Thoughts on EA

[Arius]

If there's any recent EA games that you don't want spoiled, don't read this.

I've come to realize that EA is actually the gamer's best friend.

Sure, they are greedy as hell. Sure, they treat customers like criminals. Sure, they buy other companies and fire everyone working there when they're bored.

But think about it. EA is indisputably one of the largest publishers out there and they're doing things that originally only indie games could get away with.

EA has started publishing games with content that people were protesting against when it was limited to indie PC games.

Example:
Dante's Inferno. For one, killing unbaptised babies. Holy shit, how did they get away with that? And then there is the gratuitous nudity and sexual overtones. And vagina monsters.

Another:
Godfather II. This game surprised the hell out of me the first time I went into the cabaret club. Just flat out nudity.

Just two examples, but EA is actually putting itself out there and treating people who play mature games as of they're mature. Yeah, there's other games that have nudity and such. But they seem to all be from DLC packs. The Sabotuer and GTAIV included nudity in their DLC.

EA may piss me the hell off with all the stuff they pull. But, I gotta give credit where it's due. It's a big company that's helping the games as art debate by offering content meant specifically for the adult gamer.

It might just be to boost sales with controversy, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.

[Uznare]

The Saboteur is an EA game. Just puttin that out there.

[Nevrmore]

Gore, sex, and killing babies does not make a game "mature" in the real sense of the word. It makes it pandering.

[empath]

Electronic Arts was founded by a group of artists and game designers; it was founded on the principle of treating their creative staff as more than just a resource - they fostered a 'rock star' mentality (even so far as making their packaging resemble album covers) and really helped CREATE the computer gaming industry.

...and somewhere along they way, they changed; they started treating their developers like a gypsy cab-driver treats his car, their name got shortened into just 'EA', and their spirit, their joie de vivre was lost.

They still bring some things to the table, but that's more of a statistical rounding error in relation to the mediocrity they have since fostered. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

The company that brought us Archon, M.U.L.E., Starflight, The Pinball Construction Set, Seven Cities of Gold, One on One: Dr J vs Larry Bird? That's dust and memories, replaced with a giant factory that has hundreds of fevered workaholics churning out whatever the suits arbitrarily decide to drop into the hopper.

Electronic Arts has lost most of the letters of its name, and with 'lectronic rts' it lost the passion for games; maybe it got TOO successful and became TOO big to keep this from happening, but the fact remains - it HAS happened, and now "E_________ A___" is the very dispassionate, bean-counting monolithic corporation that it was founded to get away from...

[Arius]

Gore, sex, and killing babies does not make a game "mature" in the real sense of the word. It makes it pandering.

Treating your audience as mature does. That's what my argument is.

These things are off limits in mainstream games for the most part. It's what people use to demonize games. They hold up fringe independent games and call them popular. EA took a tasteful approach in presenting them.

They didn't go: "Here, tits and dead babies, lolz."

They made it part of the atmosphere.

---

And it's not that I'm some huge fan of Dante's Inferno. That game can go fuck itself. I beat it and I never plan to play it again. I hate that game. Pissed me the fuck off trying to play through it. Difficulty spikes that make pungi pits look inviting.

[Hakaryu]

Ea is fine as a publisher as long as they give creactive freedome to games like with bioware or visceral games.

[iEatNinjaZ]

EA is great as long as they have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself.

[Cureless_Poison]

For the longest time I was half hearted about EA, half of the time I would be pissed with them for pumping out shit games/breaking already good ones.

But on the other hand, they pump out things like Dante's Inferno, Crysis, The Sims 2, Rock-Band, Battlefield, ect. ect. so I forgive them and take them off the blacklist.

But like Ninja said, as long as they're not physically involved, the game turns out good.

[empath]

EA is great as long as they have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself.

That's what changed as time went on; Electronic Arts was founded as a publishing house that fledgling developers could go to to get their games distributed without needing to know all the other business aspects above and beyond their creative talent. That's what Trip Hawkins intended.

Of course, the temptation of Electronic Arts employees to do what their 'clients' Ozark Softscape, Free Fall Associates and Binary Systems (and little Interplay Productions ) were doing - with the 'put the programmers first' mentality, Electronic Arts itself probably had creative skills and impulses themselves - and four years down the road, Skate or Die! came out from in-house development.

This may have muddied the waters but the big problem came when EA (no longer using the square/circle/triangle logo or spelling their name out) began to BUY development houses and basically become the Borg of Star Trek; assimilating smaller companies to 'add their diversity to its own'; this interesting trend started happening when Hawkins left and their VP of Sales, Larry Probst (whose CV shows no programming background, but work for Johnson & Johnson and Clorox) With these changes and a shift of focus, 'EA Games' stopped being about the programmers and more about churning out product.

And if their newly-acquired development houses happened to churn out a dud or failed to show the same success when they were independent? Poof. Wing Commander franchise faltering? Bye-bye, Origin. Bullfrog losing steam after Peter Molyneux leaves? Zap. FPS twist on your successful C&C franchise bomb and your MMO fail to garner enough interest? Get in ma belly, Westwood.

And I don't know WHAT the fuck EA was thinking with axing Pandemic...

But that's the game; it's not about creating art (you know, that second word in your company name) anymore, it's about making money and amassing power.

Pity, really.

[LonelyAngel]

While I was at University a number of games companies sent representatives to hold lectures about working the games industry for the video games students, and they were free to attend for others, such as lowly animation students such as myself. One of the companies was EA.

Sadly I was unable to attend that lecture as it was held at the same time as one of my compulsory course lectures, but my friends on the video games course did attend. They went in with the viewpoint that EA were evil and that the managing board was made up of people in long black cloaks with cackling laughter and lightning whenever they made a decision... they came out the other side thinking they were a happy company to work for and that everyone should work there... I think they must have used some sort of mind control device.

I did, however, get a stress grenade, advertising a war game, from the lecture as compensation for being unable to attend.

[Frosty]

I think that EA is changing in nature through the acquisition of some game companies. Bioware have had the biggest affect; rather then becoming a whore of EA they became a partner (they kept their name and more importantly two of Bioware's founders became vice-presidents at EA, a position of considerable power).

I don't think they're revolutionaries and they sure as hell churn out some shit but every now and then they release something beautiful. Lots of money goes into EA but to be fair a lot of it goes back into the development studios. They're no Valve, but they're not Ubisoft or Acti-blizzard either.

[jezzicaz789]

If there's any recent EA games that you don't want spoiled, don't read this.

I've come to realize that EA is actually the gamer's best friend.

Sure, they are greedy as hell. Sure, they treat customers like criminals. Sure, they buy other companies and fire everyone working there when they're bored.

But think about it. EA is indisputably one of the largest publishers out there and they're doing things that originally only indie games could get away with.

EA has started publishing games with content that people were protesting against when it was limited to indie PC games.

Example:
Dante's Inferno. For one, killing unbaptised babies. Holy shit, how did they get away with that? And then there is the gratuitous nudity and sexual overtones. And vagina monsters.

Another:
Godfather II. This game surprised the hell out of me the first time I went into the cabaret club. Just flat out nudity.

Just two examples, but EA is actually putting itself out there and treating people who play mature games as of they're mature. Yeah, there's other games that have nudity and such. But they seem to all be from DLC packs. The Sabotuer and GTAIV included nudity in their DLC.

EA may piss me the hell off with all the stuff they pull. But, I gotta give credit where it's due. It's a big company that's helping the games as art debate by offering content meant specifically for the adult gamer.

It might just be to boost sales with controversy, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.

Thank you for the post.
Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.


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[Emperor Gum]

Thank you for the post.
Hi guys, Im a newbie. Nice to join this forum.


__________________
Watch Alice in Wonderland Online Free

[/quote]
Hm, you're either an EA spy or a bot, Jezz. A cautious welcome.

[Arius]

Look at his sig.

Clearly a bot.

[Emperor Gum]

Look at his sig.

Clearly a bot.

I thought that, but perhaps they just don't know how to use signatures? I didn't realise bots were smart enough to quote...troubling times, people.

[Arius]

You should go to the news forum. Bots there tell life stories.

[Emperor Gum]

Actually, I really enjoyed those

[Elomin Sha]

My thoughts on EA. I want to rip the reproductive organs from the CEOs of that company male or female for the wreck that was Command & Conquer 4.

You DO NOT overhaul the game system of an RTS from the previous game or from the formula that's been in the series for 15 years.
You DO NOT remove core the game play from such a series. Harvesting, building bases.
You DO NOT have a half arsed script which is crudely written, no development, a weak ending with a maybe return. I could have done better on the script and I've only written one for academic study.
You DO NOT change Tiberium to Tiberian with no explanation.
You DO NOT release a game with in such a short space of time of the first bits of info going out.
You DO NOT create a game that is shorter than previous games and acts more like an expansion and slap a number 4 on it as if it is a proper sequel. IT felt more along the lines as RA: Counterstrike or C&C:Covert Ops the deformed expansion.

YOU DO NOT DO THIS!

[Keab42]

Don't forget that they've also released it with a DRM system taken straight from Ubisoft...

Obligatory RPS link: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/03 ... s-eas-drm/

[Elomin Sha]

Oh yeah that piece of crap which stopped me playing Red Alert 3.
I have no intention on playing other people online why should I have to go on line too. GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[Keab42]

Am I to assume that for you the C&C series will end at number 3?

[theDreamer]

I think that EA is changing in nature through the acquisition of some game companies. Bioware have had the biggest affect; rather then becoming a whore of EA they became a partner (they kept their name and more importantly two of Bioware's founders became vice-presidents at EA, a position of considerable power).

I don't think they're revolutionaries and they sure as hell churn out some shit but every now and then they release something beautiful. Lots of money goes into EA but to be fair a lot of it goes back into the development studios. They're no Valve, but they're not Ubisoft or Acti-blizzard either.

What's this about Ubisoft?

[Elomin Sha]

In a way it did end at 3 and Kane's Wrath, my gripe with those games were the lack of diversity. Each side had the same units unlike the old ones where you had to use STRATEGY to win.

Ubisoft = Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin's Creed 2, HAVE to be online to play.

[theDreamer]

Oh?

I hadn't noticed.

Then again, I'm playing AC2 on my 360.

I still think they are good developers though, and are just trying to protect their stuff. That said, the AC2 DRM was stupid, but they tried.

[WickedBoy6]

EA is great as long as they have absolutely nothing to do with the game itself.

I'm kind of with Ninjaz here. One of my favorite games of all time - Rock Band - has an EA sticker on it, but virtually had zero input in the games, the reins being controlled by Harmonix and MTV Games. As publishers and financial backers, perfectly fine. As long as they don't try to push them to pump out sequel after sequel like they do with their sports franchises - please, someone tell me the major difference between Madden NFL 10 and Madden NFL 8 - they can work perfectly fine.