Why do people continually upvote forbes.com articles? A full-page ad for a fluff piece that adds zero content to the original reddit post (which happened a few days ago)
I predict this employee will have a short and sweet talk with his manager on Monday, followed by a quick exit interview with HR. Optional escort out of the building by security.
"Don't say goodbye, he's just leaving early" -- Tom Waits
Which is all a shame, but nowhere near the true tragedy of SimCity. EA has /no problem/ turning out the lights on old games; they're often not even that old. If you want to play in 2018, you'll likely be doing that on a cracked version because EA will have a slightly newer version of SimCity they want to push, and if you're playing the old one they think you're taking their money. Rinse, repeat.
I'd love to see EA let people run their own servers at some point. Chances of this happening are essentially zero.
It's an anonymous letter. And does not look genuine to me either - to somebody who worked at EA it's hard to imagine there is anybody there who seriously believes in the external PR stuff. Could be a contractor though.
Nevertheless, a lot of people at EARS will be laid off. A portion of EA's bonus depends on the Metacritic score so a lot of management types right now are missing a significant part of money they already had plans to spend. The only remedy for this is a massive layoff that boosts stock prices and increases other portions of the bonus. For recent example see what happened to MOH and EALA last quarter.
That's so cute. As if anyone at the C level believes in a company's mission statement and values. They're just there so the coffee cups aren't plain white.
At EA, this is almost certainly true. At some companies it's better. Values in particular often form a concrete axis for things like performance reviews, and offer a more useful version of the elusive "culture fit" than the usual startup bullshit of "let's hire a bunch of 20-something single white guys who have nothing better to do than hang out in the office playing ping pong after work, followed by more work".
Update: EA is giving a free gift for their troubles.
"Hey guys, thanks for buying our singleplayer game. Sorry that 100% of our multiplayer portion is unplayable. While we work on fixing these issues by removing game features so only some of you can play at a time, you can play the singleplayer portion we talked about earlier. It's where you sit there and watch a 30 minute timer go by and if you win, you get to play the multiplayer portion of the game. But since we made this issue and won't give you a refund for a broken game, we'll give you one free game that'd cost us barely anything. Thanks again for your understanding."
Pretty cutting criticism. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. Unlike noname I think some of the C level types may in fact wish those values were the values they embodied. Now, the reality of making that happen? A lot harder.
However, given the history of the company and the choices it has made. And the fact that they seem to make the same bad choices in the same situation, suggests that those values have never been internalized.
I await the unfortunate but inevitable news that this employee was terminated. If EA bans customers for speaking out, there is no hope for employees...
This is interesting, but the article was posted two days ago. Why is it just now making its way to the top of HN?
I was thinking it just happened, until I get to the update at the bottom stating EA now gifting a free game to SimCity customers, which also happened two days ago.
Therefore, I'm less hopeful about the impact this will have, as it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed until now.
Why is it only now that people start complaining about always-online DRM?
Whether there is some trouble due to a server being down or not, for me there is no difference. DRM that requires you to be always online for a single player game is already broken without the server being down imho.
Why is it now? If you haven't read any online news lately, as in the past few years, people have had fits about this since it was introduced. Diablo 3 for example.
More people are complaining about it now since with SimCity they didn't expect it to occur. Additionally how bad EA at keeping the game online too.
I have a friend who works as a QA tester on this Sim City EA game. He's demoralized about his job. I can see other employees getting pissed off enough to post on Reddit.
[+] [-] niggler|13 years ago|reply
EDIT: the original post was http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/19xb2m/a_letter_from... but that was deleted. Another author reproduced the original post in http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/19xb2m/a_letter_from...
The original HN post was http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5346752
[+] [-] archon|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kabdib|13 years ago|reply
"Don't say goodbye, he's just leaving early" -- Tom Waits
Which is all a shame, but nowhere near the true tragedy of SimCity. EA has /no problem/ turning out the lights on old games; they're often not even that old. If you want to play in 2018, you'll likely be doing that on a cracked version because EA will have a slightly newer version of SimCity they want to push, and if you're playing the old one they think you're taking their money. Rinse, repeat.
I'd love to see EA let people run their own servers at some point. Chances of this happening are essentially zero.
[+] [-] pandaman|13 years ago|reply
Nevertheless, a lot of people at EARS will be laid off. A portion of EA's bonus depends on the Metacritic score so a lot of management types right now are missing a significant part of money they already had plans to spend. The only remedy for this is a massive layoff that boosts stock prices and increases other portions of the bonus. For recent example see what happened to MOH and EALA last quarter.
[+] [-] nonamegiven|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] philwelch|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lighthazard|13 years ago|reply
"Hey guys, thanks for buying our singleplayer game. Sorry that 100% of our multiplayer portion is unplayable. While we work on fixing these issues by removing game features so only some of you can play at a time, you can play the singleplayer portion we talked about earlier. It's where you sit there and watch a 30 minute timer go by and if you win, you get to play the multiplayer portion of the game. But since we made this issue and won't give you a refund for a broken game, we'll give you one free game that'd cost us barely anything. Thanks again for your understanding."
[+] [-] eropple|13 years ago|reply
...because we really hope that you buy the DLC.
That's what makes that gesture really pernicious to me.
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|13 years ago|reply
However, given the history of the company and the choices it has made. And the fact that they seem to make the same bad choices in the same situation, suggests that those values have never been internalized.
[+] [-] peterkelly|13 years ago|reply
It doesn't really matter in the end. I'm sure this is how everyone who worked on Simcity probably feels right now.
[+] [-] mratzloff|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RougeFemme|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jader201|13 years ago|reply
I was thinking it just happened, until I get to the update at the bottom stating EA now gifting a free game to SimCity customers, which also happened two days ago.
Therefore, I'm less hopeful about the impact this will have, as it seems to have gone mostly unnoticed until now.
Or am I missing something?
[+] [-] Aardwolf|13 years ago|reply
Whether there is some trouble due to a server being down or not, for me there is no difference. DRM that requires you to be always online for a single player game is already broken without the server being down imho.
[+] [-] pixl97|13 years ago|reply
More people are complaining about it now since with SimCity they didn't expect it to occur. Additionally how bad EA at keeping the game online too.
[+] [-] Evenjos|13 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pla3rhat3r|13 years ago|reply