7 ms·

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash

by harry8 5y ago

Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. Mess with some trade rules. Images of Sep Blatter bathing in the rain of cash at the press conference. Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA are corrupt from top to bottom. EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new one. Might actually make next years' game update a lot more interesting than changing the player lists. I'd like to be less cynical about the prospects of anyone actually cleaning up corruption anywhere right now. I really would. Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption? We can't even vote that out so the Military Industrial Complex is pretty safe. No chance of health reform either. Nobody likes Ivanka or Hunter and there they go shovelling more money than you will in a decade just this month. "Now do the $other_side who are worse!" edit: last para anti-corruption rant

mbg721 5y ago
In college I played a Madden franchise with my roommates, and late in the first season, somebody's star player had an injury marked "Out for career". We joked that they should also simulate crime and bad-conduct suspensions, but from there it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to have a low-probability "league schism" check each year.
namdnay 5y ago
And the following year FIFA will give the licence to another developer, any everyone will switch to that. PES was a far better game than FIFA, but everyone wanted to play with their favourite players and teams. There's no way EA will kill that cash cow
- MarkCole 5y ago
  The article mentions that the FIFA license only includes rights to the name, logo and rights to the World Cup. The player and teams name, likenesses and logos are governed by licenses with other organisations.
- miki123211 5y ago
  Alternatively, they will allow players to load external databases of teams, logos and footballers from a file, and the community will do the rest of the job. This kind of stuff has been tried before and it's usually pretty safe, legally speaking.
  - eldaisfish 5y ago
    the problem with that approach is abundantly clear in the sales figure gap between PES and FIFA. Most people are lazy and don't want to bother with locating files, patching games, dealing with borked patches and so on.
that_guy_iain 5y ago
Honestly, I am not sure who is more disliked. FIFA or EA.
- skhr0680 5y ago
  Shit vs. Turd
- 300bps 5y ago
  I’m sure there are a lot of people my age that remember EA extremely fondly for the things they did decades ago. M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold and Archon and many others were the best games some of us grew up on. I haven’t been involved in gaming except for the 2 I occasionally play with my kids so I’m blissfully unaware of anything EA has done recently. But back then, they were really amazing. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-16-seeing-farther-the-advert-that-changed-the-games-industry https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-16-seeing-farther...
  - that_guy_iain 5y ago
    Personally, I remember them screwing up Westwood games or what feels like them screwing up Westwood games. It feels like they totally ruined: * C&C * Theme Park (entire theme franchise, theme hospital too) * Dungeon Keeper
    - skhr0680 5y ago
      I wish EA had spun Generals out into a separate IP, instead of treating its customers like idiots, with a result that was unfair to everyone: C&C fans didn’t get a follow up to RA2, and Generals got a ton of hate for reasons that had nothing to do with the actual game, which was a very good RTS with interesting factions and fun / clever mechanics.
  - audiometry 5y ago
    Mule was a beautiful game. Never had the chance to play it as four live players only two. Think that would have been a blast.
Bayart 5y ago
> Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA has the approval of nation-states and there's massive cultural capital invested in FIFA, especially regarding the World Cup. Nobody's leaving it, especially not players. FIFA also doesn't have leagues of its own. > EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new one. EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash.
- pg_bot 5y ago
  > EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash. You sure about that? EA's revenue for the last fiscal year was 5.6 billion dollars. FIFA's revenue for the last 4 years is about equal to that dollar amount. There's a lot more money in video games than people think.
  - siva7 5y ago
    See it this way. If FIFA decides to award the License to another Publisher, then also other license givers will award them to the new publisher instead of EA. No football executive cares much about the relationship with a gaming studio but for sure about their goodstanding within the corrupt FIFA system.
  - Bayart 5y ago
    I'm not talking about revenue. Football isn't really an industry, and it's not rational. If you want to compare the cultural and social footprint of football to something it's video games as a whole, not EA on its lonesome.
    - pg_bot 5y ago
      I mean you could probably supplant the entire FIFA organization with $10B if you wanted to take a really big swing. Money talks and if you funnel the right amount of money to the best players you will create the best sports league.
siva7 5y ago
Comparing the power of FIFA to that of EA would be more akin to that of Walmart and a mom-and-pop store. There is no way EA could win this power struggle. So it remains a mystery what the tactic of EA is.
- RegnisGnaw 5y ago
  How so? The only thing that FIFA licensed is the words "FIFA", the logo, and the World Cup. All the other stuff (player likeness, etc) are separate licenses. So if EA loses the licenses to say EPIC, then what? People really gonna play a FIFA game with players like "Kristiano Ronalda"?
  - siva7 5y ago
    Regarding all the criminal and cartel-like activities of FIFA, it wouldn’t surprise me if EA would get in trouble with the other licenses as well. The fee might as well be at this point protection money to not lose also other license deals.
PedroBatista 5y ago
> Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. That would be next level irony. EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports.
- harry8 5y ago
  >EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports. Ha. No. But they do apparently literally have a billion very good reasons to stand up to corruption. Total self-interest. But it also sure wouldn't do their reputation any harm at all to claim a few FIFA supercharged-hoovering trough-snouts' scalps.
criley2 5y ago
>Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption? Such a dishonest comparison. One was nepotistically involved in day to day operations of the American government, put into diplomatic situations in an official capacity, even attempted to be named World Bank President. The other is completely divorced from politics and uses his name to sell artwork This kind of false equivalence does great service to the worst-of-all-time American corruption we experienced in 2016-2020, and helps ensure that it will return. Which flavor do I prefer? Obviously the one without nepotism, where the child has nothing to do with politics, government and serves in no capacity, official or otherwise. And you should to. Shame on you for pretending otherwise. When you can't differentiate between nefarious nepotistic public corruption and "using the family name to sell paintings", you do your part to ensure it can and will get worse. >We can't even vote that out so the Military Industrial Complex is pretty safe The Military Industrial Complex is very mad at Joe for ending the Afghanistan war and actually pulling troops out. While the previous President admitted he would have left thousands of troops, defied the agreement, and continued the war. Once again, your false equivalence makes you say "both sides" when there is a real difference. The war in Afghanistan ended because only one side had the cajones to stick it to the military industrial complex and actually end it, regardless of the optics, the politics and the cost. But you're playing cynical games and you refuse to admit actual change, because it makes you look/feel smart to lie about everyone being the same. Ironically you are serving the military industrial complex right now, who desperately want "one side" out and the other side back, because they can't control the current side nearly as well, and are very upset about the end of the war. Good job helping them, as false equivalence is a powerful tool in their propaganda belt. This is how the worst outcomes become reality -- being unable and unwilling to appreciate any good at all.
- _v7gu 5y ago
  I am quite upset about the war ending in the worst way possible. You talk like the war in Afghanistan "ending" was a good thing probably because you get to live far, far away from yet another region destabilised by US hands. Joe thought Afghans were too dumb to understand backwards induction, and put a nice islamic state over there. Military industry would sure be mad about the existence of new righteous wars to be fought over there.
karmakaze 5y ago
Make all the in-game presentation accurate but comical so it falls under 'parody'.
Shadonototra 5y ago
interesting how people want to make EA looks like the good guys in the story let's talk about gambling mechanics in their games, shall we? sounds like people want to make this a political affair, what's the real reason? smells like anti FIFA propaganda also reminds me of how the US wanted to force some EU clubs to ditch the Champion's League for their own "Cup" thingy shady shady

by harry8 5y ago

mbg721 5y ago

In college I played a Madden franchise with my roommates, and late in the first season, somebody's star player had an injury marked "Out for career". We joked that they should also simulate crime and bad-conduct suspensions, but from there it wouldn't be that much of a stretch to have a low-probability "league schism" check each year.

namdnay 5y ago

And the following year FIFA will give the licence to another developer, any everyone will switch to that. PES was a far better game than FIFA, but everyone wanted to play with their favourite players and teams. There's no way EA will kill that cash cow

MarkCole 5y ago
The article mentions that the FIFA license only includes rights to the name, logo and rights to the World Cup. The player and teams name, likenesses and logos are governed by licenses with other organisations.
miki123211 5y ago
Alternatively, they will allow players to load external databases of teams, logos and footballers from a file, and the community will do the rest of the job. This kind of stuff has been tried before and it's usually pretty safe, legally speaking.
- eldaisfish 5y ago
  the problem with that approach is abundantly clear in the sales figure gap between PES and FIFA. Most people are lazy and don't want to bother with locating files, patching games, dealing with borked patches and so on.

that_guy_iain 5y ago

Honestly, I am not sure who is more disliked. FIFA or EA.

skhr0680 5y ago
Shit vs. Turd
300bps 5y ago
I’m sure there are a lot of people my age that remember EA extremely fondly for the things they did decades ago. M.U.L.E. and Seven Cities of Gold and Archon and many others were the best games some of us grew up on. I haven’t been involved in gaming except for the 2 I occasionally play with my kids so I’m blissfully unaware of anything EA has done recently. But back then, they were really amazing. https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-16-seeing-farther-the-advert-that-changed-the-games-industry https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-09-16-seeing-farther...
- that_guy_iain 5y ago
  Personally, I remember them screwing up Westwood games or what feels like them screwing up Westwood games. It feels like they totally ruined: * C&C * Theme Park (entire theme franchise, theme hospital too) * Dungeon Keeper
  - skhr0680 5y ago
    I wish EA had spun Generals out into a separate IP, instead of treating its customers like idiots, with a result that was unfair to everyone: C&C fans didn’t get a follow up to RA2, and Generals got a ton of hate for reasons that had nothing to do with the actual game, which was a very good RTS with interesting factions and fun / clever mechanics.
- audiometry 5y ago
  Mule was a beautiful game. Never had the chance to play it as four live players only two. Think that would have been a blast.

Bayart 5y ago

> Force players to choose between FI-FI-FA legacy league and the new hotness. FIFA has the approval of nation-states and there's massive cultural capital invested in FIFA, especially regarding the World Cup. Nobody's leaving it, especially not players. FIFA also doesn't have leagues of its own. > EA have a direct channel to a huge slab of their market to tear the FIFA politicians with their snouts in the trough a new one. EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash.

pg_bot 5y ago
> EA is chump change compared to world football. They've got no leverage, and despite the dislike for FIFA everywhere, a power struggle between the two with EA casting itself as the righteous party will only invite backlash. You sure about that? EA's revenue for the last fiscal year was 5.6 billion dollars. FIFA's revenue for the last 4 years is about equal to that dollar amount. There's a lot more money in video games than people think.
- siva7 5y ago
  See it this way. If FIFA decides to award the License to another Publisher, then also other license givers will award them to the new publisher instead of EA. No football executive cares much about the relationship with a gaming studio but for sure about their goodstanding within the corrupt FIFA system.
- Bayart 5y ago
  I'm not talking about revenue. Football isn't really an industry, and it's not rational. If you want to compare the cultural and social footprint of football to something it's video games as a whole, not EA on its lonesome.
  - pg_bot 5y ago
    I mean you could probably supplant the entire FIFA organization with $10B if you wanted to take a really big swing. Money talks and if you funnel the right amount of money to the best players you will create the best sports league.

siva7 5y ago

Comparing the power of FIFA to that of EA would be more akin to that of Walmart and a mom-and-pop store. There is no way EA could win this power struggle. So it remains a mystery what the tactic of EA is.

RegnisGnaw 5y ago
How so? The only thing that FIFA licensed is the words "FIFA", the logo, and the World Cup. All the other stuff (player likeness, etc) are separate licenses. So if EA loses the licenses to say EPIC, then what? People really gonna play a FIFA game with players like "Kristiano Ronalda"?
- siva7 5y ago
  Regarding all the criminal and cartel-like activities of FIFA, it wouldn’t surprise me if EA would get in trouble with the other licenses as well. The fee might as well be at this point protection money to not lose also other license deals.

PedroBatista 5y ago

> Such a good opportunity for EA to mount an Anti-FIFA corruption campaign in game. That would be next level irony. EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports.

harry8 5y ago
>EA, the stewards of justice and defenders of sports. Ha. No. But they do apparently literally have a billion very good reasons to stand up to corruption. Total self-interest. But it also sure wouldn't do their reputation any harm at all to claim a few FIFA supercharged-hoovering trough-snouts' scalps.

criley2 5y ago

>Do you prefer Ivanka or Hunter flavours of corruption? Such a dishonest comparison. One was nepotistically involved in day to day operations of the American government, put into diplomatic situations in an official capacity, even attempted to be named World Bank President. The other is completely divorced from politics and uses his name to sell artwork This kind of false equivalence does great service to the worst-of-all-time American corruption we experienced in 2016-2020, and helps ensure that it will return. Which flavor do I prefer? Obviously the one without nepotism, where the child has nothing to do with politics, government and serves in no capacity, official or otherwise. And you should to. Shame on you for pretending otherwise. When you can't differentiate between nefarious nepotistic public corruption and "using the family name to sell paintings", you do your part to ensure it can and will get worse. >We can't even vote that out so the Military Industrial Complex is pretty safe The Military Industrial Complex is very mad at Joe for ending the Afghanistan war and actually pulling troops out. While the previous President admitted he would have left thousands of troops, defied the agreement, and continued the war. Once again, your false equivalence makes you say "both sides" when there is a real difference. The war in Afghanistan ended because only one side had the cajones to stick it to the military industrial complex and actually end it, regardless of the optics, the politics and the cost. But you're playing cynical games and you refuse to admit actual change, because it makes you look/feel smart to lie about everyone being the same. Ironically you are serving the military industrial complex right now, who desperately want "one side" out and the other side back, because they can't control the current side nearly as well, and are very upset about the end of the war. Good job helping them, as false equivalence is a powerful tool in their propaganda belt. This is how the worst outcomes become reality -- being unable and unwilling to appreciate any good at all.

_v7gu 5y ago
I am quite upset about the war ending in the worst way possible. You talk like the war in Afghanistan "ending" was a good thing probably because you get to live far, far away from yet another region destabilised by US hands. Joe thought Afghans were too dumb to understand backwards induction, and put a nice islamic state over there. Military industry would sure be mad about the existence of new righteous wars to be fought over there.

karmakaze 5y ago

Make all the in-game presentation accurate but comical so it falls under 'parody'.

Shadonototra 5y ago

interesting how people want to make EA looks like the good guys in the story let's talk about gambling mechanics in their games, shall we? sounds like people want to make this a political affair, what's the real reason? smells like anti FIFA propaganda also reminds me of how the US wanted to force some EU clubs to ditch the Champion's League for their own "Cup" thingy shady shady