Sim City 5 and Electronic Arts

[snap20]

If you've been on the site for a while, you know my extreme hatred for EA (Electronic Arts, the company that bought Pogo a while back). Well they released the newest Sim City this week and it's a debacle from day one. There was an issue with Pogo servers being down on Tuesday, and I have no doubt that it was caused because of the SimCity release and issues. I hope this is a step in the right direction for people to finally realize what kind of company EA is and has been for many, many years. They are so concerned with losing money to "piracy" (and those pirates are people that would never buy the game in the first place) that they alienate all of their paying customers with "Always online -DRM".

Interesting opinion piece on the subject here: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/08/simcity-burning-a-warning-to-microsoft-sony-and-all-publishers-on-the-dangers-of-always-online-drm

[hotpinklovesofa]

Pretty much all corporations are $%^& because they're not held accountable for their scum of the earth business practices or can buy their way out when they are because the consequences are not big and effective enough deterrents thanks to their campaign contributions to both sides of the aisle that make sure that the punishment is small enough to be absorbed by the company. However, individual anger towards any particular company stems from whether and how much you're personally invested in a product and/or service provided by that company.  I harbor far more anger towards AT&T than I do EA even though EA's inefficient and ineffective practices affect my favorite iPhone game The Simpsons Tapped Out and on occasion Pogo when I'm in the middle of completing a badge (at least I have the option of whether I want to do business with EA but I don't with AT&T because they are the only phone company that services my area.)  I have, however, decided not to renew my Pogo membership because my schedule doesn't really allow for me to complete badges in the time allotted and I do feel that for the current membership rates, even with a discount, that their service and what they provide in return for it, are ultimately not commensurable.  I don't think it's news that they should be investing their profits in more, newer and better servers that are organized in a way that is more efficient for all the different gaming experiences they offer so that these outages don't happen quite as often whenever they release updates or new games.  That being said, unless people who are truly angered and disgusted by EA start dropping their Pogo memberships and not spending money on in-game premium items, etc., they're not going to care.  It's like the landlord that acts highly concerned about the couple downstairs that is always getting into loud verbal and possibly physical domestic fights and says that he/she will do something but as long as that couple is paying the rent on time doesn't actually give a damn.  Your only option is to move away because calling the cops won't work unless the landlord is willing to use those calls as basis for an eviction.  If (general) you hate EA that much, and Pogo or TSTO has become more of a stress causer than a stress reliever then your only option is stop doing business with them.  Similar complaints about EA all over the TSTO boards and the solution is simple, stop playing or stop paying for in-game premium items if you want to punish EA.

[snap20]

Haven't paid a dime to EA for a number of years. My pogo membership comes from coke rewards (you could argue, that that costs me money, but I'd be drinking the soda and collecting the points anyway, I just choose to spend it on pogo rather than magazines).

A lot of people are returning the game (SimCity) to Amazon, who is accepting returns. Hopefully people realize that things will never change with EA, because they control the market, and people speak with their wallets and stop buying the products. One of the worst things is that EA buys up all the little companies making software/entertainment because they know they (the smaller companies) develop and offer a better product. Then EA takes it, drives it's reputation into the ground until people stop buying it, scrap the game series/company and buy up the next one. Profit is all they care about. That's not news to anyone, but people still keep buying their products. Hopefully this is the final straw for those that still find ways to buy EA products/games.

BTW, I agree with you about AT&T. That sucks you don't have a choice...I've been in that situation too. I refuse to do any kind of business with AT&T and currently am not forced to either.