EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

[Shawn Zipay]

I'm not sure if a "congratulations" or a "our condolences" are in order here. The Consumerist ran a lengthy bracket poll of the "worst companies in America" over the past month and EA was voted to be the overall worst of the worst.

After more than 250,000 votes, Consumerist readers ultimately decided that the type of greed exhibited by EA, which is supposed to be making the world a more fun place, is worse than Bank of America's avarice, which some would argue is the entire point of operating a bank.

To those who might sneer at something as "non-essential" as a video game company winning the Worst Company In America vote: It's that exact kind of attitude that allows people to ignore the complaints as companies like EA to nickel and dime consumers to death.

So what did EA have to say about "winning" this "prestigious" honor? Well, they shrugged it off like it was nothing, of course.

"We're sure that bank presidents, oil, tobacco and weapons companies are all relieved they weren't on the list this year," John Reseburg, EA's senior director of corporate communications, wrote in reply to Vox Games. "We're going to continue making award-winning games and services played by more than 300 million people worldwide."

Reseburg went on to point to a number of recent stories about the company that he says are an indicator of "our connection with consumers in more meaningful ways."

Even if it's just some "stupid poll" on a website in which irate fans are the ones voting, it really isn't something that any company should just shrug off. I think the fact that they were even on the list in the first place goes to show that there is at least some validity to all of the complaints.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Idk, with all the different issues with kotek and activision, and they didn't win? What hatred is so great for ea to take this? The suppression in bf3 is bad, but not that bad and they do plan to adjust it.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Looking at the comments it seems most disagree with the vote. I can't find the options in the bracket, but I see paypal on the list. What did they do?

[Shawn Zipay]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Paypal is a pile of festering crap. Their support is worse than anything you will ever see from Origin. I never once interacted with a single live person after my Paypal account was hijacked last year, they never once gave me feedback on any step. I was essentially feeling around in the dark to get it all resolved because they were of no help.

Beyond that, they have told people to destroy a $2,500 violin because it "might be fake": http://articles.businessinsider.com/...antique-violin

They have denied funds going to charitable events: http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/06/pa...tsy-donations/

The above is one example but it did happen a few times last year.

In fact from that list I can probably rattle off at least one personal example from Facebook, EA, Sony, Netflix, Time Warner Cable, Apple and Gamestop as to why they should definitely have been on that list in any capacity.

[Eagle101]

i disagree, why isn't activision their, arent they also milking the consumers, second to that EA has done good with BF3, honestly forget for a second that i am a BF fan, i also am a cod fan since cod1 and uo, man i see people telling me that they have been playing since cod 4 and its where it all started stupid douchebags.Anyways enough with my rant i jsut wanted to say i disagree with this, EA might be a money sucking publisher but there are other companies that should be on that list, so far EA has done right by me.

[5t3v0]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

My answer to all if I'm reading right:

/v/

I was lurking /v/ earlier (Gabe newel has said he is a brony, and /mlp/ and ponychan are saying they are going apeshit, and I wanted to verify that claim) and have claimed victory over this. They say that EA shares have dropped because of the Mass Voting they did. Some even said that Bank of America should have gotten it, like was predicted, but it seems that this vote may have been rigged Anon style.

[K-16]

Weird. I figured with the innovation of Autolog and publishing of Mirror's Edge, EA would've been able to dodge being the winn... Los... Top vote of the competition. Was Autolog not enough to show they at least have a moment of inspiration once in a while beyond the purposes of greed?

[5t3v0]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Had to google it... But Autolog is the NFS version of Battlelog, right?

[CptainCrunch]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Paypal is a pile of festering crap. Their support is worse than anything you will ever see from Origin. I never once interacted with a single live person after my Paypal account was hijacked last year, they never once gave me feedback on any step. I was essentially feeling around in the dark to get it all resolved because they were of no help.

Beyond that, they have told people to destroy a $2,500 violin because it "might be fake": http://articles.businessinsider.com/...antique-violin

They have denied funds going to charitable events: http://venturebeat.com/2011/12/06/pa...tsy-donations/

The above is one example but it did happen a few times last year.

In fact from that list I can probably rattle off at least one personal example from Facebook, EA, Sony, Netflix, Time Warner Cable, Apple and Gamestop as to why they should definitely have been on that list in any capacity.

Im sure they all deserve to be on the list, I just wasnt aware of what Paypal did. They seem to have made themselves entirely automated with no thought at the helm while leaving people stranded and with bad advice.

i disagree, why isn't activision their, arent they also milking the consumers, second to that EA has done good with BF3, honestly forget for a second that i am a BF fan, i also am a cod fan since cod1 and uo, man i see people telling me that they have been playing since cod 4 and its where it all started stupid douchebags.Anyways enough with my rant i jsut wanted to say i disagree with this, EA might be a money sucking publisher but there are other companies that should be on that list, so far EA has done right by me.

There is a very large group that say EA deserves the award BECAUSE of BF3. However, I agree that if Activision wasnt even on the list, the company of death for so many different games, I dont see why EA would be on it. I guess they had to pick one and whomever made the list must like Activision or really hate EA, making this a bit biased.

My answer to all if I'm reading right:

/v/

I was lurking /v/ earlier (Gabe newel has said he is a brony, and /mlp/ and ponychan are saying they are going apeshit, and I wanted to verify that claim) and have claimed victory over this. They say that EA shares have dropped because of the Mass Voting they did. Some even said that Bank of America should have gotten it, like was predicted, but it seems that this vote may have been rigged Anon style.

Which mass voting may skew the results for sure and explain why people are commenting the way they are on the forums.

[Eagle101]

I agree with what you said Crunch, to be frank, i am tired of the flack BF3 is getting, its the same hsitory as with previous titles of BF but i still manage to enjoy the game very much, i bought MW3, i said i would somewhwere down the line and GAME had a mega sale a while back and got it for a good price, never touched it lol.But in any case i get angry when someone dismisses EA and praises another company that is equally upsetting. I am not that bothered by EA, i am not that let down by them to tell the truth the only most upsetting part of EA was Red Alert 3, it could have been loads better, hence why i am desperatley waiting for C&C Generals 2. sorry for the drift off, i get emotional around these kind of things

[K-16]

Re: EA Voted Worst Company in America, Shrugs it Off

Had to google it... But Autolog is the NFS version of Battlelog, right?

More like the other way around and to a lesser extent (Battlelog is the BF3 improvement of Autolog). Autolog started in NFS: HP and continued in NFS: Shift 2 Unleashed, both of which were released long before BF3 came out. However, their primary function is for maintaining a real-time scoreboard of course/lap records meant to encourage competitive racing for both multiplayer and singleplayer. Unlike traditional scoreboards, Autolog notifies you whenever somebody beats your personal records, as well as who that person is, as a way to incite rivalry. Battlelog, on the other hand, is designed to be a hub similar to Call of Duty Elite where it acts as a social platform with persistent stat tracking (though intentionally named "log" to continue the theme of the moniker).

It's a massive improvement to what Autolog provided the foundation to, and while not the first to pull this kind of thing off (Counter-Strike and Day of Defeat had Steamworks to provide persistent stat tracking), they are one of the first to make it personalised and integrated into the game rather than having numbers read outside of the game. VALVe tried to integrate stats into the game in real-time, but their approach was frowned upon (remember the Counter-Strike weapons market?) and easily forgotten. I only used VALVe as an example, but my point is that EA is one of the first (if not the first) in the industry to successfully use persistent stats as a gameplay mechanic.

It's unfortunate that their moments of innovation are forgotten (as you have pointed out) in favor of their usual antics, which is why I'm confused over their result. Then again, I'm still butt-hurt over the cancellation of BF: 1943 and BF: BC2 DLC (after the first DLC) for PC to focus on BF3; only to find out the game wasn't designed for PC upon day one release (though it did have PC specific features which was nice, since industry standards flushed it all away in favor of the streamlined and unified console development method).