Dear EA
As anyone interested in gaming is well aware of, EA has built quite a reputation for itself - and not a positive one. We all want change, and the only way there ever could be a change is if we, the customers, speak up.
The Sims is the only EA title I buy anymore and only for one reason: Nostalgia. I played this game since the first installment in my childhood days, and I know many people here have as well. But now, I don't even want to buy this game anymore. Why? I don't want to support EA's practices. I don't want to support a company that thinks it's okay to leech off their customers and provide next to nothing for them in return. I don't want to support the company that is basically leading the destruction of the video game industry.
So, let's point out some of the things EA has become famous for:
- GREED: The number one thing that comes to everyone's mind as soon as they hear or read 'Electronic Arts'. EA is always looking for new ways to earn more money while providing less for their customers. Of course, they are not alone in this and it's a natural effect of capitalism, yet they are clearly leading in this aspect. Be it through selling things in multiplayer games as in the popular practice of micro-transactions we know only too well from mobile games, or, as we know it from The Sims 4, selling addons with minimal additional features/content for maximal profit. Who wants to sell fully fleshed out games or addons these days when it's just so much more profitable to sell every little addition and basic feature seperately? Why would we get a Pets addon that has all the Pets included if it's so much more profitable to sell additional pets seperately and require players to buy the original Pets addon as well if they want them? Why care for customers satisfaction if they buy anything anyways?
- "Single-Player Games are no longer popular": Who hasn't heard this ridiculous claim? States the company whose most successful game is a single player game. It's amusing, especially in retrospective, who here remembers the failure of The Sims Online? Of course, those were different times, internet was rather expensive back then. Yet still, the most popular games are single player and it will probably stay that way for a long time. So why make a claim like that? Simple, it ties in perfectly with the first point, which is why I stated it here, as an example. You see, multiplayer games don't require too much work, the focus is more on player vs player than on what the actual game has to offer. They save resources creating multiplayer games and have so much more possibilities to exploit players for money. Buy this pack, buy that pack, extra weapons, extra maps, extra skins, and so on. Give them your mom's credit card details and EA feels like Whinney the Pooh in a honey pot.
- Quality: "An EA game is a quality game", "You know who makes really good games? EA!" - yes, these are statements no one ever said, and you will probably never hear from anyone who played more than one game in their lives. Because it's simply not true. The last good The Sims game was the second installment, the only improvement since then has been made in CAS (and maybe minimal in build mode). The focus has not been on improving the game but improving the income (back to the first point). While it's partially the community's fault that we keep getting the same content over and over again (which is reasonable, since we don't want to miss the stuff from previous games in the new one), it is entirely EA's fault for trying to exploit that once again. Instead of getting big packages to "restore" content from previous installment, we get small packages with minimal content, so they can sell us as much of it as possible before moving on to the next installment and repeat. The focus should be on providing new quality content with each installment, not just switch to a new engine and repeat. A new installment should feel new, not repetitive. And yes, we did get a few new features. We got different interactive careers than before, for example. We got tiny differences. Let's be real, it's laughable. But at the very least, and I guess they do deserve a compliment for that, it's not as buggy as other company's more ambitious titles.
- Pretentious community focus: Yes, I said it. It's not real. It's pretentious. It's nothing more than plain marketing. "Let's make a poll and let the community decide" ... Yeah, right. It would be nice if we could decide on actual addons, I agree. But did we do that? Or did we just vote for one feature we felt like should have been included all along and mindlessly agreed to giving them money just to buy a single feature in the process? Was there anything worth spending money on? I don't think so. EA just wanted to know which single feature would sell best at the moment.
I'm getting tired of typing now so I will stop here. Maybe I will add to the list later, maybe I won't. I'm sure I forgot a great deal of things as I was just focusing on what bothered me the most at this moment from the top of my head. Feel free to add to the list, feel free to criticize. I feel we need to put a stop to this, as I don't feel like this company wishes to please their customers anymore - quite the opposite: I feel like they started a war against us while pretending to be our friends, put in simple metaphorical terms. And I'm simply not happy with it. I rather spend my money elsewhere, being as it is. The Sims Community has probably always been the most loyal of them all, and they counted on it, with every step in the wrong direction. Loyalty disappears fast if you decide to screw over the people loyal to you. So I would like to start the conversation about what is wrong with EA, with the focus being on The Sims, naturally. Because I feel it needs to be said and I honestly doubt EA even realizes how widespread the criticism and unhappiness towards their company really is. In the entire gaming community, EA has literally made a joke out of itself. It's shameful.
And just to clarify, this is not directed against any SimGurus, developers, or other employees. It is directed towards EA's practices as a company. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them felt the same way, but it's simply out of their hands. In the end, it's them who get to read the negative comments instead of the people who actually should, which is a shame. We as a community always supported the Gurus, admired their work and dedication. This should never change. What does need to change however, is the business practices they have to follow. But this is only my humblest of opinions, although it might not sound so humble ;) I, for one, simply want more for my money, or I will spend it elsewhere. And I would really enjoy seeing this game actually thrive.
The Sims is the only EA title I buy anymore and only for one reason: Nostalgia. I played this game since the first installment in my childhood days, and I know many people here have as well. But now, I don't even want to buy this game anymore. Why? I don't want to support EA's practices. I don't want to support a company that thinks it's okay to leech off their customers and provide next to nothing for them in return. I don't want to support the company that is basically leading the destruction of the video game industry.
So, let's point out some of the things EA has become famous for:
- GREED: The number one thing that comes to everyone's mind as soon as they hear or read 'Electronic Arts'. EA is always looking for new ways to earn more money while providing less for their customers. Of course, they are not alone in this and it's a natural effect of capitalism, yet they are clearly leading in this aspect. Be it through selling things in multiplayer games as in the popular practice of micro-transactions we know only too well from mobile games, or, as we know it from The Sims 4, selling addons with minimal additional features/content for maximal profit. Who wants to sell fully fleshed out games or addons these days when it's just so much more profitable to sell every little addition and basic feature seperately? Why would we get a Pets addon that has all the Pets included if it's so much more profitable to sell additional pets seperately and require players to buy the original Pets addon as well if they want them? Why care for customers satisfaction if they buy anything anyways?
- "Single-Player Games are no longer popular": Who hasn't heard this ridiculous claim? States the company whose most successful game is a single player game. It's amusing, especially in retrospective, who here remembers the failure of The Sims Online? Of course, those were different times, internet was rather expensive back then. Yet still, the most popular games are single player and it will probably stay that way for a long time. So why make a claim like that? Simple, it ties in perfectly with the first point, which is why I stated it here, as an example. You see, multiplayer games don't require too much work, the focus is more on player vs player than on what the actual game has to offer. They save resources creating multiplayer games and have so much more possibilities to exploit players for money. Buy this pack, buy that pack, extra weapons, extra maps, extra skins, and so on. Give them your mom's credit card details and EA feels like Whinney the Pooh in a honey pot.
- Quality: "An EA game is a quality game", "You know who makes really good games? EA!" - yes, these are statements no one ever said, and you will probably never hear from anyone who played more than one game in their lives. Because it's simply not true. The last good The Sims game was the second installment, the only improvement since then has been made in CAS (and maybe minimal in build mode). The focus has not been on improving the game but improving the income (back to the first point). While it's partially the community's fault that we keep getting the same content over and over again (which is reasonable, since we don't want to miss the stuff from previous games in the new one), it is entirely EA's fault for trying to exploit that once again. Instead of getting big packages to "restore" content from previous installment, we get small packages with minimal content, so they can sell us as much of it as possible before moving on to the next installment and repeat. The focus should be on providing new quality content with each installment, not just switch to a new engine and repeat. A new installment should feel new, not repetitive. And yes, we did get a few new features. We got different interactive careers than before, for example. We got tiny differences. Let's be real, it's laughable. But at the very least, and I guess they do deserve a compliment for that, it's not as buggy as other company's more ambitious titles.
- Pretentious community focus: Yes, I said it. It's not real. It's pretentious. It's nothing more than plain marketing. "Let's make a poll and let the community decide" ... Yeah, right. It would be nice if we could decide on actual addons, I agree. But did we do that? Or did we just vote for one feature we felt like should have been included all along and mindlessly agreed to giving them money just to buy a single feature in the process? Was there anything worth spending money on? I don't think so. EA just wanted to know which single feature would sell best at the moment.
I'm getting tired of typing now so I will stop here. Maybe I will add to the list later, maybe I won't. I'm sure I forgot a great deal of things as I was just focusing on what bothered me the most at this moment from the top of my head. Feel free to add to the list, feel free to criticize. I feel we need to put a stop to this, as I don't feel like this company wishes to please their customers anymore - quite the opposite: I feel like they started a war against us while pretending to be our friends, put in simple metaphorical terms. And I'm simply not happy with it. I rather spend my money elsewhere, being as it is. The Sims Community has probably always been the most loyal of them all, and they counted on it, with every step in the wrong direction. Loyalty disappears fast if you decide to screw over the people loyal to you. So I would like to start the conversation about what is wrong with EA, with the focus being on The Sims, naturally. Because I feel it needs to be said and I honestly doubt EA even realizes how widespread the criticism and unhappiness towards their company really is. In the entire gaming community, EA has literally made a joke out of itself. It's shameful.
And just to clarify, this is not directed against any SimGurus, developers, or other employees. It is directed towards EA's practices as a company. I wouldn't be surprised if many of them felt the same way, but it's simply out of their hands. In the end, it's them who get to read the negative comments instead of the people who actually should, which is a shame. We as a community always supported the Gurus, admired their work and dedication. This should never change. What does need to change however, is the business practices they have to follow. But this is only my humblest of opinions, although it might not sound so humble ;) I, for one, simply want more for my money, or I will spend it elsewhere. And I would really enjoy seeing this game actually thrive.
