EA is despicable

[Stu Pitt Moran]

Thank You EA,

It's bad enough your closing down this game. a game loved by millions that some how you couldn't make work. Not only are you closing the game but now for our going away present you actually managed to make the game totally unplayable. Words cant express how disgusted i am with your company. i will make it my mission to insult your company to anyone who asks about you in the future. I will do my best to make you the most hated company in the world.
For your information, we are still paying you for your service this month. FIX IT NOW! i expected this for the so called "60 days free" but i didn't expect this shabby service while we are still paying you for your terrible service. don't you have any pride in your company? don't you care about your customers? yes for the month of April we ARE still customers. Yet you treat us like trash.
You are a despicable bunch of fools.

 

[Gracie Nito]

Actually....

If it had been a game loved by MILLIONS, they wouldn't have shut it down.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

....and i know this will poof because EA is run by a bunch of cowards. Do You really think anyone believes your bull about tech problems? No one believes your excuse for closing Stratics. Are your Techs really this bad at their job that its been over a week and they still can't fix the problem? No wonder EA Land didn't work, if you have this kind of incompetence working for you. It's a miracle it lasted as long as it did.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

Millions of off line copies have been sold. The idea of a on line version should of been a slam dunk success in better hands.

 

[Kiminality]

I'm laughing... Really...

1.) Read the announcement, regarding the downtime. Funnily enough, it's true.
2.) Stratics and EA are independant of each other. EA didn't shut down Stratics, the announcement will tell you what really happened.

 

[Gracie Nito]

....and i know this will poof because EA is run by a bunch of cowards. Do You really think anyone believes your bull about tech problems? No one believes your excuse for closing Stratics. Are your Techs really this bad at their job that its been over a week and they still can't fix the problem? No wonder EA Land didn't work, if you have this kind of incompetence working for you. It's a miracle it lasted as long as it did.

EA has nothing to do with Stratics. They are two completely separate entitites. The fact that Stratics had tech problems right as EA was announcing the closing of EALand was a pure miracle and proof that our forum moderators deserve all that good karma. They all needed the time to recover from the shock themselves before having to deal with posts like this one.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

just seems to convenient to me that it went down at the time it did and has been down for as long as it has.

 

[Kiminality]

It was incredibly unfortunate timing, although, I can assure you that it wasn't intentional.

I may not look it, but I am staff
It was not an easy week, and I recall many of the EAL/TSO staff were bothered by the timing.

 

[Katheryne]

just seems to convenient to me that it went down at the time it did and has been down for as long as it has.

Maybe so, but it was just a bizarre coincidence. If you consider that EA neither owns nor controls Stratics in any way, shape, or form; and if you consider all of the other game forums hosted by Stratics (non-EA games, no less), that all suffered the same system failure, you'd see that it's pretty silly to blame EA for this.

 

[Kiminality]

Maybe so, but it was just a bizarre coincidence. If you consider that EA neither owns nor controls Stratics in any way, shape, or form; and if you consider all of the other game forums hosted by Stratics (non-EA games, no less), that all suffered the same system failure, you'd see that it's pretty silly to blame EA for this.

Notably, Lineage 2, which is still down

 

[Polly]

Maybe you didn't read the announcement explaining what happened to Stratics. You can find it here

It couldn't have happened at a worse time for us, but was in no way connected to the announcement of the closure of the game.

Polly

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

Companies Co-dependent on each other "help" each other in this way all the time in the real world. Even if it's true that they are independent companies. That doesn't stop them from doing it anyway. example: A news outlet holding stories that may hurt a candidate they want to win. It just happened this week. Obama said he has visited 57(United States has only 50 States) states in his run for the democratic nomination. How many news outlets have reported this? none..because they want him to win.

With EA's track record during my 5 plus years playing this game they have earned no trust from me. It is their fault i feel as i do. I can't Trust them at ALL.

 

[Carley Jo]

Maybe somebody from EA sabataged the stratics for sims online, LOL!!

 

[Kiminality]

So... We purposefully destroyed our own databases, losing three portal sites, and the entire forums, just to help EA can a game

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

why not? it did stop the negative posts from up-set players didn't it?
And why do you think this is temporary? so they can get rid of all THESE negative posts and have no record of it.

 

[Kiminality]

What's going to happen when the old forums are restored?

The forums are temporary, because we don't have the old ones back yet... So, given the choice between another week-or-so without forums, or a temporary solution, the temporary solution was taken.

You clearly have an aversion to the truth, though.
Check out UO Uhall, if you think EA are afraid of a few negative posts.

 

[Polly]

why not? it did stop the negative posts from up-set players didn't it?
And why do you think this is temporary? so they can get rid of all THESE negative posts and have no record of it.

Its temporary so that we have somewhere to post, while we wait for the data to be recovered from the server that was wiped.

The simple fact of the matter is, if we had wanted to stop people posting on the EA-Land/TSO boards, we could have simply set them to read only - like we did when the old city forums closed.

Nobody needed to "fake" a server wipe for all of stratics forums and risk upsetting many 100's of posters across other instances of stratics - we could have just turned off our own forums.

Polly

 

[Katheryne]

Okay, seriously. I've seen plenty of conspiracy theories in my days, but this one is the most senseless one I've seen yet. EA had nothing to do with the forum outage. Please just accept that and move on!

You're actually giving EA far more credit than they deserve in this theory of yours, actually insinuating that EA cares enough about the game to actually spend the resources to send hired goons to Stratics' datacenter to squash criticism.

EA does not care about TSO/EAL. Certainly not that much.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

"aversion to the truth" Who do you think you are?
don't i have a right to my opinion as you have a right to yours?
please don't call me a liar, i take facts and i reach a conclusion. it may be right or wrong but its not a lie. i would appreciate not being called a liar.
thank you Kim

 

[Kiminality]

I didn't say you were a liar... I implied that you were in some manner of denial.
In spite of an official announcement, and three staff members telling you what happened, and what didn't happen, you're still running with this conspiracy theory.

I know who I am.
I am Kiminality, Kimi for short.
#Ultima-Online IRC op, who has been following the events of the downtime, since they happened, through various channels.

 

[Milton]

We were also responsible for some recent natural disasters, but that was part of a totally different conspiracy to sell more peanut butter.

 

[ajdown@jp]

We were also responsible for some recent natural disasters, but that was part of a totally different conspiracy to sell more peanut butter.

Smooth or crunchy? We need to know.

 

[sedusa]

Milton....you da man!!

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

WOW very adult of you. Comparing a game with events that have killed millions.
What is wrong with questioning things? What is wrong with taking facts and stringing them together to reach a conclusion?
the conclusion may be wrong and even far fetched but at least i try to think independently, not a lemming who believes everything he is told is a fact.
Why is it not possible that EA and Stratics conspired to close forms for a week or two? Why do you believe everything you are told is a fact?
Do you have access to all of EA and stratics files?
Why do you need to insult other peoples conclusions?
I have no problem with you disagreeing with my conclusion, but for you to sit there and insult me shows me more about your character than anything else.

 

[Dali Dalinza]

We were also responsible for some recent natural disasters, but that was part of a totally different conspiracy to sell more peanut butter.

The Great Peanut Butter plot of 2008 was yet another fiasco.

This is all karmic. I have been trying for the past hour to get to the EA site, but it is unavailable. (404 Not Found) The Universe is tightening the cosmic noose. Escape while you still have time. Deny any knowledge of EA, peanut butter and/or llamas.

 

[SimTripps]

One thing I'll miss is reading Stu's bios in Alphaville. The one you had on there a year or so ago about Hilary Clinton and something about the White House decor made me LoL big time! If you've got it, or remember it, can you PM it to me? Love it lol....

 

[Jackiee]

Stu...
Ok, I'm all for a good conspiracy theory.

this was not a good conspiracy theory, and the way you get very sensitive over every reply to you makes me think your name is rather accurate.

 

[CrazyGirl]

Preach it, Stu...

I know you're upset, but I can't help but giggle. Your bios in-game always cracked me up too. You're alright for a Rep...Oh wait, no politics here. *grin*

I will miss you and your sexeh pixels. Yer sew hawt when yer angreh. *kiss*

 

[Aster]

Who brought up peanut butter?
Now I want peanut butter.

Having the boards go down gave me worse withdrawal than when I quit smoking. If I could have physically gotten our boards back right the very second they went down using my mighty MacGyver skills with paperclip, chewing gum, and hair accessories, I would have.

 

[SimTripps]

MacGyver LOL! Glad to know I'm not the only one who watched MacGyver, let alone know who the heck he is lol...

 

[Qute Pi]

Ok of course many of us thought it was odd timing that the stratics forums went down. The only thing it made me think was how much I miss it, and what will happen when it really does close after the game closes.

As for the original post, I agree with a lot of what you say. How could an offline game that sold a million copies, struggle with the online version?

Oh wait, I know that answer...EA stopped developing the game until it was too late.

...It's like painting...ppfffttt!

One thing I'm good at is holding a grudge...I'm even willing to argue with my rl bf about getting the next madden. lol...I will personally never spend a penny on an EA game again. My bf on the other hand...well...we'll see. lol.

 

[Avyi]

*goes to paint with peanut butter*

 

[Milton]

WOW very adult of you. Comparing a game with events that have killed millions.

I never compared it to events that killed millions of people. I made a very general statement and you assumed the rest.

What is wrong with questioning things? What is wrong with taking facts and stringing them together to reach a conclusion?
the conclusion may be wrong and even far fetched but at least i try to think independently, not a lemming who believes everything he is told is a fact.

There is nothing wrong with conceiving a hypothesis based on some observational data. But you should not stop there. In statistical analysis, there is the idea that "association is not causation." This means that just because you can associate 2 things does not mean one caused the other. For instance, in most US cities, the more churches that are present, the more liquor stores you will find. One may draw the conclusion from this that religion causes drinking. Someone else may come to the conclusion that drinking causes religion. While either statement may be true for a small percentage of the population, most people will agree that there are other factors to explain the association.

EA didn't cause the events that lead to Stratics being unavailable for a week just like an increase number of liquor stores doesn't cause an increase in the number of churches.

Why do you need to insult other peoples conclusions?
I have no problem with you disagreeing with my conclusion, but for you to sit there and insult me shows me more about your character than anything else.

As always, if you feel someone is attacking you personally (not your ideas), please use the Report Post button to the left of the post. It's the red triangle button.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

I'm sorry but i don't see humor in saying you caused natural disasters. real people died. not funny to me. maybe to you but not me.

I did not start this tread as a conspiracy theory. that was done by others. I could care less if it is or isn't. I was only venting about my feelings about how poorly EA has treated us.

Finally I don't need a "red button" I can take care of myself.

 

[DutchAmerica]

To be honest Stu, I thought it was a very convenient 'shut down' of Stratics also....get rid of the 'evidence' so to speak of how EA may have mislead it's subscribing members.

I've had a few conversations with some of my EAland-TSO friends both through myspace and in the WoW where I found a few. Thing is, EA totally mislead the subscribers and yes there may be a bit of fraud involved also.

It's just ironic that as soon as voices started popping up with very solid grounds for filing a lawsuit for fraud against EA that the Stratics forums went 'poof'. lol

TSO-E was still around though so I figured maybe Milton got mad and through his stapler into the frey! Muahaha

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

I don't know if it was a conspiracy or just bad timing and my life won't end if its proven that EA and Stratics didn't conspire. I just think I should have that right without being attacked (see some posts above ) just for being open minded and throwing it up for others to think about it. I will not be told what to think by anyone. Just because someone tells you something or shows you a piece of paper stating something don't mean its true.

I will always keep and open mind and ask questions of those who tell me the "truth".

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

Thank You EA,

It's bad enough your closing down this game. a game loved by millions that some how you couldn't make work. Not only are you closing the game but now for our going away present you actually managed to make the game totally unplayable. Words cant express how disgusted i am with your company. i will make it my mission to insult your company to anyone who asks about you in the future. I will do my best to make you the most hated company in the world.
For your information, we are still paying you for your service this month. FIX IT NOW! i expected this for the so called "60 days free" but i didn't expect this shabby service while we are still paying you for your terrible service. don't you have any pride in your company? don't you care about your customers? yes for the month of April we ARE still customers. Yet you treat us like trash.
You are a despicable bunch of fools.

This was my original post. nothing there about conspiracy. I was just mad about the game being unplayable.

 

[Trish]

I don't know if it was a conspiracy or just bad timing and my life won't end if its proven that EA and Stratics didn't conspire. I just think I should have that right without being attacked (see some posts above ) just for being open minded and throwing it up for others to think about it. I will not be told what to think by anyone. Just because someone tells you something or shows you a piece of paper stating something don't mean its true.

I will always keep and open mind and ask questions of those who tell me the "truth".

I've watched our geniuses and higher-ups work all this out via emails during the downtime. There have been MANY people who have put in INSANE hours to get Stratics back up and functional for all of us. And not just these forums (or our forums, or WoW's), but sites and portals too. It was all down, broken or missing for a while.

I can safely say there is no way the owner of Stratics would agree to a sabotage. This was a headache for all involved. Stratics has prided itself in being what the others aren't. No RMT exists here. You really think a company that prides itself on not selling out would partake in your um.. not-conspiracy?

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

ok ok OK UNCLE UNCLE.... it's not a conspiracy theory.

It was all a accident. Some intern graduate student working for Stratics smoking his bong while eating his Tofu burger fell back in his chair hitting his head on the main server and knocked it and himself out of commission. Both the server and the intern as expected to make a full recovery. .. ummm ..This sound better?

 

[Milton]

This was my original post. nothing there about conspiracy. I was just mad about the game being unplayable.

Thank You EA,

It's bad enough your closing down this game. a game loved by millions that some how you couldn't make work. Not only are you closing the game but now for our going away present you actually managed to make the game totally unplayable. Words cant express how disgusted i am with your company. i will make it my mission to insult your company to anyone who asks about you in the future. I will do my best to make you the most hated company in the world.
For your information, we are still paying you for your service this month. FIX IT NOW! i expected this for the so called "60 days free" but i didn't expect this shabby service while we are still paying you for your terrible service. don't you have any pride in your company? don't you care about your customers? yes for the month of April we ARE still customers. Yet you treat us like trash.
You are a despicable bunch of fools.

And 9 minutes later you posted this:

....and i know this will poof because EA is run by a bunch of cowards. Do You really think anyone believes your bull about tech problems? No one believes your excuse for closing Stratics. Are your Techs really this bad at their job that its been over a week and they still can't fix the problem? No wonder EA Land didn't work, if you have this kind of incompetence working for you. It's a miracle it lasted as long as it did.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

my opinion and i have a right to it. It is not me who is keeping this conspiracy alive. It was a response from anger. time line...Sims announces its closing...angry sims make lots of angry posts...boards go down....what is the logical conclusion ?

whether you like it or not, it was a logical conclusion. I didn't say I was right or wrong.

 

[Kiminality]

But, since it's been established as wrong, it is nothing more than fiction.

That is your right.
Just as it's everyone else's right to point out that it's incorrect.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

What proof? people who are paid by Stratics denying it is not proof.
I expect no less from them. I always defend my boss to

 

[DutchAmerica]

I figure, it's just an ironic conincidence. EA has given us a healthy does of 'Keeping It Real" by the royal screw-over it gave us.

I don't even blame the devs because the way it sounded, they probably got blind-sided like we did.

I'm just glad we have the boards 'somewhat' reinstated.

I wonder if the 'Neighborhood' names are still working? I want to get my neighorhood back on the map so I can screenie it. Anyone want to move their props to Love Beach in Mount Fuji in the next week or so to help me out?

 

[Trish]

Who gets paid by Stratics? Not I.. Milt? Did they find the glitch in payroll yet?

Stratics is run by volunteers. That means none of us have bosses to "defend". This was all a terrible coincidence and I was really feeling for you guys, more than anyone else, when it happened.

 

[Stu Pitt Moran]

ok this will be my last post on this thread. I'm sure you all will be pleased.
I have stated my position before and will do so one last time.

Fact 1 : EA posts date for EA Land closing.
Fact 2 : Alot of angry sims make angry posts on here.
Fact 3 : Stratics goes down.

This was the order of evens. So it was a natural conclusion, right or wrong, to assume it was collusion. These are the facts as i see them. You say I'm wrong in my conclusion and thats fine with me. I may be wrong as you seem think but there is nothing wrong with my logic. It is a very plausible time line and conclusion.

THE END

 

[Robert64]

I would like to say, that regardless of the ranting and raving over who is wrong, many good people were hurt over EA. Those people who have tried to dedicate themselves to keeping stratics open thru all these deserve to be treated as among the loyal. Not as some people under the thumb of EA. To say its all a huge conspiracy, its not being fair to those that really try hard to make this forum what it is. The forum crashed, but as you can tell, people worked hard to get it back open again. Let's not go around accusing good people of conspiraying with EA.
As I have known Stratic thru the years, they have always been good up standing people, and work hard to make this forum workable for all people. Things do happen though and sure we can blame everyone one under the sun, but let's accept the fact that, they got it back up. That is my two cents worth. I applaud Stratic for going a good job.

 

[ajdown@jp]

This was the order of evens. So it was a natural conclusion, right or wrong, to assume it was collusion. These are the facts as i see them. You say I'm wrong in my conclusion and thats fine with me. I may be wrong as you seem think but there is nothing wrong with my logic.

You are wrong. There's nothing more to be said. Do you really think Stratics sucks up to EA that much they'd make up a whole story that affects THOUSANDS of users across its entire network, not just the TSO forums, we're only a tiny percentage of the userbase. Then, be offline for a whole week - damaging their own reputation in the process - and go to all the effort of making 'temporary forums' that required reregistering to cover it all up and 'hide the evidence'?

If we mattered to EA even a fraction of justifying the trouble of all the above... we wouldn't be being closed down.

 

[Milton]

ok this will be my last post on this thread. I'm sure you all will be pleased.
I have stated my position before and will do so one last time.

Fact 1 : EA posts date for EA Land closing.
Fact 2 : Alot of angry sims make angry posts on here.
Fact 3 : Stratics goes down.

This was the order of evens. So it was a natural conclusion, right or wrong, to assume it was collusion. These are the facts as i see them. You say I'm wrong in my conclusion and thats fine with me. I may be wrong as you seem think but there is nothing wrong with my logic. It is a very plausible time line and conclusion.

THE END

Fact 1 : EA posts date for EA Land closing.
Fact 2 : Alot of angry sims make angry posts on here.
Fact 3 : The sun disappeared from the sky.


That was the order of events. Is it a natural conclusion that EA made the sun disappear? They are all indisputible facts.

 

[Gilly]

ok this will be my last post on this thread. I'm sure you all will be pleased.
I have stated my position before and will do so one last time.

Fact 1 : EA posts date for EA Land closing.
Fact 2 : Alot of angry sims make angry posts on here.
Fact 3 : Stratics goes down.

This was the order of evens. So it was a natural conclusion, right or wrong, to assume it was collusion. These are the facts as i see them. You say I'm wrong in my conclusion and thats fine with me. I may be wrong as you seem think but there is nothing wrong with my logic. It is a very plausible time line and conclusion.

THE END

There *is* something wrong with your logic......your conclusions are only plausible, if you deliberately leave out all other 'facts' or factors, relevant to the event.

You chose to ignore anything that did not support your point of view, and then, using that limited and self-serving perspective, accused Stratics workers (the majority of whom, have little knowledge of or any connection to this game ) of being self-destructive tools for EA Games.

Nothing 'logical' about it at all.....just misplaced anger, masquerading as logic.