Perhaps EA is learning?

[Valanthe]

On a whim, I was cruising EA's Origin Forums, and came across this thread, detailing a work around for Origin's invasiveness, which based on the thread, may or may not work.

http://forum.ea.com/eaforum/posts/list/7804065.page

Now I'll be the first to admit I'm not the most tech savvy man on the planet, but reading the comments in the thread, it seems that EA has reigned in their system slightly, at least to the point Steam has. It's a baby step, but a step nonetheless in the right direction for EA. They've got a long ways to go before I'll feel like a truly loyal and valued customer, but at least now can feel a little less guilty about buying Mass Effect 3. Just thought I'd share.

 

[Kingme18]

They did change it.... A while back. People just hate on it now for the sake of hating. At least that's my view on the subject.

 

[keideki]

*LE GASP* a thread about EA and the OP does not think they are baby eating blood drinking devil worshipers? Amazing!

I agree. EA is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They are a business. They do business things to make more money, some stuff is underhanded. All businesses are like this.

 

[Valanthe]

*LE GASP* a thread about EA and the OP does not think they are baby eating blood drinking devil worshipers? Amazing!

I agree. EA is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They are a business. They do business things to make more money, some stuff is underhanded. All businesses are like this.

Well.. actually.. I do believe that...

Hyperbole of course, but EA has become in recent years the company that I -want- to like, but simply cannot because their underhanded practices are directly hurting my enjoyment of their product.

However, as I said, if the ball is rolling towards change for the better, then I am all over that.

 

[Lilani]

*LE GASP* a thread about EA and the OP does not think they are baby eating blood drinking devil worshipers? Amazing!

I agree. EA is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They are a business. They do business things to make more money, some stuff is underhanded. All businesses are like this.

You say they're out to make money, but given their actions it really seems like they are determined not to. Their notoriously horrendous advertising and press campaigns aside, just think about this whole thing involving Origins automatically permabanning people simply if their user name is mentioned in a post that includes swear words. This system is literally designed to automatically and systematically ban paying users--uncontrolled and unchecked by real people. I say again: It is software that automatically bans people, without confirmation or investigation made by people. It is a system that automatically throws away money, without so much as the option of an appeal or a personalized grievance notice. I'm not sure I can think of a worse way to insult your customer base, apart from sending them a complimentary bag of dirty socks and kick to the face along with the ban.

 

[Kopikatsu]

*LE GASP* a thread about EA and the OP does not think they are baby eating blood drinking devil worshipers? Amazing!

I agree. EA is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They are a business. They do business things to make more money, some stuff is underhanded. All businesses are like this.

You say they're out to make money, but given their actions it really seems like they are determined not to. Their notoriously horrendous advertising and press campaigns aside, just think about this whole thing involving Origins automatically permabanning people simply if their user name is mentioned in a post that includes swear words. This system is literally designed to automatically and systematically ban paying users--uncontrolled and unchecked by real people. I say again: It is software that automatically bans people, without confirmation or investigation made by people. It is a system that automatically throws away money, without so much as the option of an appeal or a personalized grievance notice. I'm not sure I can think of a worse way to insult your customer base, apart from sending them a complimentary bag of dirty socks and kick to the face along with the ban.

If EA's actions are that bad, then they'll fail and go out of business.

But most people don't care/can't go through with a boycott, so they end up supporting EA in the end.

Basically, if their actions were losing them any significant amount of money, they'd change their attitude very quickly. But they don't, because I imagine that they're raking in more money than ever. Such is life.

 

[Lilani]

If EA's actions are that bad, then they'll fail and go out of business.

But most people don't care/can't go through with a boycott, so they end up supporting EA in the end.

Basically, if their actions were losing them any significant amount of money, they'd change their attitude very quickly. But they don't, because I imagine that they're raking in more money than ever. Such is life.

Yes, it's true that most of the time not enough people care about ridiculous stuff like this to actually put a dent in their profits. That does not, however, make it any less stupid or any more right.

 

[keideki]

*LE GASP* a thread about EA and the OP does not think they are baby eating blood drinking devil worshipers? Amazing!

I agree. EA is not as bad as everyone makes them out to be. They are a business. They do business things to make more money, some stuff is underhanded. All businesses are like this.

You say they're out to make money, but given their actions it really seems like they are determined not to. Their notoriously horrendous advertising and press campaigns aside, just think about this whole thing involving Origins automatically permabanning people simply if their user name is mentioned in a post that includes swear words. This system is literally designed to automatically and systematically ban paying users--uncontrolled and unchecked by real people. I say again: It is software that automatically bans people, without confirmation or investigation made by people. It is a system that automatically throws away money, without so much as the option of an appeal or a personalized grievance notice. I'm not sure I can think of a worse way to insult your customer base, apart from sending them a complimentary bag of dirty socks and kick to the face along with the ban.

I am the first to admit that much of what they have done has not earned them money. Not for lack of trying. Their Sin to Win campaign for Dante's Inferno was designed to make more money for them, it just failed badly. They are not some evil corporation who is out to destroy video games. Most of the developers owned by EA are good people trying to make good games, but EA's marketing and their execs are boneheads. They can't see the forest for the trees, they use quick, cheap and ultimately damaging tactics to get an increase in sales that usually winds up causing lasting damage. They are moronic, but they are a business at heart. It just seems like EA's higher ups have lost touch with gamers. EA used to be a really cool company dedicated to the advancement of gaming as a medium, however it is now owned by businessmen, not true gamers, who are more interested in the quick buck they can make by churning out Madden every year and cheap sequels like Dragon Age 2. Underneath it all are developers that deserve respect and support. Can we blame DICE and Bioware for who they are owned by? It is a hard decision for me every time DICE or BW releases a game. I want to play their games because they are good and the devs are ultimately good people, but I don't want to support the actions of their parent company EA.

tl;dr

EA is boneheaded, and greedy, but not evil.