Let's Jam this Bog with Roasts

[James Burgon]

Originally Posted by Slade

EA is basically the worst videogame company in existence. Their entire 'market strategy' consists of taking over other companies with great IPs and raping them into oblivion, invading gamers' privacy under the guise of preventing piracy - which has clearly demonstrated to be ineffective - and trying to vacuum in as much money as possible for minimal effort ('minimal effort' being 13-hour-a-day shifts for their workers, 7 days a week). You can go to Wikipedia for a more in-depth summary, but, this is basically what it boils down to.

I mean obviously it's a business and it's in this for profit, like all businesses are, but companies like Valve have demonstrated that you can profit from the videogame industry in dignified and innovative ways (well, more or less - they're not perfect). EA has basically become a charicature so much so that it becomes cliche to complain about them. There's not a snowflake's chance in hell of me signing up to a service operated by one of the most corrupt companies in the videogame industry, in order to play a game that has nothing to do with it.

Nerd rage clearly not over.

I worked for EA and 13 hour days? We weren't even allowed to do overtime most days. And what you've just described is pretty much Activision.

[Slade]

It may not have affected your particular role/department (what did you do at EA?), or maybe it just wasn't while you were working there. It was some time in 2004 when it got serious - there was a big lawsuit over it, and they apparently started to clean up their act afterwards.

'Apparently' being the operative word - the day I believe anything they say is the day I sign up for an Origin account.

[Nixon]

[Slime]

For me, and a lot of people, Origin is terrible, not because of it being resource intensive, or scanning your computer, or whatever. It is terrible because it is worse than Steam in every single way, but I need to run it to play the only game I have on it (BF3). As Magocs said, if you are going to force people to try your Steam alternative, then make it a decent service. They didn't. They even still had key features listed as "beta" when BF3 came out.

Also EA's DLC... I'll never forget meeting someone in Dragon Age 1, him telling me that there is a SERIOUS PROBLEM that needs my help, and my only 2 options were "Sorry, I don't have the time" or "Sure, I'll help (open Downloadable Content browser to purchase quest DLC)." But whatever, so many companies love DLC these days.

Also EA obviously still has serious antics judging by the terrible SWTOR release, and all the angry developers that worked on it.

They are just a mega-corporation, consuming smaller studios, but at least they do still end up releasing decent titles often, and they allow ridiculous sales (like all of their main titles are only $5 within 1 year of release on Steam) compared to Activision (best sale you will see is $33 Modern Warfare).

Also Activision destroyed the studio that created Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, AND if you buy that game on Steam, 100% of the money goes to Activision, 0% of the money goes to the developers. That might not have been just Activision's fault, but it made me hate them.
Activision seems to have more examples of just being evil, to me.

still thinking of buying Modern Warfare 3 today.

Originally Posted by Nickson

of course these guys are just joking around but its a good gif anyway

[Shaun]

nevermind dumb

[Nixon]

Originally Posted by Lohr

of course these guys are just joking around but its a good gif anyway

haha fuck how did i not notice they were wearing the same kit

[Slade]

Originally Posted by Lohr

Also Activision destroyed the studio that created Vampire: the Masquerade - Bloodlines, AND if you buy that game on Steam, 100% of the money goes to Activision, 0% of the money goes to the developers. That might not have been just Activision's fault, but it made me hate them.

EA took over Bullfrog (Dungeon Keeper, Populous, Theme Hospital) and forced them to work exclusively on the Harry Potter line.

I rest my case.

[Slime]

That does suck,

The innovative nature of the Dungeon Keeper series proved to be incompatible with EA's business model after the company acquired the rights, as the project showed to be a higher risk than EA's other titles that were based on films that were popular at the time. However, like most of the studios EA has bought and closed,[8] EA holds onto the rights to the games but won't continue to develop the franchise.

But that is when EA was still in the stage where they would consume every small company they could. I feel like they've been a bit more respectful with how they've been doing things with smaller studios in the last bunch of years.

maybe not i dont really follow them

[Opheox]

now everyone post their favorite song ITT

[Slime]

[Opheox]

"Billy Shakespeare wrote a whole buncha sonets"

[Shaun]

[Trooper]

* saves to masturbation folder *

[Tuna Hematoma]

What if you don't have the internet?

[Samurai Clinton]

[Compcat]

[Tuna Hematoma]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...81022D20120202

If David just killed all the slaves like God told him to, shit like this could have been avoided!!! [/southern USA person]

[Jonny Anson]

[Slime]

Originally Posted by Tuna Hematoma

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...81022D20120202

Fans turn on army? So, in Egypt, regular citizens have a switch that lets them turn the army on and off?

[Lord Blazer]

DUDE

NO SHIT

I JUST FUCKING

WAS LOOKING FOR THAT WEBSITE

DUDE

LIKE

DUDE

[Rman]

Originally Posted by Shaun

[Bravoie]

LOL. I work @ ea and I am a tester for origin. It is basically like the "dream project" for video game testers. The reason is because we're given exclusive access to all of the latest titles, which we get to play when our work is done. People on other projects are stuck testing tedious, boring shit like The Sims expansion packs all day. But our "work" usually consists of easy checklists that we run through in about 2 hours. We then spend the rest of the evening playing games like BF3, Star Wars: Old Republic, and Saints Row: The Third. No other project I've been on allows that much freedom so origin is like the greatest thing ever to me because it makes my work day a fucking breeeze. Too bad my yearly contract ends in April, though

[Slime]

haha that sounds great

[Air Rick]

Refer me to your bosses and i'll let you have the bonus!

DO IT

[James Burgon]

Originally Posted by Slade

It may not have affected your particular role/department (what did you do at EA?), or maybe it just wasn't while you were working there. It was some time in 2004 when it got serious - there was a big lawsuit over it, and they apparently started to clean up their act afterwards.

'Apparently' being the operative word - the day I believe anything they say is the day I sign up for an Origin account.

oh yeah they obviously were a shit back in the day - i'd say they bucked their ideas up before i worked there (2008?) The only thing wrong was that we were 'let go' after a year for a month and then rehired as that way we weren't classified as 'employees' and they weren't entitled to give us any bonuses or sick pay etc. It's a shitty way of doing things but hey, most QA departments will do that. Hell, even our tiny one at TT Games tried to start doing it.

I'd say you're right about EA being what it was, but i think they're a mile better than Activision are nowadays. Activision are the ones running games into the ground and oversaturating/overcharging the market.