Notch Dumps on EA "Indie Bundle"

[Madkipz]

Speaking as the producer of Minecraft, Notch has a lot more authority than some lowly escapist journalist. His tweets ring true and loudly. I hope EA burns for abusing the title of indie.

Lowly Escapist journalist? You mean the people that make this site--the one you are enjoying right now--what it is? I'm fairly certain anyone who spends their life researching, reporting on and playing video games, has as much authority to comment on it as anyone.

Maybe you should think a little more about your words before you put them out there.

You mean the sheeple that gave me3 and dragon age 2 a 10/10? They have next to no credibility with me after that. There are already a million other sites and "game journalists" and "industry apologists" in existence. They are practically like lice in the woodwork. Easy to replace. Yahtzee not so much, everyone else however <,<

 

[ThriKreen]

Im not sure the difference between this and when steam does and indie sale. Is it just because it's EA?

Pretty much.

The same games are offered on Steam, therefore published by Valve. They are also labeled as Indie.

 

[boag]

I think that's a bit harsh. Yes, indies are doing wonderful things, but I don't see how major publishers like EA are doing anything more than bringing gaming to the masses.

At the same time, they are alienating those same masses with the most horrible business practices, they keep reaching for new markets, while continuously making their customers feel dissatisfied and sometimes even sick of gaming.

 

[Andy Chalk]

You mean the sheeple that gave me3 and dragon age 2 a 10/10? They have next to no credibility with me after that. There are already a million other sites and "game journalists" and "industry apologists" in existence. They are practically like lice in the woodwork. Easy to replace. Yahtzee not so much, everyone else however <,<

Yet you're still here.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Speaking as the producer of Minecraft, Notch has a lot more authority than some lowly escapist journalist. His tweets ring true and loudly. I hope EA burns for abusing the title of indie.

Lowly Escapist journalist? You mean the people that make this site--the one you are enjoying right now--what it is? I'm fairly certain anyone who spends their life researching, reporting on and playing video games, has as much authority to comment on it as anyone.

Maybe you should think a little more about your words before you put them out there.

You mean the sheeple that gave me3 and dragon age 2 a 10/10? They have next to no credibility with me after that. There are already a million other sites and "game journalists" and "industry apologists" in existence. They are practically like lice in the woodwork. Easy to replace. Yahtzee not so much, everyone else however <,<

Sorry, I forgot that someone liking a game you dislike and reviewing it as such means they are mindless sheep. My bad.

 

[Andy Chalk]

At the same time, they are alienating those same masses with the most horrible business practices, they keep reaching for new markets, while continuously making their customers feel dissatisfied and sometimes even sick of gaming.

I would disagree. The vocal, "alienated" gamers who make noise on forums represent a minority of EA's consumer base, probably a fairly small minority. Which isn't to say that I don't think people should make their opinions known in public forums (ideally in a constructive, non-abusive manner) but to suggest that we represent some kind of angry majority is a stretch.

 

[boag]

At the same time, they are alienating those same masses with the most horrible business practices, they keep reaching for new markets, while continuously making their customers feel dissatisfied and sometimes even sick of gaming.

I would disagree. The vocal, "alienated" gamers who make noise on forums represent a minority of EA's consumer base, probably a fairly small minority. Which isn't to say that I don't think people should make their opinions known in public forums (ideally in a constructive, non-abusive manner) but to suggest that we represent some kind of angry majority is a stretch.

youre right, saying that I represent some super majority is incredibly lame, at the same time we cant be certain about how big the amount of people are upset about this is, because internet polls can be rigged, and the forum dissatisfaction can be fabricated.

its obviously just a small bunch of entitled whiny homophobic brats, that have taken their time to not only create an uproar everywhere, but also to artificially drive down EAs stock price.

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=168725

http://www.benzinga.com/news/earnings/12/02/2309657/electronic-arts-falls-1-after-reporting-quarterly-loss

http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/index.php/2012/02/01/ea-reports-205m-net-loss-for-q3-ended-12-31-11/

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Yes because "Its business" is the catch-all excuse for people defending publisher extortion of developers and milking of consumers. Try again, this time with more logic and less Laissez-faire fallacy.

Milking the consumer? You mean offering video games for purchase? No one forced people to buy EA games and it was us, the consumers, who chose to purchase their games in record amounts.

Get of your pedestal. Stop thinking you know what the market should and shouldn't be like and let people buy whatever the fuck they want. They aren't bad people for liking EA. EA isn't bad for selling games a lot of people like. Indie games are doing better than ever. The sky isn't falling.

People, for the love of god, wake up and listen to yourselves. EA is offering a product. That's it. If people wanna buy them, that's their choice. You aren't special and you don't get to suddenly tell us the games and franchisees we like are now the devil.

"Boo-hoo. EA is selling video games I don't like." This just in: Lots of people do like them and that's perfectly fine. Get over yourself.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

The level of self-entitlement and superiority complexes in this thread is just mind boggling. Apparently any company offering something you don't like means they are ruining gaming. It is seriously giving me a headache reading some of these posts. People actually think what they personally want should be what everyone gets. It's as if them disliking EA means EA is objectively bad or something. How does one even get that pigheaded?

Do people still think it's cool to go against the majority or something?

 

[Pedro The Hutt]

Nothing like easy scapegoating eh Notch?

I really don't see why EA has become the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the video game industry, sure the DRM and Origin are shaky platforms at best. but on the other hand they've financed TOR, they've helped out Funcom with The Secret World which is a risky project to say the least. Heck, they've also financed Mirror's Edge and any Double Fine game, so they dare to take creative risks, as opposed to say, Activision who does nothing but Call of Duty and other games that are almost guaranteed to sell like Marvel tie-in titles.

So to me it seems a bit of a cheap and uncalled for shot to say that EA is actively destroying the games industry, intentionally or otherwise when there's worse offenders in the industry.

(And I can't even blame Activision, they're running a business, of course they won't change their strategy as long as people buy their games in droves and bring in the money)

 

[irishda]

Speaking as the producer of Minecraft, Notch has a lot more authority than some lowly escapist journalist. His tweets ring true and loudly. I hope EA burns for abusing the title of indie.

Lowly Escapist journalist? You mean the people that make this site--the one you are enjoying right now--what it is? I'm fairly certain anyone who spends their life researching, reporting on and playing video games, has as much authority to comment on it as anyone.

Maybe you should think a little more about your words before you put them out there.

You mean the sheeple that gave me3 and dragon age 2 a 10/10? They have next to no credibility with me after that. There are already a million other sites and "game journalists" and "industry apologists" in existence. They are practically like lice in the woodwork. Easy to replace. Yahtzee not so much, everyone else however <,<

Eh she used the word "sheeple". Just ignore her everyone, cause those are just people that latch onto buzz words and attack everything mainstream the same as the people that latch onto everything that is mainstream. It's like a reverse frat-boy or something.

 

[boag]

At the same time, they are alienating those same masses with the most horrible business practices, they keep reaching for new markets, while continuously making their customers feel dissatisfied and sometimes even sick of gaming.

I would disagree. The vocal, "alienated" gamers who make noise on forums represent a minority of EA's consumer base, probably a fairly small minority. Which isn't to say that I don't think people should make their opinions known in public forums (ideally in a constructive, non-abusive manner) but to suggest that we represent some kind of angry majority is a stretch.

youre right, saying that I represent some super majority is incredibly lame, at the same time we cant be certain about how big the amount of people are upset about this is, because internet polls can be rigged, and the forum dissatisfaction can be fabricated.

its obviously just a small bunch of entitled whiny homophobic brats, that have taken their time to not only create an uproar everywhere, but also to artificially drive down EAs stock price.

http://www.google.com/finance?cid=168725

http://www.benzinga.com/news/earnings/12/02/2309657/electronic-arts-falls-1-after-reporting-quarterly-loss

http://gamerinvestments.com/video-game-stocks/index.php/2012/02/01/ea-reports-205m-net-loss-for-q3-ended-12-31-11/

Because polls are never biased towards the extreme, and small forum populations represent the majority.

Also, the stock price of video games is based on public disapproval of policies and not problems with the economy causing a decrease in the value of luxury products like video games.

like I said, its just a small bunch of whiny entitled homophobic brats, anyone that disliked any of EAs games, is a whiny entitled homophobic brats, thats what EA said, thats what Bioware said, thats what 75 PERFECT SCORES said.

I really don't see why EA has become the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the video game industry,

EA has poured a lot of Hard work, blood, sweat, tears and overall Practice to get the public standing they have today.

 

[doomspore98]

With the only problem being that EA are "bringing games to the masses" by draining developers of smaller games until they're no good to them anymore, and then ditching their lifeless husk like some form of money vampire.

They did it with Bullfrog, they did it with C&C, and they're doing it with Bioware.

Don't forget pandemic. I loved that studio.

 

[ThriKreen]

Don't forget pandemic. I loved that studio.

Has anyone looked at Pandemic's track history after the buyout?

 

[Sehnsucht Engel]

I'm starting to like Notch more and more. Especially when he hates on EA, which I also like to hate on.

 

[Beryl77]

Since when does a tweet warrant a news? It's generally known that Notch uses his twitter account a bit irresponsibly and that we shouldn't pay too much attention to that. Sometimes he forgets that he's rather famous now.
Of course news sites like the Escapist love to jump to these things and blow them completely out of proportion for the views, successfully.

OT:
It's not really a surprise that EA would do this. If there's money to make, of course they're going to try. It's nothing new that they like to slap a label on to a game in order to make it sell better. They use mostly the names of popular devs, like Bioware for example. There isn't only one Bioware studio but the name is often enough for a game to sell well.

 

[CarlMin]

He writes "EA sucks" on his Twitter and then adds that he got into trouble with the "interwebs"? Did his Twitter account get hijacked by a 15-year old something?

Really though, there is nothing wrong with EA releasing the indie bundle. It's just Notch thinking that somehow his opinions on matters are more important just because he happened to become successful and his new hourly wage is twice that of all indie developers on this planet.

 

[Beryl77]

Since when does a tweet warrant a news?

It's news, in the same way that things a president whispers to someone else when they don't think the mic is on is news.

So, no real news?

 

[Iamaglassoftea]

Is it really necessary to compile everything Notch says on Twitter into an article? Could I, perhaps, have some actual gaming news?

 

[Mr.Pandah]

Oh q fucking q. It's so dumb to say something like that about a company. They're out to make money. If this "indie" bundle sells and makes money, and it's because they called it indie, they don't care. They'd call it dogshit bundle if it would sell. Notch needs to calm his nipples. No need to get twisted over this.

But how can Notch play the part of the internet white knight if he hasn't got a company to rip on?!

Agreed though. Sure, the action of EA releasing an "indie" bundle is a bit ... silly, I guess is the best word, but its not exactly as rage-worthy as Notch is making out. EA have taken the genre of indie and stretched its meaning to the point of breaking the definition but they have by no means "destroyed gaming".

Maybe my judgement is clouded as I tend to like a majority of the games EA publish. I really dont get why people get so fricking upset over EA though, its a company thats making money. Its not like EA are going round to people's houses and roughing them up for lunch money. Dont like an EA game? Dont buy it, move on.

It's because of their "business practices." and because people get upset that they charge for shit and they don't want to pay for it but still want it.

I want a new car but I can't afford one that's all tricked out but I don't ***** about it. Logic doesn't translate over though.