EA Responds to Marketplace Criticisms [Archive]

bapenguin

11-13-2006, 12:19 PM

An Electronic Arts representative went on Major Nelson's podcast this week to defend their micro transaction practices of selling cheat codes on the XBox Live Marketplace.
From IGN (http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/745/745508p1.html):When drawn upon the issue of charging for what once might have been a cheat code, Lange argued, "There are places where cheat codes are free but those are on websites and those websites are making money by selling advertising." He went on to say, "There'll still be a healthy business around hint guides, magazines, websites… I just look at the Marketplace as yet another extension of ways in which consumers are going to be able to access the content they want."

You've got to be fucking kidding me. I guess this guy never heard of FORUMS. If one of the Evil Avatar members posts a cheatcode in our forums, we don't make any money off that. Asshole.

Johan

11-13-2006, 12:22 PM

Please, everyone:

DON'T BUY EA SPORTS TITLES...and limit your other EA-titles to must-haves, like Spore. PLEASE!

I'm more enraged with their exclusivity arrangments with the PGA and NFL, and their gimped PGA online service (what a laugh), than their microtransactions and cheat-code removals...though that is ridiculous.

As much as possible, DON'T BUY EA TITLES!!

I love how the guy seems to be saying, 'well...the sites that give you the free codes are making money...and we're just giving consumers a way of accessing the codes without having to do it for free through advertised-sites...so that consumers can give us money directly, rather than get it for free.'

What a bunch of retarded morons (and lecherous businessmen who are out to rape you financially).

Phanto

11-13-2006, 12:22 PM

What the hell is wrong with EA I really hope something bad to the company happens (I'm not the type of person to wish those things btw) so they can start playing fair with the consumers.

Captain Awesome

11-13-2006, 12:24 PM

I dont by anything EA.

They can eat shit straight from my asshole.

Gorvi

11-13-2006, 12:25 PM

Wow, he's right! I forgot that every time I check something on GameFaqs (however rare that actually happens), they dip into my checking account and take a bit for themselves! Man, he's right, it is the same thing. Thanks EA rep, that clears up everything....

Jackasses...

NoName

11-13-2006, 12:30 PM

If only Maxis wasn't published by EA, then I would never have to touch anything by EA. Sadly Will Wright is someone who can make me break that boycott :/.

TrackZero

11-13-2006, 12:31 PM

Fuck EA, I'm never purchasing another title published by them. Any developers reading this, go find another pub if you expect me to play your game.

dena miscreant

11-13-2006, 12:32 PM

But, why would they want to? ;)

Tharsis

11-13-2006, 12:34 PM

Wow! Front Page Profanity! What would Jack say?!

Deadend

11-13-2006, 12:35 PM

Wow, I kinda want to slap the marketing tool interviewed.

Just because he is full of shit. I want to slap the stupid out!

TrackZero

11-13-2006, 12:36 PM

If only Maxis wasn't published by EA, then I would never have to touch anything by EA. Sadly Will Wright is someone who can make me break that boycott :/.

Hell, I'm almost fired up enough.....I'm tempted to flat out pirate that game. That way I still get to play it, and techninically in this case, I'm making a specific statement against that publisher....

Now if it got released through Steam instead, Maxis would get my money for sure.

(I know we're not supposed to discuss piracy, but I hope I won't get a temp banhammer for this.)

Wedge

11-13-2006, 12:39 PM

Weak sauce argument. They are not even selling cheat codes, they are selling the cheat itself.

No matter how they twist and turn this: cheats used to be free for decades, now they want money for it. They can't even blame "additional development costs" on this one, this is simple greed.

And yes: I don't have to buy the cheats. It is my decision, my money, yes. I should stop whining, this is no big deal, sure. But the big point is that this is another baby step towards a breed of microtransactions we really do not want to see: Content that used to be free, used to be a part of the game now costs money.

And the smaller point is that even if we don't buy the cheats, EA doesn't lose money. This costs nothing for them to develop. And therefore they don't need to sell alot of cheats before they earn money. In other words: boycotting the microtransaction does nothing. If we want this to stop we need to boycott the entire game.

Mdot23

11-13-2006, 12:39 PM

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, B, A, Start.

PAY ME MOTHERFUCKERS!

Disgustipated

11-13-2006, 12:40 PM

EA is laughable as always (The publisher, not the... you know). HAY GUYS, THEYRE GONNA STEAL OUR CHEAT CODES BY SELLING ADEVERTISINGMENTS TO PEOPLE N MAKE MOENY N STUFF LOL THATS Y WE SELL IT FIRST ROFLFOFLFL EA FTW OMG!!

Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left Right, B, A, Start.

PAY ME MOTHERFUCKERS!

I was gonna post that, harr.

wyeast

11-13-2006, 12:44 PM

... seems like he misses the point that cheatcodes for free on a site with advertising... somebody else is paying to get access to consumer's eyes in an attempt to promote their product...

... sticking us with marketplace cheatcodes... which used to be FREE on the very same game on another platform (Godfather)... means that the consumers are having to pay for them... nevermind we ALREADY paid $60 for the game!

Just typical of EA's money-grubbing attitude. They don't care where the money comes from as long as they can take it hand over fist. We pay full boat for a game. They get advertising for a game that we're still paying full retail for. We pay for infomercials for the "priviledge" of getting a little preview. We pay for unlocks. We pay for "video guides". In EA's dream world, we'd pay $150 for a game, and they STILL get to take in advertising revenue to boot.

Which you know, would be fine if the game came with free accounts to porno sites or at least a coupon for a complimentary handjob from the local EA representative. But no. We get their crummy online servers and rehashed game content instead.

We get stiffed on content in FIFA because they just don't give a shit. They'll squeeze the developers for as much blood as they can, and they'll squeeze us for as much bank as they can. Give them no budget, and still come at us with the full price tag because they want to ride this gravy train right into the ground.

I take that back. In their dream world, they'd have us pay $150 to RENT their games. They'd cream their pants if they could figure a way to make us eat having only a temporary license to play their games instead of a permanent one.

Oh wait. They have figured it out. They just turn off the goddamn servers. My bad. We're already doomed.

peeweejd

11-13-2006, 12:50 PM

EA represents almost everything wrong with video gaming today... they encompass:

* monopolies with the NFL license
* price gouging (removing features and charging extra like in madden 06 for 360)
* raping licenses (goldeneye dark agent or whatever that mess was called)
* copy/paste sports games
* their shitty online system is a joke

now they are selling cheat codes

sure lots of other companies are whores on some of these things too, but EA pioneered all of this shit that is killing us.

burnout is fun and the only game I'll consider buying. fuck them.

Disgustipated

11-13-2006, 12:51 PM

Hell, I'm almost fired up enough.....I'm tempted to flat out pirate that game. That way I still get to play it, and techninically in this case, I'm making a specific statement against that publisher....

Now if it got released through Steam instead, Maxis would get my money for sure.

(I know we're not supposed to discuss piracy, but I hope I won't get a temp banhammer for this.)

No worries dude, I'd pirate it too. Hell, I probably will, just to give a big "fuck you buddy" to EA. If only I could pay with feces to show how much I love them...

wyeast

11-13-2006, 12:52 PM

Don't buy Burnout. Their networking for that game is every bit as fucked up as the rest of the EA lineup. It's the damn servers. What makes it worse is that it's inconsistent. I could almost accept if I couldn't play with a certain friend ever... but NOOOO... I can play sometimes... but most of the time I can't. That's just annoying.

Disgustipated

11-13-2006, 12:53 PM

I love Burnout. Reminds me, need to get my copy of Burnout 3 back from my friends, it's such a fucking blast.

DoubleUranium

11-13-2006, 12:54 PM

flinxz

11-13-2006, 12:55 PM

That was pretty stupid, I have hated EA for years but I would have at least understood them better if they said something else.

"We charge for cheat codes because we are a business, and we know that all of the uniformed casual gamers out there will buy them. So suck on that consumer."

That would have been better than saying something truly stupid about advertising blah blah.

flinxz

11-13-2006, 12:55 PM

Gorvi

11-13-2006, 12:56 PM

Here's an idea : Just wait 6 months and buy any EA game you want used. They don't see a cent of it. It's what I did for the last Burnout and SSX games.

violentp

11-13-2006, 12:58 PM

I call bullshit.

I really can't wait though till this anti-EA initiative begins. It's been talked about for a while, I just want it to reach fruition.

digitalErich

11-13-2006, 01:00 PM

There's no way you are going to spin what EA is doing right now and not come off like a complete, out-of-touch jack ass. I don't condone what they are doing...I'm just saying is all.

Johan

11-13-2006, 01:01 PM

Another thread of bitching, and I bet a good 80% of you who say boycott buy an EA game within the next two months. The last EA game I bought was Burnout 360 and that's going to be true for a long time.

I'll put up or shut up...

I have about 200 games. Nine of them are EA games (MUCH lower as a percentage than EA represents as a piece of the gaming industry pie). My most recent was Burnout 360, which I rue and regret (their online SUCKS...and shuts off eventually). I will buy Spore. Nothing else.

Screw them...in a big way.

Here's an idea : Just wait 6 months and buy any EA game you want used. They don't see a cent of it. It's what I did for the last Burnout and SSX games.

Damn good idea...several of my NINE EA titles were purchased this way.

see colon

11-13-2006, 01:05 PM

You've got to be fucking kidding me. I guess this guy never heard of FORUMS. If one of the Evil Avatar members posts a cheatcode in our forums, we don't make any money off that. Asshole.
you mean you don't get advertising money for that ad at the top of the forum? i don't disagree, that cheats and codes should be shared free of charge and everything, but you still have ads in the forum, just like most places that have forums do.

woodentaco

11-13-2006, 01:05 PM

WHAT?! They are trying to make money in a blatant case of evil capitalism and are probably doomed to fail because anyone who uses cheat codes knows they are available online?!
OUTRAGEOUS!

Lunar Blue

11-13-2006, 01:06 PM

AspectVoid

11-13-2006, 01:06 PM

I'm going to be honest here. If its a good game in a genre I enjoy, I'm going to buy it. I don't really care who developed or published it. If its a good game, I'll get it. If its a bad game, I won't.

Gorvi

11-13-2006, 01:14 PM

I don't get what's the problem. It's EA's business if they want to sell cheats and up to you if you buy them. I mean, if you were dumb enough to buy an EA sport game to begin with, you may just as well waste more money on cheats.

If you don't see what the problem is by now with all the discussion that's gone on regarding this topic over the past few months, you'll never see it. Just don't complain when you start to feel the effects of things like this down the road when you have to pay to be able to play as different colored Master Chiefs if you want to be able to play Halo 3 online (just an example, not bashing Bungie in any way).

Beelzebud

11-13-2006, 01:19 PM

You know why many of us are against this crap?

Say goodbye to the free bonus packs.

Remember those, jackasses? Expect to never get one for free again.

Ultima Thulian

11-13-2006, 01:22 PM

I too have 200+ games, three of which are EA published (Burnout Revenge, NightFire, and NCAA 2005/Top Spin combo). I used to have respect for EA, but ever since 2004 they've been going down hill. Unless I see some honest effort to improve, they'll won't get any green from me...till Burnout 5 that is.

Disgustipated

11-13-2006, 01:33 PM

You know why many of us are against this crap?

Say goodbye to the free bonus packs.

Remember those, jackasses? Expect to never get one for free again.

Epic would never forsake us like that, I expect UT2007 to have several free bonus packs ala UT and its sequels.

Make sure to save this post so you can stuff it up my ass if they ever try to make us pay for them. :cool:

Rirath

11-13-2006, 01:33 PM

You've got to be fucking kidding me. I guess this guy never heard of FORUMS. If one of the Evil Avatar members posts a cheatcode in our forums, we don't make any money off that. Asshole.

Uh, this is obviously garbage and EA is skum and all that... but what? Yes you do... you have ads on this site just like pretty much every other site on the web these days. You may or may not make a profit in the end, but that doesn't change the fact money is being made.

You could say you don't directly CHARGE me I suppose. Though many of us ARE in fact subscribers...

Hemalin

11-13-2006, 01:45 PM

Epic would never forsake us like that, I expect UT2007 to have several free bonus packs ala UT and its sequels.

Make sure to save this post so you can stuff it up my ass if they ever try to make us pay for them. :cool:
The community would never stand for it. If Epic tryed charging, any bonus packs and such would be made available free from the community.

Kagger

11-13-2006, 01:50 PM

I don't get what's the problem. It's EA's business if they want to sell cheats and up to you if you buy them. I mean, if you were dumb enough to buy an EA sport game to begin with, you may just as well waste more money on cheats.

The point is what it LEADS to...something not necessary like cheats, but what about, in the next BF game, you start with a tank, a plane, and a jeep. If you want a bomber, pay; if you want the AA vehicle, pay; if you want to be a sniper, pay.

of course, this gives the consumer "choices"...but they are still gonna charge you $60.

bapenguin

11-13-2006, 01:53 PM

You guys aren't understanding what I'm saying. WE don't post cheat codes, users do. And those users don't get any money for it. Do users posting cheat codes bring in more traffic? Not to a site like this, maybe to a dedicate site they do.

The fact of the matter is anyone can give anyone else a cheat code by any medium whether that's an internet forum, by phone, text message, email, or carrier pigeon.

And actually right now the ads we are running...they are free. We've been almost entiirely supported by donations.

Evil Avatar

11-13-2006, 01:55 PM

Wow! Front Page Profanity! What would Jack say?!

I am Jack's rage.

Returner

11-13-2006, 01:55 PM

Every time you buy an EA game a gamer dies.

jeffool

11-13-2006, 01:59 PM

Then the last time I killed someone was The Sims. And it looks to stay that way.

Disgustipated

11-13-2006, 02:01 PM

The community would never stand for it. If Epic tryed charging, any bonus packs and such would be made available free from the community.

Hehe, kinda like how BethSoft's Oblivion content has been made free... :o

Evil Avatar

11-13-2006, 02:01 PM

you mean you don't get advertising money for that ad at the top of the forum? i don't disagree, that cheats and codes should be shared free of charge and everything, but you still have ads in the forum, just like most places that have forums do.

Actually, No we don't get any advertising money for the ad at the top of the forum. Those are just books that I purchased and liked. You could say that I paid money to put those ads at the top of the page.

This is one of our "Advertising Free" months where we are relying on reader donations.

agentgray

11-13-2006, 02:05 PM

Wow, this comment comming from the same company that has advertising in their games. If this is the case with sites like GameFAQS they should be giving us their games to play.

Abash Alarmist

11-13-2006, 02:07 PM

I had a question: Who cares what EA places on the marketplace? If you don't want to buy the cheat codes, don't by them. There are people who would do it, but why bitch about it if it is something that you aren't even interested in in the first place? Seems a bit asinine.

Food Nipple

11-13-2006, 02:08 PM

This guy is full of utter shit. From the Podcast:
EA Shill: I'm trying to make sure that we are not putting content for free in other places and charging for it in others

Then about 2 minutes later:

Major Nelson: Did you guys take any cheats out of the current generation and sold them as premium content on the 360.
Shill: I am not aware of cheats that have come out of the current generation and that has moved into a specific paid situation. But I don't know if that's right or not. That's not an answer that I've actually gone in and researched.

Well buddy, I spent a whole minute on gamefaqs, the answer is yes, you did remove codes. X,Y,X,X,Y, click left analog stick gave you $5000 in the current gen, but you took that out so you could charge money for that cheat code.

Hemalin

11-13-2006, 02:09 PM

Hehe, kinda like how BethSoft's Oblivion content has been made free... :o
There are horse armor mods for Oblivion out there for free.

Evil Avatar

11-13-2006, 02:15 PM

There are horse armor mods for Oblivion out there for free.

I think he means that you can "Pirate" the pay-to-play Oblivion mods for the PC rather than pay for them.

See, this is the HUGE problem with Xbox Live on the 360. Companies can rape people for stupid shit like Themes, Gamer Pictures and Cheat Codes and you could never get away with that on the PC because people would just use the normal bittorrent sources to grab the "tiny content" for free somewhere else.

All this is made possible by the Letter M and the word Soft and the allmighty Dollar Sign.

I'm all for pay-to-play content when it is worthwhile, but the bulk of content available on Xbox Live isn't worthwhile. Other than the classic Arcade titles, pretty much everything else should have been free.

And now it gets worse, because now they are going to offer TV shows and movies and if you want to take advantage of that... you are going to have to BUY a bigger hard drive.

Live is great for multiplayer. It is crap for anything else.

Johan

11-13-2006, 02:24 PM

Live is great for multiplayer. It is crap for anything else.

I agree with the sentiment, but I think that overstates it a bit. I enjoy a lot of things on Live:

1. Multiplayer (as you mentioned).
2. Arcade titles (as you mentioned).
3. Demos (very convenient for me...download, play, delete).
4. Trailers/videos (I enjoy checking the stuff out and then deleting it).
5. Freebies (there ARE freebies on there...like the GoW theme and pic yesterday...and there are others).
6. Friends list (mine is short, but it's a terrific "hub").

There's a few I'm missing, but it's not just multiplayer and all crap...I like Live a lot. However, I HATE Elec. Arts. I don't blame MS for what EA is doing with their games. If a car company offers me a terrific vehicle (and that's what Live is, really...a digital-online-vehicle), I'm not going to blame them when the radio comes with the option to PAY for satellite music...if I don't want the extra option (satellite radio), I shouldn't buy it.

To many freaking people just swallow it...they spend and swallow. DON'T BUY IT (or the game) and it will go away.

Hemalin

11-13-2006, 02:27 PM

Live is great for multiplayer. It is crap for anything else.
I'm not really a fan of Live. If Microsoft opened it up just a little to allow user made content available I'm sure I would fall in love with it. It's ok for consoles to take steps to be more like a PC, just watch what steps you make.

Royal Fool

11-13-2006, 02:30 PM

Gee, I never figured cheat codes to be a cash flow source.

Typically they just came free as part of the package when you bought the registered/full version of a game (The old shareware days), and in recent times they've been hidden inside the game and only dropped to close buddies or friends of the developers or hidden somewhere inside the game. In all these cases, the developers/publishers did not care to charge people for these things, they expected them to spread around via word of mouth and later entered into some of the various online databases or printed in a magazine.

And now EA wants to charge people for cheats.

Fuck them. This is like charging people for fast-forwarding (or hell, even rewinding) through a movie/music disc. Oh, wait... I better not give those marketing retards any ideas. They might implement that as a staple feature later on.

mikeohara

11-13-2006, 02:38 PM

with all due respect, Major did try to lock the EA dude down, but the EA dude kept spinning the PR. I will not lie and say I don't own any EA games, because I do (for my PC at least). I know that if anything, I can play enough to unlock the content that's on the Marketplace for sale right now and save some money (which can be then used to buy whatever XBLA game I want).

I'm going to be honest here. If its a good game in a genre I enjoy, I'm going to buy it. I don't really care who developed or published it. If its a good game, I'll get it. If its a bad game, I won't.

I'm with ya Aspect.

In conclusion, I'm a reasonable person who plays computer and video games. There are some EA games/series I like (Fight Night, Battlefield XX, Battle for Middle Earth, SSX) and there's some I dislike (Madden, NBA Live 07, The Sims 2). I could care less quite frankly about the griping over this issue because of this: people who don't want to spend that time unlocking those items in Godfather and NFS: Carbon are gonna buy those cheats. Those of us who want to spend the time playing the game and unlocking those items aren't gonna buy the aforementioned content, it's as simple as that.

Pluvious

11-13-2006, 02:51 PM

Royal Fool:

This is like charging people for fast-forwarding (or hell, even rewinding) through a movie/music disc. Oh, wait... I better not give those marketing retards any ideas. They might implement that as a staple feature later on.

Too late.. some TV manufacturer recently filed for a patent that LOCKS you out from switching channels and fast forwarding with DVR's. It was about 3 months ago.. forgot the brand but I'll try to find it.

EDIT: FOUND IT! http://news.com.com/Philips+device+could+force+TV+viewers+to+watch+ads/2100-1041_3-6062861.html

xcalibur

11-13-2006, 02:55 PM

The number crunchers will find any way they can to make another penny. Before long you will buy a game with only 1 level, and you have to purchase every subsequent level for the game separately. Oh wait, isn't that already happening with GT?

-X

civil_dead

11-13-2006, 02:55 PM

Ugh. I feel unclean buying Battle For Middle Earth this summer.

::Looks over at rented copy of Burnout Revenge::

"You won't make me do dirty things, will you?"

Civil

Tel Prydain

11-13-2006, 03:02 PM

I’ll admit I have a few ea titles. Battle for Middle Earth II and Burnout Revenge being the most recent…. And I’m not sure how I feel about this whole thing yet.
If this trend continues I’ll be upset, but both BfME2 and Burnout had plenty of free content downloads. Burnout had a whole bunch of cars (sponsored cars – in-game advertising done right) and BfME2 gave away the first Mission Pack during X06.

Other games that I have (Perfect Dark, Kameo, Dead Rising) have all had free downloadable contact mixed in with the pay stuff. Kameo (for example) had a bunch of skins and the multi-play mods as free downloads.
Oblivion didn’t get any free stuff – but (retarded horse armor aside) Oblivion was so massive that any downloadable content is gravy (it certainly doesn’t feel like the original game didn’t give us value for money).

I don’t mind micro-transactions when the original game was great value, or when they offer a good range of free content as well. But the latest EA garbage has indicated a frightening new trend.
I can’t promise to boycott ea (although I don’t often get EA stuff just because I hate sports and cars), but I’ll be waiting to see what kind of downloadable ‘content’ they offer before I buy any future titles. If the content is trash, I won’t buy the game.

See, this is the HUGE problem with Xbox Live on the 360. Companies can rape people for stupid shit like Themes, Gamer Pictures and Cheat Codes and you could never get away with that on the PC because people would just use the normal bittorrent sources to grab the "tiny content" for free somewhere else.

.....

I'm all for pay-to-play content when it is worthwhile, but the bulk of content available on Xbox Live isn't worthwhile. Other than the classic Arcade titles, pretty much everything else should have been free.

...

Live is great for multiplayer. It is crap for anything else.
To be fair – you can create your own themes if you want. Just use any pic off your PC as the Background.
And if you have a camera you can have any gamer-pic you want.

I love live: demos, trailers and all the other freebie crap that comes down the pipe.
There have been plenty of free pics/themes/content.

MacD

11-13-2006, 03:14 PM

"Yeah, we really monetised that biatch!"
-any EA employee.

-edit-
Oh, there's two kinds of 'cheat codes'...one is the easter egg kind, where the developers wanted to include something personall/fun/nasty, and maybe weren't allowed to or thought it would be fun to hide it, and then there's the stuff put in more as a dev tool, for testing purposes (like the konami code), which are then either purposefully left in or just plain forgotten about in the final release.

see colon

11-13-2006, 03:47 PM

Actually, No we don't get any advertising money for the ad at the top of the forum. Those are just books that I purchased and liked. You could say that I paid money to put those ads at the top of the page.

This is one of our "Advertising Free" months where we are relying on reader donations.
i stand corrected. it could still be argued that the "traffic leads to revenue" buisness model still applies, but since it's not per click or per view it's not really relevant to this conversation.

out of curiosity, why are there still ads durring the ad free time? i don't mean to be hypercritical (the ads don't bother me at all), but ad free does mean ad free, right? and is there a paypal free way to donate?

Royal Fool

11-13-2006, 03:55 PM

A recent example of a clever cheat system would be the phone in Saints Row. You could type in various words and they'd unlock cheats you could then "dial". Some of them were pretty cool, allowing you to spawn cars and objects and others doing crazy things to the game world.

Royal Fool:

This is like charging people for fast-forwarding (or hell, even rewinding) through a movie/music disc. Oh, wait... I better not give those marketing retards any ideas. They might implement that as a staple feature later on.

Too late.. some TV manufacturer recently filed for a patent that LOCKS you out from switching channels and fast forwarding with DVR's. It was about 3 months ago.. forgot the brand but I'll try to find it.

EDIT: FOUND IT! http://news.com.com/Philips+device+could+force+TV+viewers+to+watch+ads/2100-1041_3-6062861.html
Wow, that's fucked up.

Sandman

11-13-2006, 04:04 PM

I'll only buy certain EA titles that I need...only sports game I'll buy is NCAA football, fuck Madden. Everything else I can get from 2k. It's a shame that EA publishes some good games though, like Def Jam, Half Life 2, Spore, The Sims.....bastards.

Pluvious

11-13-2006, 04:47 PM

Yeah that's f'd up .. I won't be buying Philips from now on.. JUST because of that bonehead patent. I doubt they'll ever sell any models.. but they must be considering it since they got the patent through.

Sorry bout the off topic..

slimfatbaby

11-13-2006, 05:27 PM

Not sure if this hasn't been said yet but your forums have ads too. :(

Demo_Boy

11-13-2006, 07:12 PM

How's this sound. I will actually not-buy-Spore to boycott EA's practices. They would probably sell you the box for 60 then each evolution stage would be $20 anyway.

Dag-Sabot

11-13-2006, 08:08 PM

What the hell is wrong with EA I really hope something bad to the company happens (I'm not the type of person to wish those things btw) so they can start playing fair with the consumers.Nah, go ahead. I wish people dead every day. Its totally safe, healthy and legal.

KingGorilla

11-13-2006, 08:12 PM

My Reply to EA

http://www.jonco48.com/blog/butt.jpg

mindstrike

11-13-2006, 11:00 PM

If I advertise a EA Product on my website.. does that mean I either get the unlocks for free, or they should pay me then? When I mention EA's Products name.. I am giving them free advertising no? Those BF2 *cha ching* making, 2XXX sports title *cha ching* moochers...

Now pay me!

Lets face it unless Sony/Microshaft/insert Enron type CEO gets their wallets sapped... Microtransactions are here to stay unless we don't want them to be. SInce the average Womp-rat shopper might never see this side of things... Get ready for BF 3142 and the multi packs that come out after.. (Hey Blizz.. charge 29.99 for TBC M'Kay.. another company raiding pockets)

/rant

rainbowblack

11-14-2006, 01:55 AM

It's been a year since I started my EA boycott, only once did i fold and buy one of thier games and that was BFME2. Oh and I did borrow a friends copy of Burnout Revenge for 360, but that doesn't count does it?

bjornbarspingvinen

11-14-2006, 02:44 AM

it´s easy ; If you don´t want it , don´t buy it. If they can´t sell it , they will change their strategy for cheatcode distribution.

People moan to much about Marketplace content and pricing. In most cases the reason seems to be that most people are cheap bastards.

gamepuffin

11-14-2006, 03:19 AM

http://www.evilavatar.com/images/thumbs/banhammer.jpg

ElectroDruid

11-14-2006, 03:27 AM

From the original article:

"As the gaming industry becomes more online centric that's going to provide a whole lot more choice to the consumer base provided that the basic package continues to be robust and rewarding."

Well, choice is good, so long as you're not charging full price for the game in the first place, you utter tard. How about $40 for the box instead of $60, and you can pay an extra $10 to get rid of the adverts, and you've got $10 left to buy whatever other extras you want?

Oh no, wait... That would mean actual value for your customers, and we can't have that, can we? Muppet.

I don't have an EA boycott as such, I just don't buy their games because they're pap (last one I bought was American McGee's Alice). Being the honest type, I was planning on buying Spore, but the more crap like this they pull, the more tempted I am to pick it up secondhand, or via "other means".

phantomhitman

11-14-2006, 06:41 AM

Another thread of bitching, and I bet a good 80% of you who say boycott buy an EA game within the next two months. The last EA game I bought was Burnout 360 and that's going to be true for a long time.
That is 93% true.
% are fun, this is the third thread today with %. That is like 33.3% or something.
I have not bought an EA sports game since NBA Live 95 on the sega. They have runied so many games not only by their liscense agreements but also by their shitty gameplay. A company as huge as EA has unlimited potential, but unfortunately they keep putting out shitty games because of the way they are run.