EDITED to add the following:
I have been a gamer for 22 years and own around 1000 (a thousand) games. I used to trust developers/publishers to *sell* me the product to keep and enjoy forever and ever, just like that Monopoly board game I have in my closet. But it was only recently that I found that these days End User Licensing Agreements are such that they don't provide for my ownership of even single-player games.
I do suspect that I am not the only one who is/was in the dark about everything that has changed. For this reason I posted the below. Sound off, let everyone know what you think.
===============================
Electronic Arts (EA) has been on a trek for profits showing complete disregard for the clients (gamers). They have destroyed many creative developer studios only to cash in on their good names.
The most recent outrage is what happened to BioWare. As most of you, I have been a loyal and loving fan of BioWare and its games for decades (since Baldur's Gate series). But now this love affair has come to a bitter end.
Since EA took over BioWare they have destroyed the following games/franchises:
Dragon Age (2)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Mass Effect (3)
Don't take my word for it. Do some searching on the web and skip positive 1-liner reviews. Instead read long and detailed negative reviews.
How did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, I pay close attention to the stock market and company earnings reports. Here's how and why it happened (just the most recent examples):
EA did not have a very good 2011, so in the last quarter of 2011 (on December 20) they decided to push to the market the broken and unfinished game of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). It is essentially a single-payer game with barely usable or non-existent multiplayer components for which they want to charge monthly subscription fees. They did it, following aggressive advertising and hyped-up, misleading marketing, to improve sales numbers for the last quarter of 2011 and millions of gamers (myself included) were raped and robbed as the result.
Now, that the gaming community is on to them and SWTOR sales/subscriptions are not doing that great, they decided to push to the market the long-anticipated Mass Effect 3, even though it is a defective, buggy, unfinished game which does not deliver anything that was promised. Why? Because the end of the first quarter of 2012 is near and they need to show decent sales numbers.
(Search the web for GAMER reviews, not critic's reviews as all critics are on EA's payroll: How else would we explain why there is such a glaring discrepancy in critic and player ratings of the said games [not to mention that all critics' web sites, such as Gamespot have huge and colorful game ads on their front pages]? Conflict of interests anyone?)
So what we get lately is lousy games with Disk Locked Content for consoles/Downloadable Content for PC (DLC) for which you have to pay extra if you want the possibility of hope that you can enjoy the game(s). Gone are the days when you bought a disc for under $50.00 and actually owned the game you bought, free to play it forever, no matter how many times you upgraded/replaced your PC. The quality of games controlled by EA has been ever decreasing while prices and other charges have been ever increasing. But that's not all.
EA are not only destroying gaming as we know it, they are also infringing on our basic rights as consumers by making us accept their licensing agreements which boil down to the following (Don't take my word for it. READ the EULA for any EA game you have installed):
1. YOU have NO rights whatsoever;
2. THEY have NO liabilities or obligations to you whatsoever;
3. YOU own NOTHING. You should pray to EA asking them to allow you to pay for the license to touch their products;
4. THEY have the right to yank your privilege of touching their products and to yank support at their leisure and YOU have NO recourse if they do so (which results in your being unable to play the game anymore whenever they decide they don't want to support it anymore).
5. THEY will install spywares on your computer and collect your information and YOU cannot do anything about it; the Spyware known as SecuROM will continue to sit on your hard drive even if you uninstall all EA products and never install any new ones ever.
6. And if you install their games (and accept the License Agreement) you WAVE your right to sue them for any reason or be a part of any Class Action law suit against them.
Join me in my efforts to drive the gaming community to BOYCOTT ALL EA games regardless of the platform. Don't buy them no matter what. It is time gamers took a stand against abuse by this horrible company.
I have been a gamer for 22 years and own around 1000 (a thousand) games. I used to trust developers/publishers to *sell* me the product to keep and enjoy forever and ever, just like that Monopoly board game I have in my closet. But it was only recently that I found that these days End User Licensing Agreements are such that they don't provide for my ownership of even single-player games.
I do suspect that I am not the only one who is/was in the dark about everything that has changed. For this reason I posted the below. Sound off, let everyone know what you think.
===============================
Electronic Arts (EA) has been on a trek for profits showing complete disregard for the clients (gamers). They have destroyed many creative developer studios only to cash in on their good names.
The most recent outrage is what happened to BioWare. As most of you, I have been a loyal and loving fan of BioWare and its games for decades (since Baldur's Gate series). But now this love affair has come to a bitter end.
Since EA took over BioWare they have destroyed the following games/franchises:
Dragon Age (2)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
Mass Effect (3)
Don't take my word for it. Do some searching on the web and skip positive 1-liner reviews. Instead read long and detailed negative reviews.
How did this happen? Why did this happen? Well, I pay close attention to the stock market and company earnings reports. Here's how and why it happened (just the most recent examples):
EA did not have a very good 2011, so in the last quarter of 2011 (on December 20) they decided to push to the market the broken and unfinished game of Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR). It is essentially a single-payer game with barely usable or non-existent multiplayer components for which they want to charge monthly subscription fees. They did it, following aggressive advertising and hyped-up, misleading marketing, to improve sales numbers for the last quarter of 2011 and millions of gamers (myself included) were raped and robbed as the result.
Now, that the gaming community is on to them and SWTOR sales/subscriptions are not doing that great, they decided to push to the market the long-anticipated Mass Effect 3, even though it is a defective, buggy, unfinished game which does not deliver anything that was promised. Why? Because the end of the first quarter of 2012 is near and they need to show decent sales numbers.
(Search the web for GAMER reviews, not critic's reviews as all critics are on EA's payroll: How else would we explain why there is such a glaring discrepancy in critic and player ratings of the said games [not to mention that all critics' web sites, such as Gamespot have huge and colorful game ads on their front pages]? Conflict of interests anyone?)
So what we get lately is lousy games with Disk Locked Content for consoles/Downloadable Content for PC (DLC) for which you have to pay extra if you want the possibility of hope that you can enjoy the game(s). Gone are the days when you bought a disc for under $50.00 and actually owned the game you bought, free to play it forever, no matter how many times you upgraded/replaced your PC. The quality of games controlled by EA has been ever decreasing while prices and other charges have been ever increasing. But that's not all.
EA are not only destroying gaming as we know it, they are also infringing on our basic rights as consumers by making us accept their licensing agreements which boil down to the following (Don't take my word for it. READ the EULA for any EA game you have installed):
1. YOU have NO rights whatsoever;
2. THEY have NO liabilities or obligations to you whatsoever;
3. YOU own NOTHING. You should pray to EA asking them to allow you to pay for the license to touch their products;
4. THEY have the right to yank your privilege of touching their products and to yank support at their leisure and YOU have NO recourse if they do so (which results in your being unable to play the game anymore whenever they decide they don't want to support it anymore).
5. THEY will install spywares on your computer and collect your information and YOU cannot do anything about it; the Spyware known as SecuROM will continue to sit on your hard drive even if you uninstall all EA products and never install any new ones ever.
6. And if you install their games (and accept the License Agreement) you WAVE your right to sue them for any reason or be a part of any Class Action law suit against them.
Join me in my efforts to drive the gaming community to BOYCOTT ALL EA games regardless of the platform. Don't buy them no matter what. It is time gamers took a stand against abuse by this horrible company.