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As someone working for EA I am so terribly tired of hearing all the negativity and hostility towards EA. Even the positive comments tend to be of the form "well

As someone working for EA I am so terribly tired of hearing all the negativity and hostility towards EA. Even the positive comments tend to be of the form "well, at least they did something good". I'm not saying EA hasn't done things I don't agree with, but I do believe they get more than their fair share of hatred on the internet. Actually, I should say "we", not "they".

fatalVoltage 8y ago
If it's gotten to the point where most of the positive comments are of the "at least the did something good" kind, then you know something is wrong with the company. Just because they do some good things doesn't mean that the company is good overall, hence the comments.
- Agentlien 8y ago
  Again, I will not defend everything about EA, but I do believe the public perception of the company is worse than can be really justified. Especially since most common complaints about for EA are about industry-wide issues where EA is not the worst offender but seem to take most of the heat.
  - tarboreus 8y ago
    Because? We know why we think EA is a bad company for the industry. Why should we think otherwise? You're just saying, "I don't like what people are saying." Offer some evidence or make an argument and maybe you'll change a mind or two.
rhexs 8y ago
Are the anecdotes detailing consistent 80+ hour death marches near the end of project cycles accurate?
- Agentlien 8y ago
  Overall in the entire game industry it is unfortunately very prevalent. But EA gets treated as if it is the one and only company responsible for this. During my time at EA (3.5 years, two releases) I have seen some crunch, but definitely not on that level.
rc_hadoken 8y ago
Not to be rude. But most of your games aren't complete or are mediocre and not because no one there knows what they are doing but because of the kind of business model EA created for itself. That's why ya'll get the hate.
- Thaxll 8y ago
  I thought folks on HN were smarter than the Reddit ones. Looks like not.
  - rc_hadoken 8y ago
    I'll humbly admit I'm probably on the lower end of the intelligence distribution as far as HN is concerned.
jsight 8y ago
I agree with you. I mean, I wish that Madden were progressing a lot more as a game, but the level of hatred that really singles out EA is really unwarranted. And you are right that a lot of the problems are really industry-wide. I really hope that this pay-to-win system can start to fade away again.
Insanity 8y ago
It's hard to get out of a negative image people have. I actually share this - I won't get BF5 until a few months after release because it'll be pushed to release to compete with CoD and be bug-ridden until a few months later. So, I can say: "At least they fix their games after a few months". In addition, please don't take these things personally - the company can be nice to work for and everything but in general the idea the public has are due to its actions as a company, and not the effort of the individuals. I'm sure the developers are competent.
- daveslash 8y ago
  >"It's hard to get out of a negative image people have." I know it's a bit petty, but I'm still upset at the Sony BGM rootkit scandal. There are several other similar things, from different companies, that have my upset. Like I said... I know it's petty, but it really can be difficult to erase a negative image people have. [Edit: Formatting]
bsder 8y ago
> I'm not saying EA hasn't done things I don't agree with, but I do believe they get more than their fair share of hatred on the internet. Good will takes a year to earn but a second to lose. I'm going to take issue with you and say that EA deserves every ounce of hate that it gets. EA gets hate because it buys and screws up beloved franchises. EA gets hate because it has game properties that it is clearly milking that would be much better if they weren't in its hands. EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download. EA gets hate because it (used to?) make you install their buggy pile of crap online service to play your single player mode game. And their only defense is: "Well, everybody else does it too." When your child makes that statement, you generally have a not terribly sympathetic reply. Why should EA get any more sympathy?
- Izkata 8y ago
  > Good will takes a year to earn but a second to lose. Indeed. My "never again" moment is from 10 years ago, and is missing from your list: The DRM used on Spore bricked my Windows install, in the middle of the semester. I was just lucky I'd switched to Ubuntu a few months before.
- Thaxll 8y ago
  "EA gets hate because it buys and screws up beloved franchises. EA gets hate because it has game properties that it is clearly milking that would be much better if they weren't in its hands. EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download. EA gets hate because it (used to?) make you install their buggy pile of crap online service to play your single player mode game." Most of it is wrong on many levels unfortunately, I feel like reading someone that has no idea of how the industry work. You think EA as company is screwing franchises on purpose, never occurs to you that the studio that is developing the game is doing the mistakes and EA as a whole has pretty much nothing to do with it? "EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download" Please give an example of a game where the dev were done finishing the game weeks / month in advance and chose to not include part of the game in the release. Read this: https://kotaku.com/former-bioware-studio-head-talks-about-life-under-ea-1823969303 https://kotaku.com/former-bioware-studio-head-talks-about-li...
Taylor_OD 8y ago
EA has started and perpetuated trends that have permeated the industry and affected it in a negative way. While I'm sure lots of individuals over there are doing good work the company as a whole deserves the hate that it gets. It's like working at Google and being upset when someone says, "Google is evil" because you're working on a morally good project.
ada1981 8y ago
Would you say EA is having a net net positive impact on culture and the world?

fatalVoltage 8y ago

If it's gotten to the point where most of the positive comments are of the "at least the did something good" kind, then you know something is wrong with the company. Just because they do some good things doesn't mean that the company is good overall, hence the comments.

Agentlien 8y ago
Again, I will not defend everything about EA, but I do believe the public perception of the company is worse than can be really justified. Especially since most common complaints about for EA are about industry-wide issues where EA is not the worst offender but seem to take most of the heat.
- tarboreus 8y ago
  Because? We know why we think EA is a bad company for the industry. Why should we think otherwise? You're just saying, "I don't like what people are saying." Offer some evidence or make an argument and maybe you'll change a mind or two.

rhexs 8y ago

Are the anecdotes detailing consistent 80+ hour death marches near the end of project cycles accurate?

Agentlien 8y ago
Overall in the entire game industry it is unfortunately very prevalent. But EA gets treated as if it is the one and only company responsible for this. During my time at EA (3.5 years, two releases) I have seen some crunch, but definitely not on that level.

rc_hadoken 8y ago

Not to be rude. But most of your games aren't complete or are mediocre and not because no one there knows what they are doing but because of the kind of business model EA created for itself. That's why ya'll get the hate.

Thaxll 8y ago
I thought folks on HN were smarter than the Reddit ones. Looks like not.
- rc_hadoken 8y ago
  I'll humbly admit I'm probably on the lower end of the intelligence distribution as far as HN is concerned.

jsight 8y ago

I agree with you. I mean, I wish that Madden were progressing a lot more as a game, but the level of hatred that really singles out EA is really unwarranted. And you are right that a lot of the problems are really industry-wide. I really hope that this pay-to-win system can start to fade away again.

Insanity 8y ago

It's hard to get out of a negative image people have. I actually share this - I won't get BF5 until a few months after release because it'll be pushed to release to compete with CoD and be bug-ridden until a few months later. So, I can say: "At least they fix their games after a few months". In addition, please don't take these things personally - the company can be nice to work for and everything but in general the idea the public has are due to its actions as a company, and not the effort of the individuals. I'm sure the developers are competent.

daveslash 8y ago
>"It's hard to get out of a negative image people have." I know it's a bit petty, but I'm still upset at the Sony BGM rootkit scandal. There are several other similar things, from different companies, that have my upset. Like I said... I know it's petty, but it really can be difficult to erase a negative image people have. [Edit: Formatting]

bsder 8y ago

> I'm not saying EA hasn't done things I don't agree with, but I do believe they get more than their fair share of hatred on the internet. Good will takes a year to earn but a second to lose. I'm going to take issue with you and say that EA deserves every ounce of hate that it gets. EA gets hate because it buys and screws up beloved franchises. EA gets hate because it has game properties that it is clearly milking that would be much better if they weren't in its hands. EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download. EA gets hate because it (used to?) make you install their buggy pile of crap online service to play your single player mode game. And their only defense is: "Well, everybody else does it too." When your child makes that statement, you generally have a not terribly sympathetic reply. Why should EA get any more sympathy?

Izkata 8y ago
> Good will takes a year to earn but a second to lose. Indeed. My "never again" moment is from 10 years ago, and is missing from your list: The DRM used on Spore bricked my Windows install, in the middle of the semester. I was just lucky I'd switched to Ubuntu a few months before.
Thaxll 8y ago
"EA gets hate because it buys and screws up beloved franchises. EA gets hate because it has game properties that it is clearly milking that would be much better if they weren't in its hands. EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download. EA gets hate because it (used to?) make you install their buggy pile of crap online service to play your single player mode game." Most of it is wrong on many levels unfortunately, I feel like reading someone that has no idea of how the industry work. You think EA as company is screwing franchises on purpose, never occurs to you that the studio that is developing the game is doing the mistakes and EA as a whole has pretty much nothing to do with it? "EA gets hate because it yanks critical content out of its games and makes it pay to download" Please give an example of a game where the dev were done finishing the game weeks / month in advance and chose to not include part of the game in the release. Read this: https://kotaku.com/former-bioware-studio-head-talks-about-life-under-ea-1823969303 https://kotaku.com/former-bioware-studio-head-talks-about-li...

Taylor_OD 8y ago

EA has started and perpetuated trends that have permeated the industry and affected it in a negative way. While I'm sure lots of individuals over there are doing good work the company as a whole deserves the hate that it gets. It's like working at Google and being upset when someone says, "Google is evil" because you're working on a morally good project.

ada1981 8y ago

Would you say EA is having a net net positive impact on culture and the world?