166 réponses à ce sujet

[Spongecakes]

It's just a silly internet poll. Besides, the Bank of America has won like three times in a row and winning for a fourth time wouldn't have proven anything the world doesn't already know.

It's high time for EA's 15 minutes.

[Gotholhorakh]

DominusVita wrote...

This is based off of Consumerist votes, not hard data based on their actions. Having said that, Electronic Arts is definitely not my favorite publisher. It's not the worst out there. And it's not too surprising in light of all the Day 1 DLC/Pre-Order item/Ending Debacles that people have decided to vote against them. At best, the company can take a step back and use this as potential feedback.

The early DLC was not a bad thing in itself obviously, but releasing it on day one after everything people had said about DLC in the past was a bit like a company turning its back on the relationship with its customers and saying "what you think really is of no importance to us at all". It really was a case of handling something so badly, it turned gold into lead.

In looking for recent actions by EA to try and bring some positive rational balance to the conversation, far from balance I just found more of the same - if you totally ignore other people's interpretation/ire/opinion and just look at what EA itself does, the actions, it reads like a constructive PR effort to portray themselves in a light of Pantomime Evil.

Product placement in games, talks to the shareholders about charging for bullets in battlefield, these aren't selective examples it really does go on.

I don't think EA is bad, they're in the fun business - so it's pretty hard to understand the kamikaze PR, to be honest.

Modifié par Gotholhorakh, 04 avril 2012 - 10:26 .

[Gatt9]

Dragoonlordz wrote...

Sorry but BoA screws you over you lose your house and become homeless, EA annoys you then you end up miffed at nothing more than your hobby. At this stage anyone who voted EA in that against many of the others is nothing more than a spoiled child.

I'm always amazed at the lengths you will go to defend EA.  I'm noticing that you left out the part where the person who lost their house to BoA did so because they made the concious choice to sign an agreement they could not keep (In most cases).

I'm also noticing you're ignoring the part where BoA foreclosed because people did not make their contracturally agreed payments.

Perhaps you believe that people should be allowed to ignore their loan payments?  Perhaps you believe that these people were forced at gunpoint to accept BoA loans?  To keep their accounts there?

Because otherwise,  you're just trying to find some way to deflect EA's well deserved award for the way they attempt to exploit gamers through highly questionable buisness tactics.

[Mylia Stenetch]

Dragoonlordz wrote...

Sorry but BoA screws you over you lose your house and become homeless, EA annoys you then you end up miffed at nothing more than your hobby. At this stage anyone who voted EA in that against many of the others is nothing more than a spoiled child.

While BoA might be heartless souless ententies which devour babies everynight to feul the vaults of gold, did they affect you personally? Did you vote on who was the worst company in America?

I have never been a big fan of EA for a while and I think there are far worse companies in the Great North than EA. It is still a populist vote, and that is what they said. EA has done a lot of issues recently with people being annoyed which at the moment the hot topic is ME3. There also is the sports franchise fans have been giving flack for because of their updates. There was Spore with it's ending. Their Call of Duty clone etc. If enough people are mad at a company they will get it.

[Alpha-Centuri]

Bank of America sucking is par for the course. EA deserves this due to the shock of the debacles this year. To be honest, Activision has been way worse for the past few years. But it seemed like EA purposely emulated their draconic customer relationship for the money.

[AdmiralCheez]

The take-home lesson from all this is that if you have a choice between destroying the world economy and pissing off the nerds, you're better off destroying the world economy.

[Brockololly]

JC Tenton wrote...
Origin Systems.
Bullfrog Productions. 
Westwood Studios.
Pandemic Studios.
Digital Illusions CE.
BioWare Corp.

How pointlessly tragic...

[DRUNK_CANADIAN]

Hello Man wrote...

This poll is silly. If their ever was a horrible gaming publisher I say Activision. I fail to see how a video game company could be considered the worst company when their other worse things, like Oil, Tobacco, some insurance companies.

Hey look its a hippie.

"Gosh darn oil companiez, confound them."

Hops in his car and drives off.

All nations are dependant on oil its probably the biggest driving force in the world. People always complain, but reality is without oil, you would be living in case (exaggeration of course, but everything is tied to oil in one way or another almost).

[A Crusty Knight Of Colour]

Out of this entire event, the funniest part was that EA came out and responded to the poll "we're not the worst company evar! I didn't see BP or AIG winning anything!"

I mean, the poll results are stupid, but think about it.

Unlike previous "worst companies", which just shrugged and moved on, EA just demonstrated how thin skinned they are about their reputation. They could've even spun this into a positive, by recognizing the criticism, promising to do better in the future to please it's consumers and have a half ass sale on Origin for the weekend. Then watch sites like Kotaku or IGN fellate them for not only listening to "entitled, whiny gamers", but also offering them an olive branch in the form of discounted games.

Instead, they pretty much responded as if they were a butthurt BSN forumite in a typical pro or anti ender thread. What they said wasn't wrong (they are not the worst company in America, not even close), but the underlying motivation for EA to make such statements was obviously BAAAAWWWW.

Modifié par CrustyBot, 05 avril 2012 - 01:11 .

[slimgrin]

Well deserved. I'm sure a more professional poll would still put them near the top of the list.

[Addai]

CrustyBot wrote...
Then watch sites like Kotaku or IGN fellate them for not only listening to "entitled, whiny gamers", but also offering them an olive branch in the form of discounted games.

Heh, Kotaku already wrote a couple "is EA really so bad?" articles today.

[SKELETON HARVESTER]

Hello Man wrote...

This poll is silly. If their ever was a horrible gaming publisher I say Activision. I fail to see how a video game company could be considered the worst company when their other worse things, like Oil, Tobacco, some insurance companies.

Confirmed for missing the point.

[Redcoat]

I don't live in the United States, but here's the thing about banks...I have a choice. If I don't like the policies of, say, TD Canada Trust, I can take my business to RBC, CIBC, BMO, etc. There are several different companies I can choose from that offer the same service.

But when it comes to buying games, big publishers like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft control huge swathes of the market. If I want a specific service (i.e. a specific game) then I have no choice. If I want to play ME3, for instance, I have to deal with EA, I have to use their download client, and I have to accept the terms of their EULA with no option for negotiation.

Secondly, the issues with the American financial system have received a great deal of mainstream attention. Giving the Worst Company in America award to BoA says nothing that hasn't been said before, while giving it to EA has a chance of bringing wider attention to the terrible practices in the gaming industry.

[Dakota Strider]

Hello Man wrote...

This poll is silly. If their ever was a horrible gaming publisher I say Activision. I fail to see how a video game company could be considered the worst company when their other worse things, like Oil, Tobacco, some insurance companies.

Oil-- Used to make plastic.  Unless you have the wood, glass and metal version, I am pretty sure you responded to this forum with an oil based device.  Not to mention, until something better comes along, that can power passenger planes or cargo ships across the oceans, it is the substance that the world economy runs on.  Not to mention the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of well paying jobs the industry provides, that allows people to buy homes, and feed their families.

Tobacco-- A legal substance.  Noone is forced to use it.  I personally believe people are crazy to use it, but it is not illegal for it to be produced or sold.  And the tobacco industries have caught their share of flak for unethical practices in the past.  They are currently under a microscope, and produce their products under very tight scrutiny.

Some Insurance Companies-  I have had problems dealing with insurance companies myself.  Didn't like it.  But once again, a voluntary product that noone is forced to buy.  We would probably be much better off without them.  But even the best insurance companies deal with fraudulent claims that would bankrupt them if they paid them all.  They have to take steps to ensure they do not.  It makes it worse for us to deal with them, when we do have honest claims, but we can blame the dishonest people for causing that.

EA certainly deserves the award this year.  You seem to believe since they are in the entertainment industry, they should be free ot conduct practices that would be considered unethical in other industries (false advertising, charging for accessories that are needed for the successful running of the product, bad-mouthing its consumers, or trying to monopolize the industry).   EA is just as much in the money making business, as any other industry that is scorned.  Just because their products are meant to be fun, does not mean that they should be able to treat their customers like they do not matter.

[MerinTB]

Brockololly wrote...

JC Tenton wrote...
Origin Systems.
Bullfrog Productions. 
Westwood Studios.
Pandemic Studios.
Digital Illusions CE.
BioWare Corp.

How pointlessly tragic...

****g brilliant.

[Chromie]

Addai67 wrote...

CrustyBot wrote...
Then watch sites like Kotaku or IGN fellate them for not only listening to "entitled, whiny gamers", but also offering them an olive branch in the form of discounted games.

Heh, Kotaku already wrote a couple "is EA really so bad?" articles today.

Kotaku is so childish. 

Next to their "gamers are sexist" article you'll see a cosplay with a barely clothed woman.

[kbct]

Hello Man wrote...

This poll is silly. If their ever was a horrible gaming publisher I say Activision. I fail to see how a video game company could be considered the worst company when their other worse things, like Oil, Tobacco, some insurance companies.

Well, they didn't win. Maybe next year.

This award shines a bright spotlight on EA. More people will wonder why EA got the dubious honor of being the worst company in America. Investors may take a more critical look at EA. Gamers too. Both groups are important to the future success of EA.

The best thing about the award is EA might actually DO SOMETHING about the negative attention. The executives will certainly consider why they got the award. Maybe they'll make positive changes. Maybe they'll take another look at day one DLC, micro-transactions, in-game adverstising, and proprietary Origin requirements. Maybe they'll reconsider changing the ME3 ending. Who knows.

Whatever the result, I think this award is a net-positive for gamers. So I'm happy that EA won the 2012 Poo award.

[IronicBeet]

Darth Krytie wrote...

whining about the end of Mass Effect 3 in the first place.

Your bias is showing.

[Trapper_920]

SenisterDenister wrote...

"Traditionally, the Poo has been delivered on its little red pillow. But this year, we'll give EA three different color options for its pillow, though in the end it's still the same old Poo."

I guess three separate colors of poo are the result of helping yourself to too much hamburger of a poor origin.

LOL.

The dice has rolled. A chain of events has happened and I'm interested to see where it goes.

[f0rmaldehyde]

Imagine you own a cupcake shop. Everyone loves your cupcakes. Business is good and there are hundreds of fatties who sink hundreds of dollars into your business everytime you make a new cupcake. Then...one day you decide to make a speciality fish cupake. You mix that fish into your delicious batter thinking to yourself "this is so artsy and amazing. Everyone is going to love it!" You decide to release the fish cupcake with three different types of fish.

grand opening night everyone hates your fish cupcakes. You try to explain to them that there are different flavoured fish cupcakes but everyone insists that you executed your new cupcake venture poorly in light of your previous overwhelming success. Your cupcake fans still feel like despite the fact that they are eating different fish, its still fish and it tastes like butt.

Indignantly you tell everyone who doesnt like the fish cupcakes to get out as they are too inferior to understand the deeper meaning of the fish cupcake. Its surely THEIR fault. Later in the week cupcake sales plummet, but still those fish cupcakes are at the front of your cupcake display cabinet. Is it possible you made a terrible mistake? NO! of course not!

Later, the cupcake shop is voted worst shop in the mall. Ppssst. They dont know anything. Clearly they know nothing about cupcakes. Months pass, the cupcake store closes as its patrons have all left except a couple of weird kids that pay each other to eat the fish cupcakes, and one or two hipsters who think that the fish cupcakes have a deeper meaning akin to their favourite song. A few days ago in a final act of desperation you brought back the good old cupcakes everyone loved but still nobody came, the foul texture of fishy-cupcake still lingering in their mouths. A final last ditch effort to keep your doors from closing.

moral to the story: dont put fish in cupcakes.

[Homebound]

Gotholhorakh wrote...

kbct wrote...

aberdash wrote...

virumor wrote...

I believe it is more likely that John Riccitiello is lighting his cigar with a $100 bill as we speak rather than losing sleep over this.

He can only ignore it for so long.

https://www.google.c...=ob&q=NASDAQ:EA

John holds about 320K shares of EA. He lost about $128K today on those shares.

Wow. I wonder how many Battlefield bullets that would have bought, had they done this:

A famous CEO, guess which one said...
"When you are six hours into playing Battlefield and you run out of ammo in your clip, and we ask you
for a dollar to reload, you're really not very price sensitive at that
point in time."
"A consumer gets engaged in a property, they might spend 10,20,30,50
hours on the game and then when they're deep into the game they're well invested in it. We're not gouging, but we're charging and at that point in time the commitment can be pretty high."
"But it is a great model and I think it represents a substantially better future for the industry."

Edit: Just to assure you that no, this quote is none of my doing, here is the man himself saying it.

Still never mind - I imagine the product placement in games they have just announced:

link
- will make money and improve confidence, and nobody will have anything negative to say about that


PS: Want to know the hilarious thing? I started making this post intending to show good stuff EA has done to back up my last post, and these two things jumped right up when I did some cursory googling.

WTF EA? Own worst enemy much?

EA's strategy: Get us hooked on a game, then price gouge and jack up the prices when we're enjoying it......?

[stoicsentry2]

I don't think EA is the *worst* company in America, but certainly among the worst companies in entertainment.

Their response was beyond bizarre - why they think they should get off the hook just because they put homosexual relationships in their games is beyond me... it really has nothing to do with why they suck so bad.

Bottom line - they need to get a wake up call here.

[Volourn]

"But when it comes to buying games, big publishers like EA, Activision, and Ubisoft control huge swathes of the market. If I want a specific service (i.e. a specific game) then I have no choice. If I want to play ME3, for instance, I have to deal with EA, I have to use their download client, and I have to accept the terms of their EULA with no option for negotiation."

You have tons of chocies in the gaming industry. EA is a big company but there are tons of competitors including both other big companies as well as smaller less known ones. It's gaming. You don't need it.

Then again, I laugh at those who voted for EA since most likely the majority of thsoe who did likely played and enjoyed at least one EA game in the past year. Hypocrites much? If EA is so awful why do you buy and play their games? It is so stupid.