Update 2: EA Dismisses Dungeon Keeper Mobile Criticism

[Colt47]

Well, glad to see EA is continuing it's showing of how it has zero interest in being socially responsible to anyone, thus missing the entire point of making games to begin with. Instead, lets just gauge the hell out of our consumers for short term gain and be completely surprised down the line when people regard them the same way as zynga.

 

[Genocidicles]

Ah, I see EA is going all out for a hat-trick in the 'Worst Company in America' award.

 

[Talvrae]

I really don't understand the score the app got on app stores and on google... Even with the mind set they say we need for the game it dosent work, i had played 10 minutes game and i already hitting 24h timers, you can barelly play the game 2 minutes straight without being blocked by the timers

 

[cerebus23]

"Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience, and for some people, that's not the way they want to re-visit the franchise."

This is a massive problem with the entertainment industry in general nowadays: They take a brand name, use it to benefit from that brand's established audience, and then act surprised when it turns out that said audience expected the brand to be faithful to the original.

This is, probably, a textbook case of trying to "have a cake and eat it too". Slapping a recognized brand on something is easy. Actually doing work to make sure those who seek a familiar brand feel at home? Not so easy, specially with cases like Dungeon Keeper, where you try to adapt an old-school PC game into the app market.

The really sad thing here is that this type of brand abuse is going to blow up on their faces. All these entertainment companies are burning down their precious brands and IPs, and building up a lot of resentment from audiences, which could result in brands becoming worthless, thus losing the industry a way of increasing profits.

Short term thinking screwing up everybody yet again.

They will just do what hollywood does and start rebooting stuff.

 

[Caiphus]

Ah, I see EA is going all out for a hat-trick in the 'Worst Company in America' award.

Indeed, what the hell happened to this:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130075-Electronic-Arts-Wants-To-Be-Voted-Best-Company-In-America

I mean really, this is an odd way of going about scraping back that goodwill, fellas.

 

[Barciad]

Ah, I see EA is going all out for a hat-trick in the 'Worst Company in America' award.

Indeed, what the hell happened to this:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130075-Electronic-Arts-Wants-To-Be-Voted-Best-Company-In-America

I mean really, this is an odd way of going about scraping back that goodwill, fellas.

Dear Lord. Some people are just beyond help. I will be curious as to his response when his company receives that hatrick of golden turkeys. And when events like this a brought up for why his firm is so disliked - how will he respond? Just how will the man defend himself?

 

[Colt47]

The only reason these guys are even staying afloat is the general ignorance of the people buying their console releases and the people who now have games tied into their origin platform. People might bash on Valve with their steam platform, but I've never once felt the company was trying to pull questionable tactics or take advantage of the people with games tied to their system.

 

[Stevepinto3]

There are all kinds of things one could say about this, from how you're not even "playing" a few minutes a day, to the problematic idea of a company completely dismissing widespread criticism (from a company that claims to be wanting to do right by it's customer's now), but I'm gonna focus on this little tidbit;

He did admit that the team was looking into further data points to see exactly where the rage is coming from, but theorizes that it is due to hardcore Dungeon Keeper fans coming into the game and expecting a full Dungeon Keeper expereince, rather than just a taste. "Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience, and for some people, that's not the way they want to re-visit the franchise."

NO. BAD EA.

Stop reviving franchises that haven't had a release in over a decade only to turn them into something wholly different than the original. You did this with Syndicate and it was hated. Why the hell did that message not sink in?

I don't suggest completely pandering to the original audience, but what is the point of resurrecting an old property name just to strip out everything fans originally liked about it? Who is this game for then?

Oh right, it's to dupe people on the mobile gaming market and make off with as many micro-transactions as possible before the whole thing flops and is forgotten.

"We want to be voted the best company in America"
-EA

I'd like to lose some weight EA, but that ain't gonna happen if I don't start hitting the gym and stop drinking so much soda, is it?

 

[loa]

It's possible to make a good free 2 play dungeon keeper.
Make the game good and then offer visual trinkets as a way to support the devs and say thank you for a good game for sale just like path of exile does.
You don't even have to worry about server costs if it's mainly single player like the originals were.

Instead you opted for the manipulative bullshit path and you took it to the point at which it doesn't resemble a "game" anymore.
You've ruined DLC, something that could've been a good thing.
You're ruining free to play, something that could've been a good thing.
Fuck you.

 

[VanQ]

Has any other medium, any at all, ever tried to pull the kind of bullshit you see game developers pull with these micro-transaction riddled messes that we call mobile games? Has any other medium given you the product on the promise of it being "free to play" and then charged you out the nostrils if you wish to enjoy more than a few moments of it at a time?

Has anyone ever tried to charge to see the next page of a book? Or charge on a scene-by-scene basis for movies or television? Has any other industry been so scummy as to pull this kind of shit? If so, I genuinely want to know how they reacted to this in order to stomp it out, because I've never seen anything like this before.

And the worst thing is, not just the shit-**** developers that push this crap, not just the shit-**** game journalists that sell out to this crap for ad revenue, but it's the shit-**** gamers that defend micro-transactions that plague these kinds of experiences. I really can't describe anyone that would support this any other way, words are failing me and Australian dialect is rising to the surface.

 

[OuendanCyrus]

There's nothing wrong with F2P games with optional microtransactions, games like Loadout and Blacklight Retribution does it right in my opinion. They're not fucking cash grabs like this game. What a bunch of hacks~

 

[laggyteabag]

"gamers upset with the game's microtransactions are playing the game wrong"

Ah, the usual "The game is not bad, you're just playing it wrong" argument, I swear that this is pretty much an instant PR disaster for whoever decides to utter those foul words. I understand that EA is a business and their main aim is to make money, but to make a game as slow and boring as Dungeon Keeper, and then expect people to spend £100's on microtransactions whilst claiming that if you don't buy them you are "playing the game wrong" is just a disaster.

"Our intention with the mobile version was to give as many people as possible a taste of that original Dungeon Keeper experience, and for some people, that's not the way they want to re-visit the franchise."

Yes, a taste. A taste. You play dungeon keeper for a maximum of around 2 minutes in each session, that's like getting a meal, eating a spoonful, and then waiting up to 24 hours to have another unless you pay to get your spoon back. This is horrible game design to say the least. Games like TF2 or Blacklight hit the nail on the head when it comes to F2P, you can download it a and actually play it without having to worry about some arbitrary timer or being restricted to how long you can play for. There is no game here.

 

[prowll]

The problem is it has the name "Dungeon Keeper on it. There are hardcore fans out there who have wanted a new Dungeon Keeper game for 15 years now.

Dungeon Keeper is not the only mobile game that has bullshit and predatory pricing structures like this. In fact, tons of them do and I don't even think Dungeon Keeper is the most egregious offender. However, it's one of the few that are taking a historically loved franchise and basically turning it into a cash churning mockery of everything that people liked about the previous games. Also...

[HEADING=2]it's not actually possible not to rate the game below a 5[/HEADING]
at least, according to this random guy. If you do, it takes you to an EA support ticket instead of rating the game.

Closing your eyes and covering your ears and pointing to the rating system you're willfully and knowingly fucking with to be high as a counter point is not good.

I'm not one to point to metacritic as the end all be all of ratings, but at least EA can't screw up the whole system:
http://www.metacritic.com/game/ios/dungeon-keeper

It's currently at a 4.9 from professional outlets, and an 0.2 from users.

If someone with an device that can play this could confirm this rating system is true I'd love to hear back. I'm sure the Escapist would like a juicy news story like that too

I'll go ahead and confirm for both operating systems. Got excited, put it on my phone, then my ipad. Both of them popped up with 'Please rate us' and if you choose 1-4, you go to an EA ticket, not posting a review. Now, if you put down 5, you can then change the rating in the app store. But who would do that after saying it was a 5?

 

[Gorrath]

So, scummy game that pushes "micro"-transactions by putting the gameplay behind a timer-wall, A rigged rating system meant to purposely inflate their review scores, and a press release that sounds every bit like dismissive, arrogant garbage. EA, I'd like you to tell us all again about how you'd like to be voted best company in America.

 

[prowll]

I wish they could just make 2 versions, a cash grab version for free and a premium edition that works as a proper game for 10 bucks.

This, right here, was what I came here to post. I'd HAPPILY shell out 10$ for a proper version.
Captcha: Autism Speaks. (At EA.)

 

[Quellist]

A 'Taste' of the old Dungeon Keeper...that's all they are offering? in that case maybe they want to take the price of Dungeon Keeper on GoG (around $5.99 I believe) into account, and drop their prices to an appropriate level for a game that's just supposed to offer a 'taste' of the original, say drop the $70 package to $0.70. That would be much more in line with their stated goal.

Though quite honestly they'd actually have to pay me to download the thing at this point

 

[Dijarida]

So what where we expecting them to say? Something deep inside my cold, hard Canadian heart tells me that they wont be taking this to the dev teams. Go team pleb!

 

[Sofus]

I don't understand why people are surprised. I mean it's EA... what did you expect?

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok I got to asked, who the hell had been rating the game around 4.5 on Google play? The rich people who can fork out the cash for the game greed?

EDIT- Ah, that explain ALOT but I don't see the point of having an actually feedback as it seen they don't give a danm about the players reply at all.