Hey what's going on youtube. I'm going to try my best to not make this video
sound like a witch hunt but
regarding attitudes from gamers
twenty thirteen just simply isn't electronic arts best year
EA was rated worst company in America for the second year in a row
Receiving 78% of the votes
EA's CEO resigned, and the comapny is laying off workers in staggering amounts.
Many a gamer will not let you forget the horrific handling of SimCity
and their blatant lying to consumers.
the customers who have been loyal to their brands for two years
will not let their business practices harm our hobby any longer
let's take a look at various exhibits showcasing EA's crimes upon gaming
and you can make your own determination
as to whether you will continue to buy products from EA
exhibit one
Microtransactions in full priced titles
Gaming took a punch to the gut
when EA decided to add in game
real world money purchases to Dead Space 3, and have plans to do so in future
titles
the thing is
micro transactions are nothing new to games
Gears of War had buyable weapon camos
but they didn't affect gameplay outside of being eye candy.
EA though
is systematically making the base gameplay affected by micro
transactions
for years
you have been able to buy shortcuts or bonuses in Madden games
When Battlefield premium launched,
you could buy a kit shortcut pack.
Dead Space 3's microtransactions revolve around weapon crafting
one of the more important and fundamental aspects of core gameplay!
your character could easily become overpowered and you can just pay to win
even if you try your best to ignore this feature and not pay
gamers don't want to feel like the publisher want to nickel and dime them.
This wouldn't be a problem if it were done to a free to play game, mobile game
workpiece putting
but Dead Space 3 is a big budget game that you have to buy at full price.
what's sad is that EA
is ignoring the cries of the gaming community
and wanting to implement microtransactions in future titles.
I don't think that they understand that gamers don't want the ability for others to get
ahead by paying the money
It's completely different from Diablo 3's real money auctions, because at least
then
you're mostly paying other players and only a small portion of the money goes
to blizzard
the landscape of RPG's like diablo is far different from the games that EA is
putting micro transactions into
the most successful business models of micro transactions
had buyable items that don't change the gameplay
even the new call of duty weapon camos dont affect the gameplay League of Legends
is a good model example
where you can buy character skins that don't change the gameplay. And guess what?
League of Legends is free
If you want to put gameplay changing microtransactions into games
lower the price of your games
exhibit two
deciding who to take to the battlefield four premiere
and paying YouTubers to promote their games
For a while in the Battlefield YouTube community
the battlefield four premiere
wasn't even about battlefield four the game
it was about seeing more call of duty youtubers
going to the premiere than Battlefield YouTubers
Woodysgamertag
Whiteboy, Ali-A, and others, were invited to attend the event
Chris Smoove was there
but he could make a Farmville or Minesweeper let's play and it would be
Of course, big names in the Battlefield community were there
like LevelCap, the indomitable RivalXfactor, Frankie, Jackfrags
and the Russianbadger, forgive me if I'm leaving anybody
but why is it any appreciation toward the established Battlefield community
to over represent and over sample from the call of duty community
you're not showing confidence in in supporting your community that way
I'm going to quote the Russian badger in regards to the Call of Duty players
being there
"Do you even shitbucket? Do you even M16 foregrip heavy barrel
one hundred colonel all day
These Call of Duty players only touch Battlefield when it's new
and they can get a lot of views, or to reupload a trailer, or when they're
sponsored
gave your game out there and having a diverse community for the game is a good
goal
but this just isn't fair to the battlefield community
Some big Battlefielders like MongolFPS Matimi0 were left out
Too many Call of Duty YouTubers went to the premiere. There's no getting around
that
Yes, Call of Duty does have a bigger YouTube presence, and a lot of Battlefield 4
will be spread through youtube
but you should have those who are interested in Battlefield progress towards
the battlefield youtubers
You know, the ones that do more than reupload trailers and actually play the
game
some novel concept really
Also, there have been YouTube channels, like WoodysGamertag
GirlGoneGamer, and FearCrads, just to name a few
clearly shown supporting and pitching EA games.
However, these are mainly Call of Duty channels, where 90% of of the videos
on their channel
are exclusively related to Call of Duty.
There is a link in the video description to the corresponding games' official
product page on an EA site.
As a content producer, it's easy for me to recognize there is a partnership.
going on
EA is paying for them to promote their games to their audience.
There is nothing inherently wrong with playing both Call of Duty and Battlefield,
but this plan of marketing shows gross insecurity on the part of EA.
I still haven't forgotten the direct attack at Call of Duty they took
with battlefield three
and you know how that went
I am not faulting the YouTubers for working with EA.
It's normal to want to earn some extra money. Sponsored gaming can be beneficial
to all parties.
the thing is
no YouTuber has been transparent about this partnership
they haven't announced to their subscribers the reason why they just got up and posted
a random new game that just happened to come out or have a new content pack
drop
I respect the professionalism of these YouTubers that's part of the reason why
they're so successful
and i don't doubt that they would have been clear about a partnership if they
were able to be
The fact that they didn't
makes it apparent that EA most likely, as part of the terms of their arrangement
is not allowing them to talk as part of their deal
Jerk move by EA
continuing
on where EA went wrong
they should show more confidence in being able to perforate gaming communities.
at thirty game was good enough in the first place
they would have had to force feed it down the throats of already established
communities
more energy should be spent supporting the developers
Establishing a great and diverse community for games is awesome
but let that community will expand if you make a genuinely good game.
aggressive advertising is one thing
being an asshole with ads is an entirely different play.
because of these things I am wary about EA's confidence in their upcoming games
if this is what they do to market their products
exhibit three and possibly the biggest
SimCity DRM, Launch Issues, and Public Communication
this issue has been beaten to death
but i never grow tired of harping on it
i feel buying game that has always online digital rights management
and the game being dependent on access to public servers
is like a long term rental you really don't own what you pay for
when the game servers finally shut down
everything that you have worked for is gone all those hundreds of hours of
building cities just gone to the wind
piracy phobia is affecting legitimate consumers
more people with busy lifestyles are playing games are punished therefore
by DRM
What if your career had you travel a lot
sit through many commutes, airports, and airplanes, with no practical consistent
access to stable internet
how are you going to play during what little free time you have
the worst part of EA during Sim City's launch
was how it dealt with customers
They blatantly lied about SimCity needing to be 100% online
when a modder showed that it obviously didn't
The multiplayer features weren't working when the game launched
and many aspects of the game are still broken today
then EA makes a surprising
legitimately apologetic and courteous gesture
by offering free games to those who struggled through SimCity launch issues
they continued to try to make the public forget about this disaster
by releasing information about battlefield four
in getting people excited
but those things are not an excuse to continue these practices
since this disaster quieted down because EA is remaining silent about
Sim City
I encourage you to read this rock paper shotgun article
and i'm linking in the description
if we continue to let this go then EA will continue to do whatever they want
with their consumers
The only true way to let EA know that we don't like what they are doing
is not to make angry videos on youtube
but to stop buying their games in which they have single player DRM
so you don't have to deal with this headache and complain after the fact
in this case
inaction is the best form of action
exhibit four
existing
the fact that EA exists
is a crime upon gaining
As for me, personally, I am still deeply enamoured with EA franchises
Battlefield and Crysis. I will keep playing them because
from when you hit the start button to when you turn off the game you're still playing a
Dice or Crytek game
When you press start on Simcity, you are not playing a Maxis game you are playing an EA game
When you press start on Mass Effect you're not playing a Bioware game you're are playing an
EA game
I have learned my lesson and will not be buying a single player DRM game from
EA anymore
the way it looks now
I will still get Battlefield 4 though
in summary
if we the gamers want to be treated better
it's up to us to speak with our wallets
to show EA what we want
In the games where EA manages well
you should buy them to show that this is the better way to go
in games where we dislike their business practice
don't buy them
or use GameStop's rental service so EA doesn't get your money
not buying them is a better option
as it lowers the player count
i really hope you enjoyed this commentary let me know what you think
and what your opinions are and what you plan to do be sure to leave a like
rating, subscribe to my channel if you haven't already, and I'll see you
next video