Why EA? Just why?

[kingthrall]

Origin does suck immensely. I dont care how many times people say it doesn't it breaches human privacy by scanning your computer for software it deems inappropriate. It should be illegal end of story.

As for E.A, some games I enjoy from E.A but 90% are factory farmed games to fill up retail shelves with a lot of flaws. MA3 I would of bought probably if not for the origin software required, regardless of the ending.

source "http://www.nerdbuster.com/2011/09/eas-origin-wants-to-scan-your-pc-and-invade-your-privacy/"

 

[Fappy]

Pretty much what everyone else has said. EA is the Phage of the industry.

Wouldn't a better example have been Emerakul?
http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/EXID41950/images/roe_emrakul.png
I mean if you're going by the books, Phage wasn't that bad. She simply beat out the competition that was trying to beat her out first. Victim of circumstance really.
If you're going by the card, it's overly useless these days.
7 mana, 4 of which is colored. 4/4, no first strike so most creatures will smack her down pretty easily. No easy way to put her out, you HAVE to pay that 7 unless you have something to reduce the cost. If you try to get her in any other way you lose, literally. To my knowledge there is only one other card that say, "You lose the game", and that's used against an opponent.
No haste. And 2 mana is the most needed to kill her.

Emrakul however cannot be stopped from coming into play unless you are holding Time Stop, which literally says end the turn, remove this and all spells on the stack from the game. It's protected by just about anything you can throw at it and Wizards had to make a loophole in their poor wording on a card a rule just to hurt it.
It's 15 cost is nullified by the fact that it's all colorless, and was printed in a set that was rampant with mana explosion. I've seen him hit on turn 3.

Phage is nothing, at worst, Capcom.

Emrakul is the product of poor planning, shortsighted business practice, power hunger, and bad ideas. It's too big for itself, is far too unregulated, it does nothing but attempt to squash the competition until it is illegally the only player left in the game and nobody wants it around. JUST like EA.

You read pretty far into that, haha.

I used Phage because everything she touches dies, much like every developer EA swallows up

 

[Dandark]

Why do people hate EA? I think the thread has already given some of the reasons. Another reason is their incredibly bad PR. Even if I try to give them the benefit of the doubt or try to look past their flaws and not single them out for hatred, they always do some stupid dick move that reminds me why I hate them.

I can't think of anything they have done that I like. They have said that they intend to force multiplayer into all of their games, even the ones that don't need it. They also have really damn annoying DLC in all of their games now. They pretty mch cut parts of the game out just for DLC, they charge 800 points for a single crappy mission or some weapons in their RPG games like Mass effect and dragon age.

They just do all this crap and then have terrible PR which makes us hate them even more. Although I don't boycott games just because of EA, it does leave a huge black mark on a game if they made it so that I probably won't get it. This is the reason I didn't get ME3, it just didn't seem good enough for me to enjoy it over all of the crap that came with it.

 

[Kae]

Well, the Spore thing really pissed me off, all of it, the DRM, the changes that ruined how awesome it was going to be, everything, after buying Spore and getting so pissed off I pretty much decided that I wasn't going to buy EA products anymore, of course stuff like Pandemic's destruction and other stuff like their stupid marketing and some other stuff just made me feel like doing this, which is a shame actually because right now I'm dying to play the older Ultima games, Wing Commander 3 and the Crusader games, but I can't buy them because that would be giving money to EA, so I just don't get to play them.
As to why single out EA, well I don't think they are being singled out, and they certainly aren't the only one I don't buy from for example, I don't buy Valve products because I dislike Steam, mostly because I hate having to log-in to play single player games, and don't mention Steam Offline mode, it's completely worthless, but anyway, I think people just need a company to use as an example and EA got picked up as the company that's going to be used as an example.

 

[CaptainOctopus]

EA Games Ruins Everything

 

[Bertylicious]

Because Bullfrog.

Because Westwood.

Because Bioware.

Because Criterion.

Because Lands of Lore.

Because they fucking ruin every single thing they touch.

This. Also EA killed my wife and ate my hamster.

 

[42]

EA's not your girlfriend. Why do you care if she's being picked on?

I will adress this.

EA is indeed not "my girlfriend", but it does seem like people have lost objectivity. EA is a publisher, and a powerful one at that. Without EA, many of the games we play would simply not exist, at all, period. I started playing EA games back in the days of the Mega Drive, and I still fondly remember their logo as a symbol of quality. And back then, if, say, "Road Rash" didn't have enough tracks or if it ended too soon, we would not go on a hypocritical "crusade" against the company, cynicaly denouncing it while playing their games. I'd be happy knowing I enjoyed the majority of the game, because no game is perfect.

The issue of entitlement has been thrown around a lot, and most gamers defend the rights of their community without pausing to think things through. as if the whole debacle with ME3 wasn't enough, this thing with Dark Souls is simply ridicullous: "We demand Dark Souls on the PC!"

Lo and behold, they give you "Dark Souls" on the PC, even though making games for the PC these days is pretty much just asking for trouble.

But wait... it's GFWL...

"We demand the game come out on Steam!"

What next? Are we to start setting prices as well? Level designs? I trust professionals to make the games I play, and I've found that the more some communities get involved, the more things fall apart from the game's original vision.

I'm not saying EA are angels. But I cannot join this mass movement against a company whose games I enjoy. And if they release a product I don't like, then I simply! Don't! Buy it!

Feel free to rant away now.

Sorry, Dark Souls wasn't published by EA, it was published by Namco Bandai. and the whole Dark Souls thing is perfectly reasonable and fine. GFWL doesn't work. it never has.

EA is a bad company because it has ruined several studios, DLC practices, Online passes, and Origin being a complete spying program.
They just suck.

 

[Bvenged]

EA made C&C3, I liked C&C3; and the Mass Effect series (minus the ending, and sheer amount of DLCs).

But they 100% annoy the balls off of me with pretty much everything else they do. Sometimes I, and many others, can blatantly see where they're doing something just to bolster their profits with what appears to be little thought for the rest of us. Like charging for player card packs on Fifa's multiplayer, but refusing to acknowledge the fact that when matches are crashing, frequently, for a lot of people, wasting their money, was not EA's fault... until after they were grilled live in front of a few million people by the BBC's consumers show, Watchdog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2012/03/fifa.html

That's just the first thing that popped into my head... Screwing over consumers with project $10 was another one...

Or their bigoted response to being awarded the worst company in America 2012...

The sheer amount of good companies they bought out just to eliminate competition...

I swear their logo once grew horns, swore at me, sacrificed a goat then disappeared from the screen.

 

[lapan]

Ok, I'm kind of getting a little bit frustrated with "Fuck EA" and "Origin Sucks" and not to mention that you have the whole "Company A is now apart of EA, their games will now suck to the nth degree".

I don't know why, but I don't see anything wrong with them. Yeah they had made mistakes but the thing is that they can afford to. The question is WHY!? Fuck, even the never ending rage about the ME3 ending got them voted "Worst Company" which is just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen this decade. Way to go gaming community, you know how to kick them under the bus quickly.

And just why and where the fuck do you guys get all this hate? Why do you think that the companies that become a part of EA end up sucking when I see good games turned out.

I'm looking for a good explanation why, add some analysis, and not some stupid fucking answer that amounts to "just because they are EA."

I want good answers, and I want to get to the bottom of this.

It's not just ME3 that got them voted as the worst company.

EA has a history of buying and later closing developers beloved by the comunity. It has a horrible outsourced customer support. It tends to focus mostly on annual series of games that barely change because of the easy money. Their PR department isn't exactly the best either and their campain to make it seem like the hate is just a product of homophobes is laughable. The failing Bioware games are just a little problem of many.

 

[ThriKreen]

Also Origin Systems. That tanked the minute EA picked them up. Or do I have to talk about Ultima 8 and 9? Among other games they pumped out that were crap.

Found the article. Funny enough, it's an Escapist Magazine article from 2005:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/issues/issue_14/87-The-Conquest-of-Origin

Couple times I've noted:
- Origin was about to die when EA bought/bailed them out. Makes one wonder if, given the reputation, if the other bought studios weren't already at death's door when they "sold out". Blizzard's RTS games have always been more popular than Westwood's, could that have been a factor? So is "EA bought them out then closed them 5-10y later" worst compared to "They would have closed anyway within 1 year?"
- I got the projects wrong, it was the exact opposite, but still, doubling headcount and project count in the span of a year is never a good idea. Even worse, most were manned by inexperienced people.
- Garriott would start from scratch between Ultima projects. As someone who also deals with art tools and pipelines a lot, I can say that's a lot of wasted time redeveloping things.
- UO would probably not have existed without EA.
- Money and success got into people's heads. Would have happened regardless of what publisher bought them out.
- EA stepped in when it turned out Origin was getting crazy and burning through money.

Point is, going back to the OP's question - is that you need to expand your view and account for everything that goes on, instead of just reverting to an "EA IS EVIL" mantra. There's a lot of factors at play that, when viewed as a whole, doesn't really point to any one party as the only culprit.

It's just that a lot of the perception of "unsavory" actions EA has done, it did to SURVIVE. Closing an unprofitable studio to prevent wasting money? Try to make them pick up the pace to produce more games at a faster pace? Had they not done so, they could have ended up like Accolade, Microprose, or Sierra. Would you guys be hating on those publishers too had they done the same and gotten as big? If EA had not done so, they could have ended up being just a footnote in gaming history.

 

[lapan]

It's not just ME3 that got them voted as the worst company.

Well, in the case of the voting: Yes it did. This is how the interenet works, since they were at the center of negative attention a lot of the votes were just because of ME3.

A part of the votes was probably stirred up because of that recent issue, but saying it's the only reason they got voted as worst company is wrong.

 

[pilouuuu]

Because EA are the reapers! They are indoctrinating and assuming control of all great developers. They like to destroy and have no respect for developers or gamers!

 

[Dandark]

EA made C&C3, I liked C&C3; and the Mass Effect series (minus the ending, and sheer amount of DLCs).

But they 100% annoy the balls off of me with pretty much everything else they do. Sometimes I, and many others, can blatantly see where they're doing something just to bolster their profits with what appears to be little thought for the rest of us. Like charging for player card packs on Fifa's multiplayer, but refusing to acknowledge the fact that when matches are crashing, frequently, for a lot of people, wasting their money, was not EA's fault... until after they were grilled live in front of a few million people by the BBC's consumers show, Watchdog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2012/03/fifa.html

That's just the first thing that popped into my head... Screwing over consumers with project $10 was another one...

Or their bigoted response to being awarded the worst company in America 2012...

The sheer amount of good companies they bought out just to eliminate competition...

I swear their logo once grew horns, swore at me, sacrificed a goat then disappeared from the screen.

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

 

[Bvenged]

snip

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

If I ever see a copy, I'd burn it with fire. Piece of...

I love RTS'. All the strategies, tactics,developing play styles, BASE BUILDING, FAIR ONLINE PLAY in EQUAL BATTLEGROUNDS...

C&C3 held all of that, C&C4 did not. So preferably, burn it. Another reason to add EA to the hate-list. When they do get something right, they go and cock it up anyway.

 

[Dandark]

snip

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

If I ever see a copy, I'd burn it with fire. Piece of...

I love RTS'. All the strategies, tactics,developing play styles, BASE BUILDING, FAIR ONLINE PLAY in EQUAL BATTLEGROUNDS...

C&C3 held all of that, C&C4 did not. So preferably, burn it. Another reason to add EA to the hate-list. When they do get something right, they go and cock it up anyway.

Wait what? I knew that they took out base building and the story looked retarded but how was online unbalanced? Did they use pay to win or something like that? I ask because im always happy to have even more reasons to hate EA, it's seriously become part of my schedule, do work, visit forum, find new reason to hate EA, sigh and go back to work.

 

[spartandude]

snip

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

If I ever see a copy, I'd burn it with fire. Piece of...

I love RTS'. All the strategies, tactics,developing play styles, BASE BUILDING, FAIR ONLINE PLAY in EQUAL BATTLEGROUNDS...

C&C3 held all of that, C&C4 did not. So preferably, burn it. Another reason to add EA to the hate-list. When they do get something right, they go and cock it up anyway.

Wait what? I knew that they took out base building and the story looked retarded but how was online unbalanced? Did they use pay to win or something like that? I ask because im always happy to have even more reasons to hate EA, it's seriously become part of my schedule, do work, visit forum, find new reason to hate EA, sigh and go back to work.

they included a levelling up system where you unlock new units. the ones who got the game when it was released would have all avaliable units while new comers would only have the basic ones meaning they get destroyed EAsily

 

[Dandark]

snip

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

If I ever see a copy, I'd burn it with fire. Piece of...

I love RTS'. All the strategies, tactics,developing play styles, BASE BUILDING, FAIR ONLINE PLAY in EQUAL BATTLEGROUNDS...

C&C3 held all of that, C&C4 did not. So preferably, burn it. Another reason to add EA to the hate-list. When they do get something right, they go and cock it up anyway.

Wait what? I knew that they took out base building and the story looked retarded but how was online unbalanced? Did they use pay to win or something like that? I ask because im always happy to have even more reasons to hate EA, it's seriously become part of my schedule, do work, visit forum, find new reason to hate EA, sigh and go back to work.

they included a levelling up system where you unlock new units. the ones who got the game when it was released would have all avaliable units while new comers would only have the basic ones meaning they get destroyed EAsily

-_-



No..........................................................Just no
I don't believe you. That is so stupid, they couldn't of done something that retarded, just no.

What the hell am I talking about? Of course they would be that stupid. EA why do you do these stupid things, just why!?

 

[Fappy]

snip

snip

While I'm not sure exactly what you guys are talking about (I never was into those card games myself - so all this talk of colorless and mana and 4/4 is over my head) however, I get the jist of it.

So might I present the true face:

Spoiler

[HEADING=1]Galactus - Eater of Worlds -[/HEADING] Consumes entire planets to feed his enormous power and leaves them an empty husk.​

Does that make Bioware Silver Surfer?

 

[Bvenged]

snip

I have to ask, if you liked C&C3, how did you feel about C&C4?

snip

Wait what? I knew that they took out base building and the story looked retarded but how was online unbalanced? Did they use pay to win or something like that? I ask because im always happy to have even more reasons to hate EA, it's seriously become part of my schedule, do work, visit forum, find new reason to hate EA, sigh and go back to work.

Haha I think a lot of gamers are becoming more aware of what goes on behind the scenes of their games, and subsequently more and more gamers are getting bad tastes with some developers, but more so against the big name publishers.

With C&C4 there's little/no base building and the story was trash. While C&C3 was a bit... strained, at least it was fun and fitted into the lore okay.

Also, you can rank up playing singleplayer/skirmishes, and when you rank up you unlock new units, some of which are bloody powerful in comparison to the defaults. When you play on line and come across an opponent as good as you, but he has those units. you're screwed. That is unfair as it should boiled down to whoever makes the first mistake/exploit a weakness in their opponent fairly. this situation comes down to one player having a unit the other player doesn't. EA took an RTS, and they crapped it up for me and many others.

 

[Atmos Duality]

You read pretty far into that, haha.

I used Phage because everything she touches dies, much like every developer EA swallows up

It's an excellent metaphor.
Phage is a threat to everything, including the player controlling her.

Nobody wants to play her and nobody wants to deal with her, but you can't ignore her at all once she's there.