(Intro Music)
Ugh
Look. EA. We gotta talk.
You were a big part of our childhood
I love games like starflight, Buck Rogers,
Centurion, Rings of Power
Pretty much the whole Genesis Yellow Clip Collection is still sitting on James's shelf
Even his first copy of M.U.L.E has your stamp on it.
And while I think you've made a series of strategic missteps in the last half decade
To this day there are games that you've published that I praise, even here on the show
But there's something you've been doing lately that we've really, really gotta talk about
No, it's not the buying of companies that clearly don't fit into your corporate culture
It's not even about what it takes to kick off new IP
We have got to talk about your marketing.
You gotta stop this!
You've got the biggest, most powerful marketing arm in the industry
And you're using it to set us all back
It's not helping anyone. Not even you!
No. Not even in the short term.
Let's take a brief look at your recent history, starting with Dante's Inferno
You had an opportunity here to do something great with the medium.
something truly moving
you were working with one of the most compelling pieces of literature in the western tradition
but instead you gave us this
and then you made Dante a templar and then...I...Don't even... bleh
but alright, alright. Not the end of the world.
Yes, you were missing a monumental opportunity which is frustrating
but, hey. No harm, no foul
but then you started to market it...
first, you started here.
You hired fake protesters to pretend to be religious zealots picketing your game
yo got these fraudulent Christians to stand outside your headquarters waving signs and chanting
pretending to be morally offended that your would treat their religion in such a flippant way
You even had some of them carrying signs saying "hell is not a game!"
Nice touch
who are you helping by mocking and belittling people's faith?
every negative thing people say about the maturity level of games and gamers
you are reinforcing here
we shouldn't be paying people to say that games aren't the right medium to talk about any subject
especially when you didn't have any intention to treat that subject with respect yourself
After that, you ran your "Sin to Win" contest
Here's a picture of the actual contest announcement
Yup...Pretty "classy"
An advertisement on a girl's chest with instructions that read
Commit acts of lust with any booth babe, prove it, repeat
all of this for the grand prize of a sinful night with two hot girls
A limo service, paparazzi, and a chest full of booty
is there any more tone deaf a way to portray us as the worst stereotype of adolescent boys?
And you know what? while nobody really cared about your subpar game
your marketing set us all back five years
The outrage over the Comic-Con incident spilled far past the traditional gaming press
And while you did try to tone it down after that,
you even managed to piss off the International Nanny Association with fake reports that the game would include an achievement called "Bad nanny"
Awarded for killing a yet undetermined number of unbaptized infants
You know how hard it is to piss off people who watch other people's five year olds for a living?
Now, you may have laughed all of this off
That you limit the future audience for games
You give ammo to the people who say that games are nothing more than a way for children to waste time
Maybe you don't really care about that
so, rather than talk to you about the high and noble things you can do with the medium
I'm going to talk about something I KNOW you care about.
your bottom line
Let's skip ahead a few months to the relaunch of Medal of Honor
This was another mediocre title that should have passed like a whisper in the night.
With nothing but the sighs of disappointed fans to see it on its way
But it didn't.
The US Army took umbrage with the idea that Medal of Honor allowed players to play as the Taliban
And, you know what? They were in the wrong with that one.
you, EA, were in the right
And you know what, many of us in the gaming community were willing to fight night and day to see that your game wasn't censored
based on the medium that it was in
Many of us were willing to stand with you and fight for the idea that there is no subject
that other media can address, that you shouldn't be able to.
But you left us no ground to stand on.
The army simply pointed to the generally juvenile perception of games and said
"People are giving their lives. You will not treat this with the frivolity of a game."
In the end, you caved, and the Army said, "we don't care", and banned it from being sold on US bases anyways.
Between all those soldiers and their families, that's a lot of lost sales for a game that, last I heard, barely pushed the 2 million mark
So that brings us to the present
A newly humbled EA
Finally understanding the impact they've been having on gaming's image.
tries to move the medium forward
and improve their bottom line with respect--
Oh come on EA!
-Women on screen: "Oh my God," "oh!", "ugh!"
"I think it would make a person become insane!"
"This game is an atrocity"
Commercial narrator: "It's revolting
It's violent. It's everything you love in a game
And your mom's gonna hate it
Mother: "Why would they even make something like this?"
-Dan: Why indeed? See what you did?
You just marketed an M-rated game to teens
Good job!
Not only that, but you did it in a way that everybody hates!
You threw all of gaming under the bus, for an ad that anyone that is over 13 is gonna find patronizing, grating, and stupid anyways
You're not even going to improve sales with it!
If Dead Space 2 sells, it'll be on the merit of the game, despite the ad
Not because of it
So, EA, please, you gotta stop!
You're selling short gaming's future, for what? A few dollars today?
Not even that! It's for some desperate attempt to demonstrate That you're still relevant!
That you're still a driving force in this industry
But, you know what? If you want everyone to know that you're still one of the most important forces in gaming
Make good games and show the world what gaming can become!
That's all we need, and I promise, we will rally around you when you do.
One last thing
As I sit here writing this, I have in my lap an ancient copy of M.U.L.E.
And with it came this statement from Electronic Arts
Looking at that reminded me of another old artifact I had
An aging magazine with stiff, browning pages
Let's read it together
Can a computer make you cry?
Right now, no one knows.
This is partly because many would consider the very idea frivolous
But it's also because whoever answers this question, must first answer several others.
Why do we cry?
Why do we laugh or love or smile?
What are the touchstones of our emotions?
Until now, the people who asked these questions tended not to be the people who ran software companies
Instead they were writers, filmmakers,
Painters, Musicians
They were, in the traditional sense, artists
We're about to change that tradition
The name of our company is Electronic Arts
We are a new association of electronic artists
united by a common goal
To fulfill the enormous potential of the personal computer
In the short term, this means transcending its present use as a facilitator of
unimaginative tasks in a medium for blasting aliens
in the long term, however, we can expect a great deal more
These are wondrous machines we've created
And in them can be seen a bit of their makers
It's as if we'd invested in them an image of our minds
And through them we are learning more and more about ourselves
We learn, for instance, that we are more entertained by the involvement of our imaginations
than by a passive viewing and listening
We learn that we are better taught by experience than by memorization
And we learn that the traditional distinctions
The ones that are made between art, and entertainment and education
Don't always apply
Music: "On the worst day of Christmas, Lucifer said to me
Nine hellish circles
eight quarter worms
seven beasts a-screeching
six nasty newborns
five (indecipherable)
four mind freaks
three headed dog
two purple peaks
and a Dante's Inferno demo!"
Dan (continued) In short, we are finding that the computer can be more than just a processor of data
It's a communications medium
An interactive tool that can bring people's thoughts and feelings closer together
Perhaps closer than ever before
And while fifty years from now its creation may seem no more important than the advent of motion pictures or television
there's a chance it'll mean something more
something along the lines of a universal language of ideas and emotions
Something like a smile
The first publications of Electronic Arts are now available.
We suspect you'll be hearing a lot about them
Some of them are games like you've never seen before
That get more out of your computer than any other games have
Others are harder to categorize
And we like that
Watch us
We're providing a special environment for talented, independent software artists
It's a supportive environment in which big ideas are given room to grow
And some of America's most respected software artists are beginning to take notice
We think our current work reflects this very special committment
And though we are few in number today, and apart from the mainstream mass software marketplace
We are confident that both time and vision are on our side
Join us, we see farther
This is who you were, and who you can still be
If you want to be that again, we will be with you every step of the way
See you next week!
(outro music: Theme/Bryyo)
(captions by William Sculley)