Originally posted by JimmyYO EA makes it sound like they're content with being the worst vidoe game company as opposed to the worst company in general.
The poll is on a consumer based site, so it is focused on the worst customer-facing companies. This still leaves banks, but what makes EA worse is this...
Banks offer a generic service that you can get from any financial institution. Hate BoA? Don't do business with them. Simple. Countless other companies offer the same exact service.
EA produces ART. A unique product specific to that company. You may hate the company, but if you want to play Mass Effect, you have no choice but to deal with EA. So people either tolerate their anti-consumer practices, or are forced to limit their gaming options.
The poll is on a consumer based site, so it is focused on the worst customer-facing companies. This still leaves banks, but what makes EA worse is this...
Banks offer a generic service that you can get from any financial institution. Hate BoA? Don't do business with them. Simple. Countless other companies offer the same exact service.
EA produces ART. A unique product specific to that company. You may hate the company, but if you want to play Mass Effect, you have no choice but to deal with EA. So people either tolerate their anti-consumer practices, or are forced to limit their gaming options.
Yeah but you do not need EA to get by in life....that's the whole point of many of us that are in astonishment. I don't remember the last time where art trumps well being.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Pff for me EA is the worst company in the world because I've never had any dealings with the ones mentioned by others personally ergo I cannot form a objective/unbiased opinion on those companies and thus cannot judge them as being better or worse though I will have to say this much: The US companies starting to push for a healthcare reform in my country (you know what kind of system would result) are starting to get a leg up on EA but still treating people like expendable wallets is at its core and evil practice and EA is guilty of such.
SOE... has actual F2P games now so it gets outclassed by EA in the greed department and while SWG was a shining turd of a game debacle it carries no consequence when A) EA fucked over their entire userbase for one game series for "artistic integrity" (in as much as anyone defending the burning of the Twilight saga due to artistic integrity) SOE knows about the various emulator projects of SWG and has opted not to C&D them so they get another leg up (before you ask: nothing confirmed but developers from the emulators have been in contact with the PR reps from SOE in the past asking various questions and even some old SWG devs which, then, were still at SOE).
I think you mislinked. That's a list of acquisitions by EA, not a list of killed companies. Try again.
It's a list of game companies that drew the attation of EA and are now gone swallowed by the crap factory that is EA. Not only does EA produce crap. They buy up great companies and stop them from making good games.
People voting yes understand there are worse real life companies out there the hyperbole being used to make the point. This is like the raspberry awards. They always give the award to someone at least semi famous even though there are lots of worse unknown talent out there.
Let me preface my post here with this statement before ranting about how EA sucks.
I agree, EA is not the worst company in America or the World, but they are awful.
Originally posted by Isturi
Im not sure were else I would ask the question. After all EA is a gaming company.
I haven't read this whole thread yet but this comment I find hilarious though.
EA is not a gaming company, gaming companies IMHO try to make good games, EA doesn't care about making good games, they care about parting you of as much of your money as they possible can at all times.
That should be clearly obviously to everyone now that they are trying to put microtransactions in every single game they make, even single player games, Dead Space 3 anyone?
That and they reskin old games and just increment the number on the title, aka any EA sports game, reskined from the year before here is Madden 2013 guys, don't mind the fact nothing has changed from 2012.
Now they are doing the same shit with the Battlefield series, someone in this thread already mentioned how they are making it like COD with the releases every year and I agree.
I mean Battlefield 4 is already accepting preorders and Battlefield 3 what just finished putting out its last Expansion / DLC with "End Game" in March right? makes sense..
EA would print money instead of making games if it was legal.
I wish EA would stop buying good companies, games, and IPs and ruining them, just running them into the ground and scavenging every cent from them they possible can before discarding them.
Like someone already mentioned, how many companies do they need to destroy before people open their eyes? Origin Systems, Mythic, Bioware, DICE, I'm sure the list could go on and on like a RAP sheet.
EA wouldn't be such a bad company if they just bought out these companies, offered them more money / backing / resources and let them do their own damn thing like they were doing before being bought out by EA in the first place.
Having the money, backing, manpower, etc, etc, of EA was suppose to be a boon, be helpful to these Developers / Companies (that EA buys out) and really help to make them really shine, instead it buried them all in the EA Graveyard, the Graveyard that increases in size every year with every new developer / company acquisition they get.
EA would have still made a boat load of money and these games / companies / and IPs wouldn't be washed out shells of their former selves or even worse non-existant if EA just let them "do their own thing".
Instead they do what they always do and mess everything up with their lustful money greed.
It may not be all EA's fault but it is just funny to think about how many of these developers were pretty damn successful all on their own before being bought out and how some of them don't even exist anymore even as "just a name" within EA . (ie: Origin Systems, Mythic, etc.)
EA is the boss with all the power, money, and control (being the publisher), hard to blame the developers for EA pushing and rushing them and not giving them any wiggle room or control over themselves to grow, take risks, innovate, and just "do their own thing", you know the "thing" that made them so successful that EA wanted to buy them out in the first place.
Not every game has to be super accessible or casual friendly, not every game you make has to be for EVERYONE.
And not every game needs to be made fast, just like its being spit out of a assembly line like a order at a fast food resturant. Waiting sucks and we as gamers and consumers hate it, but in the end we would rather have quality over speed, EVERY TIME.
Also what is with the releasing of sequels / incremental numbers every year in repeatable / predictable fashion, games like Madden and CoD with little to nothing changed, usually nothing significant enough where they couldn't just send you a free update or possibly DLC (yuck) over the internet since all these consoles and PCs connect to the internet nowadays. It could easily just be a patch rather than them charging you another $60 for the same thing again, we see huge content additions and changes in MMOs via patches everyday.
Niche games are good, taking risks is a good thing, innovating is a good thing. Not every game has to pull in WoW like numbers and money to be considered succesful, would it be nice? yes, but as long as your making a profit and your consumers are happy, I don't understand what the big deal is.
Ugh, I got a headache now... I'm off to read the rest of the thread.
It's a list of game companies that drew the attation of EA and are now gone swallowed by the crap factory that is EA. Not only does EA produce crap. They buy up great companies and stop them from making good games.
Looking back over the list, I'm hard-pressed to find examples of what you're describing. Many aren't relevant to core gamers (Pogo, Popcap, and the sports game companies), and the big-name companies apart from that tend to have made games exactly as good as, if not better than, previous offerings (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, C&C:G: Zero Hour, Lord of Ultima, Battleforge, Battlefield 3, Sim City). Actually I suppose all of those examples are better than what each of those companies produced prior to being with EA.
The only vague argument would be Mythic, since I'm sort of alone (on these forums at least) in feeling like DAOC wasn't particularly great (and therefore Mythic's releases under EA were on par with their prior offerings.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
EA is no worse than all the others atm. Everyone is just mad about Sim City. I asked for someone to name the best company and no one could. Proves my point.
How does EA just being the worst video game company give any of you comfort lol?? It's like the forbes article said, this isn't a poll of which company did the most damage but more of a gauge of customer disatisfaction.
Although i would vote SoE but can easily see why EA would win.
I think you mislinked. That's a list of acquisitions by EA, not a list of killed companies. Try again.
It's a list of game companies that drew the attation of EA and are now gone swallowed by the crap factory that is EA. Not only does EA produce crap. They buy up great companies and stop them from making good games.
People voting yes understand there are worse real life companies out there the hyperbole being used to make the point. This is like the raspberry awards. They always give the award to someone at least semi famous even though there are lots of worse unknown talent out there.
I'm sorry but what the hell is a real life company? Are not all companies that exist in our reality real life? Or do you mean serious companies? You know, companies that actual make a determintal impact on one's life as oppose to a entertainment company like EA. A company, if I may add, that offers a product that adds no real value to the quality of one's life nor causes any adverse effects?
So what you are saying is that those that are voting yes are being willfully ignorant about all other factors of their lives only for the sake of driving home a point that no other company in America has done no worst to them than the atrocities EA has wrecked upon them as customers? No other company in AMERICA?
It's no wonder devs are having such a hard time getting anything right with this crowd. And these people are suppose to be the most well informed mmo players this genre has to offer.....
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I'm sorry but what the hell is a real life company? Are not all companies that exist in our reality real life? Or do you mean serious companies? You know, companies that actual make a determintal impact on one's life as oppose to a entertainment company like EA. A company, if I may add, that offers a product that adds no real value to the quality of one's life nor causes any adverse effects?
So what you are saying is that those that are voting yes are being willfully ignorant about all other factors of their lives only for the sake of driving home a point that no other company in America has done no worst to them than the atrocities EA has wrecked upon them as customers? No other company in AMERICA?
It's no wonder devs are having such a hard time getting anything right with this crowd. And these people are suppose to be the most well informed mmo players this genre has to offer.....
^Gotten to
When did anyone say this is the most well informed mmo playerbase lolol. If you love EA so much just say so. The vote has nothing to do with which company has caused the most unethical damage. Read
How does EA just being the worst video game company give any of you comfort lol?? It's like the forbes article said, this isn't a poll of which company did the most damage but more of a gauge of customer disatisfaction.
Although i would vote SoE but can easily see why EA would win.
For me I would rank:
Verizon
ComEd
Comcast
Nicor
well before EA or any video game company. Really though, this should come to no surprise. I mean Ticketmaster was the runner up. But it's nice to know where people here tend to focus their malice.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I'm sorry but what the hell is a real life company? Are not all companies that exist in our reality real life? Or do you mean serious companies? You know, companies that actual make a determintal impact on one's life as oppose to a entertainment company like EA. A company, if I may add, that offers a product that adds no real value to the quality of one's life nor causes any adverse effects?
So what you are saying is that those that are voting yes are being willfully ignorant about all other factors of their lives only for the sake of driving home a point that no other company in America has done no worst to them than the atrocities EA has wrecked upon them as customers? No other company in AMERICA?
It's no wonder devs are having such a hard time getting anything right with this crowd. And these people are suppose to be the most well informed mmo players this genre has to offer.....
^Gotten to
When did anyone say this is the most well informed mmo playerbase lolol. If you love EA so much just say so. The vote has nothing to do with which company has caused the most unethical damage. Read
Nah I don't love EA. I just have a wider perspective than the "yes" voters here.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I'm voting for them again this year. There may be worse companies out there but none of them go to the extents that EA does to save face. EA has tried telling the public that gamers just love their business models and they've repeatedly tried to justify their actions and tell everyone it was in their best interest. Most companies will back off and go "Oh crap, we screwed up bad. If you give us another chance we will try and change and make up for our past mistakes". EA likes to say "oh, well you're wrong and we only did it for your benefit anyways and besides while you may not like it everyone else does so get with the program".
I still say SOE is worse than EA, at least EA never starts with a good game then ruins it. EA at least changes thier upper management when things go bad....SOE has had the same monarchy since the begining....
Let's release an expansion, even though we've been working on changing how the entire game works...we'll release that for free next week...omg that's genius!
Edit: A Month later: Even though more than half our subscribers just left because we just bent them over. We're going to stick with what we changed because we know what's best for everyone...
Several years later: Even though several years ago we alienated pretty much any of our original playerbase, we still can't be wrong, people are just dumb and don't know what they're missing...I guess we can just shut the game down.
THis guy gets it. No other gaming company is worse than SOE. Star Wars Galaxies is a prime example of SOE ruining a game through Patches. At launch the game was great then they released the Combat Upgrade which drove away 5% of the Player Base. Then they release 2 Expansion Packs and the ruin it again with the NGE. With the release of the NGE they make the game a ghost town. After they realized the game was a ghost town they promise players if they bring costumers back they will get a Ship similar to Queen Amidala's Ship from Episode 1 and a Pod Racer. We know how well that went over, the game is shut down and SWGEmu started up. Then They turned and implamented the CU and NGE into Matrix Online, and implamented the CU into EQ2. All the time they are doing this they are living under the impression that their playerbase is agreeing that these patches are good ideas.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
Worst general COMPANY in America? I'd have to say Exxon and Bank of America would get that award. As far as gaming companies go however, EA definitely has a top ranking position.
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
I think all companies have problems. EA has a lot of issues because they are larger than most gaming companies, but they do a lot of good things as well. I personally enjoy most of the EA products I have purchased including the new sim city. What I am getting tired of is the many gamers that don't have patience and whine and cry when a lot of these games launch with issues. Usually, if you wait like 1 week or so, the company who makes the game will usually iron things out. Sometimes they never fix the game, but it is just a game. People need to get over it and get a life.
Well, when it comes to game companies EA is at the top of my list for worst company in America. As a matter of fact, their interview from a day ago simply firms up my opinion of them and displays exactly what they think of us:
No one has reasonable gripes right? Everyone speaking against them are homophobes, whiny losers, racist, and every other horrible thing you can think of. They can't defend their business practices so go Ad hominem...
MS started to do that a day ago too over the 720 always on DRM fiasco.
While they are not (very) active as global destroyer they are one of the worse company's on earth when it comes to consumer deception, scamming, lies, tax evasions ( they dont pay mutch tax at all deu to offshore acounts and that while they do charge everyone for their local tax rates (eu/vs) ..what they dont pay)
Comments
That's an interesting observation.
The poll is on a consumer based site, so it is focused on the worst customer-facing companies. This still leaves banks, but what makes EA worse is this...
Banks offer a generic service that you can get from any financial institution. Hate BoA? Don't do business with them. Simple. Countless other companies offer the same exact service.
EA produces ART. A unique product specific to that company. You may hate the company, but if you want to play Mass Effect, you have no choice but to deal with EA. So people either tolerate their anti-consumer practices, or are forced to limit their gaming options.
Yeah but you do not need EA to get by in life....that's the whole point of many of us that are in astonishment. I don't remember the last time where art trumps well being.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
I think you mislinked. That's a list of acquisitions by EA, not a list of killed companies. Try again.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Sim City for me had one day of non-service.
Diablo 3 had several.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
Pff for me EA is the worst company in the world because I've never had any dealings with the ones mentioned by others personally ergo I cannot form a objective/unbiased opinion on those companies and thus cannot judge them as being better or worse though I will have to say this much: The US companies starting to push for a healthcare reform in my country (you know what kind of system would result) are starting to get a leg up on EA but still treating people like expendable wallets is at its core and evil practice and EA is guilty of such.
SOE... has actual F2P games now so it gets outclassed by EA in the greed department and while SWG was a shining turd of a game debacle it carries no consequence when A) EA fucked over their entire userbase for one game series for "artistic integrity" (in as much as anyone defending the burning of the Twilight saga due to artistic integrity)
SOE knows about the various emulator projects of SWG and has opted not to C&D them so they get another leg up (before you ask: nothing confirmed but developers from the emulators have been in contact with the PR reps from SOE in the past asking various questions and even some old SWG devs which, then, were still at SOE).
It's a list of game companies that drew the attation of EA and are now gone swallowed by the crap factory that is EA. Not only does EA produce crap. They buy up great companies and stop them from making good games.
People voting yes understand there are worse real life companies out there the hyperbole being used to make the point. This is like the raspberry awards. They always give the award to someone at least semi famous even though there are lots of worse unknown talent out there.
Let me preface my post here with this statement before ranting about how EA sucks.
I agree, EA is not the worst company in America or the World, but they are awful.
I haven't read this whole thread yet but this comment I find hilarious though.
EA is not a gaming company, gaming companies IMHO try to make good games, EA doesn't care about making good games, they care about parting you of as much of your money as they possible can at all times.
That should be clearly obviously to everyone now that they are trying to put microtransactions in every single game they make, even single player games, Dead Space 3 anyone?
That and they reskin old games and just increment the number on the title, aka any EA sports game, reskined from the year before here is Madden 2013 guys, don't mind the fact nothing has changed from 2012.
Now they are doing the same shit with the Battlefield series, someone in this thread already mentioned how they are making it like COD with the releases every year and I agree.
I mean Battlefield 4 is already accepting preorders and Battlefield 3 what just finished putting out its last Expansion / DLC with "End Game" in March right? makes sense..
EA would print money instead of making games if it was legal.
I wish EA would stop buying good companies, games, and IPs and ruining them, just running them into the ground and scavenging every cent from them they possible can before discarding them.
Like someone already mentioned, how many companies do they need to destroy before people open their eyes? Origin Systems, Mythic, Bioware, DICE, I'm sure the list could go on and on like a RAP sheet.
EA wouldn't be such a bad company if they just bought out these companies, offered them more money / backing / resources and let them do their own damn thing like they were doing before being bought out by EA in the first place.
Having the money, backing, manpower, etc, etc, of EA was suppose to be a boon, be helpful to these Developers / Companies (that EA buys out) and really help to make them really shine, instead it buried them all in the EA Graveyard, the Graveyard that increases in size every year with every new developer / company acquisition they get.
EA would have still made a boat load of money and these games / companies / and IPs wouldn't be washed out shells of their former selves or even worse non-existant if EA just let them "do their own thing".
Instead they do what they always do and mess everything up with their lustful money greed.
It may not be all EA's fault but it is just funny to think about how many of these developers were pretty damn successful all on their own before being bought out and how some of them don't even exist anymore even as "just a name" within EA . (ie: Origin Systems, Mythic, etc.)
EA is the boss with all the power, money, and control (being the publisher), hard to blame the developers for EA pushing and rushing them and not giving them any wiggle room or control over themselves to grow, take risks, innovate, and just "do their own thing", you know the "thing" that made them so successful that EA wanted to buy them out in the first place.
Not every game has to be super accessible or casual friendly, not every game you make has to be for EVERYONE.
And not every game needs to be made fast, just like its being spit out of a assembly line like a order at a fast food resturant. Waiting sucks and we as gamers and consumers hate it, but in the end we would rather have quality over speed, EVERY TIME.
Also what is with the releasing of sequels / incremental numbers every year in repeatable / predictable fashion, games like Madden and CoD with little to nothing changed, usually nothing significant enough where they couldn't just send you a free update or possibly DLC (yuck) over the internet since all these consoles and PCs connect to the internet nowadays. It could easily just be a patch rather than them charging you another $60 for the same thing again, we see huge content additions and changes in MMOs via patches everyday.
Niche games are good, taking risks is a good thing, innovating is a good thing. Not every game has to pull in WoW like numbers and money to be considered succesful, would it be nice? yes, but as long as your making a profit and your consumers are happy, I don't understand what the big deal is.
Ugh, I got a headache now... I'm off to read the rest of the thread.
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Looking back over the list, I'm hard-pressed to find examples of what you're describing. Many aren't relevant to core gamers (Pogo, Popcap, and the sports game companies), and the big-name companies apart from that tend to have made games exactly as good as, if not better than, previous offerings (Mass Effect, Dragon Age, C&C:G: Zero Hour, Lord of Ultima, Battleforge, Battlefield 3, Sim City). Actually I suppose all of those examples are better than what each of those companies produced prior to being with EA.
The only vague argument would be Mythic, since I'm sort of alone (on these forums at least) in feeling like DAOC wasn't particularly great (and therefore Mythic's releases under EA were on par with their prior offerings.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
How does EA just being the worst video game company give any of you comfort lol?? It's like the forbes article said, this isn't a poll of which company did the most damage but more of a gauge of customer disatisfaction.
Although i would vote SoE but can easily see why EA would win.
I'm sorry but what the hell is a real life company? Are not all companies that exist in our reality real life? Or do you mean serious companies? You know, companies that actual make a determintal impact on one's life as oppose to a entertainment company like EA. A company, if I may add, that offers a product that adds no real value to the quality of one's life nor causes any adverse effects?
So what you are saying is that those that are voting yes are being willfully ignorant about all other factors of their lives only for the sake of driving home a point that no other company in America has done no worst to them than the atrocities EA has wrecked upon them as customers? No other company in AMERICA?
It's no wonder devs are having such a hard time getting anything right with this crowd. And these people are suppose to be the most well informed mmo players this genre has to offer.....
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
^Gotten to
When did anyone say this is the most well informed mmo playerbase lolol. If you love EA so much just say so. The vote has nothing to do with which company has caused the most unethical damage. Read
For me I would rank:
well before EA or any video game company. Really though, this should come to no surprise. I mean Ticketmaster was the runner up. But it's nice to know where people here tend to focus their malice.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Nah I don't love EA. I just have a wider perspective than the "yes" voters here.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Probably a little known fact....
But bet they regret it everyday.
I'm voting for them again this year. There may be worse companies out there but none of them go to the extents that EA does to save face. EA has tried telling the public that gamers just love their business models and they've repeatedly tried to justify their actions and tell everyone it was in their best interest. Most companies will back off and go "Oh crap, we screwed up bad. If you give us another chance we will try and change and make up for our past mistakes". EA likes to say "oh, well you're wrong and we only did it for your benefit anyways and besides while you may not like it everyone else does so get with the program".
I hope they win it again, I truly do.
Just a little more info on the subject. Here is a full list of the contenders:
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
THis guy gets it. No other gaming company is worse than SOE. Star Wars Galaxies is a prime example of SOE ruining a game through Patches. At launch the game was great then they released the Combat Upgrade which drove away 5% of the Player Base. Then they release 2 Expansion Packs and the ruin it again with the NGE. With the release of the NGE they make the game a ghost town. After they realized the game was a ghost town they promise players if they bring costumers back they will get a Ship similar to Queen Amidala's Ship from Episode 1 and a Pod Racer. We know how well that went over, the game is shut down and SWGEmu started up. Then They turned and implamented the CU and NGE into Matrix Online, and implamented the CU into EQ2. All the time they are doing this they are living under the impression that their playerbase is agreeing that these patches are good ideas.
"Possibly we humans can exist without actually having to fight. But many of us have chosen to fight. For what reason? To protect something? Protect what? Ourselves? The future? If we kill people to protect ourselves and this future, then what sort of future is it, and what will we have become? There is no future for those who have died. And what of those who did the killing? Is happiness to be found in a future that is grasped with blood stained hands? Is that the truth?"
"God, please help us sinful children of Ivalice.."
Well, when it comes to game companies EA is at the top of my list for worst company in America. As a matter of fact, their interview from a day ago simply firms up my opinion of them and displays exactly what they think of us:
EA Admits It “Can Do Better” But Blames Worst Company Success On Homophobes And Whiny Madden Fans
No one has reasonable gripes right? Everyone speaking against them are homophobes, whiny losers, racist, and every other horrible thing you can think of. They can't defend their business practices so go Ad hominem...
MS started to do that a day ago too over the 720 always on DRM fiasco.
While they are not (very) active as global destroyer they are one of the worse company's on earth when it comes to consumer deception, scamming, lies, tax evasions ( they dont pay mutch tax at all deu to offshore acounts and that while they do charge everyone for their local tax rates (eu/vs) ..what they dont pay)
Yeah, I had to laugh at that as well.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson