Why you hate Computer Game Publishers, like EA

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Big J Money

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The purpose of this thread is mainly to have conversation moved here from a place it was inappropriately taking place.

If you'd like to start fresh, be my guest. If you want to disagree, be my other guest.

=$= Big J Money =$=

CONTENTS OF PREVIOUS THREAD

We reject the machine. We reject the retail channel. We reject big budgets and big teams. We reject $50 boxes of air. We reject end-caps and payments for shelf-space. We reject executives and producers who don't understand what they sell. We reject timidity. We reject the notion that "we know what works," and commit ourselves to finding NEW things that work.

Great find! Thanks for pointing that out.

Makes you wonder and makes you think .....

Narcissus
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One conclusion, EA games still has a lot too learn.
Though BF2 is a good start.

PrinceScamp
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Because of the new and creative idea of...?

chadz
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EA is only beaten by Valve in regards to poor customer service, blatant lies, deception, and lack of consideration for it's customer base.

BF2 is a decent game, but as, I assume, Chadz alluded to: I don't see what they did differently about BF2.

It had it's share of problems when it was released: It was so buggy that it was virtually impossible to play multi for any extended amount of time. Five minute waiting times to enter a server were common. Random CTDs. Horrid FPS.

Narcissus
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NOte to self: Remember to look into the stablalization issues next time.

PrinceScamp
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As a publisher run by slimy lizards (In expensive suits} who don't like or play computer or video games Atari deserves some sort of greedy moron award as well.

Sir Saladin
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EA is only beaten by Valve in regards to poor customer service, blatant lies, deception, and lack of consideration for it's customer base.

Yeah , apparantly EA Games and Valve dont understand this New and Fantastic thing called - E-Mail
No - They only believe in $3.99 a minute phone calls to customer support

WipperSnipper
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Atari has some good GAMES. Sid Meier's Pirates and all sid meier's games. BUt I guess that's almost it.

PrinceScamp
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ToEE, altought no thanks to Atari. Its still not even close to the game it was supposed to be but its already quite enjoyable thanks to the Circle Of Eight

Lost-Lamb
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Even though I hated the game my self, Ico was very, very, verrry unique.

Different, too.

It also looked awesome.

Orion
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Speaking of Ico, (never played it but loved the looks of it) Have you seen Shadow of Collosus, I have the demo and its increadible. Challenging and beautiful, cant wait to buy it.

Thingy Master
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EA is only beaten by Valve in regards to poor customer service, blatant lies, deception, and lack of consideration for it's customer base.
Narcissus

Yeah, well that's just EA's business plan - they throw out tons and tons of mostly mediocre games, and just wait for other devs to advance the ingenuity of genre's so that they can keep producing cookie-cutter games. And, when they sell so many damn units, they don't really have to care if more than a few people wise up and get alienated along the way.

Khamos
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Sick. Just, sick. I think some castration is in order.

PrinceScamp
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Your castration, I believe? As you surely cannot be suggesting to castrate someone from a company who makes games you don't like?

I'm irritated by you all. You really think games like NHL 0X, NBA 0X, NFS series and the likes are pure crap and should never have been made? And may I remind you that you don't have to buy these games? Before some smartguy comes along: no, you shouldn't even pirate them.

Don't buy them, buy a copy of Silent Storm or FlatOut or some other game from a european games company no one has ever heard of.

RJii
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I think I have overuse the castration thing, I will stop. *builds a new vault to put ïmplements" inside of*.

I jsut do not like sports games, as I am not interested. I am still gonig to buy BF2 when i get a computer to handle it. Just because I don't like EA doesn't mean I am going to not buy their games IF (AS LONG AS) they are really good. And I generaly don't give a hippo's rear end about who made the game, as lnog as it is good. I don't care if it is made by a starving child in africa, a hobo in New York slums, a guy and his wife in Turkey, a small company in China, or a huge company in US of A.
To each his/her/its/other own.

PrinceScamp
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Speaking of Ico, (never played it but loved the looks of it) Have you seen Shadow of Collosus, I have the demo and its increadible. Challenging and beautiful, cant wait to buy it.

Yeah, I just played the demo yesterday and loved it. After spending 30 minutes trying to figure out how to kill the Colossus in the demo, I restarted my system... and watched the intro movie on the demo. It showed your character stabbing the colossus in the head. So, I got to thinking... perhaps I should climb UP the colossus and stab him in the head...?

So I did.

It was amazing. There's just so much satisfaction in killing something 100 times the size of your self, by using something that is only 1/2 the size of your self.

Orion
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Don't buy them, buy a copy of Silent Storm or FlatOut or some other game from a european games company no one has ever heard of.

It is a bit off-topic ... I just wanted to mention that I have both Silent Storm and Flatout.

Anyways ... the reason I hate EA has nothing to do with the type of games that come through them ... but the lousy customer support, inability to answer questions, failure to actually include options in the game that were part of the game's selling point, etc ...

Narcissus
 
Anyways ... the reason I hate EA has nothing to do with the type of games that come through them ... but the lousy customer support, inability to answer questions, failure to actually include options in the game that were part of the game's selling point, etc ...

I've worked in support for a few of the big publishing houses, and in all honesty poor customer support isn't always there fault.
Most big publishers outsource the support, and those that don't rarely have their support centre in the same building, or even same location, as the main HQ. Add to that the fact that once a problem is recognised, it is down to the development studio to provide a patch. What you end up with is a long chain with Support at the end of it. Add in the communication problems that anyone who has worked in a large corporation is familiar with and you'll see how hard effective support can be.

The main problem I have with EA is that they have fallen into the Microsoft method of software publishing - release the same program next year, add a few shiny things (while leaving the core of the game unchanged) and pretend its a brand new game. That, and the horrendous expansion pack production line of the sims (offer as little as possible as much as possible).
 
Rjii wrote this in Big $'s thread, but as he expressed the desire to keep that topic 100% M&B related and created this topic ... I'll answer it here.

RJii said:
Narcissus said:
RJii said:
Silent Storm or FlatOut

It is a bit off-topic ... I just wanted to mention that I have both Silent Storm and Flatout. :grin:

So do I, great games.

Narcissus said:
but the lousy customer support, inability to answer questions, failure to actually include options in the game that were part of the game's selling point, etc ...

Ok, so you have experienced the lousy customer support and inability to answer questions first hand? Give us an example. I'm sure you are aware that companies like EA get a whopping amount of emails per day.

So every other company releases a game with all the features they promised? Come on, thats a lousy argument. Most of the companies promise you a game where the AI is allmost lifelike and the story an epic one etc. and deliver something below that.

I see a well-established trend here. It's cool to hate the big companies/trademarks that "don't care about the games, don't listen to the players, only want money...". It's cool to side with the underdog against EA, Microsoft, Valve, Windows, Whatever.

I just see red when the next argument in the discussions usually is something like "yeah, they don't mind, they're such a big company, just warez that piece of crap Windows/NHL/HL/whatever".

Off the top of my head I can think of several times that EA gave me lousy customer support and showed the inability to answer questions. Sims 2 anyone? I bought two copies and for quite some time was unable to get either copy to work. I e-mailed them, I posted on their tech support forum, I called them, and I waited. After a few days I did the same steps. Again, I waited. After the third time of reporting my problem on each of the three: the forum, e-mail, and direct call ... I recieved a PM from another user off of the forum. He walked me step by step through several ways to attempt to get it to work. I'm expecting that reply e-mail from EA any day now. :???:

I agree that every company out there isn't exactly 100% accurate on what features are in their game. Yet you say that I make a lousy argument ... and your reasoning is because so many others are also doing it? I'm sorry, but that is a lousy argument. Just because several companies do something does not mean that I should not hold it against them. That type of mentality is the reason why so many PC games are shipped in the pathetic condition that they are in today. I apologize if I seem aggressive, yet the mere thought of this is insanely frustrating. The fact that several other companies also do the same thing is not in any way a viable excuse or rational.

There is a trend against big companies in the PC gaming market (as well as almost every market). I hate the fact that people follow the masses like blind sheep to the slaughter. I'd also like to add that while I greatly dislike many of the companies that you listed, I admire many of them as well. A company that isn't targeted towards profit is targeted towards failure. Just because people dislike a company doesn't mean that they wouldn't do the same. What offends me are the companies that fail to even appear as if they give a crap. Wine me and dine me first please. :grin:

You aren't alone in 'seeing red' when people are talking about pirating games and stealing from big companies. I hate pirated copies of games and software. There are exceptions to my belief of this, but as this is a topic that shouldn't really be discussed here, I will leave it at that. I will add one last thing though: I am very confident when I say that I have more PC games than any two members of this board combined and every single game/program was purchased.

Narcissus
 
Archonsod said:
I've worked in support for a few of the big publishing houses, and in all honesty poor customer support isn't always there fault.
Most big publishers outsource the support, and those that don't rarely have their support centre in the same building, or even same location, as the main HQ. Add to that the fact that once a problem is recognised, it is down to the development studio to provide a patch. What you end up with is a long chain with Support at the end of it. Add in the communication problems that anyone who has worked in a large corporation is familiar with and you'll see how hard effective support can be.

ah, how i miss the good ol' times, when you bought a game from a small company and the manual said: if you have any questions or need hints towards finishing the game just call us or write us (a postcard :smile: )!
those were the days...
 
Narcissus said:
Off the top of my head I can think of several times that EA gave me lousy customer support and showed the inability to answer questions. Sims 2 anyone? I bought two copies and for quite some time was unable to get either copy to work. I e-mailed them, I posted on their tech support forum, I called them, and I waited.

Over here you need to go through the EA automated system before they even let you speak to a real person. While I can appreciate the use of the automated system for simple queries, one which actually returns an e-mail relevent to the problem\product\reality would be a better idea.

I agree that every company out there isn't exactly 100% accurate on what features are in their game.

What do you mean by that? Pre-release hype is usually way inaccurate, although thats to be expected. Once the game is released then any features listed on the box should be in the game (Trading Standards or there national equivilent could step in else, its technically false advertising)

I am very confident when I say that I have more PC games than any two members of this board combined and every single game/program was purchased.

You wanna bet? My games collection now has its own room, and even thats getting crowded....
 
Archonsod said:
What do you mean by that? Pre-release hype is usually way inaccurate, although thats to be expected. Once the game is released then any features listed on the box should be in the game (Trading Standards or there national equivilent could step in else, its technically false advertising)

You just said exactly what I meant. Pre-release hype, while I disagree with it, is inevitable. What really gets me is that the manual and website of games will list features that are just not there. X3 anyone? :evil:

Archonsod said:
You wanna bet? My games collection now has its own room, and even thats getting crowded....

Yes, I do. I see your game collection room and raise you a storage area that I am paying $85 a month for. Granted, the storage area isn't full of just my games, but between that and what I have here at the house ... thats a wager I'll take. :wink:

I have been an avid PC game collector for 10 - 12 years. I buy two or three games a week and the only time that I don't buy that many (or more) is when there are no games that I have any interest in at all. I have numerous movies and games that have never even been opened ... a fact that makes my wife get quite upset about. :razz:

Narcissus
 
Just to add something to the thing with EA and Battlefield 2
Its DICE media Digital illusions (A swedish company) that made the game BF1942 and got bought by EA who now publishes DICE/digital illusions Games like BF2 and BFvietnamn.

And my favorit company must be Sierra i dont know but the suport i got from the Sierra swedish ofice has been great when i have called.
 
Big companies are getting worse every year. I am kind of glad they have started going bankrupt though.

For example 3do really deserved it after releasing HoMM4 which was unstable and clearly unfinished. The first version is barely playable. It isn't fun to play some long campaign or even mission to see game crash everytime when you try to get a key for example. Some single missions even crash immediately if you try to run them in the first version of the game. At least most of these crashing problems got fixed in the patch though.

Downloading that patch was another thing. They gave absolutely useless automatic updater which usually downloaded patches at impressive speed of 0,5 kb/s. Most of the time it couldn't even connect to update servers. When I finally was able to download the damn patch, it turned out to be for US version of the game and I couldn't install it. Few months after the release of the game I managed to find a patch for the game with google. I never got that damn updater to work properly.

I still wasn't satisfied.

When they were hyping the game, they promised multiplayer support. When I bought the game and clicked multiplayer in the menu I got message which told me to wait for next patch which will add it. Those bastards never released a free multiplayer patch. I think you can get multiplayer support for the game if you buy expansion packs but as you can guess, I wasn't really interested in doing that.

I googled for 3do and this came up:

"The 3DO Company (formerly THDO on the NASDAQ stock exchange), also known as 3DO, was founded in 1991 under the name SMSG, Inc. by Electronic Arts co-founder Trip Hawkins"

For some reason I am not suprised.


Epic isn't any better either. It used to be a good company. They released patches and alot of free content for original Unreal Tournament. Then they decided to become next EA and rereleased UT2003 as UT2004. If I had known they were going to release the same game next year I wouldn't have wasted money on UT2003 because it is practically useless. There are n't almost any mods for it and no one plays them.
 
I like all the smaller companies way more the the oh...the concept worked, lets make 5 expensions and 3 folowups without quite adifference.
and then make tv commercials...ok there aare some good games...but so many non-"public" published games are sooo much better...
 
What's features in X3 aren't featured? Actually I have a copy but I can't go further than Goner mission (I can't controll turret in city chasing).

Well, that's not the point.

As far as I know it's inevitable that when a company grew it becomes more and more like run by an automaton, rather than human. Though they should put more effort in getting things better.
 
Actually, it's not the companies fault, but the players. Back in the good ol' times, when PC games were created by 2 or 3 guys at most, the players were geeks - guys who actually lived for gaming or PC stuff, and therefore also had a good taste in these things.

Now, I suppose 95% of the buying gamers are average gamers who have no idea of what a good or bad game is and just follow commercials. Even worse, I also think that the main part of the guys downloading warez games are the above mentioned geeks.

So, to sum it all up, games get dumbed down to make it even for the below-average gamer easy to grasp, and creating "better" games would be suicide because the below-average gamer doesn't give a **** for a game like this, while a high percentage of the guys who are interested in the game warez it anyway.

Don't blame the company, blame the people.
 
Ryuta said:
What's features in X3 aren't featured? Actually I have a copy but I can't go further than Goner mission (I can't controll turret in city chasing).

Well, that's not the point.

As far as I know it's inevitable that when a company grew it becomes more and more like run by an automaton, rather than human. Though they should put more effort in getting things better.

The map editor.
Mining.

Look at their forums ... there is a huge list of things that were promised, are in the handbook, but aren't in the game.

Narcissus
 
You guys have got them all wrong:

"As a spiritual program, there is an emphasis on a higher power. Experience has shown the EA program works equally well for those with or without religious beliefs or affiliations.

EA provides a warm and accepting group setting in which to share experiences without fear of criticism. Through weekly support meetings, members discover they are not alone in their struggles. We may each have different symptoms, but the underlying emotions are the same or similar."

You cant ask for more than that from a call centre.
 
Narcissus said:
You just said exactly what I meant. Pre-release hype, while I disagree with it, is inevitable. What really gets me is that the manual and website of games will list features that are just not there. X3 anyone? :evil:

Haven't got X3 yet. But then, Egosoft to seem to get things in reverse : release stable build of game, add new functions via patches, introduce instability\AI problems due to new features.
The main thing I hate about the modern manual is that its usually a glorified quick start. Rather than the 100 odd pages you used to get, its now around 5 pages, plus an official strategy guide as a seperate release with the actual instructions in it. Having said that, just got Civ 4 today and the manual is excellent.

I have been an avid PC game collector for 10 - 12 years. I buy two or three games a week and the only time that I don't buy that many (or more) is when there are no games that I have any interest in at all. I have numerous movies and games that have never even been opened ... a fact that makes my wife get quite upset about. :razz:
Narcissus

Only been a PC gamer for 10 years. Usually buying 1 game a week, plus the occaisional freebie or staff discount during numerous forays into the tech support world.

Maolvar said:
For example 3do really deserved it after releasing HoMM4 which was unstable and clearly unfinished. The first version is barely playable. It isn't fun to play some long campaign or even mission to see game crash everytime when you try to get a key for example. Some single missions even crash immediately if you try to run them in the first version of the game. At least most of these crashing problems got fixed in the patch though.

I've never had problems with HoMM4. Actually quite enjoyed the slightly more 'serious' feel of the game. It was Might & Magic IX that deserved to sink them though, that game was pathetic.
 
Narcissus said:
Ryuta said:
What's features in X3 aren't featured? Actually I have a copy but I can't go further than Goner mission (I can't controll turret in city chasing).
The map editor.
Mining.

Look at their forums ... there is a huge list of things that were promised, are in the handbook, but aren't in the game.
Exactly. I'm looking forward to X3... but I'm not buying it until at least another patch comes out for it past v1.2. I hear the v1.0 of it was really screwed up. Good thing the U.S. release started with version 1.2. :wink:
For the time being, Space Rangers 2 all the way, baby.
 
One of the most awful things about EA is that their stupid logo thing you see when you start up a game is unskippable. You have to stare at the damn thing for what feels like hours while pounding the esc key and whatnot into oblivioum.

Blizzard got it right (the only ones it seem) in war3 and WoW, you only see it the first time you start the game, after that you get put directly into the menys. Although animated menys really stink, you have to wait for them to load and stuff for no reason other than that some idiot programer thought "it'd look cool"... Maybe it was cool, the first 5'000 times you saw it, it just gets irritating.
 
Why you hate Computer Game Publishers, like EA
Well, I don't hate them. I just think that the vast majority of games they released last few years are crap.
But as long as there are people who buy them, who cares.
 
Poil said:
One of the most awful things about EA is that their stupid logo thing you see when you start up a game is unskippable. You have to stare at the damn thing for what feels like hours while pounding the esc key and whatnot into oblivioum.

Its not just EA that do that though. It is bloody annoying though, like when you get a DVD with 5 minutes of unskippable trailers on the front :evil:
At least most EA games have a -nointro command line switch.
 
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