Where Did it all come from?

[Gameguy20100]

You know as I look through these forums almost everyone hates EA why I know they aren't saints but Other company's have done the things people moan about worse In some cases, a lot of people think I'm Odd for my "Valve deserved worst company" post to be fair this was a joke and looking back a pretty poor one but now I'm getting off topic, Where did this hatred come from I mean I woke up some day and they went from a much loved company to "the scum of gaming" so really people what have EA done to make you hate them so much that other company's haven't?

 

[Costia]

1) Bad PR. EA executives said a lot of stupid things that made them look bad even when they didn't actually do anything bad (or anything at all)
2) Bad customer service on Origin. There were quite a few articles about EA banning people which removed those people's access to the games they bought
3) Bad business practices. While other companies do that as well, EA seems to be the most consistent in picking up the worst ideas they could find. (This might not be true - which leads to 1-Bad PR )

 

[tippy2k2]

Personally, I'm becoming more and more convinced that EA is getting the hate for the same reason that Mass Effect 3's ending got so much hate: They love it so much that when it falls short, they lash out more for it.

...I should probably expand on this.

EA started off as a darling company and have created some of the most iconic games. However, though I personally have minimal problems with their business practices, a lot of people hate them for it. You can ***** and moan about EA all you want but it's pretty undeniable that they create some pretty damn good games.

So people really really really want to play the video games that they create but are bugged a lot by the practices that EA does. It's like going to a restaurant that serves the best food in your town but is staffed by a bunch of rude assholes for waiters.

At least that's my theory. People hate EA with the passion of a thousand burning suns because they see a lot of potential in the gaming side of EA getting squandered by the business side.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Personally, I'm becoming more and more convinced that EA is getting the hate for the same reason that Mass Effect 3's ending got so much hate: They love it so much that when it falls short, they lash out more for it.

...I should probably expand on this.

EA started off as a darling company and have created some of the most iconic games. However, though I personally have minimal problems with their business practices, a lot of people hate them for it. You can ***** and moan about EA all you want but it's pretty undeniable that they create some pretty damn good games.

So people really really really want to play the video games that they create but are bugged a lot by the practices that EA does. It's like going to a restaurant that serves the best food in your town but is staffed by a bunch of rude assholes for waiters.

At least that's my theory. People hate EA with the passion of a thousand burning suns because they see a lot of potential in the gaming side of EA getting squandered by the business side.

You know your probably right

 

[Gameguy20100]

Bad customer service on Origin. There were quite a few articles about EA banning people which removed those people's access to the games they bought

You cant play Steam games If you get banned either

 

[Costia]

Bad customer service on Origin. There were quite a few articles about EA banning people which removed those people's access to the games they bought

You cant play Steam games If you get banned either

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4044-QDHJ-5691

Your account may still be used to play single-player games or to connect to non-secure game servers and for games played over a LAN. To find non-secure servers, please change your filter settings in the server browser list to show servers which are not VAC-secured (from the Steam main menu go to the View option, select Servers and then select "Not secure" in the Anti-Cheat drop-down).
NOTE: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does not have non-secure servers

Additionally they use separate systems for the forums/community and the games. Meaning that if you get banned on the steam forums it has no implication on your gaming account.

 

[Gameguy20100]

Bad customer service on Origin. There were quite a few articles about EA banning people which removed those people's access to the games they bought

You cant play Steam games If you get banned either

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4044-QDHJ-5691

Your account may still be used to play single-player games or to connect to non-secure game servers and for games played over a LAN. To find non-secure servers, please change your filter settings in the server browser list to show servers which are not VAC-secured (from the Steam main menu go to the View option, select Servers and then select "Not secure" in the Anti-Cheat drop-down).
NOTE: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 does not have non-secure servers

Additionally they use separate systems for the forums/community and the games. Meaning that if you get banned on the steam forums it has no implication on your gaming account.

In my defense I didn't know that

 

[Costia]

So people really really really want to play the video games that they create but are bugged a lot by the practices that EA does. It's like going to a restaurant that serves the best food in your town but is staffed by a bunch of rude assholes for waiters.

Wouldn't it make it a bad restaurant? Most restaurant reviews will note the service and not just the food.
There was a discussion about it somewhere. When reviewing a game, should you also review the service it comes with?
If it's a good game but you have to go through hell to make it work, should it be reflected in the score?

edit:
This is something that happened to me:
A friend came by, and knowing i play a lot of games, asked what is the best looking game i have.
I wanted to show him BF3. So i launched it, Origin came up - "Origin requires an update"
So i waited a few minutes for the update. Then the browser UI came up and said i need to update BF3 - i think it was about 500MB update. I tried to cancel the update , since i only needed the single player to show the game. But no, the update is mandatory - it won't launch even the single player without updating first. The update ETA was a few hours. So due to the Origin "service" i couldn't show him the game.

 

[DoPo]

Personally, I'm becoming more and more convinced that EA is getting the hate for the same reason that Mass Effect 3's ending got so much hate: They love it so much that when it falls short, they lash out more for it.

Yeah, back in the day, EA took a stand for games beind about emotions, beauty and so on. In short, art. Yeah, one of the first to claim they were - they even put it into their very name - Electronic Arts, which is not mentioned as much these days. At some point, the original visionaries lost their voice, it seems. EA became more about publishing games than the games themselves. Which isn't bad by itself - heck, EA continued producing games many liked a lot. But EA started making mistakes. Big mistakes. I don't think many of them were with actual malice in mind but they did understandably leave people bitter - a game bombs, a sequel turns not as expected, studios get closed down, etc. Now, how many of those were directly the result of EA...I'm not sure. But EA itself is not faultless and connections are easy to be drawn. In the recent years, EA continued making mistakes, though - more and more of them. It's like they were on a downward spiral. It's not hard to get a reputation for jinxing stuff when so much stuff you touch breaks. Well, also, EA touch a lot of stuff due to just being so big. At any rate, there was a lot of criticism brought down due stupidity and bad practices on their part. And EA's mistakes continued to alienate people - Spore is a fine example - the game had a hugely botched launch most people who bought it very irate. And...so they continued. Their PR team didn't seem to do a good job either.

So yeah. It's not an overnight thing and a significant portion of the hate comes from people liking and trusting EA in the past. Breaking that trust scored them enmity which just got stoked and fanned with repeated mistakes and perceived mistakes that were only there because of past failings.

 

[Luca72]

EA gets harshly criticized for everything they do. And they certainly deserve some of that criticism, but not all of it. The thing that bothers me the most is when they finance a promising new game (in other words, a developer comes to them with a unique idea, and they front the necessary funds for it) and then EA precedes to hamstring it by trying to make it "more appealing".

A great example is Mirror's Edge. People say we should be thankful for EA, because without them, Mirror's Edge wouldn't have been made. But I disagree. I think an independent developer making a game like that could have done a better job. If you want to make a first person parkour game, you should spend all your efforts making that vision work. Instead, EA decided there was no real precedent for it, so they did what they always do. They threw in guns and pretty graphics. Guns and pretty graphics are fine by themselves, but were not necessary for this particular game.

A company like Valve that isn't publicly traded may take forever to put out a game, but when they do, you can be sure that it's the product of the vision of its' developers. It isn't just there because the company has a fiduciary responsibility to its' stockholders. EA's games aren't bad, but they don't give the impression of being built by people that love what they're doing. They're built by people working for a salary to fulfill a contractual obligation.

That's my personal take though - I think where it really started was the DRM

 

[tippy2k2]

So people really really really want to play the video games that they create but are bugged a lot by the practices that EA does. It's like going to a restaurant that serves the best food in your town but is staffed by a bunch of rude assholes for waiters.

Wouldn't it make it a bad restaurant? Most restaurant reviews will note the service and not just the food.
There was a discussion about it somewhere. When reviewing a game, should you also review the service it comes with?
If it's a good game but you have to go through hell to make it work, should it be reflected in the score?

Yes it would and that's why I went with that analogy.

People really want to play Dragon Age/Mass Effect/Sim City/name your favorite EA game here (The Food) but they really don't like dealing with the asshole waiter (the business/service). Some people (like myself) like the food so much that they'll forgive the shitty service in order to eat at their favored restaurant. Some people (EA Haters) won't tolerate the shitty service so they skip going to eat their favorite food to make a point. And some people just don't like the food

The analogy is breaking down a bit but it's not perfect. As DoPo [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.405735-Where-Did-it-all-come-from#16860274] has stated, EA is making more and more mistakes recently that even someone like myself, the self-appointed Escapist EA Defender, is having a hard time justifying their actions. However, this is why I actually am hopeful for their future pending the new CEO they put in; they've fired their asshole waiter and now we'll see if they put in someone who is going to treat the customer nice or if they'll stay on the road they're on. At this point it might be too late but I really hope it's not; EA has a TON of potential but they need someone who can get them back onto the right road before they completely lose control and crash their company.

 

[Laughing Man]

If anyone can actually sit there and actually say they really 'hate' a game publisher, to the point that it factors in to their game buying decision, then they have a life that is so easy it borders on being tragic.

I pick and choose which games I purchase from EA not because I love or hate them but purely on the business models they chose to use for that game. Crysis 3 a game that doesn't require always on DRM and didn't get it so it got bought, Simcity a game that didn't require always on DRM but got it alongside a whole bunch of PR nonsense to justify it, didn't buy it.

Love and hate of the publisher is never a factor.

 

[krazykidd]

Personally, I'm becoming more and more convinced that EA is getting the hate for the same reason that Mass Effect 3's ending got so much hate: They love it so much that when it falls short, they lash out more for it.

...I should probably expand on this.

EA started off as a darling company and have created some of the most iconic games. However, though I personally have minimal problems with their business practices, a lot of people hate them for it. You can ***** and moan about EA all you want but it's pretty undeniable that they create some pretty damn good games.

So people really really really want to play the video games that they create but are bugged a lot by the practices that EA does. It's like going to a restaurant that serves the best food in your town but is staffed by a bunch of rude assholes for waiters.

At least that's my theory. People hate EA with the passion of a thousand burning suns because they see a lot of potential in the gaming side of EA getting squandered by the business side.

They don't make good games . The publish good games . Then the taint these good games with terrible business practices . My 2 cents on this topic.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Hm.. EA publishes unfinished and/or horribly buggy games since... C&C Renegade - or at least it's the oldest i remember at the tip of my hat.
Though i always liked their sport section.

Then Spore & the new Sim City happened and if you add all the stupid stuff their CEOs, programmers, PR dudes and whatnot say/write in public every once in a while it just seals the deal.

They're not "evil" and i don't "hate" them, but i think they're bad for the industry/gaming as a whole. I'd love to see them gettin' crushed by their bad business decisions so they're forced to either change drastically or go the way of THQ.

 

[tippy2k2]

They don't make good games . The publish good games . Then the taint these good games with terrible business practices . My 2 cents on this topic.

That opinion is another perfectly valid one when it comes to "EA hate". If you don't like seafood, you won't go to the restaurant no matter how awesome the seafood is

Especially if you're not a fan of sport games since those are probably the main games that EA themselves develop (I for one love me some Madden and FIFA! In fact, I'm playing Madden right now doing my scouting in my online franchise). There are a handful of others that I'm not aware of but you are correct, the majority of games EA works with are worked with as a Publisher, not developer.

 

[Windcaler]

You know as I look through these forums almost everyone hates EA why I know they aren't saints but Other company's have done the things people moan about worse In some cases, a lot of people think I'm Odd for my "Valve deserved worst company" post to be fair this was a joke and looking back a pretty poor one but now I'm getting off topic, Where did this hatred come from I mean I woke up some day and they went from a much loved company to "the scum of gaming" so really people what have EA done to make you hate them so much that other company's haven't?

Well no, I highly doubt you woke up one day to see them go from loved to hated company. You have to understand its not any 1 thing that people have a problem with. Im not going to pretend to represent gamers as a whole so heres the issues as I see them

1. Shoddy product releases. See Dragon Age 2, Origin, Sim city, Medal of honor warfighter, etc. In a lot of these cases they were just bland games and some people think a few were ruined by unresonable time constraints set on developers, lack of necessary funding, or actual criminal action. I dont care what the reason was that turned these games into shoddy products the fact was they were shoddy products. Most of them were just bad but a few started out (and one continues) to be completely broken

2. Origin is spyware. I will under no circumstances put spyware on my machine and because EA wont put their games on other competing services then I cant play any EA game despite how awesome it may be. I have boycotted origin because it is spyware and it has already effected my gaming because any game I do buy from them I then have to go find a DRM crack so origin doesnt interfere with the game I payed money for let alone scan my computer without my permission

3. Horrible PR campaigns. Some of EA's marketing is the worst Ive seen in my life. Look up Sin to win or "Your mom will hate dead space" which were advertisements aimed at prepubescent children which shouldnt have even touched these games without their parents approval. These marketing ploys set us back both as an artistic medium and as a socially acceptable hobby. They've gotten better in recent years but unless they change their marketing to actually be upstanding and move us forward toward free artistic expression and social acceptance then Im going to count these against them.

4. They never own up to their mistakes. Heres something about me, I criticize people, places, and things all the time. However if a person stands up and says "I screwed up" I am much kinder to them because that takes a lot of guts to admit fault. On the flip side I get really annoyed when someone knows they screwed up but does everything they can to avoid blame. EA has said things like "We can do better" but I have yet to see them admit actual fault to the products they have released or their horrible business practices

5. Horrible business practices. Microtransactions have no place in a full $60 game. EA games are notorious for cutting content from their games to sell as DLC and yes there is proof of this happening at least once. Lets also not forget that they are responsible for the destruction of many developers that made great games such as Bullfrog and Pandemic

Those are my big five which make me not want to do business with EA. Its gotten to the point where I have emailed or called developers and said directly "I want this game but I dont want to deal with EA's nonsense. Can I just give you guys the full $60 for a game with no DRM, no origin requirements, and an assurance that your publisher wont get a cent of it?" usually I dont get a response. My ire for EA has built up over the years with failure after failure on their part. I dont hate them but I certainly dont want to do business with them if I can avoid it.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

People had been annoyed by EA Sport's division for releasing the same games (essentially) every year and basically monopolizing the sports genre. Then when Origin was announced, described, released, etc it features a lot of controversial requirements such as scanning the user's computer in search of ROMs etc. Then there's the customer service through Origin: nothing is automated so you have to wait for a physical person to reply to a grievance (so if you have a problem on Friday night after business hours you may be screwed until Monday morning and unable to play any of your Origin games).

I could be wrong about the stuff above but the point at which things boiled over was the release of Simcity.

 

[niknar266]

I discussed the state of EA with a friend a few days ago. They're basically in a dead to me state again like they were at the start of this generation. It's a shame as well because I thought they'd turn over a new leaf funding and/or acquiring some great IPs and developers (Bioware with ME and DA, Dead Space, Mirror's Edge etc) this generation. Then they go a run them into the ground with rushed releases, Letting games go MIA or turn into dumbed down or more generic games.

 

[Dirge Eterna]

If anyone can actually sit there and actually say they really 'hate' a game publisher, to the point that it factors in to their game buying decision, then they have a life that is so easy it borders on being tragic.

Or they are discerning consumers.

Who are you to judge someones life based on your flawed perceptions? Get over yourself.

OT: I hate EA from their purchase and destruction of Westwood. I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt from Command and Conquer 3, but CnC 4 sealed the deal for me and made me hate em. I will still buy EA games though if they are up to snuff, I bought Mass Effect and Dragon Age, but beyond that they can fuck themselves. And Dragon Age 2...gah

That was when I started to dislike EA as well. When C&C hit the skids I was pissed. I cut my teeth on C&C and Dune back when I started playing games and I developed a love for RTS games. I will give them a chance if the game is good ala ME and DA. But they seem to suffer from what most modern companies today suffer from. They want the profit this quarter and aren't worried about the future because even if the company flames out they have a golden parachute and they can just move on to another company. The upper management don't play games and don't have a vested interest in the hobby.

 

[Gameguy20100]

So let me reverse the question on you, OP. Why so much Valve hate? Are you merely lashing out at "the golden child" because you feel EA is being unfairly attacked? You've admitted at least once that you were wrong about Valve (the banned account situation), so is it fair to assume that you don't really dislike Valve, but rather, you don't know much about them?

The Reason I dislike Valve well there are a couple of reasons

1: their insecure fan base you cannot claim to not like Valve without people baying for your blood
2: I dislike their games I am willing to put up with a lot of shit from a company if the games are fun I don't get that with Valve I mean some people will be nice to a game If it gets a lot of praise me I'm gonna be a lot harsher to it, If you tell me Half life 2 Is the best game ever I will play it expecting the best game ever so when I see a half decent fps that other company's have done better, It leaves me scratching my Head.