EA rage/hate is pretty funny.

Never is there a positive thread about EA on the internet, yet they sure do sell a shit-ton of games.

a single xbox game weighs 4 ounces, a ton has 32000 ounces.

Your telling me that EA has only sold 8000 games?

Or is a shit ton more then a regular ton?

Use your fucking brain. God damnit

What EA rage/hate? Why is questioning and criticizing what is happening "rage" or "hate?

Its like this, some of there games are good so yea... they sell, and they deserve to, the developers aren't the bad guys there, its the higher-ups with all there crappy ideas about DLC, DRM, and dont even get me started on Origin. Also, people hate on EA because its easy to.

Honestly I thought Deadspace 3 was pretty good. I liked it, The story wasnt intresting, but I like the customizable weapons, and the space atmosphere.

Half the time they get it right, the other half they don't.

I would say they are one of the most inconsistent companies next to capcom, and before Bethesda/Zenimax. Which is why I don't like them, If they were consistently good, then i could just buy their stuff, even if they were consistently OK. but they are never consistent.

Both a good thing, and a bad thing.

I kind of agree. They really haven't been on good form at all lately.

But them being voted worst company twice in a row is the dumbest fucking thing.

What's wrong with EA? The games I play from them are consistently well made. Albeit, they are mostly only published but still. Battlefield, FIFA, Dead Space, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, etc are all great games to me.

It's a good thing you're here to set everyone straight. I have changed my mind, I love EA now. Thank you OP.

everyone knows a shit ton is larger than a ton!

Ahem, quite a lot of their games sold below expectations.

Just saying.

Well EA is the best worse company in american, so.....

It is pretty funny, and it's almost 100% justified.

Don't get me wrong, they publish good games and take risks that companies like Activision will not do because everything should be Call of Duty and sell 20 million copies. But their business practices themselves are, in a couple of words, fucking shit. They have this weird mentality of, "We can do no wrong. Keep on keeping on." It's arrogant bordering on complete stupidity. And recently they have done NOTHING to try diminish or absolve that hatred. If anything they've given people more reasons to hate them.

Gamers have much hate in their hearts. They are happy to share it with anyone the slightest bit deserving.

k

Yea, but a metric shit-ton is way more then a normal shit-ton.

Aside from maybe Sony first part stuff, EA has probably been publisher of the generation for me. Purely from a games-released perspective. Not going to defend their business practices.

I used to think people were so stupid for piling on EA, but the more I think about it, the more I realize how much I like seeing people stick it to giant corporations. So let the hate flow.

Sure they have talented studios and their games are high quality in a lot of ways, but I don't think I've actually enjoyed playing an EA game since ME2. I don't necessarily hate them, but I don't see myself buying many games form them for a while. Maybe that will change with Mirror's Edge 2, but it will have to get reviewed pretty well for me to get it.

I feel almost the same way about Ubisoft except they at least put out games that get my attention more often. Either way, I get plenty of enjoyment from sub-AAA games to not ever feel obligated to waste my money on games from either of the two unless they're really worth it.

@oraknabo: Where are all these indie/arcade games that hold people's attention like a AAA game? I keep looking for games I want to play or that I feel I'll derive enjoyment from but all I've ever come away with are the Magic DOTP games (Magic player since '94). The Arcade is full of genres I can't stand (platformers, beat em ups, Metroidvanias (which were great in 1993 on my SNES)) and generally lacking the depth that I need from a game to really enjoy it. Help?

I want to hate and rage.. but it's not Activision anymore?

I may be slow, but I am flexible. It can be EA!

Hell, it can be that miserable little poodle you call Prince.

quality thread

Cause the internet. Obviously.

You know why everyone hates EA? Because they do put out good games and then people have to put up with EA's shitty policies and marketing to play those good games.

If they only made shitty games no one would give a shit about them.

EA is misunderstood for the most parts - as far as I can tell from the outside, it's one of the better big business employers in the industry, and I love or like many of EA's development teams and franchises. Every now and then EA does blunder big time, or try to pull some scheme that's clearly over the line - but the extent of lashback is for the most parts unwarranted.

That said, I hate EA's love for mystery box microtransactions, and how shittily it's been handled in games like Mass Effect 3 coop and SW:TOR. Apparently FIFA mystery boxes are the most profitable thing EA does, and I can assure you that I hate each and every fucker who buys into the mystery box scam! Eternal shame on your souls. *Blech!*

In terms of irrational hate, Origin is the perfect example. Just look at all the Origin hate. Why? It makes perfect sense for EA to push its digital storefront by making some of their games Origin exclusives (and doesn't Valve do the same kind of stuff with most of its homegrown games as well?), and it can only be a good thing for the market at large for Steam to have some competition. Origin has been a solid platform for me and it only gets better. Rumors have it, that Origin's customer support is a lot more responsive and quick to deal with complaints too. Nah - rabid haters don't care. Irrational hate is what that is.

I guess EA will have to start to hold itself to a higher standard and stick by those new guns, because you can be certain the current climate of EA hate does hurt their bottomline. I guess the next step for Origin is proper forums integration and soon thereafter to tap into selling user created content akin to Steamworks (at least that's the wise thing to do). Just think of how Valve is monetizing what once was free mods. Steamworks is essentially giving modders a sales platform, and Valve is taking its cut. If EA doesn't get into that business, it'd be insane.

All EA needs to do is to create a game that's suited for such a thing. May I suggest a Free 2 Play Battlefield 2142-style game, with mechgame levels of infantry customization (high granularity of customization of shields/armor/cooldowns/movementspeed/overall mobility/energy/special abilities etc.)? Maybe some in-round economy in the vein of counterstrike or DOTA - but more on how you're upgrading your exoskeletton and weapons and gadgets. With evermore skins and taunts and UI customizations to unlock. Such a thing might have a shot at cornering some free 2 play marketshare. A free 2 play translation of MOBA into a Battlefield game set in the semi-distant future. By all means make it mystery box based, as long as redundancy is kept at reasonable levels. Longterm integrity of metagame progression must be assured.

lol

I can't tell you how many fucking times I would argue with my friend about how much he thought he hated Mass Effect 3. Every time I bring up how excited I am for Dragon Age 3, he brings up Mass Effect 3. At this point EA is okay because he's building a $2,000 gaming PC for Dragon Age Origins and II for as cheap as he could get it. Lovely. Oh right, and he's a believer in the Boycott EA thing, but first I'll buy all these EA games coming out I like.

I believe games were made for the sole purpose to drink beer to. With donuts.

why does this thread exist? is there some twitter feud going on or something?

@oginor: Recently I've enjoyed playing State of Decay and Walking Dead on XBLA. I got way more hours of enjoyment from Trials, Fez, Limbo, Braid & Shadow Complex than from most AAA games I played this gen.

On PC, I played Arma 2, Amnesia & the Penumbra games, both Witchers, Waking Mars, 30 Flights of Loving, the Real Texas, Hotline Miami, Retro City Rampage, FTL, Signal Ops, Binding of Isaac, Legend of Grimrock, Introversion's games, 3 STALKER games--not to mention all of the old games I still play from GOG & Steam.

I'm not saying I never play AAA, but you can play a lot of good games without ever giving money to EA, Activision or Ubisoft.

On the AAA side, I've been playing mostly Square Enix and 2K games this gen: XCOM, Dishonored, Human Rev, Metro, Sleeping Dogs, Just Cause 2. Also both Arkham games, the Fallouts, Portal 2 & L4D, GTA & RDR, THQ stuff like Darksiders, Red Faction Guerilla and SR3.

Also great games like MGS4, Dark Souls & Dragon's Dogma from Konami & Capcom. Sega put out Condemned 2 & Alpha Protocol.

Microsoft & Sony have also released a lot of good games this gen.

People don't like how they run their business, usually the quality of a game isn't in question except for a few cases. But if I'm gonna be spending 80 bucks a pop for next gen EA games, they better be fucking amazing.

@hollitz: Not Ubisoft?

I think it's dumb. EA has made some awful business decisions and should be held accountable but they've also been responsible for some real good games. And the whole "voted worst company in America" thing is so incredibly stupid I don't even know how to vocalize it. I guess I just sorta did.

Conversions are hard. :/

As for the topic at hand, I think a lot of the EA criticism is warranted if a by hyperbolic. The whole Consumerist thing is a key example of that: yes, EA's top-level policies are frustrating for those of us who don't pirate games, but arguing that they're worse than, of the top of my head, any petrol company ever is kind of ludicrous when you come to think about it.

That said, games are always complicated business wise because you have people who make games because they love them and the people who try to sell those games at a profit. The conflict between art and commerce always creates very tense situations, and I think the three major publishers (EA, Activision, Ubi) as a whole take a lot of lumps for when that tensions frustrates the third party in the equation, those of us who just want to play awesome games.

It's not really that funny or surprising. People generally like companies that openly pander to their customers verbally and through their actions.

EA doesn't do either and in fact in many cases does the inverse. Which is why they get such intense hatred from some corners. Many companies actually treat customers far far worse than EA treats theirs in far more important ways, but EA is dumb enough to act like they mean to.

The same is somewhat true of Wal-Mart. Target's business practices aren't a whole lot better and in some cases are straight up worse, but Target does a much better job of telling shoppers what they want to hear which in part helps shape their better image.

Hard deadlines because...shareholders.

Because all they do is follow other, better companies (usually badly) or buy better companies and then run them straight into the ground. EA basically has no redeeming qualities and brings nothing to the table.

A game that enforces always online DRM only to have it not work for the first month (while locking people out of trying to get a refund) is pretty funny, too

I don't really have anything against EA. I mean, they've done some things that I personally feel are shitty and I just don't buy whatever game they're pimping out, but I don't actively go around bashing them and wishing for their downfall or anything like that.

But, I digress. The above image is how I view most of the people online who claim to hate EA. I know there's a very large casual/"people who just don't give a fuck about gaming websites" crowd, but those people aren't the only ones buying EA's games. Obviously, there are also the people who do frequent these websites and who do like or are indifferent to EA, but there is clearly a sizable group of people who "bash EA" and yet, for some reason, still buy everything they crank out. Despite how people feel about "voting with your wallet," I think openly saying "I don't agree with what this company is doing" then turning around and giving them your money is infinitely dumber than anything else you could do.