Oh, okay, so it's not like any of the previous winners where in the above categories...
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the same sex relationships in their games make me cringe, i dont appose them but its funny as hell when playing say ME and ive literally just talked to the person and then their reactions are essentially as if i took it as a romance option :L.
I personally am disappointed with the ending of ME3, enough for me to say something about it and enough for me to research the next bioware game and NOT buy it day one like i have all their previous games :(. I think ME is a bit of a special case, for me personally it was much harder to ignore as it seemed good, i had played ME1 and 2 alot and it was a conclusion to that trilogy so avoiding the game all together was a bit like cutting nose off to spite the face...
I wanted to play ME3 and it was a relatively good ride, well worth playing but the ending reaked of EA intervention and the fact the lead writer was put onto TOR, now that is both biowares and EA fault you should NEVER change writers at the end of a series!
I wouldnt call EA the worst company ever but its the worst publisher ever, thats the more fitting title.
And now that ME has finished, i can continue avoiding alot of EA published games, its only due to being caught in a middle of an epic adventure that its hard to turn away. Obviously if its really cheap and i fancy a game and its relatively good i will pick it up in the future but no rush!.
Only occasionally when it's part of the zeitgeist, like last year BP got it because of the oil spill and PR debacle affecting the Gulf Coast. The year before that it was Comcast, which is more par for the course. The clue is in the organisation giving the award, "The Consumerist" if you weren't aware.
It's mainly due to a slew of poor coding, shoddy QA and almost non-existent after-sales support.
As I said in another thread, FIFA 12 was the last FIFA I buy. Sick of paying for shoddy work. But you know what? I do want next seasons teams and I do want whatever gfx upgrade they perform......but do I want to pay for yet another release in the franchise where 2-3 things are bugged and annoy the hell out of me AGAIN?
So it's more a case of the consumer getting some of their money back because Steam and Origin are near impossible to get refunds from when your purchase is full of bugs......
So don't give them your money in the first place. That way you have no complaint to make when their next game sucks, and they either *have* to listen and make the changes that the consumers are demanding or fold.
All you suggest does is make them get away with it, while causing people to whine more. If you're not paying them for their work then why should they care what you think?
Splash, your rigid idealism is all well in good, but in the real world there's plenty reasons why you might still want to play EA products whilst having negative opinion of the company. For example, I'd still quite like to play Mass Effect 3, I'm sure overall it's a decent game and I'd enjoy it, but I utterly resent being nickel and dimed for day 1 DLC which forms a significant part of the story if it's included. I also resent having to use Origin.
Fair enough, in my case I am actually declining to play the game for these reasons, but understandably others with the same concerns may not. That's a legitimate issue with EA, what you seem to be suggesting is that everyone should just refuse to buy EA products and shut up, because the products don't affect you anymore which is obviously a false and irrational argument. Yes, it would be wonderful if tomorrow everyone dissatisfied with EA's practices boycotted their games until they changed, but that isn't a realistic scenario and it's immature to keep debating your points as though it is. That's why people feel the need to complain about EA, and vote for them in polls such as this one, whilst still playing games they publish. In this instance I think it's accurate to say EA are encouraging piracy, regardless of what your ethical stance on copyright infringement is (which is a whole other debate).
Not at all: I'm implying that EA will not change their business practises unless they start to impact on their bottom line. They have an obligation to their shareholders to maximise their profit, and if enough people don't buy their products it will negatively affect their profits.
They've already pretty much said that they don't care about some whining on an internet forum, anyone continuing to do so is only wasting their time.
I repeat: the only way that they're going to change their business practises is if you choose not to use their product (and if you pirate it then all you're doing is adding to their excuses for draconian DRM, regardless of any idea you might have that their games "deserve" to be pirated because you somehow need to play them despite them being a ripoff).
EDIT - you ninja-edited while I was replying. Pretty certain my response is still fair.
If you want to play analogy games (rather then adding something to the conversation :P ) it would be like regulars starting to take copies of your goods without paying for them.
And a certain famous warez site has already started hosting files for the start of that new era of IP infringement....
I disagree, I doubt even EA are as dense as to not notice spikes in piracy (which they can't entirely measure anyway, so they'll still record it largely as a drop in sales) coinciding with anti-consumer activities (e.g. day 1 DRM, mandatory Origin) especially when there's consumers vocalising this as the reason for resorting to piracy.
But... if you're actively saying that you had no intention to buy it (but pirate it instead), all that tells them is that they need to make the game harder to pirate. It doesn't tell them that they need to not release day 1 DLC.
Clearly I'm fighting a losing battle here. I disagree with their business practise, I don't buy the games. If they ask me why I bought ME1 and 2, but not 3 I can tell them why. I don't need the game to exist, so I'll quite happily live without.
(and for the record: I didn't start the analogy game: Shaithis did)
Don't oversimplify the debate to support your argument. People are making their reasons for resorting to piracy quite clear, it's not hard for analysts to understand how it's related to DLC, etc. If what they take from that is that the course of action needed is tougher DRM (despite it being one of the things complained about), then that's their own (in my opinion, very flawed) conclusion. However, I don't think either of us is in a position to truly determine what EA's response would be, and I'd imagine it's hardly on their list of priorities anyway.
I'm simply saying that an increase in piracy is a natural response to EA's behaviour. In addition to creating ill-will within the customer base with nickel and diming, they're actually making piracy a less hassle-filled option than buying the game legitimately - as oppose to Valve, for instance, who combat piracy by treating it as a competition and offering a better alternative. I just think your argument that everyone should boycott EA games is detached from reality. People are frustrated with EA's practices, they still want to play the game however, and there's a rather obvious option there that still allows them to play without financially supporting EA. It's pretty simple.
...and against the law, too. I was brought up to believe that if something was for sale and I wouldn't pay for it (for whatever reason) then I'd do without. A significant part of society seems to disagree with that, but I'll stick with my values, if you don't mind.
As I said earlier that's a whole other debate. The ethics of filesharing are a whole other issue, but generally morality is an relative individual thing, rather than something you can be correct/incorrect about. Which is why I was arguing based on the practicalities.