we could finally get some creativity.

 

[Phlakes]

This is one of those few that I don't agree with. Someone doing something good is still someone doing something good, no matter what they're doing or why or who they are or who it affects. And no, it doesn't affect me, and EA is "evil", but good on them anyway.

I mean, if a serial murderer developed a cure for colds or something I'd still thank him before throwing him back in prison forever.

 

[jmarquiso]

There once was a man named Tim Langdell.

On small developers he fought with zeal

Mobigame in dire straights

Langdell had them taken the bait

Until he got hotheaded and made Mirrors

But EA had that Edge.

 

[jmarquiso]

The worst part of this is that by suing Zynga, EA is saying they own the entire sim genre.

No, just the intellectual properties EA owns.

You're free to make any social sim you want, but if the game is just a re-skin it doesn't matter how much of the game was written from scratch.

I can't just grab a load of cameras and then start remaking all the popular films to introduce them as my creation. I can write a book in a magic castle, I just can't call my character Harry Potter and give him a fore-head scar.

They never went after Virtual Families, so the Ville is more of a direct ripoff.

 

[Signa]

The worst part of this is that by suing Zynga, EA is saying they own the entire sim genre.

No, just the intellectual properties EA owns.

You're free to make any social sim you want, but if the game is just a re-skin it doesn't matter how much of the game was written from scratch.

I can't just grab a load of cameras and then start remaking all the popular films to introduce them as my creation. I can write a book in a magic castle, I just can't call my character Harry Potter and give him a fore-head scar.

That's not at all what The Ville was though (or so what I'm assuming from the comparison screens I saw). The Ville was basically 50 Shade of Gray in your analogy. It's derived from a copyrighted work, but the important things were changed so that it doesn't count as a product of that work.

I'd compare it to you writing an essay about something, and I'd take that essay and rewrite it point for point in the same order, but using my own words. Remaking Harry Potter like that is saying I could retype your essay up into my own word document, and then use comic sans before submitting it as my own work.

 

[Rad Party God]

Let them kill each other I say, grab your popcorn and don't pick sides.

 

[Proverbial Jon]

I couldn't work out if that was an impression of Bane or Sean Connery... oh wait...

 

[mjc0961]

"EA versus Zynga - The Lesser of Two Evils"

Lesser of Two Evils? So we're going to talk about Zynga today, right?

"People are picking sides, and while many have chosen to root for the lesser evil, they may be confused as to which one that actually is.

Easy mistake to make, to be honest. It's hard to tell."

I'm pretty sure I got it right. Maybe I should stop thinking about it and click play. Yeah, I'm going to do that.

...

I knew it! ^_^

After all, Zynga's never done half the shit to me that EA has. All Zynga's done is put out crappy games for a crappy website I don't use. EA tries to fuck me up the bum with each product I buy from them. Far more evil to me.

I will NEVER understand this inane thought process among gamers where a publisher who puts out good games = great publisher no matter what kind of shitty business practices they partake in, and publisher who puts out bad games = horrible publisher no matter what kind of shitty business practices they don't partake in. Reading garbage like this:

The feedback following our Game of the Year piece is as expected where opinions are involved, but the one piece of feedback that is frankly quite staggeringly short-sighted is the hate for EA. Dear internet, this is 2011 and EA hasn?t been the games industry?s proverbial devil for quite a few years now. Out of the fourteen 90+ titles this year, EA had a hand in ? either development-wise, or publishing-wise ? six of them. That?s nearly 50% of the triple-A titles that they?ve helped put out in the shops. Hell, out of the twenty-nine 80+ games as well, they had five of those too. People really are stuck in their ways.

http://www.xbox360achievements.org/news-2480-A-2011-Retrospective--Going-From-Strength-to-Strength.html

will always continue to baffle me every time.

Fuck EA. Zynga does deserve to get crushed for blatantly copying EA's game, that's how laws work, but still, fuck EA. They aren't doing this because they care about you or because they care about gaming, they're doing this because they care about EA.

 

[ElPatron]

That's not at all what The Ville was though (or so what I'm assuming from the comparison screens I saw). The Ville was basically 50 Shade of Gray in your analogy.

No, because the only thing 50 Shades of Gray has in common with Twilight is absolutely nothing. It was meant to be a fanfiction with the characters from Twilight but it's *not* Twilight, and it deviated from it's parent universe when the names were changed.

Zynga doesn't even bother changing their games too much. Remember the Tiny Tower incident? They photocopy games.

You wouldn't like if I did what Zynga is doing to your creations and make money of them.

 

[Sheo_Dagana]

Thanks for bringing up EA's lack of involvement against SOPA and PIPA, Jim. A lot of people forget about that. Now, EA wasn't the only big name publisher hanging out on the sidelines, but you don't get to do something like that and then come back and claim you're a 'company of the people', as it were.

The big name publishers certainly do not have gamers best interests at heart. They don't care about us. We're numbers to them, and for that matter, so are their developers. This law-suit is more about EA getting to beat it's proverbial chest over and already beaten company.

 

[carpathic]

The usual brilliance. When does excellence become an expectation? When Jim shoes up.

Also, your points made sense...I hate both companies anywya.

 

[Quellist]

I pretty much agree with the rant (as usual) but special mention has to go to that Bane impersonation, it was honestly beyond awesome!

 

[Rabidkitten]

YES, all of that. Good job.

 

[mjc0961]

That's an insult to the Joker there, Jim. The Joker has style, whereas we know that EA does not. So, find us a flat, boring, stereotypical villain that nobody likes or sympathizes with, and THERE'S YOUR MAN.

How about this guy?

Yeah, I know I'm doing it wrong, but my point is that comparing any other villain to EA is going to be an insult to that other villain.