Vapourware LOL ELECTRONIC ARTS: The EA Thread

[Commissar Draco]

Big Business whoring themselves to Ideology de jour news at 11. Still production of faggot and furry soft porn is not as profitable as making computers for Nazis (IBM) or Trucks for Soviets (FORD). Poor EA

 

[skuphundaku]

Big Business whoring themselves to Ideology de jour news at 11. Still production of faggot and furry soft porn is not as profitable as making computers for Nazis (IBM) or Trucks for Soviets (FORD). Poor EA

... and that's why Comcast is going to beat them in the final showdown.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

What's Comcast doing?

 

[DalekFlay]

What's Comcast doing?

Blocking my local spots channels behind a ridiculous pay wall when they're the only reason I have cable to begin with.

 

[Lyric Suite]

Worst Company Success

 

[DraQ]

Big Business whoring themselves to Ideology de jour news at 11. Still production of faggot and furry soft porn

Rapax courtesans.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Hey, don't bring my honeys into this, DraQ!

 

[Corporate_Jew_Master]

Who the hell voted EA for worst company anyway? You had bank of America in that same list, a rotten institution that has been ousting people out of their homes with the speed of Cleve's vault-co blogposts.

And are these fucks ever gonna tank? They've been leaking money since TOR went to the bottom of the ocean and spent more money on BF3 and 4 marketing rather than the development of these games. I can already see the comments about BF5: Due to production costs every household in the PRC needs to own a copy of Battlefield 5 if we are to break even.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

How pathetic is this?

Ok, we've been talking about Iply's death for years now.
What about this time we take bets on EA's stock price?
Whether it goes up or down, and what price it will settle at.
Any takers?

 

[Gerrard]

It doesn't really matter if it goes up or down, it still is less than half of what it was 5 years ago.

Who the hell voted EA for worst company anyway?

Madden fans, obviously.

 

[Coyote]

In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.

Hahaohwow.
FILTHY CONSERVATIVES ARE VOTING US DOWN! BAWWWWW
So that's why they "supported" LMFAOBBQ in the first place.

It's not anything new. They haven't exactly been subtle about this in the past:

2012-4-4: EA is voted worst company in America after yet another Bioware release with a disappointing reception by the [non-gaming journalist] public.
2012-4-4*: EA announces that they have received thousands of letters protesting same-sex romances in their games. As far as I know, they had never brought up LGBT issues prior to this, and even at the time it seemed a pretty blatant attempt to portray the Consumerist vote as having resulted from hatred and bigotry rather than customer backlash against shoddy products and shady business practices.
2013-3-5: Simcity 2013 released in North America, receiving a disastrous reception due to both long waits among preorders to be able to play the game (while release-date purchasers appear to be at the front of the queue) and problems with the gameplay itself. Many more technical issues, examples of deception in the lead up to the game's release, and glaring flaws in the game itself are exposed over the course of the next several days.
2013-3-7: EA releases this video after having remained largely silent on LGBT issues over the course of the months following the previous incident.

Personally, I'd love to see RPS, Kotaku, the Borderhouse, et al. call them out on the fact that they're co-opting the LGBT cause to deflect genuine criticism while doing little to actually, tangibly support it, but I doubt it will happen. EA's press releases feed perfectly into the atmosphere of persecution common among progressive activists within the field of gaming journalism ("See how far the haters will go, that they will vote EA the worst company in America due to having LGBT content in their games!"), their desire for acknowledgement in the gaming world ("Even if they are using it to deflect criticism, EA is still the only major publisher willing to take a public stance in support of LGBT rights and include LGBT characters in their games."), and their myopic focus on a single set of issues to the exclusion of all others (which means that the people most poised to call them out on it are either unlikely to notice the timing of these pro-LGBT press releases in the first place, or likely to assume a pattern of cause and effect that supports their preconceived notions, e.g., EA supports LGBT rights -> EA voted worst company in America, rather than EA voted worst company in America -> EA issues a press release in support of LGBT rights).

* It's not clear which event came first, the Consumerist releasing the results of its vote or EA's press release, but it was pretty obvious how the vote was going ahead of time and even making it to the semi-final brackets speaks volumes about the state of EA's reputation at that point, so it doesn't make a huge difference either way.

 

[DalekFlay]

Who the hell voted EA for worst company anyway? You had bank of America in that same list, a rotten institution that has been ousting people out of their homes with the speed of Cleve's vault-co blogposts.

And are these fucks ever gonna tank? They've been leaking money since TOR went to the bottom of the ocean and spent more money on BF3 and 4 marketing rather than the development of these games. I can already see the comments about BF5: Due to production costs every household in the PRC needs to own a copy of Battlefield 5 if we are to break even.

GAMES ARE SRS BIZNESS BRO!

 

[Infinitron]

 

[skuphundaku]

In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.

Hahaohwow.
FILTHY CONSERVATIVES ARE VOTING US DOWN! BAWWWWW
So that's why they "supported" LMFAOBBQ in the first place.

It's not anything new. They haven't exactly been subtle about this in the past:

2012-4-4: EA is voted worst company in America after yet another Bioware release with a disappointing reception by the [non-gaming journalist] public.
2012-4-4*: EA announces that they have received thousands of letters protesting same-sex romances in their games. As far as I know, they had never brought up LGBT issues prior to this, and even at the time it seemed a pretty blatant attempt to portray the Consumerist vote as having resulted from hatred and bigotry rather than customer backlash against shoddy products and shady business practices.
2013-3-5: Simcity 2013 released in North America, receiving a disastrous reception due to both long waits among preorders to be able to play the game (while release-date purchasers appear to be at the front of the queue). Many more technical issues, examples of deception in the lead up to the game's release, and glaring flaws in the game itself are exposed over the course of the next several days.
2013-3-7: EA releases this video after having remained largely silent on LGBT issues over the course of the months following the previous incident.

Personally, I'd love to see RPS, Kotaku, the Borderhouse, et al. call them out on the fact that they're co-opting the LGBT cause to deflect genuine criticism while doing little to actually, tangibly support it, but I doubt it will happen. EA's press releases feed perfectly into the atmosphere of persecution common among progressive activists within the field of gaming journalism ("See how far the haters will go, that they will vote EA the worst company in America due to having LGBT content in their games!"), their desire for acknowledgement in the gaming world ("Even if they are using it to deflect criticism, EA is still the only major publisher willing to take a public stance in support of LGBT rights and include LGBT characters in their games."), and their myopic focus on a single set of issues to the exclusion of all others (which means that the people most poised to call them out on it are either unlikely to notice the timing of these pro-LGBT press releases in the first place, or likely to assume a pattern of cause and effect that supports their preconceived notions, e.g., EA supports LGBT rights -> EA voted worst company in America, rather than EA voted worst company in America -> EA issues a press release in support of LGBT rights).

* It's not clear which event came first, the Consumerist releasing the results of its vote or EA's press release, but it was pretty obvious how the vote was going ahead of time and even making it to the semi-final brackets speaks volumes about the state of EA's reputation at that point, so it doesn't make a huge difference either way.

RPS calling someone out on LGBT bullshit? Are you kidding me? Look at what John Walker aborted today: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/06/misogyny-sexism-and-why-rps-isnt-shutting-up/ . That shit is almost physically painful to read. And, to show his true colors, the fat fuck disabled the comments. Zere vill be no dissent on groriousu threadu!

 

[Rake]

 

[AngryEddy]

I don't have a problem with homosexuals/trannys/etc in videogames, as long as I can hurt/kill/torture/humiliate them, like I can with the rest of the enemy/NPC cast, and they aren't portrayed as normal people. I've been playing Planescape: Torment recently, and I was laughing my ass off at how there was a character called "Drunk Harlot", that after you catch her digging in your pockets, you can grab her by the hand, say "stop screaming" and then say, "don't worry, i'll let you go", then immediately strangle her to the point that you snap her neck in public. Developers just don't have the balls to do that anymore [kills gays/women, portray gays/women in non-heroic/noble struggle light].

 

[lophiaspis]

It almost makes you suspect that the whole ridiculous intolerant PC thing was fostered in game journalism by publishers as another way to dismiss critics. And I'm pretty sympathetic to minorities.

 

[Coyote]

RPS calling someone out on LGBT bullshit? Are you kidding me? Look at what John Walker aborted today: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/06/misogyny-sexism-and-why-rps-isnt-shutting-up/ . That shit is almost physically painful to read. And, to show his true colors, the fat fuck disabled the comments. Zere vill be no dissent on groriousu threadu!

Hence the statement "but I doubt it will happen". That said, I think that even he might have second thoughts about supporting a company for being pro-LGBT if he thought that its pro-LGBT stance was just a farce with no substance behind it, cynically designed with profit in mind and as a means of mitigating hits to its flagging reputation. The doubt comes in because it's easy for people to dismiss this idea for the reasons mentioned earlier.

Edit: "Cynically designed with profit in mind". This should be EA's new motto.

 

[Dexter]

As far as I know, they had never brought up LGBT issues prior to this, and even at the time it seemed a pretty blatant attempt to portray the Consumerist vote as having resulted from hatred and bigotry rather than customer backlash against shoddy products and shady business practices.

They've done this for a long while actually to deflect criticism, I already commented on this on Page 2:

They've done this for Dragon Age 2 (when people said the game sucked and Metacritic was bombed it was the "homophobes"): http://gamerant.com/bioware-dragon-age-2-sex-preference-dom-75525/
They've done it for TORTanic (same, when people said the game sucked, they suddenly brought up "conservative groups" attacking them): http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/stor...w-old-republic-blasted-by-conservative-groups
They did it for the Mass Effect 3 Launch (this was accepted truth at first, till it got too big to ignore for "game journalism"): http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...-option-leads-to-user-backlash-on-metacritic/
They've done this after being voted "Worst Company in America" by The Consumerist previous year, and even got called out on it from a few publications: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkai...ge-control-mode-points-to-anti-gay-hate-mail/
And in one of their previous PR campaigns they even admitted to hiring fake "religious protesters" for PR reasons to drum up some controversy: http://www.gamepolitics.com/2009/06...ers-slam-ea-staging-fake-religious-protest-e3

RPS calling someone out on LGBT bullshit? Are you kidding me? Look at what John Walker aborted today: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/04/06/misogyny-sexism-and-why-rps-isnt-shutting-up/ . That shit is almost physically painful to read. And, to show his true colors, the fat fuck disabled the comments. Zere vill be no dissent on groriousu threadu!

Yeah, I removed RPS from my Bookmarks and stopped visiting a few weeks ago when it got really painful to read some of the crap they spew, John Walker doing it every other day was bad enough, but the new Nathan guy (aside from being seemingly stupid in his arguments and constantly reaching for the pretty Doritos) seems to be driving that passive agressive crap in like every 2nd article he writes. It kinda turned from a place I went to check out new PC games into some sort of Social Justice Tumblr Blog or something over the last year or so...

 

[Coyote]

To clarify, I was thinking mainly of cases where EA was the one who had brought up the issue (thus actively promoting the idea that criticism directed at them is rooted in intolerance) when I wrote that. I remember the DA2 case but wasn't counting it because it was a response to someone else bringing it up on a forum, as opposed to EA bringing up the subject themselves. Also, it came from Gaider, who has been talking about this stuff on the Bioware boards since before EA bought Bioware and isn't necessarily seen by the gaming public as a representative of EA, even if he technically is one. Both DA2 and ME3 involved people alleging that low metacritic user scores were due to LGBT content, but as far as I know EA themselves never made that assertion; the closest thing I recall was an implication from Gaider that people from 4chan were bombarding metacritic with low scores, but he didn't mention same-sex content as a factor. Had forgotten about the TOR statement, though.

In any case, the point still stands: every time EA has brought up their newfound LGBT advocacy has been shortly after some major PR fiasco or hit to their reputation.

 

[Western]

Who the hell voted EA for worst company anyway? You had bank of America in that same list, a rotten institution that has been ousting people out of their homes with the speed of Cleve's vault-co blogposts.

And are these fucks ever gonna tank? They've been leaking money since TOR went to the bottom of the ocean and spent more money on BF3 and 4 marketing rather than the development of these games. I can already see the comments about BF5: Due to production costs every household in the PRC needs to own a copy of Battlefield 5 if we are to break even.

GAMES ARE SRS BIZNESS BRO!

EA is not the most evil company but, from the perspective of incompetence, lolwut logic, and ability to trash long term profitability of intellectual property, they must be one of the worst. Also their ridiculous communications, with lies and tactics so ridiculous even people of below average intelligence don't buy it.

 

[toro]

This is a new low for RPS. That article is ridiculous.

John Walker should read this: http://shiningpearlsofsomething.blogspot.de/2013/04/a-little-man-shaming-for-change-of-pace.html

Edit:

 

[Necroscope]

Because EA is all about easy money.

They don't give a shit about anything long term. Carpe diem!

 

[evdk]

This is a new low for RPS. That article is ridiculous.

John Walker should read this: http://shiningpearlsofsomething.blogspot.de/2013/04/a-little-man-shaming-for-change-of-pace.html

"Men's Human Rights Movement"
Oh, fuck off.

 

[toro]

This is a new low for RPS. That article is ridiculous.

John Walker should read this: http://shiningpearlsofsomething.blogspot.de/2013/04/a-little-man-shaming-for-change-of-pace.html

"Men's Human Rights Movement"
Oh, fuck off.

You know, they are human too