EA Ranks as the Fifth Most Hated Company in America - MMORPG.com News

SBFord

EA Ranks as the Fifth Most Hated Company in America - MMORPG.com News

Electronic Arts has scored another dubious honor with its ranking as the fifth Most Hated Company in the United States. The list of top 20 most hated companies was compiled by 24/7 Wall Street that uses factors including major events, customer satisfaction surveys, employee reviews in determining ranks. EA is fifth after Equifax, Fox Entertainment Group, NFL, and University of Phoenix. Further, it ranks ahead of companies including Sprint, Cigna, Wells Fargo and The Trump Organization.

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SBFord

While not surprised it made the list, I'm sort of surprised it ranked as "high" as it did. What an honor....

MaxBacon

To me this a utterly ridiculous thing, people with messed up priorities driving all their attention to petty situations, there are far worse companies that cause realm harm in our society that deserve to be brought up to light and shamed for it, but they get away without much bad publicity because the internet is too busy talking about how EA is the devil. hm

Quite the popularity contest.

SBFord

MaxBacon said:

To me this a utterly ridiculous thing, people with messed up priorities driving all their attention to petty situations, there are far worse companies that cause realm harm in our society that deserve to be brought up to light and shamed for it, but they get away without much bad publicity because the internet is too busy talking about how EA is the devil. hm

Quite the popularity contest.

If you read the methodology, there were a number of factors taken into account that go beyond "popularity contest". It appears that things such as environmental impact were not factored in. However, employee and customer surveys were, so it's telling.

While not the end all be all, it's still a slap at EA for its terrible business practices.

MaxBacon

SBFord said:

If you read the methodology, there were a number of factors taken into account that go beyond "popularity contest". It appears that things such as environmental impact were not factored in. However, employee and customer surveys were, so it's telling.

While not the end all be all, it's still a slap at EA for its terrible business practices.

Yeah but this is the thing, it's still a popularity contest it's always a select major companies that get the list, while everyone else flies under the radar, the size of such companies always means they are usually the ones facing most backlash, complaints, etc... Just like my country the most hated ISP is the largest one, the most hated supermarket company is also the largest one.

Arillix

And yet, year after year, the insatiable implussive spending habbits of the worlds gamer population continues to fund them. Great job.
Madden is still Madden, CoD is still CoD, as goes for all repeats they sell that get snatched up.
 

cjmarsh

EA: the company gamers love to hate.

[mod edit]

MaxBacon

Arillix said:

And yet, year after year, the insatiable implussive spending habbits of the worlds gamer population continues to fund them. Great job.
Madden is still Madden, CoD is still CoD, as goes for all repeats they sell that get snatched up.
 

Because gamers need to learn that EA is not the devil.

EA is a major company but they just follow trends with or after other companies, this focus on EA doesn't mean things will change on a wider picture, just means everyone else tends to be able to do the same things (or worse) and get away with it without much backlash.

Ubisoft and others are like the good sheep right now, they will not learn a lesson from the backlash EA is getting, they must be just thankful that the backlash is focusing on EA so they can keep doing their own thing.  

Coolit

No surprise, they can hang this next to the multiple awards for "Worst Company in America" they already have.

Aeander

Verizon is the company that deserves it the most this year, considering that they released the data of all of their customers all over the web last year. Plus, fuck Ajit Pai with a pitchfork. 

cameltosis

It doesn't surprise me to see EA on the list. 

You just have to consider the impact on the average person's life. Most of those companies on the list, when you read about why they've attracted negativity it's mostly to do with small scale incidents that don't affect the average person, it's just the incident is morally reprehensible. 


With EA, the opposite is true. If you've been a gamer for any length of time, you will have been negatively affected by EA. Whether it's the closing of a favoured studio, the poor quality of their games or the aggressive monetisation, you will definitely have been negatively affected. 


Even something like the Equifax data breach, sure, hackers stole millions of American's details and Equifax did a poor job preventing / fixing it, but what was the actual impact on the average person? Probably nothing. 



So yeh, the crimes other companies committed are much much worse (sexual assault etc), but EA actually impacted the lives of millions of gamers in a negative way, in addition to being morally corrupt. 

CrazKanuk

Arillix said:

And yet, year after year, the insatiable implussive spending habbits of the worlds gamer population continues to fund them. Great job.
Madden is still Madden, CoD is still CoD, as goes for all repeats they sell that get snatched up.
 

COD isn't EA, but I think it does go to illustrate what @MaxBacon was talking about above. 

MaxBacon

cameltosis said:

With EA, the opposite is true. If you've been a gamer for any length of time, you will have been negatively affected by EA. Whether it's the closing of a favoured studio, the poor quality of their games or the aggressive monetisation, you will definitely have been negatively affected. 

Really? Where are the mobile game publishers and developers on the list then?

After all they blatantly exploit people psychologically to aggressively monetize their games, their games are low-effort they are many times just created surrounding the monetization model and for the monetization model, in ways to hook that addiction.

Tell me that what EA did is worse and more deserving than we see companies do on mobile gaming?

No wonder big publishers decide to push on mobile, there's a different standard on how things play out on those type of games.

Aeander

I understand how the others got there, but could someone enlighten me on what University of Phoenix did to earn the spot? I know nothing about a major controversy for them.

WhiteLantern

This looks to be more "valid" than the scam ones done every year that only cater to the geek crowd. The ones that always have them worst by (negative) popularity. At least the clowns running this one used some measurable metrics (which are still schewed by negative popularity).

Equifax - major data breach pissed people off
Fox - conservative-leaning news group that millenials love to bash
NFL - throw out the cart because a few apples (appear to) stink
University of Phoenix - diplomas not worth their ink
EA - they love money more than....anything else

Of those, I'd say only Equifax and Phoenix deserve their reps. Fun times!

Aeander

WhiteLantern said:

Fox - conservative-leaning news group that millenials love to bash
NFL - throw out the cart because a few apples (appear to) stink.

Surely you are intelligent enough to see the gaping double standard in these sentences.

You criticize millenials for hating Fox's right wing political stance while simultaneously criticizing the NFL for not squashing the freedom of speech of a few bad apples.

Either neither of these deserve hate or both of them do. Don't be a hypocrite.

Hatefull

I bet they laugh all the way to the bank! I personally find it hilarious to be honest. One of the biggest gaming companies on the planet and they do things to make money...how weird and evil. Very funny to me.

On a side note I thought EA had fingers in Battlefield, not CoD. I could be wrong about that.

Scot

MaxBacon said:

cameltosis said:

With EA, the opposite is true. If you've been a gamer for any length of time, you will have been negatively affected by EA. Whether it's the closing of a favoured studio, the poor quality of their games or the aggressive monetisation, you will definitely have been negatively affected. 

Really? Where are the mobile game publishers and developers on the list then?

After all they blatantly exploit people psychologically to aggressively monetize their games, their games are low-effort they are many times just created surrounding the monetization model and for the monetization model, in ways to hook that addiction.

Tell me that what EA did is worse and more deserving than we see companies do on mobile gaming?

No wonder big publishers decide to push on mobile, there's a different standard on how things play out on those type of games.

We have companies like Activision doing many of the things EA does and relatively getting a pass. You are quite right about the biggest often being the most complained about, but this does point to what EA is like. The fact many go under the radar does not take away from the poignancy of EA's listing.

But just a reminder to everyone, if EA disappeared the bad practice would carry on regardless.

FlyByKnight

I'm more surprised I see no mention of Comcast.

ThexReporter

Awwww, angry neck beards lol.

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CrazKanuk

Hatefull said:

I bet they laugh all the way to the bank! I personally find it hilarious to be honest. One of the biggest gaming companies on the planet and they do things to make money...how weird and evil. Very funny to me.

On a side note I thought EA had fingers in Battlefield, not CoD. I could be wrong about that.

Agree, essentially it's capitalism at it's finest, which is the basis of American ideals. Effectively, EA is on the list for being too American, lol. 

MaxBacon

Scot said:

We have companies like Activision doing many of the things EA does and relatively getting a pass. You are quite right about the biggest often being the most complained about, but this does point to what EA is like. The fact many go under the radar does not take away from the poignancy of EA's listing.

But just a reminder to everyone, if EA disappeared the bad practice would carry on regardless.

Yup.

There are too many double standards here, and this is why gamers will continue getting more of the same, if people want those practices to change then the same standard has to apply universally, until then, all this noise won't change anything.

And I think we all know that won't happen so just let it rage on, people have been putting EA in a crucifix for years now, and in those years, the only thing that changed is more aggressive monetization models and a quality factor that does not keep up.

ConstantineMerus

Now if you want our love back you have to purchase loveboxes. Each got a hidden chance of containing a love potion. Our estimate is you need spend 4,500 years or $2,100,000,000,000. Enjoy your grind. 

Xarko

Those exact people who get emotional then buy their next product anyway, so there is no reason to change anything. Otherwise I cant explain how the company which seems to be one of the most hated gaming companies in the last decade still makes such mad bux.

MadFrenchie

Xarko said:

Those exact people who get emotional then buy their next product anyway, so there is no reason to change anything. Otherwise I cant explain how the company which seems to be one of the most hated gaming companies in the last decade still makes such mad bux.

They have a monopoly on all major sports games, the Star Wars IP, Battlefield IP, among others...  Brand recognition is far more powerful than anyone wants to admit.