This is why we can't have nice things

[TrashMan]

 

Becasue people are short-sighted, self-entitled idiots.

 

 

Whenever you ask people to vote on things, you're asking for trouble because people are IDIOTS.

[BruceVC]

I know this is a joke but I do think  it was completely unreasonable and unfair  that EA was voted as the worst American company when there are much more worse companies in the USA who have had really questionable and immoral business practices

[Walsingham]

To play devil's advocate, because it's fun...

 

Industrial accidents are just that. Accidents. They cost a lot of money, and ruin (middle management) careers.

 

However, the thing that makes EA crap is that they take things we care about and water them down and pimp them out and generally get inside our dreams and paint them beige.

 

The difference is between killing a baby in a car crash, and rounding up people's house pets for use as kebab meat.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Walsingham

[Gorgon]

Buu huu

 

insert favorite tiny violin image.

[Walsingham]

Back off, man. I have the World's tiniest violin. It plays only for me.

[Amentep]

Anyone who takes a poll or survey that involves self-selecting votes through the internet seriously is deluding themselves that there is statistical value or meaning in what is being "said".

[BruceVC]

To play devil's advocate, because it's fun...

 

Industrial accidents are just that. Accidents. They cost a lot of money, and ruin (middle management) careers.

 

However, the thing that makes EA crap is that they take things we care about and water them down and pimp them out and generally get inside our dreams and paint them beige.

 

The difference is between killing a baby in a car crash, and rounding up people's house pets for use as kebab meat.

 

Oh Walsie you are funny

[Nonek]

Poor EA executives, they're the real victims here, making thousands unemployed because of their own incompetence and massively devaluing their stock day after day is not easy. All they've got to console them is massive salaries and gold plated severance packages, which i'm sure they'll share with all those fired ex employees and developers. I think that to sooth their emotional trauma at this horrendous slander, they should award themsleves a comensurately horrendous pay rise.

 

After all where would the Little Britains Got Talent community be without them, they're the only ones supporting that childrens talent show?

[BruceVC]

Poor EA executives, they're the real victims here, making thousands unemployed because of their own incompetence and massively devaluing their stock day after day is not easy. All they've got to console them is massive salaries and gold plated severance packages, which i'm sure they'll share with all those fired ex employees and developers. I think that to sooth their emotional trauma at this horrendous slander, they should award themsleves a comensurately horrendous pay rise.

 

After all where would the Little Britains Got Talent community be without them, they're the only ones supporting that childrens talent show?

 

Gee Nonek if you have an issue with large Corporations just say so, but I find your obsequiousness a little unbelievable...

 

I question your sincerity around your support of companies like EA, its something about your post but I can't put my finger on it

[Nonek]

[Walsingham]

As an aside, I just noticed Nonek's sig. Awesome.

[SophosTheWise]

That text is bad. Like really bad.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

Ahh, the old "well children in Africa are starving" argument.

 

To play devil's advocate, because it's fun...

 

Industrial accidents are just that. Accidents. They cost a lot of money, and ruin (middle management) careers.

 

However, the thing that makes EA crap is that they take things we care about and water them down and pimp them out and generally get inside our dreams and paint them beige.

 

The difference is between killing a baby in a car crash, and rounding up people's house pets for use as kebab meat.

Actually, you could go with that since it is by "The Consumerist", they will be dealing primarily with consumer goods.

 

As far as companies that primarily provide consumer goods go, EA is definitely among the worst.

 

That being said, this poll has as much significance as the "who will be the next president of the United States" Internet polls, which if correct would mean that Ron Paul would have won the election with 90% of the vote.

[Volourn]

EA is one of the best game company. Theya re responsible for many games I have enjoyed playing. The haters are stupid morans who have probably played and enjoyed an EA game in the past, and will likely play and enjoy an EA game in the future.

 

LONG LVIE EA! DEATH TO UNBELIEVERS!

 

 

IT'S. IN. THE. GAME.

[Oerwinde]

Monsanto is the worst compny in america, hands down. Produce products that self replicate naturally and distribute the copies using the wind, then when farms are found to have traces of it, sue the farmer into bankruptcy. When farms actively try not to use their product, sue the people who allow them not to into bankruptcy for "fascilitating patent infringement". Stack the supreme court with your employees to ensure you can't lose. Profit.

[Malcador]

EA is one of the best game company. Theya re responsible for many games I have enjoyed playing. The haters are stupid morans who have probably played and enjoyed an EA game in the past, and will likely play and enjoy an EA game in the future.

 

LONG LVIE EA! DEATH TO UNBELIEVERS!

 

 

IT'S. IN. THE. GAME.

 

They are also in the mind control business.

[AGX-17]

To play devil's advocate, because it's fun...

 

Industrial accidents are just that. Accidents. They cost a lot of money, and ruin (middle management) careers.

 

However, the thing that makes EA crap is that they take things we care about and water them down and pimp them out and generally get inside our dreams and paint them beige.

 

The difference is between killing a baby in a car crash, and rounding up people's house pets for use as kebab meat.

The difference is between selling someone a game that they end up not liking and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton#Controversies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon-Mobil#Environmental_record

http://www.cnn.com/2003/LAW/04/14/enemy.trading/index.html

Edited April 19, 2013 by AGX-17

[babaganoosh13]

A bunch of years back (less than 10,) the company I worked for had 1 major customer, and a few smaller ones. At one point, we had a quality issue. We're talking 1 in high 10's or low 100s of thousands. I can't remember. It wasn't something that raised a lot of red flags at the time, and sometimes if you're not specifically looking for something as barely detectable as it... So they put us on a type of quality alert that said until we passed it, we couldn't bid for new business with them. After a certain period of time, we had to go six straight months without a single incident. Rather than try some window dressing, hope we pass and just try to get more new business, they actually devoted time and resources into trying to make it work. And it did. Now we have a few major customers, and more smaller and medium sized ones. We did get hit a bit when the economy went down, but in the end, we weathered it a lot better than others, and we've expanded since. Mostly because of those moves we made then, and a few years worth of frozen wages and slightly reduced benefits, which have for the most part, slowly trickled back in.

 

I'm assuming that's just a parody letter.

 

Either way, EA can take this poll, and just dismiss it. Maybe try some window dressing. Or they can stop doing what seems like to the real paying customers as stupid things that do nothing other than to piss them off.

 

Always online anything other than something that's a MMO is one thing that fits in that category. If it is an MMO, market it as such with big, bold letters. The trouble, I'm sure with calling it SimCity Online, would have been that someone in marketing thought adding the "Online" to the name would negatively effect sales. On the other hand, people would have got what they expected they were going to get without that portion of the bad will from it (assuming less customers meant less server problems.) I don't get how Steam is considered a superior form of DRM than what the current iteration of Origin is. Origin's offline mode to me has been better than Steam's. Steam certainly has a better store than Origin, with a wider selection. But as forms of DRM... The only superior form of DRM, is no DRM IMHO. Make me have the disc in the tray if you must for a physical copy. In fact, what they have decided to do to help Kickstarter funded games with waiving the fees on Origin for 90 days should only help them if they want to distribute the game on DRM channels with their respective marketplaces as well.

 

Day 1 DLC and its many iterations has been covered to death. Again though, if it's free to people who purchased a new copy of the game, whether they pre-ordered or not and at what time they did... It's one thing if it's to curb sales of used games. The last car I bought with 0% financing had a stipulation that I couldn't in turn sell it to somebody else until the car

through them was paid off, in order to curb people buying at low to no rates, and charging it to those with worse credit who wouldn't be approved of those rates at a better rate than they would have received from said company. The DA2 thing with the Exiled Prince to many (I assume) felt like punishment to those who didn't pre-order before a certain time. Regular edition copies of games shouldn't seem like gimped versions of the Collectors Edition. Window dressing is nice for those. Missing missions and companions (with their missions) for not having the CE is not. This comes from someone who has bought CE's in the past.

 

In-game micro transactions (i.e. resources in DS3 for building weapons) for anything other than free games will always piss a lot of people off. Why not add an on/off option for it in the option menus? That will allow those who want it to get it, without bugging those of us in any way who don't want it? Also, if the default is "on," let people know that they can turn it off. Again, less bad PR. Please don't advertise the DLC only weapons/armor available in an in-game store as if it was anything else, then prompt up the marketplace screen if somebody doesn't notice it was real cash/MS points vs. in-game imaginary currency. Basically, try to make nickle-and-diming as less intrusive and casually inoffensive as possible.

 

So far, DA3 seems to have a proper development time. ME4 will have to give me a reason to care about it (that one is on Hudson and Walters.) A new BioWare IP will always pique my interest, and I'm sure with the earlier lessons that it will be done right. I've wised up to sports games years ago, and only purchase them once in a while now instead of every year. (Since the 360 time frame, I've only got a maximum of one sports league game per console [which includes the Wii, PSP, and DS.]) EA is in a position to make themselves a lot better, especially since they don't poison towns and waterways, and kick veterans out of their homes, or charge dead people interest by refusing to believe they're dead, or essentially blackmail venues by denying them big acts that they sponsor if they don't sell their tickets (and in turn force higher prices for acts that a band may not want, but in order to perform in that venue...) or sell tickets on their scalping site at inflated prices before they're available on their regular site, and certainly no one has gone to war over EA, ect, ect, ect.

 

EDIT: Either that, or just do business as usual, try some more window dressing, screw up big on a thing or two, and (fairly or unfairly) run for a three-peat.

Edited April 19, 2013 by babaganoosh13

[rjshae]

Creativity and artistry don't function well in a mass-production environment run by corporate bean counters speaking pure manglish. The primary interest of the Harvard MBAs is in reducing costs and commoditizing output, which tends to relentlessly stamp out individuality and imagination.

 

Ref.: music industry, movie industry, video game industry, fiction book business.

[NOK222]

"Dragon Age 2" felt a little rushed.

 

Dont Rush games.

 

"Simcity problems."

 

Don't put single player games always online.

 

I can go on. No they are not the worst, but they need to shape the **** up, or they'll keep losing.

 

BUT HEY

 

At least they support da LGBT!

[Orogun01]

Pandering isn't something to be proud of, it shows a remarkable lack of integrity that makes their word and it's worth much lesser than that of a bigot.

[alanschu]

[Walsingham]

"Dragon Age 2" felt a little rushed.

 

Dont Rush games.

 

"Simcity problems."

 

Don't put single player games always online.

 

I can go on. No they are not the worst, but they need to shape the **** up, or they'll keep losing.

 

BUT HEY

 

At least they support da LGBT!

 

You got a point. Also, those who've never been in a big project need to understand that there's rarely a point where someone says "I have an idea: what if the product could just suck?"

 

You get agendas, and different power dynamics and trade offs are made. It's why its so rare that creative projects achieve clarity and consistency in what they deliver, IMO.

 

And the OP is quite right. The only way that the message about DRM will get across is by affecting the bottom line. I'm just not clear how. I don't understand how they're calculating that bottom line. I fear it's by the entirely laughable approach of saying that DRM will translate illegal use into legal rather than what it's done to me, which is translate legal use into not use.

[Gfted1]

...which is translate legal use into not use.

 

Do you think this is a significant enough amount of people to make them care? IMO, most people probably dont care, its only we hard core nerds that even notice. And even out of us its a small fraction that is bothered enough to actually not buy the product.

[PK htiw klaw eriF]

 

...which is translate legal use into not use.

Do you think this is a significant enough amount of people to make them care? IMO, most people probably dont care, its only we hard core nerds that even notice. And even out of us its a small fraction that is bothered enough to actually not buy the product.

I dunno, I'll buy a few products that do not require DRM, but I have been buying a lot less games lately because of DRM.

 

I'm also not buying any EA products, but that is mostly due to their games being low-quality crap.