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Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

Azalin

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I think that the EA suits decided they want to go for an unprecedented three-peat of the Consumerist's Golden Poo award

A trully unique effort

:hero:
 
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Caim

Arcane
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I think that the EA suits decided they want ot go for an unprecedented three-peat of the Consumerist's Golden Poo award

A trully unique effort

:hero:
One for destroying their customers' trust, one for permanently integrating themselves into the fabric of gaming without being able to be cut out; now all they need is one for destroying themselves and taking over the entire industry and they'll have the full set.
 

Zewp

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Messages
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Codex 2013
I think that the EA suits decided they want to go for an unprecedented three-peat of the Consumerist's Golden Poo award

A trully unique effort

Ironically their CEO said he wanted to change things because they don't want to win that prize three years in a row.

I guess a leopard can't change its spots.
 

Angthoron

Arcane
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13,056
They've probably turned the whole enterprise into a giant experiment on the topic of how dumb the consumer society actually is.
 

Spectacle

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I think that the EA suits decided they want to go for an unprecedented three-peat of the Consumerist's Golden Poo award

A trully unique effort

Ironically their CEO said he wanted to change things because they don't want to win that prize three years in a row.

I guess a leopard can't change its spots.

I remember in the same statement that he said he wanted EA to not be hated anymore, he also explicitly said they wouldn't stop doing any of he things that make people hate EA :lol:
 

Xor

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Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
And yet in spite of all that hate, EA is still the biggest publisher around (I think, haven't checked in a while). I guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity.
 

Zewp

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Codex 2013
And yet in spite of all that hate, EA is still the biggest publisher around (I think, haven't checked in a while). I guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity.

The problem is that the people who are buying their top-sellers (sports titles and BF games) simply don't give a fuck or act like they give a fuck but really don't. In the case of BF, those who bitch the loudest and claim they'll never buy another BF game are the first ones to submit their pre-orders once the next game comes around.
 

CrazyDiamond

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Feb 5, 2014
Messages
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And yet in spite of all that hate, EA is still the biggest publisher around (I think, haven't checked in a while). I guess there really is no such thing as bad publicity.

The problem is that the people who are buying their top-sellers (sports titles and BF games) simply don't give a fuck or act like they give a fuck but really don't. In the case of BF, those who bitch the loudest and claim they'll never buy another BF game are the first ones to submit their pre-orders once the next game comes around.

It's always like that, and not only with EA. Reminds me of this.
But yeah, EA's best selling games appeal directly to people who don't play a lot of video games (namely: the SPORTS crew), so it's to be expected they'd sell well.

And regarding that layoff. I love seeing EA having those issues and hopefully slowly crashing to the ground, but I can't help but feel bad about those folks they fired.
 

taxalot

I'm a spicy fellow.
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Your wallet.
Codex 2013 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015
...
I would sell out to The Man for 1 buck per 100 pageviews if I had a popular YouTube channel.
I would kill myself if I had to sell out a popular YouTube channel to survive.
Prostitution is more honorable.

It is an age old debate. Considering there is a demand for it and whatever you do is not going to brigthen or enlighten society, why not profit from the decline ? It's the Walter White state of mind : if people are stupid enough to ruin their lives in meaningless entertainment, you might as well earn the profit of it. I would completely humiliate myself on youtube if that could make me a millionaire. I'd be rich enough to enjoy a lovely life, have it large with super-expensive prostitutes, and considering the attention span of the average internet user, this humiliation would be all forgotten in a matter of hours.

Actually, maybe I just wouldn't do that.

But then again, I don't think I ever had the opportunity.
 

DragoFireheart

all caps, rainbow colors, SOMETHING.
Joined
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I would completely humiliate myself on youtube if that could make me a millionaire. I'd be rich enough to enjoy a lovely life, have it large with super-expensive prostitutes, and considering the attention span of the average internet user, this humiliation would be all forgotten in a matter of hours.

Actually, maybe I just wouldn't do that.

But then again, I don't think I ever had the opportunity.

No, you probably would. People's attention span are just that short.

And if you had a couple people that kept bringing up the issue, encourage them to do so. Reverse psychology kicks in since they see it isn't bothering you. And all that is left is you, the winner.
 

sea

inXile Entertainment
Developer
Joined
May 3, 2011
Messages
5,698
Tell yourself this:

"These people contributed to the decline. They could instead have supported a better dev/publisher".
Very few developers have the luxury of working for who they want, and many of them also may not realize the reality of development in a company like EA until after they are a part of it.
 

DragoFireheart

all caps, rainbow colors, SOMETHING.
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23,731
Very few developers have the luxury of working for who they want, and many of them also may not realize the reality of development in a company like EA until after they are a part of it.

The world is a harsh place to live in. But ITZ will come and their will be sacrificial blood!
 
Joined
Dec 31, 2011
Messages
673
Wasteland 2
Anyone, who even consider playing shitty Pay2Win game, deserves any abuse that publishers try.

It's not any different than the coin arcade machines, many oldfags is so nostalgic about, anyway.
 
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Xor

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Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Divinity: Original Sin Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Divinity: Original Sin 2
Anyone, who even consider playing shitty Pay2Win game, deserves any abuse that publishers try.

It's not any different than the coin arcade machines, many oldfags is so nostalgic about, anyway.
At least with arcade games you could actually fucking win off one coin. At least with those it was 25 cents (or later 50 cents) per game. And even then most games gave you multiple lives. It's not pay-to-win at all, it's pay-to-play.
 

Koschey

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Jan 14, 2013
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Germany
Yeah, the difference is that arcade games gave you an incentive to become better at playing the game. p2w instead lives of making games so dreadfully boring or infuriating that people are willing to pay for not having to play.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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EA Defends BF 4, SimCity Launch Efforts, Discusses Future

bff3s.jpg


I recently attended the D.I.C.E. Summit in Las Vegas (which is not related to game developer DICE, actually), and there I interviewed the entire gaming industry. OK, that’s not entirely true, largely because many D.I.C.E. attendees spontaneously break out into hives if anybody so much as mentions the word “indie.” But still, I talked to a whole mess of people. I encountered EA chief creative officer Rich Hilleman on an award show red carpet, so time for chit-chat was brief. Given recent events, however, I had to ask: what’s the deal with EA and hideously botched launches on games like Battlefield 4 and SimCity? And while Hilleman (very vaguely) promised change, I found his response more than a little upsetting. Read on and see what you think.

RPS: SimCity and BF4 both had terrible launches. SimCity didn’t work for more than a month, and BF4 still has issues. Surely you’re overhauling how you approach launches internally from now on?

Hilleman: I’m not sure I accept your premise. Battlefield 4 has been an exceedingly successful product on both consoles and PC. From a sales perspective, from a gameplay perspective.

RPS: Sure, BF4 is fundamentally a good game, but you can’t just write off months of glitches and server issues. Some people straight up could not play for the first couple weeks.

Hilleman: I think there was a lot of noise about the game, but some of that is a function of your surface area. The more customers you have, the more noise becomes available. We did things wrong. We know that. We’re gonna fix those things. We’re gonna try to be smart about what customers want in the future.

max4.jpg


But I’m not willing to accept – and I don’t think most of my customers are willing to say – “it’s a bad product, I wish I didn’t buy it.” That’s not the conversation we’re having now. I think what we’re hearing is, “You made a game we really liked. We would’ve liked it a little better if it didn’t have these problems.” Many of those problems we can fix, and we have and will.

RPS: Have you looked into ways to improve your process? Better internal testing? Better beta testing? Early Access is all the rage these days, and that generally starts in alpha. I feel like BF4 should’ve had that tag on it when it launched.

Hilleman: I don’t have the numbers off the top of my head, but my impression is that BF4 had more than 10,000 beta testers before it shipped. Now, some of the problems we had were related to systems that were not released. Beta testing on an unreleased system is difficult.

What I would say is, there were dynamics that were different this time. There were organizational differences. Some of those have been fixed already. Many of those conditions will not be the same next time. Some of those fixes aren’t going to solve the problem next time, though.

The obvious and glaring issues – the ones we heard most about from our customers, the ones that matter most to them – we’ve really gotten on top of those and they’re fixed. What is most important is to know how to not have the problem next time, and that’s kinda what I’m proudest about.

RPS: How radically are you changing the process next time? Are you, for instance, going to focus on giving DICE time and space to iron out all the bugs?

Hilleman: That team got to ship that game when they wanted to. I don’t think we really pulled it out of their hands. But the process changes dramatically ever time. If you were to take a look at the process behind a gen three launch and a gen four launch, it’s 80 percent different. So the next major number release for Battlefield will likely have an 80 percent process change, because time has passed. So that’s why I talk about changing for the future, not changing for mistakes we made last time. If I reproduce what I did this time, it’s guaranteed to be 80 percent wrong anyway.

tf2.jpg


RPS: As a customer in the wake of all this – SimCity, Battlefield 4, etc – why should I buy in during another EA launch? Why should I trust, say, Titanfall?

Hilleman: Titanfall is made by a different organization. Respawn has very firm control of their project. Best I can do for you.

[Red carpet pit lords crack whips until Hilleman is forced to exit]

Much shorter than I would have liked (for obvious reasons), but you get the idea. I hope Hilleman’s is not indicative of general rhetoric among EA brass, because this is the sort of habit I think they should be trying to break with a ten-ton sledgehammer. Trust is massively important, and EA’s effort to re-earn it in the past many months has been confused at best. It’s awful, too, to see potentially great (or at least solid) games eclipsed by crummy launches. If EA doesn’t consider a game that doesn’t work at launch to be a “bad product”, then there’s cause for concern.

If nothing else, DICE has been extremely apologetic over the whole fiasco, and fixes have been slow but steady. Will that translate into improvement next time or on other EA games, though? Only time will tell. Fingers do-deca-double-septuple crossed that the worst is finally over.
 

Caim

Arcane
Joined
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Messages
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Location
Dutchland
Ah yes, the good ol' "I reject your reality and substitute my own" defense. Because why break with a winning formula?
 

Baron Dupek

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2013
Messages
1,870,765
So they know about problems. But they also know that people still buy their turds no matter how bugfilled they're. They just push the line futher.
All that in the PR butter shield.
Nothing new under the sun.
 

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