Topic: Thank god for EA

[Pugnate]

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171094

Read down to the solution they offer.

[Quemaqua]

Haha, that's awesome.

[Pugnate]

I didn't think it was too horrible, till I read this on the comments section on Kotaku:

I was, unfortunately, one of the unlucky ones that was missing the last character.

I was, however, fortunate enough to have it simply be "B", so it only took 2 guesses.

The worst thing about the guessing is that you only get 3 tries. Then it kicks you out. You gotta restart the install process and put in the proceeding 20-some-odd characters again. So, if you're unlucky to have it be "Z", it could take a long time to get there.

[Xessive]

I read about this a while back.

EA is despicable.

Although this kinda sparks the idea of making a CD key that's a puzzle, and you must solve it to unlock the game I think this would be pretty cool for mystery games!

[scottws]

Props to this guy:

...for EA and its DRM department: keep the game out of the hands of people who actually bought the goddamn thing!

[Ghandi]

EA's next game: instead of an actual ending, you get to guess what it is! There are endless possibilities!

[Xessive]

Whatever EA's next title is the real game will be crack hunting, so you can actually have a chance to play it.

[Cobra951]

Props to this guy:

...for EA and its DRM department: keep the game out of the hands of people who actually bought the goddamn thing!

Haha!  I think he intended his post title to be part of that quote, which makes it:

Another brilliant victory for EA and its DRM department: keep the game out of the hands of people who actually bought the goddamn thing!

I like that even better.

Next up as possible piracy justifier:  Mirror's Edge.

[angrykeebler]

EA's next game: instead of an actual ending, you get to guess what it is! There are endless possibilities!

i bet mysterd will be all about that

[MysterD]

i bet mysterd will be all about that

No.
I like my endings to be finite.
Whether there's one or twenty endings.

No cliffhangers and no loose ends.

[Xessive]

Haha!  I think he intended his post title to be part of that quote, which makes it:

I like that even better.

Next up as possible piracy justifier:  Mirror's Edge.

I won't say anything incriminating but I will say that I hope it gets pirated on all formats. I don't mean copied and distributed illegally I mean I hope some cunning pirates set sail to EA outposts and literally steal boxloads of EA products and distribute these legitimate copies around.

[Pugnate]

This is a thread about EA and MyD didn't make it in the first three posts.

I just don't understand life anymore.

[Pugnate]

I won't say anything incriminating but I will say that I hope it gets pirated on all formats. I don't mean copied and distributed illegally I mean I hope some cunning pirates set sail to EA outposts and literally steal boxloads of EA products and distribute these legitimate copies around.

Or how about people just not buy their product?

[Xessive]

Or how about people just not buy their product?

Too lenient.

Better yet, I hope a disgruntled employee in the packaging plant decides to stowaway some nasty gifts in the boxes. Resulting in unhappy consumers inevitably calling EA about a lawsuit.

[MysterD]

Too lenient.

Better yet, I hope a disgruntled employee in the packaging plant decides to stowaway some nasty gifts in the boxes. Resulting in unhappy consumers inevitably calling EA about a lawsuit.

Like say Greg Kasavin? 

[Xessive]

I've really grown to disdain EA over the last few years. I think it all started with the downfall of the FIFA and NFS franchises and the lack of support EA offered. They just release them and ignore anyone who has any trouble running them. Asking EA to release a patch to fix some pretty serious issues is asking for a big favour. It's not all the EA studios though. Some, such as EA Los Angeles (encompasses the former Westwood Studios and EA Pacific), seem keen on actually listening to the players and fans. The rest, however, seem like they just don't give a shit; which is further emphasized by EA's ratshit idea of "acceptable" security measures.

Another reason I've come to despise EA is their detestable habit of blatant lying to their consumers. One example that comes to mind is with a little MMRPG called Earth & Beyond. E&B was released in Sept 2002, the case was basically that EA had decided to shut down E&B yet denied it despite some internal sources confirming the cancellation. The Wikipedia entry might make it clearer:

Rumors of the game's cancellation became prevalent in early 2004. Between January and February of 2004 EA repeatedly lied to the playerbase even after internal sources confirmed the game would, in fact be cancelled. EA eventually confirmed the suspicions in March 2004 by announcing that Earth & Beyond was to be discontinued the following September, stating that it would refocus on other projects. Earth and Beyond had up to 38,000 subscribers early on at its peak, but numbers went into decline thereafter, falling to 22,500 at the time of EA's announcement[1]. This could be attributed to the lack of advertising it suffered from and the opening of Star Wars Galaxies by Sony Online Entertainment or to the coinciding release of the Star Wars Galaxies space expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, which came out on October 27, 2004. It has also been rumored that Electronic Arts wished to put more money into The Sims Online and turn that into a big marketing success. Earth & Beyond officially shut down on September 22, 2004.

[MysterD]

EA's David Silverman and Greg Black talk about PC gaming piracy.

PC piracy is a 'huge concern' warns Red Alert 3 dev
By Wesley Yin-Poole - 05/11/2008 - 2:38pm GMT

'If gamers have a reason to buy a game, they'll buy it', says producer.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 screenshot

PC piracy is a "huge concern", Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 producer David Silverman has warned.

Speaking to VideoGamer.com in an interview to be published later this week, Silverman, who also works as a presenter for C&C TV, said that a "different approach" that includes digital distribution and micro-transactions will help tackle piracy on the PC in the future.

He said: "In all honesty piracy is a huge concern. Luckily people haven't figured out an easy way to pirate on consoles, otherwise you'd be telling me, 'oh, the console market's dying!'. It's a big problem and it's hard because you've got people like Greg (Black, lead balance designer) and a lot of guys on the development team who have been spending countless hours and someone just goes to download on a torrent site and they get the game. It's an unfortunate likelihood and it's one of the penalties that broadband came out. But unlike the music industry which went about it in an interesting way, we're trying some new things and I think we'll be productive in the years to come."

PC piracy is one of the industry's current hot topics. Recently Lionhead boss told VideoGamer.com that the PC gamer market was in "tatters". LucasArts explained to us in an interview from earlier in the year that it wasn't doing a PC version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed because of the vast differences in power of PCs in people's homes and the lack of scalability of the game.

And Ubisoft Shanghai creative director Michael de Plater has told VG247 that a PC version of EndWar would most likely be shipping alongside the console SKUs if it wasn't for rampant PC piracy, and that copyright theft is essentially destroying the PC games market.

Silverman, however, believes that the PC gaming industry can tackle the problem of piracy by taking a different approach.

He said: "Things like digital distribution, things like doing micro-transactions, things like that really find a way to get people involved and then also keep them interested. It's also a challenging thing on our end to make the game more engaging to people. If you give people a reason to buy the game they'll buy it. It's what happens. I use the music analogy again. If I'm an artist and I have an album with 14 songs and only two of them are good, then my album is probably getting stolen, but if every one of the 14 songs is awesome and you keep releasing maybe a new song or what not for people who bought it, I guarantee people will be buying my album. So it's just a different approach and a different way in how we have to look at it in the future."

Also speaking to VideoGamer.com, C&C: RA3 lead balance designer Greg Black suggested online play, which requires authentication, as a primary weapon in the war against PC piracy.

"I think one of the best ways to fight piracy is to have a compelling online experience," said Black. "Because you have to authenticate your copy to get online, and that's something we've tried to do with (Red Alert 3's) cooperative campaign. If you really want to fully experience Red Alert 3, you want to jump online and play the campaign with a friend, and you're going to need a legit copy of the game to do that. So I feel on the creative side that the future for PC gaming is online and that's how we're going deal with the piracy problem."

While the PC version of RTS Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 was released on last Friday, the Xbox 360 version won't be out until November 14. A PS3 version is currently in the works but without a release date.

[gpw11]

PA had a pretty good EA comic either today or monday.  Yes, I'm too lazy to link it.

[Xessive]

PA had a pretty good EA comic either today or monday.  Yes, I'm too lazy to link it.

This one?

[MysterD]

Another reason to thank EA, guys.

EA has cut funding on Arkane Studios, who were working on The Crossing and also some other unknown game.

It would be nice if that unknown game is Arx 2.

[Xessive]

Another reason to thank EA, guys.

EA has cut funding on Arkane Studios, who were working on The Crossing and also some other unknown game.

It would be nice if that unknown game is Arx 2.

That's good news for me. If The Crossing came out under the EA label I wouldn't have bought it. Hopefully now it will be adopted by another publisher.

Godwilling, all the other major studios will leave the EA umbrella.

[MysterD]

Actually, that's a pretty good point, Xessive.

Anyways, even more lawsuits tossed EA's way b/c of Securom protection in Sims: Bon Voyage and Spore Creature Creator.

[gpw11]

I still think The Crossing is a retarded idea.

[Xessive]

I still think The Crossing is a retarded idea.

I think it's an interesting thought, how it'll be is a different matter.

I like some of the ideas Arkane have proposed with The Crossing but others I can't understand how they'll pull off and still be fun.