Originally posted by troublmaker

And most of these studios don't exist anymore.  Maxis is a brand now, it is not a studio.  In fact out of all of these the only studios that are really still around are Popcap Games and Bioware.

Are EA as damaging to America as most of the companies on this list?  No, they do not have that kind of influence.  Are their business practices some of the worst for consumers?  Definitely.

If banks took the same approaches that EA does the country would fall apart instantly.

This ^

For those that may have missed it in the article, here's a list of most of the studios EA has acquired (it's not short):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acquisitions_by_Electronic_Arts (for some reason Bioware is missing from the list)

You may notice that the only 2 studios that are still around are the most recently acquired ones (Popcap & Bioware). Definitely hit the nail on the head in terms of influence. Their business practices are some of the worste, and we are LUCKY that their reach is limited to the gaming industry, as any other market would have very disasterous consequences. Many of the laws we have in-place against corporations are to try and prevent these types of business practices from happening.

When a company can buy it's way into cornering a market, the ones that suffer are always the consumers followed by the market as a whole.

Well deserved EA. But i doubt it makes any difference to them when they are rolling in money.

People can hate me worldwide and give me loads of money I won't complain.

Monopolies got so much power over consumers in th 1930's that Federal Consumer Protection Laws like,"The Sherman Act" were enacted to keep the corporate playing field level . Rich companiies have been buying political power for decades now to roll back these protections. You can  see the  harm trickle into every aspect of your life ,even the games you play. Doesn't matter if you are a conservative or liberal, competition for the dollar is a good thing if you are a consumer.

I think any company that is trying to make a profit based on free trade and growth is a good company. The economy in both the EU and the US is in serious trouble. We need growth and jobs...

EA I think is not that good however. Because they are not helping the market in general. Buying other companies and destroying them is not a good way to do business and not fair competition. And for gamers this is bad. There will be less quality games because of that. And from a gamers perspective they are one of the worst companies. EA is not the only company behaving like this. But its possible they are the worst. And that they deserve this.

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

Originally posted by spookydom

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

we accomplish great things...in games. since we're gamers.

we save civilizations, kill dragons with just blunt objects...

Originally posted by Robokapp

Originally posted by spookydom

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

we accomplish great things...in games. since we're gamers.

 

we save civilizations, kill dragons with just blunt objects...

Lol good point well made. I have lost count at the number of times I have saved the world or the galaxy or everything else before even my morning cup of tea. By that rationale maybe that's why most of us are so arrogant? "HEY! Just saved the world here! Now give me a new ending to my game because I didn't like this one.  Oh! and make me a cheese sandwich!"

Originally posted by spookydom

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

Good, bad or evil is subjective depending on context, perspective and the individual. A hardcore gamer will focus on things that are related to games. And if something is negative for individual gamers or consumers that are gamers it will appear to be bad or evil. Obviously a company that is making its customers pay more for less and is destroying its competitors will be hated. If you recognize you are paying more for less and have a selfish perspective....

Originally posted by red_cruiser

I know EA sucked, but beating out Bank of America, Monsanto, Wal-Mart and Exxon-Mobil is something else.

This is what i thought a well.

Gamers need to get some perspective and look beyond their emotional wailing at their PC once in a while.

Makes me sad for America tbh... is the world of the modern internet user so damned limited?

Wow, not one mention of how they gutted and abused and made the example of DAoC as the standard for all companies to follow.

But I digress, for those wondering how EA won? look at the brackets close. I'm actually amazed BoA made it where it had over Chase and Wells Fargo, BoA CS is far superior to theirs (though yes their non-CS deeds are horribad).

EA on the other hand, there is no comparison to their CS, it's the worst in the world, and they won their title fair and square because of it. Nothing quite like calling an apathetic online gambling site to funnel your CS issues. 

Originally posted by spookydom

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

Well so far gamers have proven if wanted bad enough they can fully fund a game project thru Kickstarter, imagine if they could donate towards building a spaceship to travel to the most habitable planet for humans.....I would definitely chip in for that if I got to go....

Originally posted by firefly2003

Originally posted by spookydom

I laughed long and hard at this, then I cried that one of the most powerful voices on the planet belong to self entitled little spoilt shits, then I laughed again. Then I started thinking. What, instead of beeing such dick asses? What if gamers used all their powers for good? Just imgaine it!  What could they acomplish? Am I dreamer?........Maybe guys, maybe. Am I an idiot?....More than likely. :D

Well so far gamers have proven if wanted bad enough they can fully fund a game project thru Kickstarter, imagine if they could donate towards building a spaceship to travel to the most habitable planet for humans.....I would definitely chip in for that if I got to go....

you know...if gamers want to help random stuff...it doesnt have to be sci-fi. head over to World Community Grid and donate your spare computing power to cure stuff and find energy sources and whatnot. :). Don't need to wait for the space ship building...I have a total of 14 cores crunching 24/7 for a few months now. I dont get crap in return but...

They said I'll never cure cancer while playing video games. What are they saying now? Sure, I don't cure it BY playing video games but...they didnt specify :D

sorry for off-topic btw. also, not advertising.

Originally posted by Vesavius

Originally posted by red_cruiser

I know EA sucked, but beating out Bank of America, Monsanto, Wal-Mart and Exxon-Mobil is something else.

 

This is what i thought a well.

Gamers need to get some perspective and look beyond their emotional wailing at their PC once in a while.

Makes me sad for America tbh... is the world of the modern internet user so damned limited?

It is called stupidity and making decision based only on emotions instead of using brain.

Funny thing is that those who voted propably feel good about doing "something against bad EA" , while folks at EA sit and laugh counting dollars , cause they don't care if conumers mitigate their bad emotions in a pool as long as people still spend money on their product.

Of course gamer will bitch & moan and vote in sillty pool and then go buy Fifa, Mass Effect , Battlefield , Swtor ,etc - cause NOT buying a product cause you don't agree with corporation policy is much 'harder' than clicking vote in silly pool 

lol , silly people

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by Greymoor

What games did EA ruin?

It's not that they ruined any game.  It is their business practices being bad for the consumer.

They have highlighted two major aspects of EA business practices that make them bad.  The first is nickle and diming the consumer with Day 1 DLC making people pay a few dollars here and there for stuff which in sum total is going to cost over $100.  They see EA as being the pioneer and the main violator of this nickle and dime DLC strategy.

Games cost a awful lot more to develop and promote these days and the price in the UK is still only £40 and even less online. When I started PC gaming in the late 90's it was £30, so a decade has passed with a 25% increase but probably 10 fold increase in costs to make.

A friend of mine recently complained that Star Wars Kinect costs $200 when you count in the cost of the Kinect.  I kind of laughed at this because most games cost $200 when you add in all of the DLC.  League of Legends is something like $450 for all microtransactions.

Choice to the player and also LoL has ongoing costs

Maps used to be something that was free.  Starcraft 2 to this day still makes and distributes free maps.  They even support free map development.  EA makes you pay for every single map in Battlefield 3.

The Sims is pretty terrible as you spend a fortune on all of their "expansion packs" and DLC elements.

The paying customers have a choice buy or not buy no-ones holding a gun at their heads

Wrath of Heroes will cost players about $30 per hero.  That is steep.  Command and Conquer Tiberian Sun will cost about $20 per deployment.

A second argument is made that since EA has an exlucisivity agreement with many sports corporations (FIFA and NFL) they are creating the exact same game every single year with very little innovation and pushing it out and selling it to all of the fans.  Because there is no competition for them they are allowed to push out the same stale games over and over and over.

Blame the Sporting bodies it is their license praticies. In the UK the Premiership football was dominated by BSKYB satelite TV until the government intervined and told bosses at the Premiership to open the bidding to all comers and not sign up to one company, so now ESPN UK has the football on its channels. Also when I played Football games I played PES as I thought is was better than FIFA so there is an alternative.

On this similar note they are accused of attempting to take out the competition.  If a studio is getting too big and too powerful they will buy it out or purchase a similar studio and fill it full of money to develop something huge to get rid of the competition.

If a company is bought by a bigger company thats not the fault of the bigger company its good business and has happened for centuries and its not as if EA has no competition in Activision, Square Enix, Ubisoft, Capcom, Nintendo, Sega etc... and they all do the same thing.

When Blizzard was getting big because of Warcraft they bought out Redwood Studios (makers of Command and Conquer)

Again astute business sense, and its Westwood Studio's and it had merged with Virgin Interactive in '92 so it was already own by a major coporation. So I don't see your point here.

 

When Bethesda was getting big because of their RPGs they bought out Bioware.

Again astute business sense and you are going love this.... when Bioware merged with Pandemic they were funded by a private Equity firm called Elevation Partners and one of the founders of Elevation Partners was none other tha current EA CEO John Riccitiello. So now you understand how EA purchased Bioware. And Bioware were as big as Bethesda.

When social games starting taking over they bought out Popcap Games

Good business

When Simulators became huge they bought out Bullfrog Productions (makers of Theme Hospital) and Maxis (makers of Sim City)

Good Business

They bought out DICE when shooter became huge to try and knock Activision out of the game.

Good Business nad now BF3 is selling as many games as CoD with great reviews across the board.

They bught out the Virgin Group after Ubisoft was having massive successes in child themed console games.  For the same reason why bought out Pandemic Studios.  Pandemic of course was making Activision titles until this point.

Source? Pandemic merged with Bioware in 2005 funded by Elevation Partners.

And most of these studios don't exist anymore.  Maxis is a brand now, it is not a studio.  In fact out of all of these the only studios that are really still around are Popcap Games and Bioware.

Are EA as damaging to America as most of the companies on this list?  No, they do not have that kind of influence.  Are their business practices some of the worst for consumers?  Definitely.

Don't be ridiculous.

If banks took the same approaches that EA does the country would fall apart instantly.

Banks have done exactly the same for centuries.

Rebuttals in Orange.

How is any of this bad? It took EA from a small American publisher ie Electronic Arts to a global corporation and thats has never happened before has it? Gamers and their ridiculous petty grievances because someone took away their precious toys.

Originally posted by Calerxes

Originally posted by troublmaker

Originally posted by Greymoor

W....

 

How is any of this bad? It took EA from a small American publisher ie Electronic Arts to a global corporation and thats has never happened before has it? Gamers and their ridiculous petty grievances because someone took away their precious toys.

It really shouldn't be surprising that EA won...

People vote for personal reasons.  Even if someone knows that BoA royally f$%ked some other guys, they will probably vote for the company that just minorly f^$ked them personally.

And let's face it, that's exactly what it is.  Most people have not been royally f$@ked by BoA...but many people have been minorly f%@ked by EA.  So it should be no surprise that they won.

Originally posted by Calerxes

 

 

How is any of this bad? It took EA from a small American publisher ie Electronic Arts to a global corporation and thats has never happened before has it? Gamers and their ridiculous petty grievances because someone took away their precious toys.

Gamers dont care if EA went from small firm to huge company or if they would stay small or develop into medium sized ,etc

Gamers and GAMERS and they don't give a damn about investment returns , sales ,etc  and that's just normal.

Why should they?

Investors and managment or eventually EA workers should think about stuff like that not consumers. Consumers should think about THEIR OWN well being not about corporation well being.

Not even remotely shocking, I could had predicted that after the 200 million dollar flop of a title.

Originally posted by Thomas2006

 

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Originally posted by Greymoor
What games did EA ruin?

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Do we really need to name them all? You can start with Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3 and then we can start listing off all the failed MMO's they started and killed in record time. Earth and Beyond, The Sims Online, Motor City Online, ect.

What is the etc? You only listed 5 games, EA has been around for many moons...

Originally posted by Slampig

Originally posted by Thomas2006

 

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Originally posted by Greymoor
What games did EA ruin?

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Do we really need to name them all? You can start with Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3 and then we can start listing off all the failed MMO's they started and killed in record time. Earth and Beyond, The Sims Online, Motor City Online, ect.

What is the etc? You only listed 5 games, EA has been around for many moons...

I still haven't forgiven them for Bullfrog...

But that aside? Worst company in America? Someone who just makes and sells games? Some folks need to use the internet for more then games and pron IMO.