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| Undead Fred 2013th Post
 
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
    
    
    
    
    
|  "Re(3):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Tue 18 Jan 18:31
quote:
Madden isn't the most horrible game... I prefered ESPN...but at the same time, EA doesn't make games for gamers... it swallows studios that make games for gamers, but other than that ...
'"People will want to play video games if their heroes like Robbie Williams or Christina Aguilera are in them."'
Can we please... just stop... this bullshit...?
Ugh. Yeah, I really wish EA would stop doing what it's doing, but I really doubt they will anytime soon. They'll just keep making stupid marketing tie-in madness and swallowing up all of your favorite companies. Jesus, man... why do we have Robbie Williams and Christina Aguilera in our games? Those aren't my heroes, and they aren't a LOT of people's heroes. If they bothered to look at the gaming market, we don't NEED stupid pop stars invading our games to want to buy it. Games like GTA sell really big, and it's because it's been established already and people love the gameplay. Rockstar's budget got bigger and bigger, and could include a full roster of big stars doing voices. So the game came first, random celebrities second.
I want CHARACTER over celebrities. I don't want every game character I use to have associations with some celebrity's work. In situations like The Sims Superstar expansion, celebrities made sense to be there... didn't HAVE to be there, but it sort of worked. Of course, it was Avril Lavigne and some other chodes that make music people can't stand. Anyway, my point was that celebrities should only be more than voices when it actually WORKS. It's just gimmicky otherwise.
EA is like No Face from Spirited Away. I just hope someone manages to get him to calm down and quit eating everything and everyone. I wish they would make games for gamers instead of "mass appeal" games.
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| kurushimi
6th Post
New Customer
| "Re(10):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Wed 19 Jan 07:21
Maybe I'm just being too naive about US corporate politics and sports here, but would it be that hard to make a sports game where the player models resemble their real life counterparts in stats and appearance, but no actual names or logos are used? Racing games get away with it - I can spot a WRX with or without company branding.
Then again, since I don't play sports games, I probably don't understand the inherent importance of controlling THE New England Patriots, or having THE Yao Ming on my team, etc.
In a way, whether there is a backlash or not, EA will continue to buy up companies - it's just standard business practice. How much pressure they'll exert on creative influence is up in the air - I can reasonably see EA allocating up a sector to "artsy-creative" titles, in which a small company that got bought out by them has a chance to flesh out a title they otherwise wouldn't have had the resources for.
Then again, reading the recent accounts about EA abusing worker priviliges, perhaps I'm just too optimistic after all.
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| DarkZero 1048th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member
| "Re(4):Re(10):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Wed 19 Jan 18:43
quote:
While I don't care for EA's games, it is nice to see American companies coming back in the game market the past few years after being knocked off the map by Japanese companies in the 80s and 90s.
It'd be nicer to see American companies coming back into the market with original, compelling titles that contain not only interesting gameplay, but detailed characters, story, and artistry, such as Prince of Persia, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, or World of Warcraft, rather than bland, generic sports games. I honestly wouldn't mind EA becoming a gigantic monopoly if it didn't represent a faceless, pointless amoeba devouring better works that are more satisfying and better priced.
I see nothing wrong with sports games, as video games revolving around sports will always exist. However, the idea that a company has become so massive without creating anything truly unique or compelling, and that that company is now beating and in some cases devouring the companies that DO create unique and compelling games, is as ridiculous as it is unfortunate. Other companies are out there hiring writers, directors, artists, and voice actors, and EA's winning anyway because they have better licenses.
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| Burning Ranger 1017th Post
Red Carpet Premium Member
| "Re(5):Re(10):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Thu 20 Jan 00:36
quote:
While I don't care for EA's games, it is nice to see American companies coming back in the game market the past few years after being knocked off the map by Japanese companies in the 80s and 90s.
It'd be nicer to see American companies coming back into the market with original, compelling titles that contain not only interesting gameplay, but detailed characters, story, and artistry, such as Prince of Persia, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, or World of Warcraft, rather than bland, generic sports games. I honestly wouldn't mind EA becoming a gigantic monopoly if it didn't represent a faceless, pointless amoeba devouring better works that are more satisfying and better priced.
I see nothing wrong with sports games, as video games revolving around sports will always exist. However, the idea that a company has become so massive without creating anything truly unique or compelling, and that that company is now beating and in some cases devouring the companies that DO create unique and compelling games, is as ridiculous as it is unfortunate. Other companies are out there hiring writers, directors, artists, and voice actors, and EA's winning anyway because they have better licenses.
The latest Prince of Persia was distributed and developed (?) by Ubisoft (from France). Still, its a good thing Ubisoft is putting out quality titles.
As for US companies putting out product, I'm giving recognition to Microsoft for the Xbox. Before, the last US made console with that much popularity was an Atari machine (and not the Jaguar). And also, that other system made by Panasonic and other companies doesn't count.
Advanced Cyborg E. Branger AKA Burning Ranger
"In the brightest day in the darkest night..."
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| Undead Fred 2022th Post
Platinum Carpet V.I.P- Board Master
| "Re(4):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Fri 21 Jan 11:59:
quote:
I guess I'm wondering what we can actually DO about this as 'gamers'. Quick definition: Gamers are not your average joe who just buys Madden and a PS2/Xbox/Not Gamecube, but those who care about gaming as a medium, an art, or just as a way to waste lots of valuable time they could be spending doing meaningful work.
So what can we do? I'm not trying to be unrealistic, I don't think we can storm EA's HQ and assassinate the CEO, nor do I think that's the answer... but is there anything we can do? The first answer would be to boycott EA's games... but even that will have little effect it seems; the amount of people like us are much fewer than the average consumer...
I guess I'm just at a loss. It's like when the elections happened, I was also at a loss afterwards. What can we do to rectify the situation?
Yeah, you're right. There's not really anything we can do, other than sit back and watch the American gaming market go up in flames and hope the European and Japanese markets don't catch any stray sparks from us and go up too.
EA makes games for people who don't PLAY games. Their market is the frat boys who buy the latest Madden to give somebody THE STIFF ARM with Real Player X armed with their COMPLETELY new up-to-date stats and the proper year on the front of the box. They make games for those people, and more than likely, very few actual gamers buy them (if they do, I doubt they buy that many), so we'd only be no more than 25% of their sales, right? Writing letters won't do anything, either. EA won't stop being a monster just because we ask them to leave nicely. I can't really think of any other alternatives, really. We're probably going to just have to sit and deal with it. 
[this message was edited by Undead Fred on Fri 21 Jan 12:00] |
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"Re(3):I'm getting sick of this..." , posted Tue 18 Jan 18:23
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