Interesting article about Origin and EA

[Colourless]

Thought people might like to read this article about what happened to Origin

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/14/4

[SB-X]

Thanks. That's a good article. I havn't read any others that explain what happened. (except one that was more about RG)

[drcode]

That was really good.

[MV]

Agreed. Great read.

[drcode]

It's on Slashdot today, in the "games" section.

[Madoc]

Hmm. I don't like the "devilish" view on marketing people. They are to make money, that's what their job is. We all have aggreed to do capitalism here, so that's the consequence. Companies that are less "unfriendly" simply stop existing. They must then fire their employees, which does not seem social too. EA could not even keep its employees, but even employ more people. They paid tax, which in turn went back to the state and was distributed among all the people.

I don't want to say they are saints, but they are no devils either. They just do their jobs, like You and me.

[Gradilla Dragon]

Do you know about the class action lawsuit filed by their own employees against them? Search on google: class action lawsuit ea workers

[Vayne Dragon]

So, Matthias, where do all the jobs being shipped offshore fit into your grand amoral scheme of things?

[Neutronium Dragon]

Marketing people are there to make money, sure - and a marketing person who knows their stuff - and their genre/product/audience can do a good job at it.

The problem arises from the unfortunately significant number of marketing people who don't understand things as well as they think they do - or worse, who're personally disdainful towards the products they're pushing. "Oh, I only sell these things. I'd never actually *play* them."

Even *that* wouldn't necessarily be fatal except for the fact that said marketing people are often given leverage to change the product on the basis of their incomplete (or inept) understanding.

Marketer: "X survey says that Y is popular - add it to the game and it'll sell twice as much!"

Exec: "Okay, Y is in."

Problem: Y isn't popular with the people the game is aimed at and/or doesn't mesh well with the other features. Like it or not, putting a good game together is as much an art form as anything, and you have to have the gamer's mindset to know whether feature X really *will* make the game sell better.

Monte Cook, one of the 3E D&D designers, wrote a very good rant about this very thing. He's focusing on P&P RPGs since that's what he works at, but the problem cuts across all game genres.

http://www.montecook.com/arch_anrant10.html

Neutronium Dragon

[drcode]

To get back on topic... Check out the 1st letter-to-the editor:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/issue/15/1

[Dominus]

good one, remember every coin has two sides and only when you have seen both you know its worth

[Shevek]

I didnt find that guys response very convincing. He basically tries to deflect criticisms by half heartedly alluding to mistakes others MAY have made instead of himself and blaming questionable decisions on business trends. Standard PR BS if you ask me.

[SB-X]

"...I never said the quote... [This is just business. This is the way we're going to win.]"
"...they should have been able to keep things in perspective as a contract dispute in a business setting, and just played the game...."

[Daemongar]

Thanks for the quotes SB-X - those jumped at my eyes: I read the Letter to the Editor and it struck me as typical business, and deflected nothing from Trip Hawkins. Amazing that he would write that - it boiled down to:

Those Garriott boys should toughen up - this is business. Don't take it personal when EA tries to screw you. Play the game.

Man, his attitude is astounding! I have more sympathy for Origin/RG than ever after his letter to the editor...

[ultimaIX]

I have been a huge fan of origin's games since i was a kid. The ultima series in particular has been a wonderful influence on my life as a whole, giving me a place to escape the daily druge of real life; yet also teaching me the morals and values that often get pushed aside for greater personal gain. Hearing the Gardian's voice intone "Thou shoulds't not do that Avatar" even though i'm just taking a sword off some NPC's shelf (he'll never miss it right?) gives the player that guilty twinge that can often be ignored in other games (or real life settings for that matter). Even if you're saving the world, you can't go around stealing and assulting the general populace. Having repercussions for your actions is something that rarely makes an appearance even in today's multi-gigabyte games.

I remember back when Ultima Online was first released. Excitedly tearing open the box (ooh! another CLOTH map for my wall! and begging my parents for their credit card number to get the game started... I would finally get to make an impression on that land i loved so much under my own name, rather than playing as the invincible hero known as the Avatar. At first, the game was everything i wanted... then EA's domination of Origin began to peek out from under the curtain. I wached as the game was degraded into today's UO. What was once a "meet some people, work together and kick some a**" became just another Diablo clone of sitting around by yourself killing monster after monster after monster. Watching each new patch take something else out of the game and replace it with more reasons to go back and kill more crap was disheartening. (To be fair, there are some very talented people working on the UO project, and many people who Do try to improve it - i feel Neutronium Dragon hit the nail on the head by his comment about the marketing teams having too much say over the final product)

Then Ultima IX came out. Since the old days on Prodigy i have gone by the alias ultima9. It was meant to be a foreshadow of the future, a reminder that the trilogy of trilogies would some day culminate into what would Have to be the best game ever made. Wow, was i wrong. Although i can look at it now as a decent game, worth playing i suppose, yet falling well short of expectations. One could say i over-hyped it, however seeing the many plot holes and the absurd amount of bugs and glitches, not to mention the horrible play controls shows that it was rushed to the shelves long before it was ready. I wonder who's fault that was? Heh, i even remember getting the "patch disk" in the mail - that was something i had never heard of before. I'm sorry, but if your product requires you to mail out a cd to everyone who registered the game to fix some (and i do mean some - the patch was far from perfect) bugs, then someone did not do their job right. I guess someone learned that sometimes quality is better than quantity.

If Origin's motto was "We create worlds", than EA's should certanly be "We corrupt worlds". Britannia is one example - but there are many others (Bullfrog's and Maxis' work are great examples).

-ultimaIX
RIP Origin, you shall be missed!