An Open Letter to EA CEO and Directors
I beg of any EA staff that read this to pass this letter to higher ups. Everything I am writing about today cannot be solved by customer service staff because frankly, it's not up to you guys. You have to sit through all this and read all of these complaints and I am deeply sorry - I do not wish to direct any of my frustrations towards you. Andrew Wilson and Kofi Bruce however? Oh yes, they deserve to feel the fan's wrath and gain an understanding. Rachel A. Gonzalez, Jeffrey T. Huber, Talbott Roche, Richard A. Simonson, Luis A. Ubiñas, Heidi Ueberroth, Kofi Bruce, and Andrew Wilson; I desire to speak directly to you.
The discussion about live service needs to end.
Not every game can be CoD. Or FIFA. Or Apex. You and your shareholders have been near obsessive over turning single-player IPs into MMOs or multi-player live service IPs for more than a decade. The result of that is leaving your fans (and profit generators, because that's all we are to you, right?) with a sour taste in their mouth and a reluctance to spend money on your franchises. Not to mention many of us have a severe lack of trust in this company due to the blatant disregard of customer opinions. The fact that EA doesn't have an email address to contact when issues arise says it all. Got too much complaints in those inboxes, huh? Yeah, the solution is definitely to just remove that point of contact. Ignoring an issue makes it go away!
I have to put this in the Dragon Age: The Veilguard forum simply because there is no general complaints page on this forum. But it is not just DA this has happened to. What on Earth is happening with The Sims franchise? Why, oh why, do the Directors and shareholders insist that live service is the only way forward? Has it never crossed your minds that perhaps, some people only like playing single player games? Some people like the concept of being able to play a game without internet connection being a requirement. Or, if you're like me, you do not like dealing with the harassment and abuse that ensues when playing these online games. I used to play CoD all the time, you know what happened? I was abused for being a girl. Experiences like that push you away from live service IPs, not towards them. Especially when those abusing you don't get banned by the platform despite all of the complaints I used to submit 10 years ago.
Here's a snippet from the EA User Agreement:
"When you access or use an EA Service, you agree that you will not:
Interfere with or disrupt another player's use of an EA Service. This includes disrupting the normal flow of game play, chat or dialogue within an EA Service by, for example, using vulgar or harassing language, being abusive, excessive shouting (all caps), spamming, flooding or hitting the return key repeatedly.
To enforce these rules, we may monitor your activity and remove any UGC. If you don’t follow these rules, we may remove your UGC, warn you, suspend you, ban you permanently or place other restrictions on your EA Account, games, or related services."
Oddly enough, all of the men who message me sexually charged messages, tracked down other social medias and harassed me (at the age of 15, by the way), shouted sexist nonsense at me during a team death match, were not reprimanded for their behavior. They were not banned. Their accounts were still active. I was bullied and harassed out of the FPS/MMO community. You really think I want the lovely Dragon Age to join the likes of THEM?!
These games did not do well because they don't have live service. The newest installment in the Dragon Age franchise failed because writers are no longer appreciated for all of the amazing concepts they create. Too 'controversial'. Too 'hard to connect with'. Too 'Woke'. The respect towards creative voices in this industry seems nonexistent and there is this weird reluctance to just... let writers do their jobs? The 'woke agenda' definitely did not hold back Larian Studios from success, in fact, it propelled them to the top and is expected to hold the place as the most popular RPG in history, surpassing even Skyrim with the ability to mod and add new maps/quests/ANYTHING to the game.
Dragon Age could have easily been their direct competitor. Let me say that again, could have easily been their direct competitor. The fan base that have followed BioWare for over 15 years would be more than happy to do all the hype work and marketing for you, I myself have recommended the earlier games to others many times. That is called loyalty, and you only achieve this by earning your customer's trust. EA has gone out of their way to break that trust between company and customer on many occasions. Then have the audacity to question why the game didn't sell well? Seriously? Do you only read your stock prices and just stop there? Have you ever, genuinely, read a single review for this game? I didn't think so - because if you had you'd know that a lack of multiplayer is NOT why the game underperformed.
Enough about that for now. Let's circle back round to The Sims, shall we?
Why did Sims 4 not do very well? Oh yeah, because there's so many expansion packs that it would cost over $1,000 to own everything (and good luck running your computer with all of that!) and when the game was released it was incomplete. The most upsetting thing about the Sims franchise for me, is that it had such a vice grip on this niche of the gaming market. There was nothing else like it. Notice I said was? Sure, the copycat life simulation are taking a while to get off the ground, but they are coming. Why would someone go back to the Sims when a hyperrealistic, complete, and bug free game emerges on the market? Why would customers trust you with the next installment of the Sims when EA smashed that trust with a sledgehammer by continuing to release expansions, stuff packs, CRAP packs?
Project Rene. It's a wonderful concept, I will admit. But it's so easy to see past the curtain here. To see the real reason why there won't be a Sims 5.
The shame of being called out for extorting your own customers was just too much to bear! Instead of apologizing to them and rectifying the past mistake by providing a new and complete Sims experience, it'll be so much easier to add to the existing foundations so you can squeeze even more money out of your fans! Why make a new one when you can convince new people to come and spend money, right? This way, new fans may only buy 2 expansion packs but that's another $60 in EA's pocket (standard game price with little to no extra work done) that'll be funneled right back to shareholders. Ah, what a wonderful idea!! And us fans, gosh, we are just so stupid that we will continue falling for it! Never mind the fact that when the 'For Rent' pack came out it corrupted everyone's save files and progress, and was fundamentally broken on release. With no quick fix in sight either. Oh, and many youtubers documented that whole situation live. Thanks to them, I didn't waste my money on that pack and corrupt my game.
Aren't you tired of being embarrassed? Surely it is just exhausting by now.
But we, the fans, are here to help. But you'll have to do something very very difficult....
LISTEN TO US!
Phew! That was so hard to say... to the wall or screen. I'll be lucky if so much as a manager puts their eyes on this, let alone a Director. But with all of the digging I've done it could be very fun to do a video essay about the structure of EA, their stock markets, and long terms monetary results of their IPs and the management of them and post it to YouTube. That would get a lot more views than this little forum post.
To Kofi Bruce and Richard A. Simonson in particular - I see that you are both Finance Experts. Pray tell, could you indulge upon me your insight and wisdom? Can you explain why turning massively successful single player IPs into mediocre multiplayer IPs is a wise financial decision? Is it a purposeful way of eliminating an IP you no longer want to deal with? In the same way where if you can't or don't want to fire someone you just give them terrible work or exclude them from outings in the hopes they hand in their notice themselves? Because that is exactly how it looks to me. I would love to know which focus groups said 'Yes! We've always wanted Dragon Age to turn into MMO slop! Why stop there?! May as well use generative AI for everything! Those pesky writers think they're so great, but my ChatGPT can outdo them by miles!' considering all of the veteran employees of BioWare were laid off or outright fired, I can't help but assume this is how all of you think. I could be wrong, but unfortunately I can find no proof out there to say I am wrong. Which is why I ask you - what information made you all think that this game needed live service in order to succeed?
My favorite line in all of the Dragon Age games will always be from Origins -
'You killed them, didn't you? You killed them all.'
'Like dogs, Shianni.'
Lines like this simply do not exist anymore today. Well, from EA, anyway. Larian is doing a smashing job. Thanks for listening to my TED talk, I'm gonna go back to playing BG3 and supporting Larian since ain't no way anyone from EA has read this far! Again, I'm so sorry to any CS staff that read all of this. My gripes are not with you <3 However I have saved this letter externally so if it gets taken down I've got backups.
