This article is related to Electronic Arts, and not The Sims/SPORE/SimCity.
Why do people hate EA? When I say ‘people,’ I mean ‘some people,’ some of the time — a minority. And when I say ‘hate’ I mean mostly the writing of mean things on the internet.
This brand, this company, this group of people, creates some of the best and biggest games in the world with an average Metacritic rating that’s high and rising. It is profitable, but not outrageously so, and is under-valued by the stock market. So how has it managed to create enough ill-will to be voted the worst company in America? And even if it wasnt, even if we put that down to a temporary ‘Mass Effect ending‘ negative blip that everyone has already forgotten about, there’s no doubt that ‘EA Hate’ is a thing.
I wanted to talk about this with Peter Moore, EA’s COO and he was big enough to tackle the uncomfortable question head on. It’s obvious that the whole issue bugs the hell out of him, and other people who work at EA and who care about EA as an entity. “It’s painful when you read that commentary. The vitriol is hard on the teams. They read this stuff, their neighbors ask them about it. You probably saw the video, EA in a Nutshell. It portrays us as a money-grubbing monolith, gouging. And you just want to say… really…we are The Man? Unfortunately, I’ve always learned that the tallest trees catch the most wind.”
Of course, there’s no doubt that EA does silly things and makes dumb mistakes, as do all large companies. The point of this question isn’t really to exonerate EA for every foolish or greedy thing it’s ever done, but to investigate the depth of emotion that the company attracts — to try to understand why.
I just hate EA because they ruined Sims.
The DLC is understandable, but it’s straight up rude. Don’t make me pay $50 for Sims 3, raise the price $10 on expansions, and then pay to get DLC. If I’m paying THIS much money for one game, I deserve all of the content.
Yup, seems like a pretty accurate video. Also, Spongebob voiceovers <3
that video is really amazing
EA: “Oh, why everyone hate me? It’s because we are so good and fabulous? Why? I can’t understand it”
The reasons are right there, written below the video.
I used to love EA. T_T
Spore got a 10/10 from IGN just sayin.
For me it’s deep ingrained:
– I played every Bullfrog game, loved them and was eagerly hoping for continuations for some. EA killed that studio.
– I was an eager player of the Wing Commander series, having purchased every single game from that series, and a tentative Ultima player. EA purchased and destroyed Origin, causing both series to disappear. The nickname “Destroyers of Worlds” really fits EA (it was a play on Origin’s motto, “We create worlds”).
– I really despise harsh DRM, to the point I don’t purchase a game until I’m 100% sure I can crack it (which is why I have over a hundred games purchased though GOG; no DRM). While EA is not the worst offender (Ubisoft often manages to have even more odious DRM than EA), it’s still a bad offender, with DRM schemes that do more to inconvenience legitimate players than to curb piracy.
– I’m not going to change digital distributors just because the publisher of a game I want to play doesn’t want to deal with it. I would rather not play the game. I don’t see myself spending a red cent on the Origin store for the next couple years at least, even if this means I’m not playing some exclusive game. By the same token, I’m not installing Origin’s DRM on my computer, so any game that requires me to install Origin is automatically discarded from my buy list.
– I really dislike paid for DLC. It’s effect on me is that I usually only purchase games that are bound to have DLCs after a year or two, when a “game of the year” edition with all DLC included for free is released. This is why the only Mass Effect game I’ve ever played was the first one.
– For the most part, I don’t purchase games that force the player to be online when playing single player. I make an exception for when the game is sold at bargain bin prices (which is why I purchased Dark Spore from Steam this week; it was $5, and for this kind of price I’m willing to deal with the always on requirement).
In the end, EA managed to irritate me enough that, if I’m in doubt between an EA game and another game that is not published by EA, I always take the non-EA one. I’m not angry enough at EA to completely shun it, though, so I might purchase an EA game if it is sold outside Origin, there is no real competing game published by another company, and the combination of price and DRM isn’t enough to drive me away.
SPONGEBOB!!!! ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
Sadly, as I’ve said before somewhere on here, a lot of what we are angry with EA over spans the whole gaming industry. And to look at an even bigger picture, Business as a whole is just as flawed.
I personally wouldn’t complain about paying 50$ for a game that was worth it, of course, their version of worth it, and mine are different. They are forced to think in numbers, I am also, just in a different way.
It is like how they figure the cost of a slice of pie, first you total the sum of everything that goes into the pie: Let’s say it’s cherry. Cherries are expensive, 4-5$ per Lb, say it takes 2 pounds of cherries for the 9 in. pie, there’s 10$, don’t forget the flour, sugar, salt, butter that is the crust and it’s cost. So let’s say it’s up to 25$ by the time we figure just the material, that isn’t including labor, time, and the cost of the electricity to cook it. SO lets say it is to 28$ by the time all that is figured in, No one in the friggin right mind would pay that for it. So it is cracked down into an acceptable percentage of the cost.
With a game, it isn’t quite as extreme, but there are the developers/programmers/producers/various personal, the cost of the programs/computers they use, the cost of the office they occupy, the actual cd/dvds the games are printed on, the boxes, the inserts, the flyers, the manuals, each thing has to be ordered by, designed by, shipped by, received by, stocked by, Quality assured by, ….games like Everything else that is produced/made passes through a lot of hands, and this is America where we think we should make 20$ an hr to stand around with our thumbs in our asses…
So yeah, thank your whinny brother/sister in law, that snotty neighbor lady, or someone else who expects to get paid for doing nothing, they are part of the reason everything costs more, that and Oil price gouging because everyone has to pay more for shipping….Food is ridiculous…Once you think about it, it is the system that is flawed, not just one company, but the Beast as a whole.
So please throw rocks at me if you must, but seriously think about it. I still hate EA for the crap they’ve pulled, but there are a lot of other companies on my shit-list now too. My two cents, for what it’s worth.
Funny, I watched that video two days ago… Instantly subscribed.
Simple answer to the question is that them and their games are getting worse and worse by the minute.
They half ass their games, that’s why I despise them. Lazy, greedy, and swallows up wonderful little gaming companies like Popcap.
‘People’ hate EA because of the level of greed they display. They (the senior execs.) are interested in only one thing… money!
This is seen in the amount they charge, and the reduction in quantity you get.
This also comes over in the amount they charge for The Sims Store items. each object should only cost a few pence/cents and sets should be a lot cheaper, but they charge well over what the items are worth.
Then you’ve got things like their attack on Steam sales! They only did that because they don’t want to have to drop their prices to Steams levels to competeand so try to force up Steams prices instread.
It doesn’t do them any favours when their CEO John Ricciello makes greedy comments like these:
“I actually think that the economic crisis the game industry moved into in 2008 is a blessing, It’ll force “the riffraff” to go out of business.
“When your six hours into playing Battlefield, and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you for a dollar to reload, you’re not really very price sensitive at that point in time…”
“all I want to do, if you will, is to have them [Activision’s Call of Duty] rot from the core,” “”…
This kind of attitude/talk is going to breed hate.
What amazes me is how people let them get away with it. EA make an absolute fortune from gamers yet people are always willing to forgive them when the put up prices and drop quantity.
John Ricciello and his board are laughing at everyone!
http://bit.ly/N2yKLk – Rocking chair in Supernatural!
I used to have a problem with DLC, but I think the Sims has some pretty good DLC stuff like the magic set and rock wall and that kind of thing. The only problem I have is with the prices.
If you’ve noticed though, the sim gurus have been spending a lot more time interacting with Sim players since EA was voted as the worst company.
EA is not the only company doing all these things, but for sure is the worst. If you compare the overall quality of all EA games with other companies like Blizzard or Valve, you will realize how poor EAs are.
lol. Best video ever about EA.