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We Can Do Better

ea.com

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Re: We Can Do Better

#51

Post by CamperBob2 »

randomdrake wrote: post #3

They could've "done better" by actually saying what they will do to improve things. This was an absolutely atrocious PR piece. It didn't address any of the issues people were having. "45 million registered users are proving them wrong." Such a goofy and useless statistic. When you require registration for your products, that doesn't mean people are satisfied users of your service, it means you got a lot of people to…

"45 million registered users can't be wrong"

Hell, Stalin had that many in 1948!

Re: We Can Do Better

#53

Post by estel »

misnome wrote: post #8
ghshephard wrote: post #5

I stopped reading right here: "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." He's flat out lying. I have no interest whatsoever in what he is saying. SimCity can technically run offline, gamers want to run it offline, but EA won't let you run it offline because you could then pirate their software.…

I suspect the argument is more "It's not DRM, it's amazing social interaction, that benefits everyone!" (read: Nobody would use it if it was optional)

I think I believe them: the game they wanted to make was one where the "continuous, integrated online world" was integral to the way people played SimCity: only the final product didn't do enough to justify their original intention.

Re: We Can Do Better

#54

Post by chc »

kayoone wrote: post #17
randomdrake wrote: post #3

They could've "done better" by actually saying what they will do to improve things. This was an absolutely atrocious PR piece. It didn't address any of the issues people were having. "45 million registered users are proving them wrong." Such a goofy and useless statistic. When you require registration for your products, that doesn't mean people are satisfied users of your service, it means you got a lot of people to…

To be fair, people werent exactly happy when they had to sign into Steam to play HalfLife2 in 2004 either. Times are different i know, but people tend to forget that Steam was forced upon us in quite similar ways and really wasnt everyones darling like it is today. I agree with the rest of your comment though.

Valve has since proven itself, though. EA has done the opposite. If Valve disappointed people as consistently as EA does, people would still hate Steam — but instead Valve has made it the most unobtrusive DRM scheme known to man.

Re: We Can Do Better

#55

Post by ihsw »

randomdrake wrote: post #3

They could've "done better" by actually saying what they will do to improve things. This was an absolutely atrocious PR piece. It didn't address any of the issues people were having. "45 million registered users are proving them wrong." Such a goofy and useless statistic. When you require registration for your products, that doesn't mean people are satisfied users of your service, it means you got a lot of people to…

> It's extremely obvious they're less concerned with addressing issues and more concerned with telling everyone about how many users they have or what their sales are:

All of it can be interpreted this way: this PR piece isn't meant to address customer concerns -- it's meant to address shareholder concerns.

Re: We Can Do Better

#56

Post by michaelochurch »

I think WCIA is an awesome concept and we should do more to tear down, embarrass, and ultimately dismantle bad companies.

That said, the idea that EA would win a WCIA bracket with Time Warner Cable and fucking airlines? Makes a mockery of the whole concept.

Especially now. Yes, AAA games are pure dogshit. No question there. Just awful. It's easy to get nostalgic for 1995. Chrono Trigger was excellent, so was Final Fantasy VI. Terranigma-- also great if you could get it. Back then, we only had great games because someone made them for us. We had to get them from Japan, for the most part, because as bad as Japan's corporate conformity is, it's nothing like US-style executive meddling. (Japanese understand capitalism enough not to let incompetent execs ruin the show. The US has rich fatasses who see executive sinecures as a birthright and have the fertilizer-Midas touch: everything they touch turns to shit.) That meant we had to wait for Ted Woolsey to translate them, and he was not a bad translator (actually, his talent is neat and quirky) but he worked under insane deadlines. You spoony bard! Anyway...

But it's two-thousand-and-fucking-13 and if you don't like the games that exist, make one that is better instead of pointlessly voting in some poll. Show those fuckers up. (Actually, they're as smart as you are. Some, much smarter. They make crappy games because they have bills to pay and moron bosses. You'll understand when you're older.) Build a 2D RPG, a German-style board game, or a casual game, and get it out there. Or don't, and stop complaining that no one is making good games when there's nothing stopping you.

EA doesn't even belong on the top-75 list of worst companies. Where's Xe/Blackwater? Tear them down instead. They convinced the US government to fight an illegal war for their profits, and their CEO is a literal fucking fascist. That is WCIA material. Electronic Arts worse than fucking mercenaries in the 21st century? Seriously, the world needs to get a fucking clue.

Re: We Can Do Better

#57

Post by patrick-james »

randomdrake wrote: post #3

They could've "done better" by actually saying what they will do to improve things. This was an absolutely atrocious PR piece. It didn't address any of the issues people were having. "45 million registered users are proving them wrong." Such a goofy and useless statistic. When you require registration for your products, that doesn't mean people are satisfied users of your service, it means you got a lot of people to…

I'm not sure what your expectations are of a PR piece...do you want to see EA's KPI dashboard and development roadmap? Shareholders don't even see that, so why should you? And to be fair, I think a specific thing they mentioned was giving away SimCity for free to 900k users, that's not trivial.

I actually really appreciated the honesty of this piece because I think it shows some integrity on EA's part to be willing to admit fault. How many companies have driven themselves into irrelevance and destruction by thinking they were right every time?

I don't think it's worth talking down their numbers either, consumers vote with their wallets. If you really though a product was crap, you'd find something else, otherwise there's clearly something of quality there that keeps you coming back.

I work in the newer side of the games industry and see in painful detail how far EA has to go to catch up with recent trends and regain their dominance in the marketplace, but as someone who's also had my fair share of memorable experiences from EA games, I'm pulling for them.

Re: We Can Do Better

#58

Post by kunai »

The only thing that was somewhat hopeful in this piece was the title. It just went downhill from there.

There was nothing, absolutely nothing of value that they said. Not a word about improving the customer experience in any concrete way.

Re: We Can Do Better

#59

Post by estel »

alex_marchant wrote: post #18

I was excited by the prospect of seeing a new CEO come in and possibly change the culture of EA, but after reading this piece I'm thinking that idea was probably naive. This lack of user empathy seems pretty pervasive.

Peter Moore isn't the new CEO, he's been COO for a couple of years, and usually comes across as pretty straight-talking.

Re: We Can Do Better

#60

Post by TillE »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #27

I've always found defensiveness really unattractive, especially in companies. Unless you are bringing new facts to bear, any piece that tries to make the "we're not so bad as all that" argument will probably be unsuccessful at winning hearts or minds.

Yeah. When has trying to convince critics that they're wrong ever worked? EA/Maxis keep trying.

They simply can't win this one. They're in the wrong, and for the most part they probably know it. If they can't say anything positive, the best response would probably be radio silence until everything blows over. Stuff like this only fans the flames.

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