"...you have to promise him enough entertainment for him to put his hand in his pocket and buy the game."
No, that's what companies without a long-running track record of incompetence and evil need to promise me. EA needs to promise me not only this, but additionally convince me that they're not going to:
Tout the game's immersion and realism, yet conveniently omit central aspects of said illusion just to achieve a "more accessible" ESRB rating in the hopes of increasing sales. (a la the "award-winning", "critically-acclaimed" MoH series' blood-free WWII combat.)
Release the otherwise-pretty-cool game with at least one fatal exploitability that essentially kills all hope for reasonably fair multiplayer (a la Command & Conquer Generals mp disconnect exploit)
Ignore patching of said game (now that you have all our money!) for "more imporatant" taking-over-the-world oriented-tasks (like suspending patch development to prepare a bunch of hype for E3 (ironically, for another game that is most likely going to have the same lifecycle of weaknesses...))
Release an expansion pack for said game that introduces yet more unfairly exploitable bugs (a la Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour expansion pack multiple tech centers "feature")
Abandon patching of said expansion pack even with said critical exploitable bug (and plenty not-so-critical but equally annoying ones) still alive. (EA Suit: "We patch expansion packs? This must end!")
Include "nifty" features that ultimately wind up meaningless because they ignore the fine details of sensible implementation. (a la BF2's logic-challenged stat tracking system, which singlehandedly doused my desire to purchase the game, even after I was hooked on the demo for a couple weeks.)
So-obviously respond to industry, media, and management-induced pressures yielding mediocrity in design, just so the suits, clueless industry media, and fanboys won't say stuff like "These Other Games are X. Why isn't This Game X?" (a la LOTR BFME II. I mean... if you're just going to worship everyone else's 5-year-old standards, then I guess I don't really need to buy it...)
Release the game with limited content so it can be held back for more (theoretically) profit-generating expansion packs. (a la Sims I and to a greater extent II)
Spend a bunch of money on trivialities that don't actually improve the gameplay ("a-list" talent for voiceovers and cinematics, big-brand content licensing, etc.) meanwhile pitching that "challenge everything" bs.
Continue treating their technical staff* so poorly that I continue to hear about it often, even in non-gaming, non-industry contexts, while simultaneously managing to climb to the top of the industry on said staff's dried-up carcasses. (*who, for the record, do show real -- if restrained -- talent)
(and last, but definitely not least, as it all-at-once symbolizes EA's dismissal of the "customer first" tenet): Continue making the stupid EA Games brand splash screen un-skippable, as though loyal customers respond positively to having their time wasted, as though some sort of long-ago-deserved reverence is still in order, or as though any yet-to-be-EA-enfranchised spectator might actually get to view it over my shoulder without also being subject to a brief-but-obligatory "Why EA is evil" speech.
To summarize: 20 years ago, EA set a (if not "The") standard of excellence for computer games. Their brand alone signaled "BUY THIS GAME!" Sadly, nowadays, their brand signals "AVOID IF POSSIBLE!"
Surely that is a most significant "cost", and one that must be eliminated ASAP. But, again, this is more advice than I usually give away for free. My consultancy is available starting 2Q of 2007, with or without snarkiness.
Slashdot Mirror
Wow! There are many amusing statements on that page, but "Acknowledge the math below or go to hell." probably takes the cake.
Vader conspiring to kill Palpatine is easy to conceive. (see Dark Lord: The Rise of Darth Vader book)
Him somehow being allowed to live if the attempt failed is somewhat harder.
No, that's what companies without a long-running track record of incompetence and evil need to promise me. EA needs to promise me not only this, but additionally convince me that they're not going to:
- Tout the game's immersion and realism, yet conveniently omit central aspects of said illusion just to achieve a "more accessible" ESRB rating in the hopes of increasing sales. (a la the "award-winning", "critically-acclaimed" MoH series' blood-free WWII combat.)
- Release the otherwise-pretty-cool game with at least one fatal exploitability that essentially kills all hope for reasonably fair multiplayer (a la Command & Conquer Generals mp disconnect exploit)
- Ignore patching of said game (now that you have all our money!) for "more imporatant" taking-over-the-world oriented-tasks (like suspending patch development to prepare a bunch of hype for E3 (ironically, for another game that is most likely going to have the same lifecycle of weaknesses...))
- Release an expansion pack for said game that introduces yet more unfairly exploitable bugs (a la Command & Conquer Generals Zero Hour expansion pack multiple tech centers "feature")
- Abandon patching of said expansion pack even with said critical exploitable bug (and plenty not-so-critical but equally annoying ones) still alive. (EA Suit: "We patch expansion packs? This must end!")
- Include "nifty" features that ultimately wind up meaningless because they ignore the fine details of sensible implementation. (a la BF2's logic-challenged stat tracking system, which singlehandedly doused my desire to purchase the game, even after I was hooked on the demo for a couple weeks.)
- So-obviously respond to industry, media, and management-induced pressures yielding mediocrity in design, just so the suits, clueless industry media, and fanboys won't say stuff like "These Other Games are X. Why isn't This Game X?" (a la LOTR BFME II. I mean... if you're just going to worship everyone else's 5-year-old standards, then I guess I don't really need to buy it...)
- Release the game with limited content so it can be held back for more (theoretically) profit-generating expansion packs. (a la Sims I and to a greater extent II)
- Spend a bunch of money on trivialities that don't actually improve the gameplay ("a-list" talent for voiceovers and cinematics, big-brand content licensing, etc.) meanwhile pitching that "challenge everything" bs.
- Continue treating their technical staff* so poorly that I continue to hear about it often, even in non-gaming, non-industry contexts, while simultaneously managing to climb to the top of the industry on said staff's dried-up carcasses. (*who, for the record, do show real -- if restrained -- talent)
- (and last, but definitely not least, as it all-at-once symbolizes EA's dismissal of the "customer first" tenet): Continue making the stupid EA Games brand splash screen un-skippable, as though loyal customers respond positively to having their time wasted, as though some sort of long-ago-deserved reverence is still in order, or as though any yet-to-be-EA-enfranchised spectator might actually get to view it over my shoulder without also being subject to a brief-but-obligatory "Why EA is evil" speech.
To summarize: 20 years ago, EA set a (if not "The") standard of excellence for computer games. Their brand alone signaled "BUY THIS GAME!" Sadly, nowadays, their brand signals "AVOID IF POSSIBLE!"Surely that is a most significant "cost", and one that must be eliminated ASAP. But, again, this is more advice than I usually give away for free. My consultancy is available starting 2Q of 2007, with or without snarkiness.