
We Can Do Better - BIackSwan
http://www.ea.com/news/we-can-do-better
======
randomdrake
They could've "done better" by actually saying what they will do to improve
things. This was an absolutely atrocious PR piece. It didn't address any of
the issues people were having.

"45 million registered users are proving them wrong."

Such a goofy and useless statistic. When you require registration for your
products, that doesn't mean people are satisfied users of your service, it
means you got a lot of people to sign up. It's not an accurate metric for how
many people actually _enjoy and use_ the service.

Continuing...

"Some people think that free-to-play games and micro-transactions are a pox on
gaming. Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games."

Again: just because you have a bunch of people willing to pay you money for
your crap, doesn't mean it isn't crap and you couldn't be doing better.

This sort of defense mechanism doesn't even address the problems people are
having. It's almost insulting to everyone who does, legitimately, have a gripe
with EA as a company. Those folks angry with EA's principles, games, or for
simply not getting the value of what they paid are being cast aside.

It's extremely obvious they're less concerned with addressing issues and more
concerned with telling everyone about how many users they have or what their
sales are:

"But here’s the truth: each year EA interacts with more than 350 million
gamers; Origin is breaking records for revenue and users; The Simpsons: Tapped
Out and Real Racing 3 are at the top of the mobile charts; Battlefield 3 and
FIFA are stunning achievements with tens of millions of players; and SimCity
is being enjoyed by millions of passionate fans all over the world."

It seems possible to paraphrase the entirety of this press release: "We
recognize a lot of people hate us, but hey, we've got a lot of other people
paying us who aren't you, so we can't be _that_ wrong, can we?"

~~~
nostromo
As a non-gamer, I don't get it.

Why do people buy EA games if they hate them so much?

~~~
rinon
EA has a LOT of money to throw at games. They're one of the few publishers
that can play at that level and put out blockbuster, ridiculous budget games.
People like the polish and shine of big-budget games, some of which are
genuinely not possible with less money.

Unfortunately, there's also an aspect that consumers don't get a whole lot of
choices. Movies are a decent comparison to that. Why are there so many bad
sequels that everyone hates? Cause they still buy tickets. Any movie > no
movie.

Plus, EA used to make great games.

~~~
BorgHunter
EA still does make great games, sometimes. Their problems tend to be more
toward customer-hostile actions (see: SimCity, the myriad Origin customer
service horror stories, the letter that spawned this thread) and their
tendency to eat smaller studios that were fan favorites before their
acquisition (BioWare, Maxis, and so on). That last one is important to
understand the vitriol thrown at the company, I think; it's a bit galling to
see a franchise like SimCity, that touched so many people's childhoods (like
mine), become the joke that it has.

------
tiredofcareer
Spin 101: Muddy up the legitimate complaints about Origin and the fumbled
_SimCity_ launch with anecdotes about conservatives carpetbombing the company
with hate mail regarding LGBTQ playables. Notice that was the last bullet
point; you move forward to the next paragraph thinking "wow, that's terrible,"
and you're shocked enough about that to start forgetting the first bullet
points. The next paragraph then doubles down on the LGBTQ hate. You've
completely forgotten the _SimCity_ bullet point now.

Oh yeah, and without you realizing it, he just lightly compared your
complaints about _SimCity_ always-on to gay bashing and not liking the choice
of a cover athlete for a sports game. Apparently, EA considers all of them
equally frivolous. How 'bout that, huh?

This is a pretty good example of how to tell your customers that they're wrong
but not leave them feeling like you did so (he did get pretty direct on the
DRM point, though, which is interesting). Just look at the love pouring in on
the comments over there already, which shows you that it's working in the
general case. Not to mention completely omitting what you're going to do about
the problems, but cleverly disguising the omission itself.

A final thought, all of that aside: If I were Will Wright, I'd be genuinely
sad about what happened to SimCity regardless of the circumstances of the
Maxis sale. He left EA in 2009, which makes you wonder how long this _SimCity_
has been in development; I'd wager about three years. That's a hallowed
franchise in gaming, in my opinion, a unique IP that stood among the ranks of
_Civilization_ in its own way for many years and spawned really fun games like
_SimTower_ and _SimAnt_ , and after this it will never be the same.

~~~
freditup
Wow. That LGBT bullet point and statement left me mouth agape.

No matter what opinions and thoughts you have on gay marriage and LGBTQ
issues, it's blatantly obvious that there is a current cultural shift in the
US. In a max of 10 years, and probably much sooner, gay marriage will
undoubtedly be legal. And right now, it's more socially acceptable to support
gay marriage and hold progressive LGBT views then to not.

So when EA tries to play the 'we will not back down from our core principles!'
card, it comes out sounding like a lame cry to try and drum up some good
feelings towards EA.

Then the conclusion "The tallest trees catch the most wind. At EA we remain
proud and unbowed." just reenforces this.

A poor decision by EA to write and post that statement.

------
ghshephard
I stopped reading right here:

"Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme.
It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s
not. Period."

He's flat out lying. I have no interest whatsoever in what he is saying.
SimCity can technically run offline, gamers want to run it offline, but EA
won't let you run it offline because you could then pirate their software.
They should just demonstrate some courage and admit it.

~~~
misnome
I suspect the argument is more "It's not DRM, it's amazing social interaction,
that benefits everyone!" (read: Nobody would use it if it was optional)

~~~
estel
I think I believe them: the game they wanted to make was one where the
"continuous, integrated online world" was integral to the way people played
SimCity: only the final product didn't do enough to justify their original
intention.

~~~
drucken
But it is not a question about "belief" (unless you extrapolate that to mean
future actions). SimCity has been hacked to demonstrate its completely offline
nature.

Source: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21802508>

~~~
estel
I've no doubt that it can run like that (and given SimCity works for ~30 mins
or so without connecting to SimCity's servers, it's no shock to anybody who
actually played the game at launch); but that doesn't mean that their intent
when conceiving of the game wasn't for the online aspect to be utterly central
and integral to how they wanted people to play the game. The always online
"requirement" could absolutely have resulted from that desire rather than DRM.

If it was just a matter of DRM, then it's plain inconsistent with how they're
approaching DRM with every other PC release they've done recently.

------
shrikant
While there are a few valid points raised, by and large this screed reminds me
of the last time I worked in IT in a large bank, and took the annual employee
satisfaction survey.

The IT function had the poorest scores across the entire bank, and the CIO
took quite a bit of heat for it from the rest of the CxOs.

His approach to tackle the poor employee satisfaction scores was to call an
IT-wide "town hall" and explain to each of us why we were wrong in being
dissatisfied...

~~~
waterlesscloud
I agree. The whole letter is one of the best documentations of large-
corporation dysfunctional defensiveness I've ever seen.

It's perfect. And not in a good way.

The sad thing is that by putting something so self-deluded and defensive out
in public, he's guaranteeing a death spiral for corporate morale and corporate
recruiting. It's awful leadership.

------
redthrowaway
What a completely and utterly tone-deaf response. "The tallest trees catch the
most wind". So EA is hated because it's big? What about Valve? Why doesn't
Sony get the same hate?

More than anything, I'm confused as to just who his intended audience is,
here. Certainly none of the gamers who have had long-standing issues with EA
for years would find this "mea culpa" convincing. The only people I can
imagine would be convinced or swayed by this would be EA employees and
management. Is it part of some internal political battle being played out in
public?

Either we're not the intended audience for this message, or the C-levels at EA
really are so delusional and detached from their customers that they think
they can rub a little PR pixie dust on their reputation and make it all
better.

------
SkittlesNTwix
This reads exactly like the way a high-level exec of a massive company would
think - numbers focused without truly understanding the issues that people
might have with the company. Unable to separate mindless complaints that
should be ignored out of hand (cover choice for Madden) versus the always-on
or free-to-play mechanic which represent legitimate complaints. EA is not one
of the worst companies in America by a long shot. But they have very little
respect for the consumer.

Today on HN I see a link to a Gamasutra article where industry people are
talking about just how incredible some of the LucasArts games were (20 years
ago!) and another link where one of the heads of EA is making excuses for why
people hate his company. Some of his points are valid, and people can be
immature and ridiculous in their reasoning (or downright horrid). But he
overlooks some of the valid complaints that people have with EA. And they
_are_ valid. He's throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.

------
jamesaguilar
I've always found defensiveness really unattractive, especially in companies.
Unless you are bringing new facts to bear, any piece that tries to make the
"we're not so bad as all that" argument will probably be unsuccessful at
winning hearts or minds.

~~~
TillE
Yeah. When has trying to convince critics that they're wrong _ever_ worked?
EA/Maxis keep trying.

They simply can't win this one. They're in the wrong, and for the most part
they probably know it. If they can't say anything positive, the best response
would probably be radio silence until everything blows over. Stuff like this
only fans the flames.

~~~
jamesaguilar
Or just honesty . . . I don't know how it would blow over in the press, but
personally I would find it really refreshing if they just said, "Yeah, it's
always online because you fuckers pirate too much. Deal with it." I guess that
the gamers would probably not like that very much though.

------
unoti
> This is the same poll that last year judged us as worse than companies
> responsible for the biggest oil spill in history, the mortgage crisis, and
> bank bailouts that cost millions of taxpayer dollars.

Thing is, customers don't have a love-affair with the products of those other
companies. We do with EA's products at their best. A great game is a treasure,
personal, forming great experiences and memories in almost the same way a
child or puppy does.

So when a game maker fails so epically, betrays their customers so thoroughly
and completely, it tends to spark a serious reaction. A reaction more akin to
a friend betraying you and selling you out.

As for oil spills: I can envision how that might happen through mere
incompetence and laziness. I have more trouble envisioning how EA can do what
they've been doing through mere incompetence; it's far more baffling than
that.

------
biff
Do gamers enjoy paying an extra fee to play used games online? There seem to
be no end to the accolades thrown your way for centralizing multiplayer on EA
servers and shutting them down a year or two after game release.

In case you really are kidding yourselves with this press release, you are
likely being voted the worst company because your millions of customers are
suffering your "innovations" -- not enjoying them -- in order to play series
they've come to love: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and SimCity. You are cashing in
the stored value of these brands, not building on them.

But look, Microsoft was hated for a long time, too, and it didn't seem to hurt
them any. Well, except maybe in the instances where they got into telling
their users what they wanted instead of finding out what they wanted. It's not
like you folks are going down that road, right?

------
jdwissler
"The tallest trees catch the most wind."

I hated the article starting there.

It is cowardly, evasive and deceitful. It completely ignores the issues people
have with EA.

~~~
Gigablah
They might as well have put up an image macro containing "haters gonna hate".

------
morsch
The basic message seems to be: _We're doing fine in terms of strategy, if not
execution._

The mea culpas are limited to basically fumbling implementation details: games
falling short of expectations, server end-of-life schedules, the botched
SimCity launch. But not the fact that SimCity is always-online (which we're
told is not DRM), or the question whether games need to be set up in a way
that EA has the ability to disable multiplayer functionality.

Those are strategic decisions, which like F2P games and micropayments and
building their own online distribution platform, they are on the right path.
Putting those issues along with different sorts of controversies such as LGBT
content in games seems a bit odd.

All in all, the opposite of an apology, really.

------
gavanwoolery
There are obviously many reasons to hate EA, but it is FAR from the worst
company in America. Overall EA has had a positive effect on the economy and
created many jobs (even if they are not "great" jobs). Many other companies
have taken govt. bailouts and/or gambled tax-payer money. Let's be civil and
have some perspective.

~~~
jmomo
As a former employee of EA (Tiburon) during the EA spouse days, I feel
entitled to say it's okay to hate EA.

~~~
gavanwoolery
I agree with you - like I said, there are many reasons to hate EA. :) But
still I would not vote it for the worst company in America...

------
larrydavid
For anyone wondering how the 'Worst Company in America' is decided upon, check
here [http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/here-are-your-
contestants-...](http://consumerist.com/2013/03/18/here-are-your-contestants-
for-the-2013-worst-company-in-america-tournament/).

So it's basically a bracket. Not the most well-thought-out approach. Who picks
the companies that are even eligible? Why not just have one big poll at the
start? Even if they took that approach, I think it's clear EA would still
'win' since there is definitely a votebomb-like effect (much like what happens
with MetaCritic ratings occasionally). Clearly the type of people that were
aware of this poll in the first place mainly reside on videogame forums
(Neogaf, /r/gaming etc), so the mob mentality is natural. Who can honestly say
they were aware of this poll?

If you knocked on the door of every household in America and asked them who
they thought was the 'Worst Company' in the world, it certainly wouldn't be
EA.

I am not defending EA as such, I don't agree with some of their business
practices, but there are copious amounts of hyperbole and for people to be
treating this like an accurate study is ridiculous.

There is certainly a first-world problems vibe when a videogame publisher wins
a poll like this.

~~~
MBCook
Every year The Consumerist opens submissions for a week or two. Readers submit
companies and the 16 finalists are chosen (not sure if it's pure numbers or
there is some editorial discretion).

At that point it's all voting by readers.

It's easy for someone like EA to get high in a bracket like this. They've
pissed off a lot of people who are active on the internet, and they've been
against some easy targets. AnheiserBusch/InBev isn't a company that people
line up to hate (unlike Walmart or some other perpetual nominees) and
Facebook, despite often acting creepy as hell, is loved by millions and
millions of people.

On the other hand, EA keeps making enemies; and their last dustup was just
weeks before the content.

------
Mahn
"Hey Internet, I know you don't like us, but just so you know, you are wrong
about your complains, and we are doing just fine"

Well, what a brilliant piece of PR there.

------
rinon
Can they do better? If so, why aren't they, and how do they propose to do so?
Nice to see they realize that everyone hates them... Now if only they'd
provide something other than useless rhetorical spin. Good example of how NOT
to run a company.

------
mcintyre1994
They're clearly not the worst company in America. They're pretty bad though,
and don't seem to contend that at all. Strange PR piece.

------
tptacek
Jiminy Christmas. Can you get a better illustration of the seething
entitlement of gamers than EA being a finalist in a worst-companies bracket
that included ABInBev, both AT&T _and_ Verizon, Ticketmaster, credit-reporting
agency Equifax, United Airlines, Carnival Fecal Coliform Cruises, Comcast,
yes, really, Comcast, Walmart, and Bank of America?

There is no parallel universe in which EA is worse than half these companies.
The result we have now brings discredit to the whole enterprise of worst-
company contests.

If EA's COO had a soul, he'd write a long-form blog post about how bad United
Airlines, Ticketmaster, Equifax and BofA are.

~~~
jiggy2011
I think it was "most hated" rather than "worse", you're right there are lots
of companies much worse than EA.

OTOH I think that people feel that video games should be a source of joy and
pleasure so feel especially betrayed when a game company turns around and
sprays them with this sort of corporate BS.

It's like if my bank sends me a letter charging me for not having enough money
+ another charge for sending me the letter I just expect that because they are
a bank, I just accept them as a necessary evil. They don't exist to make me
feel good.

OTOH a video game company's raison d'être is to make people feel good so if
they are attracting hate then they're _really_ fucked something up.

~~~
tptacek
Who hates a video game company more than a credit agency, or the cable company
that packet shapes and MITMs your Internet connection? Just don't play the
game, and you never have to think about them. You can't say that about
Equifax.

~~~
icebraining
You can't think of any age group who doesn't have to think about Equifax but
happens to be large buyers of EA products?

~~~
tptacek
I doubt most of the voters in that poll were under 17. But maybe.

~~~
icebraining
You just need to thread on some popular forum pushing people to vote. After
the Time's Person of the Year and other 4chan-influenced polls, you shouldn't
assume there's anything valid about online polls.

------
scott27
" Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme.
It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s
not. Period."

This was by far the most aggravating part in his entire "Defense"(as in
reading this made go to the consumerist and vote for them as the worst company
in America)

Ok maybe he's right, maybe it's not DRM. He provides no proof of it but maybe
he's right. What doesn't address was the always on line requirment, for
whatever reason they decided it was necessary to put in the game, was broken
making the game broken. Essentially they sold a broken product.

------
alex_marchant
I was excited by the prospect of seeing a new CEO come in and possibly change
the culture of EA, but after reading this piece I'm thinking that idea was
probably naive. This lack of user empathy seems pretty pervasive.

~~~
estel
Peter Moore isn't the new CEO, he's been COO for a couple of years, and
usually comes across as pretty straight-talking.

~~~
alex_marchant
I understand this. I meant the lack of empathy obviously goes beyond the CEO
and wouldn't be an easy problem to fix.

------
alxbrun
"At EA we remain proud and unbowed."

Enjoy until you go bankrupt, dear Mr Moore.

At the beginning I thought it was good piece of humble thoughts: What did we
do wrong ? How can we improve ? Then I realized it was exactly the contrary.
Atrocious.

------
cnlwsu
Maybe listen to the complaints and adress them instead of just dismissing them
as wrong. This article just made me upset, they would of done better just
shutting up.

------
tekromancr
Here, I will translate the PR into English. Ahh-Hem, "Go fuck yourselves. Lots
of love, EA"

------
dboat
Man, talk about not getting it.

I don't think EA deserves to be voted the worst company in America by a long
shot. But I do think they need to be publicly shamed to the point that they
actually listen to why people don't like them (I don't know if public shaming
helps people realize things, I'm not a parent, but it seems like a good idea).
Their otherwise interesting products are made far less compelling in order to
satisfy business requirements. It's just dumb business. Meet your business
objectives in smarter ways while creating smarter products and people will
like you more.

In the field of entertainment software, the user experience is paramount.
There's also something to be said for letting customers feel like they "own"
their games rather than simply leasing them until you close your servers. If
you take this away, you'd damn well better provide some fantastic value in its
place. To think that people resent you purely because of your choice of cover
atheletes, micro-transactions or support of LGBT rights, polarizing as these
can be, is evidence of the same sort of thinking which pervades your product
development.

------
jpxxx
Christ, what an asshole.

"An annual web poll shows that once again, Electronic Arts will be named the
"Worst Company in America".

We at EA understand that we provide a lightning rod for many in an industry
that has undergone massive change and experienced a great deal of
consolidation. We've acquired beloved game developers, we've put storied
franchises to rest, and we've sheparded evolutions in gameplay and game design
that have been met with skepticism and rejection.

But please believe, we're on the player's side.

Tens of thousands of EA employees show up to work every day to create
incredible new experiences and polish fantastic new things that the world has
never seen.

You, your family, and your friends entrust us with time, attention, and money
in return for fantastic experiences with characters you love and places that
are realer than real. It's an honor to work in this industry.

We love these shared stories and adventures, and truly understand what makes
videogaming special to hundreds of millions of people every day.

That said, we are a business, and all businessess will make mistakes, fail to
meet expectations, and poorly communicate. We're no different.

XXX EXAMPLES XXX

Videogames are unique in that the business environment changes more in six
months than most other industries change in decades, and we've struggled to
adapt to the new realities just like hundreds of other videogame developers.

We feel it's essential that we have an online content distribution system of
our own, called Origin. It's clear that we've fallen painfully short of
industry standards in terms of technical execution and customer service, and
we most certainly are not meeting our own expectations.

XXX INSERT HONEST FIXES HERE XXX

We also feel that we're failing to incorporate our customer's frustrations,
concerns, and desires into the development of our franchises. When some player
were disappointed with Mass Effect 3, they had nowhere to voice their opinions
where they felt they would be heard.

Thus, as of this week we will be employing ombudsmen for each of our major
franchises. They'll be superfans who know the games inside and out, and their
sole responsibility will be to communicate with you about what's happening
with the development and care of your favorite series and franchises.

FIFA - @Matthiew Mass Effect - @Jennifer SIMCITY - @Alyssa

XXX ETCETERA XXX

Feel free to vent, praise, be angry, you name it. They'll be listening. But
always be respectful. We're here to have a good time together.

Finally, we understand that server shutdowns are a necessary part of the life
of any game. No party goes on forever. But we don't want to shut off the
lights too early, and we don't want customers to wonder how long the game
they've just purchased will be fully functional and connected.

So today we're instituting a 3 year server guarantee on every network-aware
and network-based videogame we sell. You can purchase an EA game and rest
assured that you'll have friends to go on adventures with for a long long
time.

For what we've failed in, we are truly sorry. We strive to delight one and
all, but we can never be perfect. For those who feel we can never do right,
you'll find dozens of other talented studios who you can have a more fruitful
relationship with.

We don't feel there's any shame in being #1, but we do feel there's a great
responsibility in it.

Let us bring you the best games on Earth, tell us plainly and clearly when
we're not meeting that expectation, and let's all have fun together.

\- EA CEO WHATEVER"

I wrote this in literally twelve fucking minutes. What a prick.

~~~
unoti
Seriously, good job. Why is it so hard to be honest with customers once a
company grows past a certain point? Does the money corrupt, or am I naive, or
both?

~~~
jpxxx
I dunno. Maybe ten years around Steve Ballmer terminally fucked him up.

The fundamental problem is that his post was targeted at the 10,000 industry
and customer elite, none of whom feel like giving the Titan much respect
because nobody fundamentally likes the #1 guy.

Who he should have been writing to were the 350M people he claims to support.
When you're selling sweet-smelling electronic vapor, you use sweet-smelling
words to gently remind people that comparing a videogame developer to ACTUAL
HITLER is insane and insulting. That a substantial portion of the market is
composed of profound assholes is beyond the point.

You don't play at their level, you don't speak at their level, and you don't
engage in CEO Ego-battle 3000X. It's just fucking videogames.

Their true customer is a 15 year old girl playing Simpsons on her Samsung. He
should be writing to her.

------
matthewn
At the risk of sounding like a grouchy old fart: I still mourn the loss of the
old Electronic Arts -- the company that Trip Hawkins founded in order to let
the imagination of _artists_ run wild through the nascent world of personal
computing. I grew up immersed in EA classics like Skyfox and Archon and
Adventure Construction Set and [pause to genuflect] M.U.L.E. The brilliant men
and women who crafted these games were actually celebrated in the packaging.
You got the sense that the game you bought was truly a creative labor of love.
At the time, EA's slogan was "We see farther." Today's EA is by comparison
unrecognizable, a giant that has grown too big to care about anything that the
original EA cared about, a company whose slogan might as well be "We see the
bottom line."

------
jiggy2011
What exactly do EA hope to achieve with posts like this?

Have they not heard the phrase "the customer is always right"?

------
logn
So after being voted worst company in America and writing a post "We Can Do
Better" the only thing they acknowledge doing wrong is having the SimCity
server crash. ... Companies like GitHub and Google write these posts monthly
without such dramatic intros and PR fluff.

------
Ellipsis753
Stupid website won't even let me comment. First I have to sign up. Then it
snubs me with a short character count. Finally it won't even do anything when
I press "ADD COMMENT". I've tried both Firefox and Chrome with and without
javascript and no luck. Well here:

"The customer base as a whole is annoyed because you release buggy unfinished
games with horrible DRM. Not because of your LGBT policy.

Your post doesn't sound sincere to me. It doesn't even sound apologetic. It
sounds arrogant and like you're saying we shouldn't be complaining instead of
admitting your mistakes. You don't address people's real complaints.

I want my wasted money back; not a free game. I don't want to have to use
Origin. I want actual customer support and a longer character lim-"

------
weixiyen
I cannot forgive EA for the NFL Licensing deal that ended NFL 2K. You shut
down better games to push inferior products.

I believe gaming would be in a much better place overall if EA did not exist,
despite many early hit titles.

The overall effect on gaming as a whole has been negative.

~~~
djKianoosh
specifically in this case with Madden and NFL2K you are absolutely right. It's
not even that nfl2k was any good or not. It's just that the loss of
competition gave the various madden dev teams over the years ZERO motivation
to do what the hardcore madden gamers wanted them to do to improve the game.
yes they (we) are a minority and they want to sell as many copies as possible,
but seriously, even in their own house Madden is subpar compared to FIFA. FIFA
had online multiplayer a good 3 years before Madden. It took Madden about 7
years into "Next Gen" consoles (PS3/x360) to revamp online franchise even
though they actually promised it every year. instead they focus on
"Presentation" like hand warmers. please. And they justify their decisions by
"Telemetry" aka usage stats, but those are extremely misleading. A couple
years ago they put out a half-baked online franchise with horrible bugs. Their
"telemetry" told them very few gamers used that game mode, so they decided to
scratch it and try to completely redesign online franchise from scratch,
again. Well of course nobody used that game mode! It was broken!... ay ay ay,
dont get me started...

------
ishansharma
EA is my first blacklisted company. I stopped piracy last year and now every
piece of software on my laptop is purchased or Open Source and Free. This in a
country where software is still thought to be free by most people.

BUT I am pirating EA games. Their policies are anything but customer friendly!
So while have a 70 game library on Steam, I still have pirated Lord Of The
Rings: Battle For Middle Earth 2 and Mass Effect series.

And I can play my games when I want, the way I want without that draconian
policy of always on DRM in a single player game.

I am sure I am not alone doing this. With Sim City, they have pissed a lot of
people. And with PR like this, they are making this worse.

------
kefs
For reference, a list of discontinued EA titles:

<https://www.ea.com/1/service-updates>

------
pasbesoin
I don't care much about gaming, but even my casual reading about EA has left
me with the distinct impression that you (addressed to EA "Management", I
guess) have been exploitative... erm, "jerks" for years. (I had a less PC word
in mind.)

Spare me your Johnny come lately mea culpa. Clean up your act, or don't. I
don't give a fuck what you have to say.

------
Ellipsis753
Here is the poll. Now you can go vote for them as the worst company. (I wish
they'd linked to it with "bring it on".)

[http://consumerist.com/2013/04/05/worst-company-in-
america-s...](http://consumerist.com/2013/04/05/worst-company-in-america-
semifinals-ea-vs-ticketmaster/)

~~~
teamonkey
Wow. So of all the companies in the US, the "worst" one will be either EA or
Ticketmaster? Not Lodsys or any of the other patent trolls; not any of the
banks or oil companies; not any of the weapons manufacturers or dealers. A
video games company or a company that sells tickets to gigs online. OK.

~~~
Ellipsis753
On the internet, out of the companies that people interact with that were
entered for the poll. Yes, those would seem to be the worst.

------
kostya-kow
Good.

EA is scared, and taking the threat seriously. They are not scared enough to
actually address the issue (instead of doing fake PR speeches), but hopefully
it will soon be too late for that.

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you
win.”

------
kunai
The only thing that was somewhat hopeful in this piece was the title. It just
went downhill from there.

There was nothing, absolutely nothing of value that they said. Not a word
about improving the customer experience in any concrete way.

------
just2n
> Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme.
> It’s not. People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer –
> it’s not. Period.

And you lost me. Zero credibility.

------
macspoofing
Maybe have a call with the Microsoft's Xbox division to let them know about
the potential pitfalls of "always on" ... err... feature.

------
nulagrithom
I wasn't aware of the poll. Just voted for EA after reading "bring it on." And
here I was hoping for something apologetic...

------
n3rdy
On the bright side, I don't think EA could possibly be as bad at game
production as they are at public relations.

------
SurfScore
This wasn't an apology, it was an excuse.

------
Aco-
the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.... and they can't
even do that

good luck with that one EA

------
headbiznatch
Hilarious. The world hates you because of how you treat PEOPLE. Yer a record
label, idiots - you fuck people over for fun and profit: coders (artists -
remember when you pioneered thinking of coders this way?) and players (you
understand the analogy at this point, right?)

------
protomyth
I follow a fairly large number of conservatives / Tea Party and libertarians
(who would complain about the conservatives in this context) on twitter and
the only mention of EA has been Sim City's problems. Must be the same people
bitching to the FCC about TV shows.

~~~
protomyth
gotta love down votes for a post like this - shows the intolerant politics of
some folks

------
randall
Does Peter Moore still have his GTA4 and Halo 3 tattoos?

------
michaelochurch
I think WCIA is an awesome concept and we should do more to tear down,
embarrass, and ultimately dismantle bad companies.

That said, the idea that EA would win a WCIA bracket with _Time Warner Cable_
and _fucking airlines_? Makes a mockery of the whole concept.

Especially now. Yes, AAA games are pure dogshit. No question there. Just
awful. It's easy to get nostalgic for 1995. Chrono Trigger was excellent, so
was Final Fantasy VI. Terranigma-- also great if you could get it. Back then,
we only had great games because someone made them for us. We had to get them
from Japan, for the most part, because as bad as Japan's corporate conformity
is, it's nothing like US-style executive meddling. (Japanese understand
capitalism enough not to let incompetent execs ruin the show. The US has rich
fatasses who see executive sinecures as a birthright and have the fertilizer-
Midas touch: everything they touch turns to shit.) That meant we had to wait
for Ted Woolsey to translate them, and he was not a bad translator (actually,
his talent is neat and quirky) but he worked under insane deadlines. You
spoony bard! Anyway...

But it's two-thousand-and-fucking-13 and if you don't like the games that
exist, _make one_ that is better instead of pointlessly voting in some poll.
Show those fuckers up. (Actually, they're as smart as you are. Some, much
smarter. They make crappy games because they have bills to pay and moron
bosses. You'll understand when you're older.) Build a 2D RPG, a German-style
board game, or a casual game, and get it out there. Or don't, and stop
complaining that no one is making good games when there's nothing stopping
you.

EA doesn't even belong on the top- _75_ list of worst companies. Where's
Xe/Blackwater? Tear them down instead. They convinced the US government to
fight an illegal war for their profits, and their CEO is a literal fucking
fascist. _That_ is WCIA material. Electronic Arts worse than fucking
_mercenaries_ in the 21st century? Seriously, the world needs to get a fucking
clue.

~~~
jeltz
I am pretty sure most people voting in the polls a very much aware of this.
But voting Xe as worst company of the US? Who would care? Everyone already
knows they are that bad and nothing has happened.

On the other hand to vote EA as the worst company has a tiny chance of proving
a point. There are lots of people out there who buy AAA titles without
thinking and if some of them stopped buying the latest AAA crap EA just might
have to start care about quality a bit.

Now I personally avoid this kind of bogus polls, but I see why it can make
sense for people who do have a clue to still vote for EA:

