Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

EA's Conquest of Origin

Posted by Zonk on from the sacking-the-villagers dept.

amitlu writes "Allen Varney wrote about EA's conquest of Origin in the Escapist this week. He covers much of EA's departure from its original values, and even has some quotes from the Garriotts, including, '[CEO] Larry Probst was often not supportive of the things I was doing, but I respect Larry because he was always clear, rational and consistent in his lack of support'"

5 of 51 comments (clear)

  1. Re:wtf ads? by Iriel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm not going to defend every capitalist hog out there, but what else are you supposed to do to support the bandwidth? Almost every cool site out there that wasn't bought by some benevolent billionaire ended up sucking in some small part due to the reality that resources aren't free. I can think of dozens that have small nuisances from ads now as opposed to years ago, but guess what? The Escapists still has good articles. Fuck the ads, economics, or the big companies that charge too much for services (whether you believe that or not). But don't cast stones at the people just trying to make ends meet to provide some good content.

    --
    Perfecting Discordia
    www.stevenvansickle.com
  2. "Sleep is for the weak" by MBraynard · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The article mentions that Origin had already instituted it's own "sweatshop" working conditions prior to EA's acquasition, and their doctricne was "Sleep is for the weak."

    This is a huge mistake and one that I have learned many times over. A programmer without sleep gradually looses so much productivity and is far more error prone as he goes longer and longer without sleep that it makes sense to make sure your programmers get their 40 winks.

    I have spent three or four sleepless days working on a project, only to go home, get rested, come back, throw out everything I had done and go from scratch to finish within a couple of hours.

    Lack of sleep can not only make you much less productive, but you can even become a net negative. Get your rest.

    1. Re:"Sleep is for the weak" by Dehumanizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      However, it's a fact that almost every game before they were eaten by EA was great. Ultimas up to Serpent Isle, Wing Commander 1 and 2... those were classics.

      After EA, came two more great Wing Commanders (3 and 4), two lousy Ultimas (8 and 9), UO... and nothing more. No more Origin.

      Me, I'd blame EA, although Origin certainly wasn't perfect (they were badly managed, and paid poorly, as the article says).

      --
      The Tlog - a technology blog
  3. Re:Insight on how EA works by Digital+Vomit · · Score: 4, Insightful
    The problem with EA that this article reveals to me is that EA has mixed goals. EA wants to make the highest quality games and they want to make a substantial profit. So to make the high quality games they hire and purchase the top level talent in the industry. However after they have this talent they don't give them any creative freedom and put them on projects that they have no interest in because it makes business sense. One goal is standing in the way of the other.

    You'd think it would be intuitively obvious that the creation of games requires a 'playful' (for lack of a better word) environment rather than a business one (and vice versa). I guess this kind of explains the stereotype that the 'suits' ruin anything that's enjoyable. ;-)

    --
    Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
  4. Re:Interesting tidbits from the article by Allen+Varney · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The author seems bitter that EA insisted that projects actually stay on schedule.

    I wrote that Escapist article. The problem with EA's management of Origin wasn't that EA insisted EA adhere to a schedule, but that EA tried to schedule every game as if it were a sports game. My article ran long and so I had to cut quite a bit for space. One point I wanted to make, but had no room for, was that EA routinely rotates its studio managers on a one-year cycle, which accommodates its successful sports game schedule. For the kinds of games Origin made, though -- games that required several years to realize -- this proved disastrous. A new manager (with his own personal agenda) would arrive late in the year, cancel projects and order layoffs, start a new slate of projects, order new hiring, and then a year would go by and bam! the new manager would arrive and start the cycle all over again.

    This is not "EA insisting Origin adhere to a schedule." This is a fundamental disjuncture between the corporate HQ's philosophy and the Origin approach.