Originally posted at f13.net where within minutes it was quickly hidden in the Den of Iniquity here:

A long time ago, Electronic Arts was a Tesla of gaming, as it became a player it was bought out by JP Morgans. Rather than innovate, over the past decade EA has 'secretly' been focused on maintaining dominance in retail, through buying up innovative competitors and slyly allowing them to wither away. WoW was a lightning bolt through the heart of EA executive management, but rather than energize the company, it paralyzed them into their stubborn resolve. They've actually convinced themselves that WoW is a temporary trend, and the real innovation will not occur until another decade. Rather than charge into online gaming, the goal for now is still to buy up innovators and half-heartedly replicate competitors to diminish their energy, while at the same time grinding ahead with the old business model.

As for this latest Warhammer 'offer' via Mythic, even a simple Google fight is representative of the misdirection, while a proven online market and franchise is allowed to dwindle to nothing:

Ultima Game franchise versus Warhammer Game franchise

The Warhammer trend will eventually follow the Ultmia trend:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=ultima+game%2C+warhammer+game

Will EA continue to be known as the evil corporation stubbornly set on crushing innovation and competition while heading towards a needed bailout, rather than getting back into the game? Morgan has his uses, but the government will never be convinced to bailout a game company on the backs of Americans: 

Did you have a point?

I don't see anything in this thread of substance other than google result counts...

Originally posted by skeaser

Did you have a point?

I don't see anything in this thread of substance other than google result counts...

Either skeaser is exposed, or highly ignorant.

You're not making any sense at all.

Conspiracy!!

EA runs itself like a bussiness instead of a game company...  Your issues are?

OOOHHH!!!

I think I get it guys... this is a "I hate EA" post.  Probably has something to do with UO being changed with that one non-PVP thing they added back in the day.

Although he should've just done the silly little one liner we normally get, and left the graph out which (comparing Activision-Blizzard to Electronics Arts) makes no purpose whatsoever to the context of the post.

I almost wonder if sempiternal is trying to emulate JestorRodo, but with EA as the focus of fixated obsession rather than SOE.

Originally posted by ianubisi

You're not making any sense at all.

What don't you understand?

---

Originally posted by sempiternal
Will EA continue to be known as the evil corporation stubbornly set on crushing innovation and competition while heading towards a needed bailout, rather than getting back into the game? 

---

Mabye it's evil but, in a city I used to live in, due to their opening of a studio the salary of the game devs (read designers, artists, etc..) increased to decent ones.

Before that you would be told be lucky work in the video games industry.

Originally posted by sempiternal

Originally posted by ianubisi

You're not making any sense at all.

 

What don't you understand?

 

We don't understand what exactly you're trying to say, for a start. What the heck is "Ultima: the Ongoing Saga" and why would EA shut it down? What does any of that have to do with Warhammer? What makes you think Google results pages have any bearing at all on your suspicions, or that showing them in the thread would somehow help "prove" what you're saying is true?

Your whole first post is just pure gibberish, mad rambling about a game company conspiring against their own game series? It doesn't make any sense at all.

Last I checked I was a pretty smart guy, and I have read his post three times and don't understand the context at all.

Originally posted by Aethios

Originally posted by sempiternal

Originally posted by ianubisi

You're not making any sense at all.

 

What don't you understand?

 

 

We don't understand what exactly you're trying to say, for a start. What the heck is "Ultima: the Ongoing Saga" and why would EA shut it down? What does any of that have to do with Warhammer? What makes you think Google results pages have any bearing at all on your suspicions, or that showing them in the thread would somehow help "prove" what you're saying is true?

Your whole first post is just pure gibberish, mad rambling about a game company conspiring against their own game series? It doesn't make any sense at all.

What he said

Originally posted by Aethios

We don't understand what exactly you're trying to say, for a start. What the heck is "Ultima: the Ongoing Saga" and why would EA shut it down? What does any of that have to do with Warhammer? What makes you think Google results pages have any bearing at all on your suspicions, or that showing them in the thread would somehow help "prove" what you're saying is true?

Your whole first post is just pure gibberish, mad rambling about a game company conspiring against their own game series? It doesn't make any sense at all.

"Ultima: the Ongoing Saga?"

The title is EA Drops the Warhammer on Ultima: The Ongoing Saga to Stifle Innovation. The colon is simply dividing two related phrases, there's no Ultima: the Ongoing Saga game.

I had second thoughts before posting this in a gaming forum, but I'll try to summarize;

Electronic Arts is not interested in MMO games, they are interested in selling generic franchised boxes on shelves, that's their business model - fire and forget. Their misguided interest in MMO games has been to buy them out on their way up, in order  to limit competitive sales and hold them as alternative offerings with minimal investment; aside from selling more boxes in the form of expansions. Their only major venture into MMO's was the horribly conceived SIMS online because it was a great "box seller" for them. You can expect the same from EA for approximately the next 10 years, unless the management changes.

The bottom line, EA is out of touch. As history has proven, there's no reason to get excited about any EA MMO. You can pretty much ignore EA when it comes to MMORPGs. The only real news for the next decade will be the next company they are going to try to put a damper on, while trying to increase the sales of their boxes.

EA is responsible and deserves credit for everything good about Ultima Online as well.  They also deserve credit for really jump starting the MMORPG market. 

For those that can't be bothered to learn anything.  EA owned Origin well before Ultima Online was even made.  The EA President actually greenlighted the funding of Ultima Online. 

Garriott and his fellow managers were not able to run Origin after the influx of all the extra cash that EA provided them and did a piss poor job of running their division until EA had no choice but to clean shop.  Basically Origin was missing deadlines, had hired all types of friends to work instead of qualified people, and didn't have much to show for the money they were receiving. 

Want to blame someone for the demise of Ultima?  Then blame Garriott because it is completely and utterly his fault. 

---

Originally posted by donjn
Last I checked I was a pretty smart guy, and I have read his post three times and don't understand the context at all.

---

Thanks for the laugh, good one.

I was about to check how dumb I had fallen ;)

Originally posted by sempiternal

Originally posted by Aethios

We don't understand what exactly you're trying to say, for a start. What the heck is "Ultima: the Ongoing Saga" and why would EA shut it down? What does any of that have to do with Warhammer? What makes you think Google results pages have any bearing at all on your suspicions, or that showing them in the thread would somehow help "prove" what you're saying is true?

Your whole first post is just pure gibberish, mad rambling about a game company conspiring against their own game series? It doesn't make any sense at all.

 

"Ultima: the Ongoing Saga?"

The title is EA Drops the Warhammer on Ultima: The Ongoing Saga to Stifle Innovation. The colon is simply dividing two related phrases, there's no Ultima: the Ongoing Saga game.

I had second thoughts before posting this in a gaming forum, but I'll try to summarize;

Electronic Arts is not interested in MMO games, they are interested in selling generic franchised boxes on shelves, that's their business model - fire and forget. Their misguided interest in MMO games has been to buy them out on their way up, in order  to limit competitive sales and hold them as alternative offerings with minimal investment; aside from selling more boxes in the form of expansions. Their only major venture into MMO's was the horribly conceived SIMS online because it was a great "box seller" for them. You can expect the same from EA for approximately the next 10 years, unless the management changes.

The bottom line, EA is out of touch. As history has proven, there's no reason to get excited about any EA MMO. You can pretty much ignore EA when it comes to MMORPGs. The only real news for the next decade will be the next company they are going to try to put a damper on, while trying to increase the sales of their boxes.

Perhaps this was why they decided to allow Mythic to act as a separate entity, rather than gobble them up like they have done with every other purchased company? I mean, it's possible they understand that this is what it looks like, but they are just incapable of managing an MMO past the development phases. I can understand how that would be possible, since EA is primarily a single-player game company, which typically have very little after-market development, if any at all, so an MMO must be a completely different animal.

My point is that MMOs aren't viable money-makers just selling the boxes and not even attempting to hold subs. If this really is their business strategy, they will go bottom-up very quickly (or at least run out of money and stop trying), so we don't really have to worry about it. EA are certainly screw-ups, but to suggest they do it on purpose is tin-foil-hattery.

Originally posted by Cabe2323

EA is responsible and deserves credit for everything good about Ultima Online as well.  They also deserve credit for really jump starting the MMORPG market. 

For those that can't be bothered to learn anything.  EA owned Origin well before Ultima Online was even made.  The EA President actually greenlighted the funding of Ultima Online. 

Garriott and his fellow managers were not able to run Origin after the influx of all the extra cash that EA provided them and did a piss poor job of running their division until EA had no choice but to clean shop.  Basically Origin was missing deadlines, had hired all types of friends to work instead of qualified people, and didn't have much to show for the money they were receiving.  

Want to blame someone for the demise of Ultima?  Then blame Garriott because it is completely and utterly his fault. 

Cabe2323 is completely misinformed.

Yes, EA did already own Origin Systems before Ultima Online was developed, however, EA had nothing to do with the development of Ultima Online until Garriott and team left. It was developed completely within the direction of Origin Systems and Garriott. The only thing EA had to do with it was to give OSI a little funding when Garriott practically begged for it.

EA deserves no credit for Ultima Online, except for taking it over and ruining it, as they do with all MMOs they can get their hands on that could possibly begin cutting into their box sales.
 

Originally posted by sempiternal

Originally posted by Cabe2323

EA is responsible and deserves credit for everything good about Ultima Online as well.  They also deserve credit for really jump starting the MMORPG market. 

For those that can't be bothered to learn anything.  EA owned Origin well before Ultima Online was even made.  The EA President actually greenlighted the funding of Ultima Online. 

Garriott and his fellow managers were not able to run Origin after the influx of all the extra cash that EA provided them and did a piss poor job of running their division until EA had no choice but to clean shop.  Basically Origin was missing deadlines, had hired all types of friends to work instead of qualified people, and didn't have much to show for the money they were receiving.  

Want to blame someone for the demise of Ultima?  Then blame Garriott because it is completely and utterly his fault. 

 

Cabe2323 is completely misinformed.

Yes, EA did already own Origin Systems before Ultima Online was developed, however, EA had nothing to do with the development of Ultima Online until Garriott and team left. It was developed completely within the direction of Origin Systems and Garriott. The only thing EA had to do with it was to give OSI a little funding when Garriott practically begged for it.

EA deserves no credit for Ultima Online, except for taking it over and ruining it, as they do with all MMOs they can get their hands on that could possibly begin cutting into their box sales.
 

EA owned and controlled Ultima Online from it's inception.  They have always owned it and have always been the ones ultimately in control. 
 

Question, Why  does anyone care about a dead/dying game called UO which was already ruined by EA when the first picked it up? Let it go the game is 10 years old and gone.

Originally posted by Aethios 

Perhaps this was why they decided to allow Mythic to act as a separate entity, rather than gobble them up like they have done with every other purchased company? I mean, it's possible they understand that this is what it looks like, but they are just incapable of managing an MMO past the development phases. I can understand how that would be possible, since EA is primarily a single-player game company, which typically have very little after-market development, if any at all, so an MMO must be a completely different animal.

My point is that MMOs aren't viable money-makers just selling the boxes and not even attempting to hold subs. If this really is their business strategy, they will go bottom-up very quickly (or at least run out of money and stop trying), so we don't really have to worry about it. EA are certainly screw-ups, but to suggest they do it on purpose is tin-foil-hattery.

Then put your tin foil hat on.

I'll simplify it further for you, and probably others;

Say you have a lemonade stand making $10 per day. Suddenly your neighbor sets up an apple juice stand, right next to you, and starts making $1 a day. At the same time, you notice your profits drop to $9 per day. Now instead of $300 per month, you're only making $270.

So, you come up with a plan, you'll offer your neighbor half of your losses in profits per year, or $180 to buy him out. Your neighbor says, "wow, that's a lot of money, I could use it," and he takes the cash. You continue to run the apple juice stand on the side, but you're not really interested in it, you just saved yourself $180 in lost sales by buying it out.

After a while people realize the apple juice sucks! Someone didn't mix it right, nobody really cares. They stop buying the apple juice, and eventually you close it down to continue selling your lemonade.  Your profits return to $10 per day.

Got your tin foil hat on?

Originally posted by Cabe2323

Originally posted by sempiternal

Cabe2323 is completely misinformed.

Yes, EA did already own Origin Systems before Ultima Online was developed, however, EA had nothing to do with the development of Ultima Online until Garriott and team left. It was developed completely within the direction of Origin Systems and Garriott. The only thing EA had to do with it was to give OSI a little funding when Garriott practically begged for it.

EA deserves no credit for Ultima Online, except for taking it over and ruining it, as they do with all MMOs they can get their hands on that could possibly begin cutting into their box sales.
 

EA owned and controlled Ultima Online from it's inception.  They have always owned it and have always been the ones ultimately in control. 
 

Wow, you either didn't read or comprehend the post you just replied to.

Originally posted by lionexx

Question, Why  does anyone care about a dead/dying game called UO which was already ruined by EA when the first picked it up? Let it go the game is 10 years old and gone.

This is not about UO, this is about MMOs and their future at Electronic Arts.

Question: Why hasn't EA bought out Blizzard then? Hmmm maybe because if you are getting into the MMO market then it is just for one and only thing TO MAKE MONEY. And you don't have to sell 10 million subs to do it. Turbine has one of the biggest franchise names under them, and they arent even close to Sony or Blizzard in profits, But guess what they just got bought out by one of largest investment companies in America. They say their going to relese more MMO's because now they have all the publishing money they need. If EA ruins their MMO's then they will be out of the MMO market. Try to come up with more of a precise point to why a MMO will fail then a company doesnt care or is trying to buy up it's competition pretty lame if you ask me.

screw it