SOE! of course, I think this is on most people's list.

Funcom, Turbine, etc. have laid some eggs sometimes, but they actually put money and effort into fixing them.

Buying a SOE game is like buying a turd,  but instead of offering you a pooper-scooper.  SOE tries to sell you a super duper pooper scooper for 50x the price of the others, but when you go to pick up the turd, you notice it has a hole in it and won't pick up any turds XD POOOOOOOOOOOOO

I have a few companies on my "approach with caution" list, but I only have one company on my Black List: SOE.

I will never touch another SOE product unless and until everyone from middle management  up to the very top is fired and some really good names in the industry are brought in to turn the division around. Even then, it would still be on the "caution" list until it proved itself.

SOE just has an incredible knack of ruining everything they touch and if something actually launches as a fairly decent MMO, SOE will ruin it with in six months.

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by gainesvilleg

LOL at all those who want to blacklist companies because they are "greedy."  That's like being a republican and saying you will blacklist all the music and movies made by liberals.  Have fun watching religious movies and listening to country music.  LOL.

I would play a great game even if it was made in a Chinese slave labor camp full of 12-year olds, and if they packaged their games in baby seal pelts.

Inspiration can come from any company.  And all of them (at least those who have stockholders which is most of them) are at their core primarily interested in their bottom line.  Even many of the "Indies" want your money, believe it or not...

 

I bet you shop at Walmart too.  You know, some people actually DO try to live in a way that reflects their values as much as possible, so you can't just assume that no one does that.  I do understand what you're saying, but some things (like baby seals and child slaves) are worth fighting for to some people.

 

Personally, I have no problem with game houses wanting to make money.  It is a business after all. But I reserve my right to decide WHICH game companies get my dollar and sometimes it might be more complex a decision than simply whether I like a game.

 

I don't have any "blacklisted" companies, myself, but that is just as of TODAY.  Give me another year or so and that might change, who knows? As of right now, I still believe in second chances and extending some grace and forgiveness to companies that have offended me in the past. After all, it's not generally the exact same team working on today's game that made the game 7 years ago that originally offended me. Seems only fair to have a second chances policy.

 

That being said....if any of them start wrapping their games in the pelts of baby seals....I'm boycotting.

LOL.  Of course, if you didn't notice I was using a little writing technique called hyperbole...

I vote with my consumer dollar all the time and won't buy an inferior product (and no I don't shop at Walmart but I have no political issues with them:  I just prefer higher end stuff).  But I just find it funny how people are demonizing certain companies as if they are living breathing incarnations of true evil.  These companies are just people doing jobs, who have bosses trying to be successful, who themselves have bosses, etc and who are all working in the end at behest of the stockholders (e.g. everybody who has a 401K).

And although I used hyperbole my point is essentially unchanged.  Me and these "greedy" companies don't have to be friends, heck we can even dislike each other.  But we profit from each other and have a mutual understanding.  They want my money, and I want them to make me a kick-ass game.  Sure I can call them greedy, but they can call me selfish as well:  I won't give them my hard earned money for their effort if it results in a crap game.  Even if they tried really really hard and had the best intentions.

Just give me my kick-ass game and I'll give you my money...

Originally posted by Dvalon

Any company that supposrts free to play item cash shops.

This. Any company that is allright with their game being pay to win deserves to bankrupt.

I'm looking at you, Tubrine.

Approach with great caution list.

1. SOE

2. CCP

3. Mythic

Avoid like the plague / Worst mmo companies on earth list.

1. Bigpoint

2. IGG

SOE is a given.

CCP lost my trust completely with the CEO/newsletter leak scandal.

Mythic - Made Warhammer online, enough said.

Bipoint is the actual enemy of MMOs, and intelligent people everywhere.

And IGG makes cash shops with games tacked on.

the no negative never no list:

cryptic

the proceed with caution list:

$oe

aventurine

EA-mythic

and, because it's great to be positive too!  the good lists!!

the "it's got to be decent because these guys are good list":

Bioware

CCP

anything by Sid meier

Arena-net

the "oh, they made it, it's worth watching" list"

Blizzard

valve

the makers of lineage2

Originally posted by gainesvilleg

Originally posted by just1opinion

Originally posted by gainesvilleg

LOL at all those who want to blacklist companies because they are "greedy."  That's like being a republican and saying you will blacklist all the music and movies made by liberals.  Have fun watching religious movies and listening to country music.  LOL.

I would play a great game even if it was made in a Chinese slave labor camp full of 12-year olds, and if they packaged their games in baby seal pelts.

Inspiration can come from any company.  And all of them (at least those who have stockholders which is most of them) are at their core primarily interested in their bottom line.  Even many of the "Indies" want your money, believe it or not...

 

I bet you shop at Walmart too.  You know, some people actually DO try to live in a way that reflects their values as much as possible, so you can't just assume that no one does that.  I do understand what you're saying, but some things (like baby seals and child slaves) are worth fighting for to some people.

 

Personally, I have no problem with game houses wanting to make money.  It is a business after all. But I reserve my right to decide WHICH game companies get my dollar and sometimes it might be more complex a decision than simply whether I like a game.

 

I don't have any "blacklisted" companies, myself, but that is just as of TODAY.  Give me another year or so and that might change, who knows? As of right now, I still believe in second chances and extending some grace and forgiveness to companies that have offended me in the past. After all, it's not generally the exact same team working on today's game that made the game 7 years ago that originally offended me. Seems only fair to have a second chances policy.

 

That being said....if any of them start wrapping their games in the pelts of baby seals....I'm boycotting.

LOL.  Of course, if you didn't notice I was using a little writing technique called hyperbole...

I vote with my consumer dollar all the time and won't buy an inferior product (and no I don't shop at Walmart but I have no political issues with them:  I just prefer higher end stuff).  But I just find it funny how people are demonizing certain companies as if they are living breathing incarnations of true evil.  These companies are just people doing jobs, who have bosses trying to be successful, who themselves have bosses, etc and who are all working in the end at behest of the stockholders (e.g. everybody who has a 401K).

And although I used hyperbole my point is essentially unchanged.  Me and these "greedy" companies don't have to be friends, heck we can even dislike each other.  But we profit from each other and have a mutual understanding.  They want my money, and I want them to make me a kick-ass game.  Sure I can call them greedy, but they can call me selfish as well:  I won't give them my hard earned money for their effort if it results in a crap game.  Even if they tried really really hard and had the best intentions.

Just give me my kick-ass game and I'll give you my money...

Yes, I caught the tendency to hyperbole. :)  I loved what you wrote; it's why I wanted to respond to it. 

I think we agree on more than we disagree on, actually.  I too want a kick-ass game and am willing to exchange a fair amount of cash for it. :)

May we see many worthy prospects in the years to come.

Originally posted by gainesvilleg

LOL at all those who want to blacklist companies because they are "greedy."  That's like being a republican and saying you will blacklist all the music and movies made by liberals.  Have fun watching religious movies and listening to country music.  LOL.

I would play a great game even if it was made in a Chinese slave labor camp full of 12-year olds, and if they packaged their games in baby seal pelts.

Inspiration can come from any company.  And all of them (at least those who have stockholders which is most of them) are at their core primarily interested in their bottom line.  Even many of the "Indies" want your money, believe it or not...

I don't write off companies that want to make money, I write off companies that want to do it in a fashion that I find reprehensible. 

Your brand of moral flexibility is all too common with today's me first society.  So long as you get what you want, everything else can go hang.  I'd guess that's the same sort of self-absorbed philosophy that allowed bank executives to give out risky loans like it was candy, to people they knew would never be able to pay them.  The suits made a bundle off those deals but everyone else got caught holding the bag and many, especially the ones who could least afford it, ended up losing everything they had.

I'm far from a paragon a virtue myself, but there are certain lines I don't cross.  When I feel that someone has crossed one of those lines, I write them off.  The little sting I get from knowing that I have to give up something that I want, goes away rather quickly.

I think it's stupid to blacklist a game company.  So strange that MMORPG gamers are the only ones I know to really do this.

Originally posted by SuperXero89

I think it's stupid to blacklist a game company.  So strange that MMORPG gamers are the only ones I know to really do this.

Really?  Boycotting products because you don't like the seller/manufacturer has been a market force for as long as trade has existed between people.  What I find stupid is that gamers seem incapable of saying 'no', so long as it means any kind of sacrifice for them.  We're just about the most desperately forgiving consumers outside of drug addicts.

Originally posted by Unlight

Originally posted by SuperXero89

I think it's stupid to blacklist a game company.  So strange that MMORPG gamers are the only ones I know to really do this.

Really?  Boycotting products because you don't like the seller/manufacturer has been a market force for as long as trade has existed between people.  What I find stupid is that gamers seem incapable of saying 'no', so long as it means any kind of sacrifice for them.  We're just about the most desperately forgiving consumers outside of drug addicts.

LOL, you are right, but maybe you can see the difference in the following examples:

1) Boycotting a city bus service because they force african americans to sit in the back

2) Boycotting a beauty product company because they kill thousands of animals testing their products

3) Boycotting a game company because in a previous MMO they implemented a cash shop

All very noble causes indeed...  LOL

---

Originally posted by Unlight

---

Originally posted by SuperXero89
I think it's stupid to blacklist a game company.  So strange that MMORPG gamers are the only ones I know to really do this.

---

Really?  Boycotting products because you don't like the seller/manufacturer has been a market force for as long as trade has existed between people.  What I find stupid is that gamers seem incapable of saying 'no', so long as it means any kind of sacrifice for them.  We're just about the most desperately forgiving consumers outside of drug addicts.

---

LoL, so true.

@ gainsvilleg:  In matters of principle, I don't think the degree of opression or betrayal is an issue. Sure slavery was worse than a bad game, but which one affected me more personally? Surely I would protest the killing of animals more than poor gameplay, but I think Unlight touched on something that is affecting the games we are getting these days, which is the topic. People boycott restaruarants because they don't like the flavor of cheese. There is probably a lot more boycotting for silly reasons than noble causes.
 

Originally posted by SuperXero89

I think it's stupid to blacklist a game company.  So strange that MMORPG gamers are the only ones I know to really do this.

I agree. It is rather stupid but thats the MMORPG.com culture. Everything is taken personal from one game update to another. It's just a way for everyone to have yet another opportunity to say I don't like X because of Y even though thats not what blacklisting is.

lol so far there has been 75 counts of SOE (this is just using the ctrl F feature to find words on the browser.) 133 posts

ill make it 76 because thats the only company im boycoting, im fighting the urge to sub to vanguard.

The funny thing is, if that company you blacklisted makes a really good game you will play it. You can deny all you want, but if all and every one say its good you WILL try it :P

Originally posted by Fessor111

The funny thing is, if that company you blacklisted makes a really good game you will play it. You can deny all you want, but if all and every one say its good you WILL try it :P

actually i have not played a single SOE or SONY anything since 2005 (not even PSX PS2 PS3 PSP)

I played a couple of EA sports games about 18 years ago or so.  They were so awful that I haven't picked up anything by EA since then.  Once I went back and tried one of their old basketball games again, thinking, it can't really be that bad, can it?  Yep, it really can be that bad.

There are decisions that I don't like, and mistakes that I can understand.  But there are completely wacky things that make me think, how could they possibly have put this into the game in the first place, let alone thought it was ready to ship in a console game that can never be patched?  In the EA basketball game in question, if you call time out immediately after the opening tip, you'll see that most of your starters are already tired and need to come out of the game.   Things like that are completely mystifying to me, though the game was also awful for a lot of other reasons.

Originally posted by erictlewis

Funcom I could go on a rant for pages long but it is not needed, anybody who has ever seen my post knows I refer to them as failcom.

Cryptic trying to ruin a great ip like star trek with a mix of store and rmt all together.

Turbine, for what they done to a great ip like Lotro.  All I can say is they started of great but lack of direction led to free to play, and now the only real content is in the store.

 I would agree with You on all of these (and add SOE).  Turbine used to stand for something special, now they  are just like the rest.  I started in the Angmar days and the updates were fantastic.  They are dragging it out too far.  Isen will be a dissapointment for many.  We should be in Rohan by now. 

I cant really justify having a black list.  Companies change.  Ive sort of got one I guess....a publisher. 

ATARI 

Thats one I will not buy from.  That might change one day.  I doubt it.  I might have said Cryptic but Im interested to see what PW does with them.  I didnt say I was hopeful or excited.  Just interested. 

CCP is a close one too at this point.  They've seemingly changed for the worse.  But they were a half decent game developer for a long time and they may be again.   But Im big on second chances regardless.  If they earn that chance. 

Better to keep an open mind and just observe the goings ons I say. 

I wonder if the executives at SOE know exactly how badly most people regard their company, why they do so, and have sense enough to care? Their reputation with the people that would buy or have bought their game products is ATROCIOUS. Just look at this thread... Almost every post.

I have never seen them make even a half hearted attempt to turn things around, make some form of ammends with their cutomers, and right that leaky boat they try to float.