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[PATV] Monday, April 15, 2013 - CheckPoint Season 2, Ep. 44: What is Worst in Life
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Yup, it's that time of year again.
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Splendid show though chaps and chapesses!
And Kathleen's comment at the end is pretty much spot-on. It's not like EA exclusively puts out extraordinarily inferior products designed to piss off their customers, who, for some unknown reason, continue to throw their money at EA. There are things that EA makes that are worth the money, and there are things that aren't.
And that's how your Call of Doody and your Modern Whorefares and your Hack Oops all end up legacy games even though none of the old fans play them. It's also how EA makes their money as no one who buys that crap knows how to vote in those "worst company" contests let alone find out about games that aren't crap.
Also,eagerly awaiting Blood Dragon cause I always wanted to run amok in a cheesy 80s movie and it was only 15 bucks.
I was off EA's bandwagon long ago - though in fairness, it's not like I'm so so eager to play more iterations of the Sims or Madden or even Dragon Age. I didn't even bother with Rock Band because a). I don't have three other friends and b). I have Guitar Hero 1-3 so I already have all the best play-along material.
Maybe people ARE voting with their wallets?
Just a thought.
Also I think the last EA published game I bought was Freedom Force so they got no money from me (I did borrow ME2 from a friend but I don't think that counts).
Of course, knowing EA, it would ship with most of the celebrity's missing their genitals and not enough lizards to properly latch onto to their genitals, thus requiring the player to purchase additional content packs if they want to properly experiencing attaching lizards to celebrity genitals.
Whether or not "IAC: PRTLFMG" would require "always on" tech is also debatable.
(http://www.shortpacked.com/2012/comic/book-14/08-reader-mail-week-three/sexybatmanddr/)
So here's one guy not paying with his dollars.
Also, I giggled far harder than I should have at BatCroft. Thumbs up for that image, which will likely haunt my nightmares later. :P
I voted NO with my wallet.
PS. The E [pile of poo resembling an A] logo is hilarious.
You can't have it both ways. Either a majority of the gaminig internet base is mad at EA, or a majority of the gaming internet base is ignorant.
Perhaps most of the gaming internet base didn't vote in the consumerist poll?
Okay, seriously: we are, of course, dealing with self-selected minorities. I doubt you could get an actual majority of the gaming internet base (if you could somehow poll them all) to agree to anything more than, oh, "I like getting games for free."
Let 'em eat fucking pineapples!
Of course, if they release a product I want, I either buy it used or wait for two weeks so it's bought outside of the important sales period.
The skew on the poll results suggests more people that disliked EA spent time getting people to vote, or spoofed votes, to get that result than it being any kind of qualitative statement that EA is the "Worst Company in America". Or at least I'd like to think so.
Because if not, seriously... for two years in a row they voted that a company which produces luxury goods and subjectively mismanages said goods was somehow worse than companies that are seeking monopolies... on beer(!), aren't keen on protecting your privacy, are AT&T, or the laundry list of questionable things that Bank of America's has done to people? Things like microtransactions or the inconvenience of buying a game and not being able to play it right away are worse than the borderline criminal stuff that Bank of America did? But they're not the worst in America? It's kind of hard to take any poll with results that suggest that level of detachment from reality seriously.
Claiming that you hate a company then buying their products because they're good is rather self-defeating, unless you hate EA ironically.
The "bad" ending of ME3 (I personally enjoyed it, but w/e), the micro-transactions (including the day 1 DLC), and the releasing of a broken product (as well as refusal to give refunds on said product when it doesn't work correctly) aren't the only reasons they are such a terrible company.
The multitude of unemployed workers from companies that were purchased and then broken apart, the numerous stories of terrible working conditions, the way they treat/react to their customers and critics are a few examples of why they are a terrible company.
Now, that being said, are they worse than other companies, probably not. But, when you look at companies like BP (with all the oil problems), Bank of America (with ALL of their problems), and Carnival Cruises (seriously figure out how boats work) you see companies that treat their customers with respect (at least to their faces).
You look at EA and they seem to not be even trying to appease anyone but their shareholders. Oh, you bought a game from us that doesn't work. Well, our Origin service will provide you with a free game. Of course, that means you'll be using a service that makes money for us off of selling your purchase and search information. Not to mention, you having an Origin account (that we force you to make) will count towards skewing our numbers in comparing our service with Steam, which again makes the stock holders happy.
So yeah, the other companies might BE worse, but they sure as hell are trying to NOT rub that knowledge into their customers' faces.
Also didn't Carnvil Cruises have one of their ships get shut down due to large amounts of cockroaches in the kitchen and food supplies?
Honestly I don't care if a company pretends to be nice or not. I'm not looking for a friend, I just want to buy a product or service and not get screwed over.
EA makes video games a form of entertainment. Bank Of America is well a bank that is partially responsible for the housing bubble collapse.
The worst thing EA did to it's customer is make sub par games. They never forced anyone to buy their products. Sallie Mae and BoA have given out loans to people with promises of a better life, loans that are impossible to repay for some.
In this day in age a college education IS vital to compete in the economy (yes we could have a long debate on the actual value of a college education but you get the point).
It is NOT vital to play the latest Simcity.
Even with the huge screw up that was Simcity the fact that they gave out a free game is pretty nice. Especially when you can get Sim City 4 or a brand new game like Dead Space 3.
I don't see BoA or Sallie Mae reducing your loan or intrest rate because they screwed up your payment.
All this award shows it that gamers have way too much free time. Let's be honest if you actually polled every person in the US there is no way EA would even crack the top 20
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Unfortunately, EA is not the only company that is in the middle of laying off people. They are however a company that sells games and as a result many gamers are aware of what is happening thanks to gaming blogs, etc. Bank of America is still in the process of a planned layoff about 30,000 people (Google "Project New BAC"). While layoffs are bad in any industry, the claim that EA is the worst because of their practices specifically is well, silly. It's the same horrid dance that's been going down in a lot of places.
You say those things as if I, as a gamer and a person that reads gaming blogs etc, aren't aware of them but I am. The fact of the matter is that I just can't get behind the idea that EA is worse than Bank of America. Especially taking into account the anecdotes about customer experiences there. And the idea that Microsoft could somehow be the worst company in America because of rumours about their next console really highlights the difference in priorities that makes me think the results of that poll are silly.
To hear the lamentation of EA.
What?! We are the worst? Nah c'mon guys it's totally Bank of America right?
You're just yanking our chain yeah?
But we fired John Riccitiello! We good now?