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EA: The Human Story (2004)

ea-spouse.livejournal.com

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Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#41

Post by Jeaye »

(opinions are my own and not EA's)

I've been at EA for about 1.5 years now and have never enjoyed working somewhere as much as this. Their devotion to D&I, their culture around management (and the thorough training each manager gets), career progression, and feedback, their flexibility for each individual (even given their size), how frequently we actually get to speak with SVP-level leadership to ask questions/voice opinions, their flexibility around WFH, and how everyone is pleasant to work with make it very easy to talk about how nice it is to work at EA. On top of all of that, benefits and pay are competitive (especially benefits).

EA's a big company, and I'm in EADP, which is an org that builds the back-end services for the games, rather than the games. But I've never been asked to work more than 8 hours in a day. Whenever I have chosen to work more, I've been specifically told by my manager or his that it's not required and that I can pick it up again tomorrow. They meant it.

I read this post before joining EA and was somewhat concerned, but was told by people I trust that it no longer applies. From my perspective, they're absolutely right.

As others mentioned, EA has undergone new leadership since this post was written. It was also nearly two decades ago. At this point, it's likely more of a good cautionary tale of how things can get than an accurate rendering of how things are.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#42

Post by karpierz »

dleslie wrote: post #33
5350-uiop-1130 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik only GOG sells games without DRM. I have bought EA/Ubishit games on Steam which when you open the game, it installs Origin/UbiWhatever and then run through them only.

A few years ago Steam began showing labeling on store pages for games that use third party DRM; and if you buy a game that has it and you did so unwittingly, then you can return it without issue provided you played less than two hours and you bought it within the last two weeks.

This return policy is true regardless of whether it has DRM or whether you knew.

You can return any Steam game, for any reason, provided you've played it fewer than two hours and purchased it within the last two weeks.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#44

Post by babypuncher »

branon wrote: post #3

EA perpetuates practices that hurt customers, too. I used to unapologetically pirate video games and only within the past two years have I finally come full circle and begun purchasing games, both new titles and older ones I had played in the past but never paid for until now. Steam has been the tool of choice for this reconciliation process. As a result, some of the hardships that paying customers encounter have bec…

Mass Effect Legendary Edition should only require an internet connection the first time you run it on a new PC. After that it works offline.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#45

Post by maximilianburke »

Good grief, this post is nearly old enough to vote.

EA has changed a lot in those years, mostly for the better. I spent 13 years there from 2005-2018 and it was a great place to work; the people were great, the problems were interesting, and the hours were normal.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#46

Post by sascha_sl »

When I interviewed at a medium sized game studio, mostly known for their graphically impressive engine, I asked to have another offer (different industry) matched. The recruiters response was that they couldn't do it, but they know I'll still choose them "because making games is cool".

Suffice to say I didn't take that offer. Studio tour was fun though.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#47

Post by karpierz »

Jeaye wrote: post #41

(opinions are my own and not EA's) I've been at EA for about 1.5 years now and have never enjoyed working somewhere as much as this. Their devotion to D&I, their culture around management (and the thorough training each manager gets), career progression, and feedback, their flexibility for each individual (even given their size), how frequently we actually get to speak with SVP-level leadership to ask questions/voice…

I suspect that your experience comes from working at EA in a leadership capacity, whereas the toxicity complaints come from the front-line workers (IE, SWE, QA).

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#48

Post by dsr_ »

egypturnash wrote: post #17
m0llusk wrote: post #15

Disabling the back button on my browser limited my sympathies.

That's thanks to the many ways Livejournal has gone to shit in the eighteen years since this post was written - its creator sold it, it went through several owners, and ultimately ended up in Russian hands who have been slowly shitting it up in the many ways modern sites are garbage.

To a first approximation, everyone who didn't want to be part of LJ's practices moved to DreamWidth.

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#49

Post by mistrial9 »

0x500x79 wrote: post #40

I see that "Vote with your feet" got downvoted in the thread, but it's true. I worked for another one of the large game studios in the US for a long time. The practices employed at the game studio were built around keeping people attached to their jobs because they love video games and loved the games we built. It was weaponized excessively. Almost every town-hall, all-hands, etc was framed around the product and kee…

put another way, video games are addictive and people in the industry are not immune to addiction life paths

Re: EA: The Human Story (2004)

#50

Post by GekkePrutser »

branon wrote: post #3

EA perpetuates practices that hurt customers, too. I used to unapologetically pirate video games and only within the past two years have I finally come full circle and begun purchasing games, both new titles and older ones I had played in the past but never paid for until now. Steam has been the tool of choice for this reconciliation process. As a result, some of the hardships that paying customers encounter have bec…

Buy on gog instead :) They don't DRM.
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