Thursday, April 5, 2012

Stickin' It To EA

EA won Consumerist.com's "Worst Company in America" contest.  I voted for EA.  I'm sort of thrilled they won.  But I'm not going to discuss whether EA is really the worst cause that's pointless and we all know the answer to that one.  I found this on Reddit Gaming although I can't find the link anymore but this sums it up:


BIG DEAL.  My rage towards EA is just as bad as to all the comments which simultaneously bash EA yet pimp out their products like Mass Effect, Battlefield, Madden, whatever.  It never ends.  EA doesn't care if you hate them as long as you continue to bilk you out of your cash.  Herp derp, this is obvious, but I feel some people still don't get it.  EA pretty much blew it off, saying "We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."

I don't mean to gloat but I'm not going anywhere near EA's games.  I'm not downloading Origin.  I'm not buying Mass Effect, Battlefield, Star Wars: TOR, The Sims, Madden, FIFA, NHL, Need for Speed (these games suck even without EA's doing), etc.  I'm not downloading their evil DLC.  I don't even want to work there.  If there's one new game I bought from EA it's Rock Band 3 but that was a long time ago and they're published by Mad Katz now.  SimCity 5 is coming out and it's tempting (I love SimCity) but I'm gonna let it slide.

Not buying games--that's pretty brutal but what else can you do?  Does your hate for EA eclipse your love for their games?  And will the decisions of one or two people make a difference?  No, but it's the age of the Internet--people have access to more information than ever and the more people that know EA sucks, the less likely people will get involved with them.  Free market in action.  This is the only good I see out of these poll results--it may make people more aware of EA's antics and thus rattle their PR machine but not that much.  EA is a juggernaut and this poll will wash over in a couple of weeks.

If you want an EA game so bad, buy it used.  Those damn evil used games.  In America, you can buy many things used--houses, cars, furniture, computers, etc. but when it comes to games, they can't go for that (no can do).  EA is on a crusade against used games and thus you can't do as much with a used game.  However, you guys are smart--you find a way to avoid giving your money to EA (without doing anything illegal...seriously people, don't get arrested).

And as an aspiring game designer, I'd be concerned if I were working for an EA studio.  So I voted for EA not just as an "anal gamer" but also from a job perspective.

EA's stock may be fluctuating.  You want them to stumble--do something about it besides rage on your message boards, hijack online polls, and mail cupcakes to game devs in dissatisfaction.  Buy fewer EA games or deal with it.

BTW, that Mass Effect cartoon was pretty funny.  Reminds me of Sonic Underground.  No thanks to EA for the clip though.

In the meantime, a certain somebody is laughing his ass off...

2 comments:

  1. Ah... the used game topic. One that springs up everywhere lately,my blog included. I JUST pointed out on another blog the EXACT same argument you brought up - the number of things you can buy used. Heck, not even the big things you mentioned, but smaller entertainment items like books, CD's and movies. Sure, you can't resell digital versions of those, and society is turning more and more to the impulse buying power of buying digital, but no one slaps your hands and says you can't read a book if it's not new either.

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  2. Yeah, that's just my two cents on used games. I don't know a whole lot about this used game debacle but common sense would tell you that this is absurd.

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