Poll: Worst publisher based on Principles.

[dfphetteplace]

Who the hell voted for Valve? Did EA and Activision hire people to troll out site? "Damn them and their endless pursuit to at perfect and free upgrades instead of charging for DLC! Damn them!"

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

EA are just playing catch-up with Activision. Not only that, but where EA haven't been profitable for years and their stock prices are declining, Activision is actually successful with it's evil. They've been here since the second generation of consoles and are only getting more powerful; they must be stopped... but they will never be stopped.

I'm very surprised to see Microsoft only have 3 votes.

 

[The_Lost_King]

Did you even need to ask? seriously in this forum here is how it goes down on how much people hate them:
BIG FAT #1 is EA
#2 is Activison
#3 is Ubisoft
#2 and #3 might need to be switched around.

 

[TeletubbiesGolfGun]

This thread is made up by people who are blinded by valve. A monoply in any form is always bad, no matter the creater or owner, monoplies are bad. Also doesn't help that eveen if you buy a game from a store you still need bloodly steam to play. (mad about Dawn of War 2)

You know what I hate? People who completely misuse terms in order to create some scare that doesn't actually exist.

1) Steam is not a monopoly. They have several competitors which do exist in the market. They've managed to be the most successful by being first to market, listening to customers, and offering a better service than most, but success alone does not a monopoly make. In the very real sense of the word, they aren't a monopoly.

2) Even if they were a monopoly, there would be nothing stopping other companies from coming in and competing with them. They aren't given sole domain over PC gaming by any exclusive rights or government interventions, and plenty of companies in the industry have the capital it would take to dethrone them if they finally went batshit crazy and screwed over companies and customers.

3) Monopolies are only inherently bad if they lead to one option in the market and the exploitation of consumers and the inefficient allocation and use of resources. Frequent sales, and constant implementation of upgraded community features aren't exploiting consumers. Even if they were, you're not forced to buy from them to play games, even PC games. You can skip Steam altogether if you don't like it and still play plenty of games.

To sum up, you're misuse of the term monopoly and attempts to create some scare where there's no cause for one are utterly transparent and would only fool the most jaded of Valve haters.

this.

plus the fucking people making theoretical situations where valve WOULD become a monopoly/turn bad..

THEY HAVEN'T, and they still make bucketloads of money, why the hell would they change now?

i just..and you call them the worst? just..how?

 

[Tanis]

I try not to join 'bandwagons' but EA will forever have my contempt after killing of so many GREAT developers.

Remember Westwood Studios?

Yeah...

Dear EA, please just die.

 

[Evil Smurf]

EA made it impossible to buy my favourite game Sid Meier's Alpha Centuri for about 8 years. I only recently bought it. So screw EA

 

[ResonanceSD]

Saw EA on the list.

Didn't even read the other options. Seriously, fuck those guys.

When your company has to make media statements telling the world "we're not evil", there's definitely something to watch out for there.


So yeah, watch it, Google

 

[Vigormortis]

This thread is made up by people who are blinded by valve. A monoply in any form is always bad, no matter the creater or owner, monoplies are bad. Also doesn't help that eveen if you buy a game from a store you still need bloodly steam to play. (mad about Dawn of War 2)

EA, I have really have no quarrels with them, either I don't play games they make, or enjoy them immesely, which is more than I can say for valve games. Valve enjoying for shorts bursts, EA, I tend to enjoy longer, but than again it could be because I'am a gamer who enjoy playing games for a good while.

Also I think valve is trolling their fans for half-life 3 just because they can, after all, most valvies are blinded.

Seems to me it's the other way around. This thread (and by extension this website) is full of people blinded by their hate of Valve.

I love it when people go on tirades about Valve's "monopoly" on PC gaming. It's fucking hilarious. Especially when one considers how apparent it is these same people have no true grasp of what a real monopoly is.

Here's a useful link: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monopoly

You'll notice the part that says, "Exclusive control". Not sure if you've noticed, but a vast majority of the PC games market is decidedly NOT under exclusive control of Valve.

When you can definitively point to a moment in time when Valve does have complete control over every game in the PC market, then you can sit on your high horse of "superiority", look down on us poor pathetic Valve fans, and tell us they have a monopoly. Until then, please try to cut back on the rhetoric.

I'm also noticing that a vast majority of the people in here voting for Valve as the "most evil" publisher (ha! people think they're a publisher? hilarious.) are claiming so because they aren't fans of Valve's games.

So let me get this straight. Valve is the most "evil publisher" because you don't like their games?

Oh yeah. Seems totally legit.

My God. The levels of lunacy the Valve hate on this forum has reached is bordering on laughably insane.

Also, Valve isn't "trolling" their fans about Half-Life 3. A vast majority of the "trolling" is coming from people who enjoy picking on Valve's fan base. It's truly pathetic.

So maybe you should turn your "hatred" towards the people that deserve it. I.E. the more immature portions of the gaming community.

Valve has 11 people voting them the worst... wat?

Maybe cos people are dumb in believing there will be a half life 3. Their wont. Valve started episodic gaming yet cancelled HF Ep3 cos they couldn't be bothered. I dont get why people have this jesus complex with valve, they do fuck all. Yet people worship them.

Valve didn't abandon Half-Life. They abandoned episodic game design. They came to realize it didn't conform to their design philosophy.

How anyone thinks them moving from "episodic" to "games as a service" means they abandoned Half-Life is absolutely beyond me. Seems like a complete failure of logic.

But, for clarity's sake, here's a link: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/

And, conveniently, it's from April of this year. So it's not like it was something they said a long time ago.

One last thing: "Valve...does fuck all"?

Oh yes. They are the laziest developer on the planet.

I mean, it's not like they've shipped at least one game every year since 2003, designed, built, and updated the worlds largest and most popular game distribution platform, provided hundreds of content updates to just about every title they've released, free of charge, etc, etc. All with a total employee count of about 250. (little known fact, they currently employ people from WETA workshop, PIXAR, and Jim Henson Company)

Yes. You're right. They "do fuck all". And are clearly deserving of all of our ire.

 

[Vigormortis]

I am temted to say EA (i voted for it) but really it's valve. They keep saying "Oo, Half Life 3, it could be round the very next corner" *wink wink, nod nod* but it never is!

They've actually never said that. Almost all "Half-Life 3" news is rumor and speculation on the part of the news media and the gaming community as a whole.

Honestly, one of the only "real" bits of Half-Life 3 related news I've seen in the past two+ years is this: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/04/23/gabe-on-ricochet-2-delay-but-he-doesnt-mean-ricochet/

And even then, it's basically Gabe Newell apologizing for the lack of transparency on the status of Half-Life 3.

He confirms they are still working on it, but aren't ready to talk about it for fear they may end changing the direction they're taking the game, thus disappointing fans by breaking "promises" or some such thing.

Otherwise, pretty much all of the Half-Life 3 "news" we've all seen over the past few years has been pure rumor or the gaming media attempting to troll the fans and churn up page hits.

 

[Faladorian]

-Square Enix plugged its ears with their fingers screaming " LALALALALALALA I'M ONLY MAKING THE GAMES THAT I WANT AND NOT WHAT PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ASKING LALALLALALALALALAL".

I would defend this by saying they don't have to listen to their customers (plus, Valve does the exact same thing, verbatim) but... I wish Square would abandon Final Fantasy. It's just such shit and it gets in the way of my Kingdom Hearts.

---

OT:

EA, absolutely no contest. They're one of the very few on the list that is not only massively incompetent, they're malicious about it.

They're the grim reapers of the video game world, more or less... except they decide to break out the scythe way before a company's time.

 

[aguspal]

I am very temted to vote for Valve JUST because they are not the golden saints everyone makes them out to be, but really, althougt they are far from that, even taking into account their flaws its just not enough to reallistically say that they are the very worst... So... that leaves me with...


I honestly cant think of one. Every single one of them has good games.


I guess I am voting EA. Not because I hate them, but rather because the latests games they are mading just plain arent my cup of tea. I think the last game I enjoined from them was Mirror´s Edge, and that was a VERY average game, nothing spectacular. Althougt I guess it at least tried to be different, so yeah, bonus points for that.



EDIT: Just as expected, EA is on 1st place and has a pretty damm good headstart from pretty much every other company, except of Activision (I am not sure why this one is on 2nd place? As far as I know the only thing going on for it is an annoying guy, nothing else. Plus, it has CoD.. althougt judging by the insane CoD hating for no apparent reason at all, this is a bit more understable now). thats in 2nd place. The rest are relativly even.


And Capcom... Cmon, what has Capcom done wrong? I honestly dont see it. I guess I am just that blind when it comes to bad actions from game companies... or something is up.

 

[Tumedus]

Based on "principles"...

I gotta go with Activision, followed closely by Capcom.

EA will win this hands down, but all they are, really, is irrepressibly greedy. They see something thats making money, milk it for every dime its worth, and throw it in the trash when they are done. From a gamer point of view, that sucks because developers that were good ususally end up tainted if not destroyed in the process. But the principles involved are still just basic greed.

Activision on the other hand, while certainly motivated by greed, is finding every way possible to fuck you without you realizing you are being fucked. Just on the Blizzard side of things: MTs, way overpriced MTs I might add, in a full priced subscription MMO. RMAH. RealID. Tracking software. An approach towards banning meant, if anything, just to get their cut, not to eliminate. Forced Battle Net. Even the authenticator.

And that doesn't even touch on the shit they do in terms of litigation or the myriad of nasty things they try to get through in the console market.

 

[ATRAYA]

It was tough for me to choose between Activision and Electronic Arts. But I've boycotted both publishers, so a forum poll isn't really anything for me to ponder for too long. Thus I picked E.A., simply for how unfathomably RETARDED they are. :/

 

[GAunderrated]

The fact that I sat there and had to think really hard between EA, activision, Ubisoft,capcom, and microsoft shows me just how many publishers screw us over one at a time. I personally wish I could have voted for all of them because as of right now they are all pretty shit in my mind

 

[Chiave]

Interesting thread. I really like the metric being used for people's decision.

That said, I'm not going to vote. The fact that I know every publisher listed here have demonstrated their fucked up priorities, only makes indie developers look more attractive.

 

[Lunar Templar]

Other - NCsoft, not only for shutting down City of Heroes, but for doing so in a way that shows that they really didn't give a damn about it.

This is only the latest in a long line of MMOs they have killed, but is by far the most unexpected, and the vague explanation they've given - "a realignment of company focus" - is not a fitting epitaph for such a long running game.

this.

since there's not been any real reason given other then 'cause we can, now be good little sheep and buy the next shiny thing', not to mention how they just fired the staff working on the game, some 80 people just thrown out with no notice.

so while i wanna say 'EA' for all the stuff they've done, i can't. EA makes virtually nothing i like so i don't buy from them so the bullshit they pull doesn't effect me personally.

NCsoft killing CoH for no reason, does effect me, thus, I'm legitimately pissed

 

[disgruntledgamer]

Interesting thread. I really like the metric being used for people's decision.

That said, I'm not going to vote. The fact that I know every publisher listed here have demonstrated their fucked up priorities, only makes indie developers look more attractive.

Yes but the point is to identify the publisher who is the most %$^&*$ up.

I'm actually Surprised Capcom isn't getting more votes they've actually got less than Valve and they've done a lot more shitty things like On Disc DLC and would be my 2ed place vote.

 

[disgruntledgamer]

Other - NCsoft, not only for shutting down City of Heroes, but for doing so in a way that shows that they really didn't give a damn about it.

This is only the latest in a long line of MMOs they have killed, but is by far the most unexpected, and the vague explanation they've given - "a realignment of company focus" - is not a fitting epitaph for such a long running game.

this.

since there's not been any real reason given other then 'cause we can, now be good little sheep and buy the next shiny thing', not to mention how they just fired the staff working on the game, some 80 people just thrown out with no notice.

so while i wanna say 'EA' for all the stuff they've done, i can't. EA makes virtually nothing i like so i don't buy from them so the bullshit they pull doesn't effect me personally.

NCsoft killing CoH for no reason, does effect me, thus, I'm legitimately pissed

Just because they never gave a reason doesn't mean they don't have one. I don't think any profitable company or service would completely shut down without a reason.

 

[lacktheknack]

In the grand pie-fight betwixt EA and Ubisoft, Ubisoft wins due to EA releasing Mirror's Edge, my favorite game.

Ubisoft is worst.

Funnily enough, Ubisoft won't even be in the riding much longer if they take cues from how they executed the PC release of Rayman: Origins.

 

[lacktheknack]

Did you even need to ask? seriously in this forum here is how it goes down on how much people hate them:
BIG FAT #1 is EA
#2 is Activison
#3 is Ubisoft
#2 and #3 might need to be switched around.

Valve is garnering more votes than Ubisoft.

Explain.