EA Responds To Its Appearance In the 'Worst Company In America' Poll

beerdragoon writes "Electronic Arts CEO Peter Moore has responded to the company's appearance in the finals of the Consumerist's Worst Company In America poll. Moore accepts some responsibility for some of EA's past failings: 'I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made plenty of mistakes. These include server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity. We owe gamers better performance than this.' However, he ignores or contests many of the common complaints about the company — issues that earned it a spot in the finals for the second year in a row. Quoting: '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. ... 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."

Comments

Nothing will change

[Anonymous Coward]

This isn't the first time they've received such honors and they're still complete and utter bastards.

Don't like EA and where they're herding the gamers? Don't buy their wares.

Simple,
Steve (from beyond).

Re:Nothing will change

[Penguinisto]

Well, there is some good news for EA - Zynga is poised to take the crown from 'em at the rate things are going there.

I mean seriously - ganking existing stock options out from under from employees, working them into the dirt, and then laying off a chunk of them almost at random?

EA must look like a frickin' workers' paradise from that kind of viewpoint.

Re:Nothing will change

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Didn't they win last year? It's sort of a dubious honor, but you know what they say, there's no such thing as bad publicity. ;-)

Re:Nothing will change

[fustakrakich]

Don't buy their wares.

Download their warez...

Re:Nothing will change

[MitchDev]

Yeah, EA is only raping their customers, it's not like they're killing them, so that makes it A-OK

Re:Nothing will change

[bdwebb]

No mod points but completely agreed. I'm not even pissed at EA anymore because I don't buy their games and give them enough of a chance to piss me off.

I'll admit, it is a bit depressing seeing games that I would love to play (like Sim City) released under the EA banner and it is sometimes hard to resist buying them to just give them a chance. However, while I might love to play them, I am certain that I would hate playing them as EA products and that turns my depression into simple disappointment.

Ultimately nothing will change until their developers start to leave them due to the sweatshop style working conditions . I have no illusions that my boycott of EA's games will have any impact on their business...there are too many people who love the 'idea' of their titles and will try them repeatedly and get disappointed repeatedly. It does make me a happier person knowing that I'm not wasting my money, though. If conditions improve, Origin is destroyed, and releases improve in quality I would be willing to try again someday (after a SHIT-TON of positive reviews and a month or so break-in period) for a special title but until that day comes, fuckem.

Re:Nothing will change

[x_t0ken_407]

I was a Madden fan for over a decade. Finally in '09 I decided I'll no longer buy Madden games b/c it's the same BS every single freaking year, and I'd given them long enough to make me a believer. It's sad really. Unfortunately I'm an avid Battlefield fan -- even though they've fucked that up too since taking over DICE, but at least that's the only game of theirs I continue to buy. I may reach your level though, since BF4 is coming out this year when there is really nothing wrong with BF3 at all and I feel they should just continue adding expansions to that. Oh well :(

Re:Nothing will change

[DrEldarion]

No, that just gives them ammunition. They can see download counts, look for unauthorized server connections, etc. From this, they deduce that the reason their titles aren't selling well is because of piracy, not because of the way they're designing their games and treating their users. And what does that lead to? More extreme anti-piracy measures, of course!

Don't play them at all. Just avoid them altogether. Instead play games from companies that Get It. Then they'll have nobody to blame but themselves.

Re:Nothing will change

[DragonTHC]

Also, don't forget, Peter Moore is the man responsible for the endless spew of madden and fifa games with different rosters and no other changes every year.

You can't fault him as a business man. His business is booming.

This always clashes the games are art argument for me. I've never heard of a gallery telling an artist what to paint.

Yet, the COO of EA is trying to tell it's paying customers, "You're wrong!"

The market is shifting. Gamers, paying gamers are putting out less of their money for AAA titles and spending more on kickstarted indies.

EA has made missteps over the past year which would have destroyed lesser businesses. The MOHW debacle should have gotten way more press than it did. A couple of months from release, EA fires the executive producer and the game never gets finished. They then have to cut the price in half and refund half for pre-orders just to avoid the blowback. And for SimCity, they decided those sort of gamers won't complain as much as FPS players. Giant set of balls.

Re:Nothing will change

[bdwebb]

How about direct employee perspectives: http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Electronic-Arts-Reviews-E1628.htm Also, while you work for a competitor and don't really know what conditions are like in the many divisions of EA, I have two friends who do work for them in separate divisions and both say that the working environment is one of extreme stress, constant worry about your job, and requires that you work between 60 and 80 hours a week non-stop without overtime. If you complain about the hours, tough titty...you want to keep your job. While this may not necessarily be a real sweatshop as in children assembling shoes for $1/day for 12 hours (it's called a metaphor), even working for a competitor you have to pity those studios who have been bought up and absorbed into the giant shit machine that is EA. Talk about a night and day paradigm shift.

You don't like their games? Don't buy them. You don't like the games my employer makes? Don't buy them. But sweatshops are sweatshops. I strive to be a great developer on great games for people that love games, but the sanctimoniousness tone of gamers these days with an outside perspective on how our industry really ticks makes it increasingly more difficult.

I have a fair perspective on how the industry ticks and I'm saying, without sanctimony, that working for EA (maybe not in all divisions) sucks ass - from the mouth of the employees themselves. You may make awesome games...I'm not insulting you.

And don't worry, you shouldn't have illusions about your boycott - there are enough folks like you who paint massive companies or countries or organizations with broad brushes that they actually do have an impact. So you can be happy your scatterbombs do impact the performances of games and get well meaning studios closed and reopened elsewhere (rebranded, because apparently, this is very confusing for people like you.) You might not take down EA, but you can be glad you'll probably be very very slightly responsible for an EA studio here and there to get shutdown for under performing just because of the monolithic brand they were operating under even though you wanted to play such and such a game.

Wait...didn't you just say to not buy their games if i don't like them? I'm pretty sure that's exactly what I said I'm already doing. You want to blame me for getting studios shut down because they are part of a giant mismanaged corporate entity?? Who's being sanctimonious now? Ultimately it is probably better for them because they can find a job at another developer like yours where they have a good work environment, can make some money, and can take pride in what they do as you do. As I said, and you reconfirmed - I have no illusions that my impact on their sales means a damn thing. The whole reason I don't purchase their games is because each one that I've tried in the last ~6 years has been garbage or riddled with issues regardless of how excited I was to play it or how much I wanted to like it.

I just think it's fucking retarded to claim you're into games and think that railing against EA as a whole will lead to some kind of corporate meritocracy in the industry. You think you're playing games? You're the one who's being played.

Again, I have no illusions that some meritocracy will form out of my protest. I'm didn't claim I was pulling a Gandhi and going on a hunger strike dude...I have been disappointed with their games repeatedly and so I don't buy their games anymore. I said, in a nutshell, that it was their mismanagement of their giant corporate machine that kills their games and that it would take their developers leaving for greener pastures to force some real change at the company. Your last statements are just silly but I have this to say: If you think that the conditions at EA are just something that you have to deal with to be a developer in your industry, and if your employer treats you like EA does its employees, then you work in a soulless environment that saps all of your creative drive and you are the one being played my friend.

Re:Nothing will change

[rossz]

I guess they haven't changed. Many years ago I worked for a small game company that had a contract with EA to create a game. Near the end of the project I was working out of one of their offices. I was frowned upon for only putting in 12 hours a day and refusing to work on Sundays. I told them flat out, my brain starts shutting down after too many hours and I need one fucking day a week for myself. I will never ever deal with EA again.

Re:Nothing will change

[mister_playboy]

http://imgur.com/a/gW7F9

Does EA's CEO have any response to the fact that SimCity's "simulation" is so trivial that optimal play involves have 100% residential zones, no taxes, and no services of any kind?

A 5th grader with a pencil and a piece of paper could come up with a more realistic simulation that this.

Re:Nothing will change

[AmiMoJo]

More extreme anti-piracy measures could play into our hands though. Only once they get so annoying that large numbers of ordinary gamers start to care, like they did with SimCity, will things change. In other words the only fix is to make them hit rock bottom first, perhaps even go bankrupt, in the hopes that they or others will learn from the mistake.

Re:Nothing will change

[GameboyRMH]

I like his argument about the SimCity DRM.

"I know this appears to be my dick screwing you in the ass. It looks like a dick, feels like a dick, is attached to me at the crotch and is thrusting into your ass, but I can't be any clearer, it's not. Period."

Re:Nothing will change

[GameboyRMH]

Maybe it's supposed to simulate a post-scarcity techno-utopian communist society and everyone just assumed it was a simulation of contemporary capitalism? All the little sims were wondering why the hell their leaders are taxing them and trying to set up businesses like some kind of caveman.

Re:Nothing will change

[flayzernax]

I'm still playing quake, no good fps has been released since quake 3 and unreal 2

All other genres have been the same since, BG, and fallout.

Dues Ex was novel and good, but its successors have all been shadows to the originals charm and character.

EA hasn't been on my radar for ever.

Until someone comes up with a spiritual successor to BG, quake, or dues ex thats not a total rip off and watering down of the depth of game play to "easily balanced" or "mass marketable" levels. I will not be buying any more "tactical simulations".

Their loss in sales is not 100% because of piracy. I won't even pirate the crappy EA titles that are out now.

Re:Nothing will change

[flayzernax]

I stand corrected, Joint Operations was a good series when it first came out and was after the quakes and unreals. But that was still not published by EA.

Re: Nothing will change

[Tamerlin]

First off, I despise sweatshops and have left companies because of that mentality. That said, I findit increasingly difficult to sympathize with people who tolerate those conditions, especially when they're for specialized skills like game programming. The company can't replace an entire team, so if the entire team says no to unpaid overtime, the company is stuck doing what they want. Ergo, EA gets away with treating its employees like shit because their employees let the company do so.

Re:Nothing will change

[SuperTechnoNerd]

don't want their crap even if it's free.... A waist of bandwidth.

Re:Nothing will change

[xepel]

I went to the GDC talk by SimCity's lead designer. He said that city type is equivalent to a retirement community, and is a legitimate city design. I of course think it's just a rationalization, but...

Re:Nothing will change

[stepdown]

I've never heard of a gallery telling an artist what to paint.

Commissions are very common in the art world.

Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[Anonymous Coward]

News at 11.

Re:Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[MightyMartian]

It sounds like a psychopath saying "Sure, I'll admit there's some scuffs on my shoes, but the blood on my hands, I swear to God those people wanted to die!"

Re:Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[meta-monkey]

Yeah that's pretty much it. "We can do better! But we're not going to change any of the things we're doing poorly."

That said, really, the reason SimCity is a bomb is not the DRM or the server issues, but the fact the game itself is a phenomenally broken, unfinished piece of garbage. See my comment history for lengthy rants from the 2nd week of March.

Re:Gaming company executive doesn't get it

[Hunter Shoptaw]

It's that point where "Please don't! Stop!" becomes "Please, don't stop!"

Strictly DRM

[David89]

There was plenty of proof that the Always Online was purely a form of DRM not necessary for the gaming aspect of the product.

Re:Strictly DRM

[Guspaz]

I don't discount the possibility that it wasn't really about DRM, but that it was less work for them to do it this way rather than maintaining the separate offline behaviour for the information that is reliant on the network connection, and they just don't care about the criticism. That is to say that it wouldn't have been that much effort to maintain an offline mode, but they don't care enough to even bother.

Re:Strictly DRM

[Derek Pomery]

Well, supposedly the server does game saving (which probably would have required a small amount of effort to make cloud based in the first place), and syncing a small amount of information about city stats between players (this last one was trivially spoofed and apparently is the thin justification for making it always-on multiplayer online).

I'd say they went out of their way to break offline play.

Re:Strictly DRM

[Guspaz]

I don't know, I can easily envision some pretentious designer getting his way saying "This way is better, so it HAS to be this way" if you know what I mean.

I don't think DRM is necessarily their goal, but that doesn't mean their goal is much less deplorable than DRM, and ultimately it doesn't really matter why they made the decision. The why doesn't change the fact that at the end of the day it's an always-on game that doesn't need to be always-on.

Re:Strictly DRM

[k8to]

Yep, it's DRM.

It's DRM that they can plausibly convince dupes that it's not because it theoretically has some utility value.

Don't bee fooled, or be a fool.

Re:Strictly DRM

[k8to]

If you can't see that this is DRM, ask yourself:

Is this game fundamentally multiplayer? (If you don't realize it isn't, you certainly haven't played it.)

Once you realize there's actually almost nothing multiplayer about it, ask yourself why you can't just play offline.

At this point, you realize it's DRM.

Re:Strictly DRM

[DirtyLiar]

Yep, it's DRM.

It's DRM that they can plausibly convince dupes that it's not because it theoretically has some utility value.

Don't bee fooled, or be a fool.

It might not be DRM, maybe the new SimCity is simply collecting information about every user, every user's computer, it's use, and the users computer habits.

Spying on you does not have to be a function of DRM. It just makes enforcing DRM easier.

And if the spying is labled 'market research', then any boon to their efforts at enforcing DRM can be called an unintentional "side effect" of their "market research".

Re:Strictly DRM

[DirtyLiar]

You should remove ANY program that needlessly access's ANY network, whether you suspect DRM enforcement or not.

Why? It's spying on you, installing malware, rootkits, pop-ups, or advertising on your computer. I lock my doors and draw my drapes to keep people from easily spying on, stealing from, or setting up, me. Not that I'm paranoid (not that I'm not, either), but why should I assist anyone who wants to spy, etc, on me?

I'm old enough to have a sence of privacy, and to believe that nobody has any business checking up on anybody else without GOOD reason.

That you are paranoid, curious, or want to make money ARE NOT good reasons to violate my privacy. And certianlly not as part of some kind of systematic, wide-field snooping.

And if being a user of your products is sufficiant grounds to tag me as a theif, then what does that say about YOU?

FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme ... We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. We did it because we're a**holes.

Fixed that quote for you.

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

People still want to argue that EA is a good company. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period

Re:FTFY

[Anonymous Coward]

I learned they were a**holes during the day of the Commodore64, where they would write code that would relentlessly cause my 1541 disk drive to bang its head against the stop. I knew that wasn't any good for something I had just spent damn near a month's savings for. It was also very clear to me the a**holes at EA did not care, and deliberately coded in something very destructive to my machine.

It was businesses that did this that aroused a strong interest in me on how to clean up the code so it would run non-destructively. I saw nothing wrong with removal of this, just as if I am served a salad and peanuts give me the hives, am I wrong for flicking the peanuts aside and not eating them? Or is the salad chef gonna call his congressional cronies and claim I violated his chef's right to have me eat whatever he serves and in the form he serves it?

EA strikes me like a restaurant who requires valet parking, but the valet attendant abuses my car, revving the engine way up and doing circles in the parking lot.

Since the C64 purchase, I never again bought a thing from EA, although I would play some of their products after others had cleaned the malicious code out of them. If given a brand new EA product, I would throw it away. It just wasn't worth a disk alignment job to try to load their wares. I would just as soon give someone a burger dressed with dog excrement than give them such a thing.

I wonder who would hire such a programmer that does such a thing, and why in blue blazes would anyone retain anyone in the executive ranks who hires this kind of stuff. Nepotism is the only answer I can come up with, because simple common sense says the last thing you want to do as a business is to have your customer base downright angry at you. Just remembering my poor old 1541 drive banging its head against the stop on the whim of a EA programmer is making me quite angry.

Re:FTFY

[Alsee]

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 canâ(TM)t be any clearer - it's not. Period.

Fuck you.
I can't be any clearer - you're not getting my money. Period.

-

Oh good

[Experiment 626]

"Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. It’s not."

If the always-on thing isn't there as a copyright enforcement thing, a crack to remove it won't run afoul of the DMCA. Thanks for giving your blessing on that, EA.

Re:Oh good

[sehlat]

Actually, the true test of that attitude will be when somebody actually publishes a crack that lets players save their games locally and never talk to EA.

If they go after that person, they'll either be forced to use the DMCA, which will amount to an admission that always-on IS a DRM scheme, or the lawyers will have to find some very creative grounds for suit.

I'm betting on the lawyers' creativity, to be honest.

Re:Oh good

[wisnoskij]

I really do not think that Sim City is a big enough game to get people to rewrite large sections of its code to get it to work offline. When servers are used to do more then verify a copy of the game it becomes very work intensive to create a crack. And from what I understand some of the game logic is even done in these servers.

Re:Oh good

[Wildfire Darkstar]

That was EA's claim, at least initially. They appear to have been lying, or at least overstating the case substantially. The only things that seem to absolutely require an active connection are resource trading (which a lot of players never do, anyway) and the cloud-based save system.

As I understand it, the game has already been cracked to work offline. The only reason it hasn't gotten more attention is because the inability to save makes it less than perfect for regular play.

Re:Oh good

[wisnoskij]

Ah, well implementing a saving system seems like something that would be doable, but it would put a large delay on any cracks obviously.

Re:Oh good

[Blue Stone]

Beautiful.

Re:Oh good

[Darinbob]

Even if they're being honest it still leaves them as naive since they honestly think all players want multi-player experience and leaves them stupid for failing to include a single player only mode in a game that has always been single player, and just terrible at implementation for utterly failing to work when the network is down.

Re:Oh good

[Darinbob]

I should also add the idiocy of the VP(?) who claimed to be "proud" that he's never approved a single player only game since he's been there. It's a strange sort of thing to be proud of.

Re:Oh good

[BitZtream]

It was made playable offline about 3 hours after the asshole claimed it was not possible to play it offline.

Pretty much every single statement about the always-on bit has been proven to be a all out lie.

Re:Oh good

[flimflammer]

It shouldn't take large sections of code. The interaction between the client and the server is minimal at best. The game doesn't actually offload any real computations, and cooperation between cities in regions is handled on the most basic level (JSON responses just saying simple things like how much power is available to buy, etc)

I think about the only somewhat complex interaction with the server is the global economy system.

The game already basically saves a local cache of its state offline when the net goes offline, and if you leave the region and come back, it will load it right back up. Dumping and reloading that cache to disk may be the most difficult task. I don't pretend to know all the details of the implementation but crackers are clever.

I'm sure at some point we will see an offline crack of some description. Whether or not it will allow more than working in single cities is up for debate, but I am sure it will eventually happen.

Re:Oh good

[wisnoskij]

The problem is understanding the saving system based on the assembly that you get and creating a scoring and retrieval system.
Which is orders of magnitude more work than turning a `if(connected){play;}` into `if(true){play;}`. But even this first one is challenging in assembly.

Not...a DRM scheme

[Anonymous Coward]

"When I see a bird that walks like a duck and swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that bird a duck" -James Whitcomb Riley
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duck_typing

Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[jaskelling]

In the end, it doesn't really matter what you say or how often you deny that it's a DRM scheme. It's how your customers see it now, it's how they react and interact with it, and that's what it will be. Your ineptitude & outright idiocy brought this on yourselves, so you can stop calling your customers liars & ignoramuses - and just fix your crap. You know, try to do something competent and classy to improve your image. Or you can just keep doing what your doing and see yourself on this same list next year and every year, EA.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Hsien-Ko]

One word: Origin. I'll never forgive them for Origin.


....and by that, I mean the events that happened in 1991.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Pausanias]

In 10 years when every single interactive product runs server-side only, your comment will seem charming and quaint. We will remember with melancholy the simpler, freer days the days when software ran on machines that we owned.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[cbhacking]

Down with DRM! We hate your DRM! We demand you use our preferred DRM!

s/Steam/Good Old Games/

(or any other non-DRM vendor).

Steam is just another form of DRM. Can't play on two machines at once, even on different games, if they share Steam accounts. Can't resell or loan games. Can't play games without an internet connection to Steam (either current, or recent within the time limit on Steam's offline mode). Can't play games if Steam's service goes away. Can't play games if Valve decides they don't like you and kills your Steam account. Can't play games if somebody jacks your Steam account and you can't sign on anymore.

Since the point at which I wanted to re-sell a game that I felt Valve had damaged the gameplay experience of beyond repair, and was unable to do so due to the DRM, I have refused to purchase any more Valve products and try to avoid even buying anything through Steam, because they get a cut of that and it shows support for a DRM scheme. Don't "buy" DRMed products! This isn't a new problem, yet for some reason people keep buying Steam stuff anyhow...

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Anonymous Coward]

No, it works fairly well. The registration procedure is modest, you can recover your logins, you can play offline, and you don't need to keep original media lying around. You can download when you want, on as many computers as you want. You just can only play on as many as you bought licenses for the game. There's no rootkit, the application is lightweight and unobtrusive and robust, and there's an enormous and growiing variety of older and low cost games still available.

This is what DRM should be. It limits your use, but it gets you good support and free installations as needed.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Arker]

You're absolutely right. I had a very similar experience and I certainly wont send these thieves my money again. The fact that their DRM scheme is marginally less painful than that of the competition may be true but it's damning with faint praise. Steam fanboys are so thick on slashdot these days I bet they swamp us with down mods pretty quickly though.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Hunter Shoptaw]

Now where did I leave my mod points!

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Blaskowicz]

They already killed Origin, the game developer. Guess who is to blame for Ultima IX, and even for Ultima VIII!
Well, I never got to play earlier Ultimas (bought the VII in the early 00s, my PCI sound card needed EMM386 while the game needed it not there) so I never knew what I missed, actually.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Anonymous Coward]

Since the point at which I wanted to re-sell a game that I felt Valve had damaged the gameplay experience of beyond repair, and was unable to do so due to the DRM, I have refused to purchase any more Valve products and try to avoid even buying anything through Steam, because they get a cut of that and it shows support for a DRM scheme. Don't "buy" DRMed products! This isn't a new problem, yet for some reason people keep buying Steam stuff anyhow...

Guess why. Steam games are extremely cheap. The vast majority of gamers never sells a game. The vast majority of gamers don't lose their steam account. Steam automates patching. Steam has integration features (ala Xfire back in the day).

Moral of the story: DRM might be bad, but you get a lot back for it, and obviously most people (seemingly, at least) would rather have the good and the bad, as opposed to nothing at all.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[GameboyRMH]

MOD UP. Steam is just another fucking DRM scheme, why do people talk about it like an alternative to DRM? When it first came out it was THE WORST DRM the world had ever seen up to that point, the first to require an Internet connection at all for single-player gaming.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Arker]

As I understand it, offline mode only works if you are online when you set it. So, can I set it to offline mode, then move the computer to a location with no internet, and play it indefinitely? I doubt it. And when I get a chance to play a game at the location with internet - it's because the internet connection died and I cant work until it comes back. Oops! Cant set offline mode, internet is down. Right?

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[melchoir55]

The reason gamers tend to forgive valve for steam is because Valve treats it's customers well. They make a product which offers a lot.
* Steam games download very quickly.
* The user interface is lightweight and intuitive
* Steam games (by valve) are usually polished, artistic masterpieces.
*Convenience of having your game library in the cloud instead of scattered around your residence.
* A useful IM system which integrates well into most games
*probably more I'm not thinking of

You do have to trade something for this, but you DON'T have to trade always-on DRM. Steam isn't like that. You can play steam games offline. The only thing you are trading is that you can't resell your games. For me, this is an agreeable trade as I never resell my games anyway.

The reason people object to the crap EA et. al. does is because they try to take without giving anything back. They provide no added value in exchange for taking away the ability to resell games. In fact, they actually cripple games in order to achieve their goal.

If the steam value trade doesn't work for you because you want to resell games then I do sympathize. However, saying steam is the same as EA is hyperbole.

Steam != EA

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[uninformedLuddite]

I have a very dodgy Internet connection and when I start steam up with no connection it will ask if I want to start the client in offline mode. I definitely do not have to go online to tell it I want to play in offline mode.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Vancorps]

I agree with you completely. Steam is an example of a DRM scheme though that actually provides other benefits rather than just breaking perfectly good software. Personally I don't use it but I know a whole lot of people that do.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Irick]

Steam does distribute DRM free games. And when games use Steam DRM is at least sane. I have very few qualms with buying from Steam, even with the knowledge that in the post-apocalyptic future when Valve's servers go down i will have to add the worry of them not releasing a no DRM patch to my list right next to headcrab zombies.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not rocket science - log in with one computer, set offline mode, disconnect it from the internet. Start playing. Then log in with the other computer. Start playing. Simples.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[UnknownSoldier]

Agreed.

Ultima 7, 6, and 4 are probably the best in the series.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[progician]

When I bought a game, I always made an ISO image of it in the first day. That way, you don't worry about scratches, and you won't loose it.

Re:Stomp your feet & say it isn't DRM.

[progician]

Yeah, but you know, this like cheering for a soft dictatorship in a harsh, murderous dictatorship. Sure, less people are murdered for their beliefs, yet the result is the same: people are oppressed. So, cheering for an other DRM scheme, which perhaps technically less obtrusive is still nothing, but cheering for a DRM scheme adds up to the consumer price in exchange to take your control away over the products you bought.

It's the same thing, that paying for a club, where you are constantly harassed by the security guys. Just because they are more polite in an other club, it is still harassment.

He's got a point

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

Re:He's got a point

[dugancent]

I agree. Worst game company? Probably.

Worst company though? Haliburton? Wal-Mart? Blackwater?

Re:He's got a point

[Anastomosis]

I agree, the title "Worst company in America" is definitely worded badly. It's from the Consumerist, which means it's the company with the "worst customer service" or "worst attitude toward consumers" or something along those lines, basically. The investment banks causing the mortgage crisis may have great customer service, who knows? Most Americans don't deal with them on a daily basis, so they're not ever going to win this poll. And BP is not an American company anyway, but no one was complaining how they treated customers. Regardless if most of them are conscious of it are not, EA systematically treats their customers like resources to be mined rather than partners in a mutually beneficial relationship. No one (or at least no one significant) there understands the golden goose principle.

If you've seen The Wire, it reminds me of when Avon Barksdale is at a party at a club and two guys walk in high (his customers most likely) and he looks at them in utter disgust, then has them thrown out. That's why you have been winning this poll, EA. You're the supplier, and we're the junkies, and since there is a cohort of "addict" customers that will continue to purchase your product regardless of how you treat them, you maintain the status quo.

Re:He's got a point

[dgatwood]

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.

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

Ah, but intent is 9/10ths of the law (at least in criminal cases). Those oil companies didn't intend to spill lots of oil. Sure, they were negligent, but not malicious. The banks who bought those bad mortgages did not intend to lose billions of dollars. (Now the folks who sold the mortgages, on the other hand....)

By contrast, most of the criticisms of EA come from what appears to be fairly deliberate actions, not mere negligence. That makes them way worse than most of the other companies alluded to above. Worst company? No. Among the worst? Quite possibly.

Re:He's got a point

[jbolden]

The investment banks that sold off those bad loans have fantastic customer service. They would hate to have any wait on hold much less a long wait on hold, stop them from stealing tens of millions of dollars from their customers.

Re:He's got a point

[Dahamma]

EA is malicious rather than negligent? Short-sighted and out for cash over customer service - obviously. But it's not really more intentionally "malicious" than an oil spill. There is no way EA *wanted* their servers to all shit the bed under the load of their ill-conceived "Always On" Simcity debacle. In their ideal but misguided world they would have online DRM on all of their games, continue to release uninspired mega-sequels without taking chances, and all of their customers would agree with their decisions and love it...

Choosing between gross negligence in damaging the ecosystem of a whole region for decades (and completely botching the cleanup), vs. gross negligence forcing a bunch of video gamers to find something else to do for the weekend really isn't that hard...

Though honestly neither example holds a candle to Monsanto - "let's genetically modify corn and soybeans, sell them to farmers, and then sue their neighbors when they accidentally have our patents in their seed crops!" Now, THAT is intentional and malicious for you. It doesn't take a biologist or genetic engineer (of which Monsanto has hundreds) to understand how crop pollination works...

Re:He's got a point

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

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.

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

You have to take into account the sampling bias for this poll. The people voting in the poll are making their choices from their perpsective. Most of them were not affected by BP's oil spill, nor were they directly affected by the mortgage crisis and bank bailouts - most of them are probably 20-somethings and college kids, the majority of which live in rental housing anyway.

But they do play video games. They are a demographic that has a lot of EA customers.

So what he did was just superficial deflection - EA has been directly shitty to these people more than most other companies have. So think of it as a poll not for the worst company in the country but for the company that thas treated the voters the worst.

Re:He's got a point

[am 2k]

That's why you have been winning this poll, EA. You're the supplier, and we're the junkies, and since there is a cohort of "addict" customers that will continue to purchase your product regardless of how you treat them, you maintain the status quo.

Yes, the problem with this line of thinking is that as soon as there's a cheaper supplier or one with better material, your customers are gone (also see: Blackberry).

Everybody loves it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games.

9 out of 10 people enjoy gang rape.

This is the mantra

[spire3661]

Always-on is absolutely necessary for them. They make WAY more money by forcing everyone to trade privacy for functionality. Everything else is completely secondary.

Re:This is the mantra

[WillAffleckUW]

Always-on is absolutely necessary for them. They make WAY more money by forcing everyone to trade privacy for functionality. Everything else is completely secondary.

But it isn't necessary. The Sims 3 runs perfectly well - with premium content you pay extra for, that customers buy - with it only being Online if you want to get the extra content.

Their problem is they didn't realize you catch more flies with honey - or a SimCity that has Online when you do MULTI-PLAYER or DOWNLOAD premium content - than you do with large quantities of highly acidic fluid drained from an atomic reactor, which is what DRM is.

Re:This is the mantra

[bloodhawk]

I disagree, I think they lost a lot more money from always online. people like me that love SimCity but won't buy it because of always online, same problem for steam, I avoid all that shit wherever possible.

Re:This is the mantra

[MitchDev]

They can't make money if we don't buy the garbage...

Re:This is the mantra

[Aighearach]

No, they can't make money if you don't buy the garbage. Some of us are already educated consumers.

Re:This is the mantra

[MitchDev]

Fuck you too

Nothing about refunds?

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought SimCity in the preorder, and I've only been able to play twice. $71 for two hours of poor game play will piss off people enough to never buy your products again. By refusing to give refunds for what is obviously broken and unplayable, you have lost customers for life.

Re:Nothing about refunds?

[klashn]

I thought they did offer refunds for people that were unable to connect to the servers during launch?

Re:Nothing about refunds?

[Kneo24]

It was a mixed bag of things. Some people got refunds, some got coupons towards other games, some got jack shit. Searching Google shows about as much in the first few links.

Re:Nothing about refunds?

[progician]

You actually did pay $71 for that game? I mean, I used to be a fan of Sim City in the old times, but I would never give that much money for a game that doesn't offer any short of the care that Blizzard put in to its games. Now, I have my beef with Blizzard over other behaviour, and with all software company selling EULs with binary blobs, but that's a completely different matter.

$71 for this crap is just nuts!

Poll is still open, EA vs Ticketmaster

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm voting for Ticketmaster, at least EA makes stuff.

Re:Poll is still open, EA vs Ticketmaster

[j-turkey]

I'm voting for Ticketmaster, at least EA makes stuff.

I'm with you, and am glad that someone else posted this first. I can't stand Ticketbastard, and they have exclusivity agreements with most of the venues in my country. This means that they will receive a fee for ever live performance that I want to attend, regardless of whether or not I want to use them. Fees on top of fees on top of fees that are already included in the ticket price. They haven't done much to curb the secondary market; there is no incentive for them to do so.

They add absolutely no value, and have done little to bring ticket sales into the digital age. Thanks for nothing, Ticketmaster. You guys suck more than any other company in the country.

I dislike how they spoof their own protestors

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

I think it is pretty sinister for him to dredge up "US vs THEM" protesting in his "apology".
Remember, one thing EA does is to hire fake protestors to get controversy for their game!
Stay classy EA. Even in your apologies, you ooze evil.

Awful...absolutely awful company

[GodfatherofSoul]

They've had products with glaring bugs that exist for years, yet never seem to shame them into fixing. Their multiplayer games are hopelessly hacked and they only release rare patches. I was a big fan of BF2142 and while the game play was excellent, the 1st release was so bad you could only play 1 or two rounds in a row before the game crashed. The update system is so bugged, I couldn't even play it now if I wanted to.

EA is like a guy who beats the crap out of his wife, but doesn't think it's a big deal because she hasn't left him...yet.

Two can play that game

[swimboy]

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.

EA continues to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is not a DRM scheme. It is. EA still wants to lie about it. We can't be any clearer - it is. Period.

Jedi Fail, You are.

[girlintraining]

'Many continue to claim the Always-On function in SimCity is a DRM scheme. Itâ(TM)s not. People still want to argue about it. We canâ(TM)t be any clearer â" itâ(TM)s not. Period. ... 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."

Failure as a Jedi, you are, yes. Convince us not for DRM, you try. But to the dark side your company has gone, yes, ooh. Doomed you are to fleeing customers, endless propaganda. Always there are two, the incompetent and the enslaved. Profit-mongering leads to DRM. DRM leads to falling consumer confidence. Poor reviews... lead to suffering.

Let's not forget that this is Peter Moore.

[BLToday]

This is the same man that screwed up the Dreamcast by refusing to negotiate with EA for sport games. I believe his line about EA support was "we don't think it's important to have Madden on our system."

He's not exactly gamer friendly or customer friendly.

Re:Let's not forget that this is Peter Moore.

[DudemanX]

It wasn't important to have Madden. Sega had the far superior NFL 2K series. That's why when NFL 2K5 was released at $20 it destroyed Madden sales to the point where EA dropped the price of Madden 2005 to $30. EA then backed up a dump truck full of money to the NFL for exclusive rights so they could sell Madden 2006 (more or less just another roster update) for the full $50 again.

Hooray capitalism?

If it looks like a duck...

[saveferrousoxide]

We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period.

No, not "Period." Tell us what it is then! Simply ending the discussion isn't received well by the 8 and up crowd.

Re:If it looks like a duck...

[Arker]

We canâ(TM)t be any clearer â" itâ(TM)s not. Period.

This is a very old trick managers learn early. It's called "pee on his shoe and claim it's raining." It's a favourite among the ones who lack the intelligence to invent believable lies.

Re:If it looks like a duck...

[Darinbob]

It's either a DRM scheme or a bug that needs fixing.

Employee Viewpoint

[ohnocitizen]

To say nothing of what the company is like to work for.

They are doing what a company should NEVER do...

[mark-t]

... which is to blindly state that the public is wrong.

Because now it doesn't matter if they are wrong.... they've completely screwed the pooch with the people who expressed their negative opinion on the matter.

Eventually, of course, they'll have to rationalize the whole thing to themselves by concluding that these people's opinions simply don't matter to them anyways.

Way to go there, EA. Awesome PR. You will, I'm afraid, be eating those words eventually. Unfortunately, probably not before a whole lot of people lose their jobs.

Not the employees, it's the management

[WillAffleckUW]

Look, nobody's saying anything about the employees, who are all fine people that I've met.

It's the management.

Specifically the Board and the Senior Management and CEO/COO/CFO.

There's your problem.

They think we're cattle. Or sheep.

Hey, he's a CEO .....

[Radical Moderate]

if he says it's not DRM, that's good enough for the plebes who work for him, and it should be good enough for you too. Why do you hate capitalism?

Not the best argument

[Weaselmancer]

'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. ... 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."

Translation: It's not DRM, because we have a number of customers that don't hate it enough to leave!

No, DRM is DRM. It doesn't matter if some people can put up with it or not. It is what it is, popularity contests notwithstanding.

Re:Worst Company in America? Really?

[faedle]

What's more evil, a company that has no compunction about the fact they are evil (in the case of Phillip Morris, for example, "tobacco products producer" is exactly what it says on the tin for crying out loud), or the one that swears up and down they aren't?

That's what makes the contest worthwhile. We don't expect the cable company or a video game studio to be corrupt and evil.

Re:Worst Company in America? Really?

[the eric conspiracy]

Unlike EA the customers and stockholders of Monsanto and Phillp Morris are generally happy.

Dear stupid Fucker from EA:

[MitchDev]

"'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."

BULLSHIT.

Re:Dear stupid Fucker from EA:

[uvajed_ekil]

What I read: "Our DRM is not DRM, morons."
Haha. Way to make peace with us, EA.

The multiplayer is the root problem

[jonwil]

The root problem with the new SimCity is not the always-on DRM crap (regardless of what it might actually be), its the fact that they took the game that basically created the god-simulation genre and ruined it by making it multiplayer-only with limited city sizes and other crap.

Monsanto

[Myria]

There is a lot wrong with EA, but saying they're the worst company is fundamentally bullshit.

I liked Mass Effect 3, except the ending. They have issues, but like, the worst company? Monsanto and Blackwater/Xe/Academi are far, far worse.

Even in video games, EA isn't the worst: look how bad Sega's Colonial Marines was, or the crap Sony has pulled with the PS3.

Re:They are doing what a company should NEVER do..

[nitehawk214]

It is especially egregious because they are lying, and they know they are lying.

It's just 4chan

[FunPika]

4chan (specifically /v/) hates EA enough that they rallied their extremely large amount of users into voting for EA in this, and knowing 4chan I wouldn't be surprised if some of them are using proxies and similar stuff to register even more votes for EA. And of course we already know that they have no problem with significantly influencing polls.

[citation needed]

[Jarmihi]

"Tens of millions more are playing and loving those games."

[citation needed]

If it walks like DRM and it breaks games like DRM.

[Tridus]

Then it's DRM. Period. We can't be any clearer on this.

EA management's chronic inability to understand such basic things is truly remarkable.

Re:Worst Company in America? Really?

[LurkerXXX]

Add the oil companies to your list.

Peter should have been a politician

[Arith]

"Some claim there’s no room for Origin as a competitor to Steam. 45 million registered users are proving that wrong." 45 million carried on the back of Steam (and others). I seem to recall -requiring- an origin account in order to play Farcry3. Though I have to admit it wasn't near as annoying as windows games in playing the Batman series. Pah.

Rephrasing CEO-speak

[uvajed_ekil]

'I’ll be the first to admit that we’ve made plenty of mistakes. These include server shut downs too early, games that didn’t meet expectations, missteps on new pricing models and most recently, severely fumbling the launch of SimCity. We owe gamers better performance than this.' However, he ignores or contests many of the common complaints about the company — issues that earned it a spot in the finals for the second year in a row. Quoting: '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. ... 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."

To rephrase EA's CEO's words into how customers see things, you get this:
"Yeah, you all know we suck, so we have to admit it, finally. We screwed you by shutting down servers we knew you were still rightfully using, some of our games were complete crap, we gouged you on price (and we'll continue to do that, duh!), and we totally fucked up with SimCity. But too bad, suckers. You can suck it. And oh yeah, stop bitching and buy the next game, cause we wuv you, or whatever. Where else ya gonna go? So like, sorry or something?"

BIG ass hole

[uvajed_ekil]

I always say: If you find yourself in a BIG-ass hole, stop digging, or you'll look like a big asshole. Apparently Peter Moore disagrees with me, or just likes looking like a big asshole. Way to use an apology to make yourself look like an even bigger asshole, Pete.

Mismatched demographics?

[Chewbacon]

Perhaps their microtransaction model doesn't appeal to those who enjoy(ed) their games. Just a thought from someone who used to enjoy their games.

Listen to your custokers. Don't dictate!

[91degrees]

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."

Funnily enough something I said yesterday rearding the MS tweet applies here as well.

Telling your customers they're wrong isn't going to convince them.

Re:Listen to your custokers. Don't dictate!

[MightyMartian]

The guy is a sociopath. Be happy he's running EA, and not eating your liver with fava beans and a light change.

Worse sin:

[Snufu]

Being EA, or buying their products and encouraging them to continue business as usual?

Amazon crowd is still posting reviews...

[Twinbee]

Yes, the negative reviews are still coming in thick and fast for Sim City 5 at Amazon. Mostly problems with the server still. I can't imagine how broken the game/DRM must be for them not to have fixed that yet.

Isn't he...

[Leptok]

COO not CEO?

Who the hell does he think he is?

[JohnRoss1968]

'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"
We gamers, Your customers, are telling you WE DO NOT WANT the Always-On function in Sim-City or ANY GAME. You can say its not a DRM scheme all day long.We dont care if you call it a DRM Scheme or a function or a bonus or whatever. WE DO NOT WANT ALWAYS-ON CRAP.
You want our money? Remove the always-on crap. If you don't remove it you will NEVER get a penny from us PERIOD.
How thickheaded can you possible be. People are telling you you don't want it and you are arguing with your customers about what it is.
Who in the hell do you think you are?

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Work's too

[rsilvergun]

I like to call it the Cheney effect, after the American Vice President and political pundit that perfected it. Strictly speaking it was Karl Rove's idea though. You just lie brazenly and publicly about something nobody really wanted to believe in the first place.

That didn't take long.

[headcase88-2]

"We're going to try to stop and think before doing and saying stupid things."

(a small amount of time passes)

"This game that refuses to run unless you connect with our servers has no DRM, you're an idiot for thinking so, and we refuse to change it".

Saying it doesn't make it true

[melchoir55]

"People still want to argue about it. We can’t be any clearer – it’s not. Period. "

In order to understand what a thing is, or what motivations and intentions are, we look to the action of an entity. We listen to the entity when it speaks because there is a chance it will point out some nuance of behavior we have missed. However, we do not accept assertions regarding action when those assertions are incongruous with those actions.

EA is a member of the set of companies that believe they can do whatever they like so long as they claim they aren't doing anything wrong.

Please, everyone, do the gaming community a favor and stop buying EA games.

Re:incorrect. And superfluous.

[uninformedLuddite]

wrong

Same crap...

[DiEx-15]

...Different day.

So lets get this straight EA: The fact customers don't want microtransactions in single player games and actually want offline, single player games is immaterial because other FTP games are successful, never mind the fact those FTP games are MMOs?

How in the name of [Insert deity you worship here or leave blank if you don't] has EA games not only survived this long with this level of incompetence AND beat Zynga for worst company?

Re:Perception IS reality

[progician]

Check out your Windows EULA then. You're in for a surprise.