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So this is the future of EA?
- Thread starter Yadd of Legends
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hmmm . . .
I'm with you @old gypsy
On principle I "liked" this; but it may be that EA's minimal interaction with UO is the thing which has made it the oldest MMORPG, and kept it in the 1% club of MMORPGs that survive past the eight year mark.
The coin has two sides. If EA were to take an active interest in UO and writhe its fingers into all of UO's pores, what would UO look like a year later? For the past 20 years at least, what do you usually get when EA does that to a studio? If we had a crystal ball, it might just tell us that what we've got is the best among all alternative realities.
Interesting. I hadn't thought about that. You could very well be correct.
Looks like this: Only in color:
EAGames Leading from the dull edge of the knife.
EAGames Leading from the dull edge of the knife.
I always figured this was EA's future:
With the customers being on the receiving end of course...
With the customers being on the receiving end of course...
EA has wriggled its tentacles all over UO, multiple times. Remember, EA owned Origin before UO...It owned Redwood Shores...It owned Mythic...It owned BioWare-Mythic (for all of about 10 minutes before that fell to crap). UO has endured in spite of EA's attentions and lack of financial support (in fact, I'm sure EA has brutally bled UO's revenue stream dry to fund its other flops).
If EA paid UO, its longest running game...ever...some honest attention, I'd hope it would be to allow the dev team off life support so it could hire a few people. I'm not going to hold my breath.
EEK! NO!
EA sucks...there I said it, it's out there, and I'm not taking it back! I am actually glad they forget we exist, cause if they did pay attention we'd end up like Star Wars:K TOR or worse Sims Medieval!!! I understand they have ruined SW KTOR. Sims Medieval was awesome they did one expansion Pirates & Nobles, then abandoned it. Not only that, they totally abandoned the studio that designed both Sims Medieval and Sims 3. EA is like Midas' idiot brother everything they touch turn to ****!
I can't argue with that. I agree... I still enjoy my Sims Medieval and Pirates and Nobles.EEK! NO!If they paid us attention it would be UO's funeral!
Just watched the video ... you could not get me to play that if you paid me. Crap.
Still .... good to know our beloved EA is investing UO's profits into utter garbage such as this isnt it.
Still .... good to know our beloved EA is investing UO's profits into utter garbage such as this isnt it.
LOL?
I swear, can you guys NOT come off as a bunch of old bitter people who dont play any other games besides UO?
I dont even know why this is being attributed to EA concerning they are just publishing it. "look at this game EA is publishing, this is why UO was ruined!"
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Well, what else would you expect from an eighteen year-old forum?
Dot, you're kind of making my point. I think you misunderstood me. None of those examples you listed were happy stories, and that is exactly what I was alluding to. EA wriggled its tentacles over those studios; where are they now? That's what EA does. That's standard operating procedure. If they simply offered to drop a truckload of money off at Broadsword and then go back to ignoring things around here, that would be fine, that would be great. It would also be unlikely. Typically, when EA shows up with a truck, it's to haul your beloved MMORPG's servers off and cannibalize them.
Don't get me wrong. I hear you, and on principle, I'll go ahead and like your post too. I've seen a big publisher drop surprise funding on an underperforming studio, it happens. We can dream. (And let's hope that if EA ever does it, they won't come knocking on Broadsword's door later for sufficient ROI.)
Dot, you're kind of making my point. I think you misunderstood me. None of those examples you listed were happy stories, and that is exactly what I was alluding to. EA wriggled its tentacles over those studios; where are they now? That's what EA does. That's standard operating procedure. If they simply offered to drop a truckload of money off at Broadsword and then go back to ignoring things around here, that would be fine, that would be great. It would also be unlikely. Typically, when EA shows up with a truck, it's to haul your beloved MMORPG's servers off and cannibalize them.
Don't get me wrong. I hear you, and on principle, I'll go ahead and like your post too. I've seen a big publisher drop surprise funding on an underperforming studio, it happens. We can dream. (And let's hope that if EA ever does it, they won't come knocking on Broadsword's door later for sufficient ROI.)
EA is the one holding up the movement to UO going on Steam...
EA is the one that decided to yank UO out of Austin and relocate it to California... And picked a craptastic time to do so. Where some of the game data was forever lost...
EA was responsible for moving UO again to Virginia... EA was responsible for firing and "laying off" 100's of employee's many of whom worked for UO. Countless DEVs lost over these years. This didn't come from the team... it came from EA make no mistakes. EA stripped UO down to the bare minimum to keep it running and are ultimately responsible for putting it on lifesupport... and their gross mismangement has lead to what we have right now.
Do you believe that the team would have moved from Austin on their own??? Once settled into California they were hit at least one if not two times if I recall by mass layoffs. And if memory serves which it often does... many plans got scrapped because of much of that BS.
EA is also the one who says release this at this time OR else.... and is IMO responsible for things like the FAR too early release of the EC... which IMO is still years later in Beta... and the WAY too early release of High Seas.... which was by far THE buggiest of all expansions. It was buggered for quite some time if I recall.
Who says I play UO?
EA have systematically destroyed this game over the years through lack of ambition, lack of investment and actually, sheer incompetence. Which is why I no longer play. This game isnt the one I loved, its an embarrassing mess, caused by EA. So yeah .... I have no time at all for those clowns at EA.
What does any of that have to do with the game Unravel?
Or should the mere fact the game is published by EA a reason to hate it?
I remember the presentation of this game on E3.
It was so adorable. This is being developed by a small Swedish studio.
Martin Sahlin's presentation was the most precious thing ever. He was shaky and nervous for being in such a big event, presenting their game.
Just look at it:
This game doesn't deserve any hate just because it is being published by EA. It is a product of a passionate, small indie team.
It was so adorable. This is being developed by a small Swedish studio.
Martin Sahlin's presentation was the most precious thing ever. He was shaky and nervous for being in such a big event, presenting their game.
Just look at it:
This game doesn't deserve any hate just because it is being published by EA. It is a product of a passionate, small indie team.
Apart from that Im also very amazed how apecake the UO community can be about one game published by EA. Like they dont publish a ton of games each year
But maybe thats the price you have to pay for playing the same old **** for almost 20 years w/o any intention to even look at other games.
Thats what Mesanna tells us. Of course its never her fault that almost every peer outside of BS seems to refuse to work with her. Shame she cant just flamestrike them. Go figure...
I don't recall saying I "hate" it. And I think it's nice that Martin Sahlin is so enthusiastic, although that's something I would expect from anyone who helped develop a game.
As far as hate directed toward EA... well, I guess that's another subject entirely.
Yes.
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I have to say, Unravel's not my thing, but it looks like it could be interesting to at least try. I'd far rather see experimental games like that, then more of the same "build a ___ (and pay us cash to actually do it in your own lifetime!)" clones that are coming out by the dozen. My two of my favorite games of recent times both had simple concepts, but were a new idea, and had an interesting story.
The game is not even remotely interesting to me. As for EA their attitude towards their customers is why I loathe them. Other gaming companies treat their customers FAR better.
As for trying other games.... I play several. Including Faster than Light, EQ Landmark, Fruit Ninja, Tetris, Arcane Legends and Diablo III. I have other interests in games. Just that has ZERO appeal to me. I've looked into many games to "replace" my love for UO... but nothing even comes close. My son is always pressuring me to play Final Fantasy XIV with him... but that holds little appeal. My "excuse" had always been that it didn't have housing... which now it does but that's EXTREMELY limited so again meh... it also has little to no RP... Landmark made several high promises about it's sandbox nature... but nearly 2 years into it now I can say it is nothing of a sandbox... what it is is a glorified 3d paint program nothing more. They have a VERY long way to go to make it what they promised, but since it was sold to Daybreak Games I highly doubt it will ever become much more than what it is.
As for trying other games.... I play several. Including Faster than Light, EQ Landmark, Fruit Ninja, Tetris, Arcane Legends and Diablo III. I have other interests in games. Just that has ZERO appeal to me. I've looked into many games to "replace" my love for UO... but nothing even comes close. My son is always pressuring me to play Final Fantasy XIV with him... but that holds little appeal. My "excuse" had always been that it didn't have housing... which now it does but that's EXTREMELY limited so again meh... it also has little to no RP... Landmark made several high promises about it's sandbox nature... but nearly 2 years into it now I can say it is nothing of a sandbox... what it is is a glorified 3d paint program nothing more. They have a VERY long way to go to make it what they promised, but since it was sold to Daybreak Games I highly doubt it will ever become much more than what it is.
agreed, lets not forget about the billing changes/mythic account set ups. I wonder how many people we lost because of this lol.
In her defense that's nothing of what "Mesanna" has told us. That is common knowledge to anyone who knows or follows UO.... Back when it was moved from Austin she was far as I know just a Tester still... and didn't tell us a thing. And it really is too bad she can't just tell them to take a long walk off a short pier... and I really do wish we could cut the apron strings and take UO away from EA. But sadly at this point UO is pure money to them. With very low overhead I really honestly don't see it "costing" them anything.
Yeah man, I was awful confused by this thread. I was like, was this thread meant to be a bash on EA? I'm not into puzzle platformers or anything, but this is a clearly beautifully made one that clearly has a lot of heart.
How people are like pointing to this as an example of why EA is horrible is beyond me. To me this is an example of EA doing something RIGHT, getting a clearly cool game made by a passionate indy dev mass distribution.
I get that UO players can be pretty myopic but geez...
Not only giving it mass distribution, but they also got them incredible exposure by bringing them in to speak live at E3 to pretty much the entire world, thanks to streaming platforms like Twitch. Poor Martin didn't know how to handle it, because it was absolutely huge for them.Yeah man, I was awful confused by this thread. I was like, was this thread meant to be a bash on EA? I'm not into puzzle platformers or anything, but this is a clearly beautifully made one that clearly has a lot of heart.
How people are like pointing to this as an example of why EA is horrible is beyond me. To me this is an example of EA doing something RIGHT, getting a clearly cool game made by a passionate indy dev mass distribution.
I get that UO players can be pretty myopic but geez...
EA did tons of wrong, and will keep doing tons of wrong, but publishing and doing all this PR for this indie game was something EA did quite right.
That's nonsense. EA is obviously not a good company (honestly, they seem like any huge company to me) but they have either made or distributed a lot of good games. Mass Effect, Dragon Age: Origins, and Deadspace, were all very good games, just off the top of my head, and there are others like Need for Speed, and Madden that people I know also love, though I don't as they just arent my kind of game. Obviously UO as well, which was EA owned from day one.
I see EA as a bad company mostly because of the way they treat their employees and how they support nickel and diming people with DLC like everyone else does. That all just seems like big corp 101, and while that all sucks, it's not the games fault. They put out plenty of good games.
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EA treats customers for some of their other titles far better to be honest. Got a problem with Star Wars: The Old Republic , EA has a dedicated group just for Customer Service for it, and for the most part they are excellent.
Well... for Sims Online they stunk... was awful so was the game... suppose that's part of my disgust with them.
I once had a problem with UO codes from the store. EA support resolved it within minutes. I dont understand the fuzz. Maybe US support differs a lot from european support. But then I also know what people are expecting from support some times ("I played in 1999 but dont remember anything. Can you pls recover my accounts? kthxbye")
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They USED to have that kind of support for UO. When I came back, I had some issues, and there was a "call me" option. I had several conversations that week with an incredibly helpful rep in the Irish support center, and he was able to find all but 2 of my old accounts, then to fix email issues with them and get me able to pay and play. If he hadn't been able to help, or if it had taken weeks worth of emails, I'd never have bothered to come back. Unfortunately, the last call with him, he mentioned that his entire support center was being closed as a cost-cutting measure by EA. That kind of phone support was impressive, and a big part of why I decided to try UO again after a 6 year break. If I put myself in that same position today, well, there'd be no reason for me to be typing this message... I'd never have come back.
I miss those days. It used to be so easy to contact someone directly... and quickly.