Petition to ask gamer’s to stop buying EA games

You may be aware of the Sim City launch fiasco currently playing out as we speak, gamer’s are unable to play a game they paid full price for because EA has always on DRM which is currently not working, their servers simply can not handle the load.....

[zeal0us]

Will it work? Nope
Some to most Madden, TigerWoodsGolf and Fifa fans will still go out any next version regardless what EA does.

[fatstarr]

but see with the way ea works they always want to do better than the last quarter and maintain a profit.

just them buying games alone will not bring them a profit. EA and Activision need a serious boycott

[Pl4sm4]

thats what we should do .... send a message that if you put always online/DRM in your game. it aint gonna sell. hopefully they'l take it off if this happens

[SilentNegotiator]

Ubisoft didn't go bankrupt from our resistance, but it made them stop the always on DRM anyway.

Some people don't seem to realize that our voices really are often heard despite the masses buying whatever looks cool in the ads.

[MikeMyers]

The best way to voice your opinion is by not buying it.

As we head more and more to an always online connection to our games, our accounts and so on the more problems can arise.

[SilentNegotiator]

We'll never be able to stop the masses from paying for entertainment that they want, though. "Voting with your wallet" is a bogus concept when the audience is the masses.

Of course, don't buy a game that pulls this sort of thing, but being vocal is key.

[MikeMyers]

SilentNegotiator, why should the minority speak for everyone though? I am not supporting the concept of always online single player games, it's just a simple question.

I don't want people to speak on my behalf. Not all EA games are bad for example. The NHL series is the best sports franchise out there IMO. Burnout Paradise was an awesome game. The first Dead Space was one of my favorite games.

So the problem I see with a petition like this is many people will vote against them because they don't like EA. The petition is about DRM and microtransactions. Do you know how many items are for sale for Little Big Planet? It's a great series buy I don't buy the DLC. So should we have a petition for that game too?

So like I said, I vote with my wallet. I don't like anonymous people online vote for me. I don't support those who rush out to MetaCritic and give the latest Call of Duty game a 0 or 1 because they hate how mainstream the series is or they hate Activision. There are hundreds if not thousands of games out there to choose from. Why waste so much effort focusing on games you don't like when you can be playing games you do like?

The moral of the story is this, not all DLC is bad and not all EA games are bad. However having to stay online for a single player game doesn't make much sense to me other than trying to prevent piracy and even then it doesn't always curb it. Instead it often disrupts the legit players experiences. If they can prevent piracy without making it a hassle for legit players I will be all for it.

[rainslacker]

@Mike

"Voting with your wallet" means nothing if you don't let the company know why you aren't buying the game in the first place. If you just don't buy it then the company can infer many things as to why the game didn't sell, such as the popularity of the SimCity series has waned since it's last release, meaning we may not see a better version come out in the future.

It's important to speak out on issues that arise such as this to hopefully influence positive change within the company and industry as a whole.

I won't deny that some may be people who just want to hate on EA, and let's face it, they seem to get a lot of hate. But that doesn't mean that the hate is unwarranted, and I'd rather they know why people "vote" than them assuming things that just aren't true...such as "we all love micro-transactions".

When things like this come around, petitions and community outcry, have a big chance of reaching the people who make the decisions...just look at the ME3 ending debacle. This is the only way for companies to adjust their business strategies to hopefully become better. It's up to the actual company now to actually listen to the feed back and act accordingly.

[MikeMyers]

rainslacker, I agree to a point. It needs to be done in a way that doesn't come across as gamers just being whiners or coming across as just hate for the company. John Riccitiello needs to hear VALID complaints. Not just random hate or generalizations.

We are still in the early stages of DLC and what people want out of it. I'd hate to see the minority speak on behalf of everyone since like I said, not all DLC is bad. We are likely to get a better agreement as a whole regarding the requirement to stay online to play single player games. I doubt the majority would support always having a connection to play single player games.

I am also not involved directly to how piracy and all of that actually impacts sales or how well these deterrents matter. All I can speak on is from my own experience and my own experience is it makes legit players have to go through hoops. Anytime the consumer can find a better alternative for free chances are they will likely do that more so. Like Gabe Newell said, the best way to combat piracy is to offer a better experience. Having server issues and not being able to access a single player game is not offering a good experience.

Consumers also don't like to be forced to be on services like Origin, so that goes against EA as well. On the flip-side it is their game so they can choose where they want to support it, just like console exclusives. This is why petitions need to be clear and not just random anger. Telling people not to buy any EA game is not the right way to go IMO. There are many employees that work hard on good games that should not be bunched with a game like Sim City that requires a constant online connection.

I understand we sometimes need to take a hard stance and try and put a stop to things before they become common in every game. So a petition for not buying single player games that require an always online connection is one I would support.

[rainslacker]

I agree mike. Saying EA sucks means nothing without context. Being concise is terribly important, and I will admit that some people aren't really going out of their way to make valid criticisms. I feel the criticisms over this matter are valid however. Using it as a reason to outright boycott EA is ridiculous, as I would say most boycotts are, but the message it sends is pretty clear.

The boycott itself will never amount to anything, because no boycott in the past, whether justified or not, has ever had a major effect on sales. That's why I feel it is important to state your displeasure in a meaningful way, and "vote with your wallet". If enough people do so then the company is forced to look at the decision in a meaningful light. If we end up being the small minority then so be it, EA can continue on as it see's fit, and we can move on to something which we find better.

[MikeMyers]

They did somewhat listen to fans about Mass Effect 3 so voicing concerns can have some impact. Anyways it's been a good chat, thanks.

[jagstatboy]

you forgot Battlefield.

[animegamingnerd]

i truly wish EA sports would die and people would stop buying fifa and madden but instead buy quality games instead

[DeltaCanuckian]

FIFA is regularly one of the highest rated games every year. Same with the NHL series. The sports games are extremely well made, whether you like them or not.

[bluetoto]

Of course it won't work. There SOME gamers who will take ANYTHING a company gives them with a smile. Even worse there are some who think they are better off by taking it up the arse. Even worse when gaming goes down they will look around like it's not THEIR fault. These are strange time to be a gamer.

[Root]

It probably won't work but it's nice to see that finally some gamers are actually trying to do something rather then complain.

I don't see why more people aren't on board with this, same goes for Capcom or Activision (COD)

EA have ruined nearly on their franchises this gen by either changing them into something they arn't or removing stuff which were in the last games

Sim City
Mass Effect
Dead Space
Dragon Age
Command and Conquer
Battlefield (not as good as it used to be)
The Sims (they can't even give us a good console port with the expansions as DLC)

[mandf]

A lot of games have flaws upon release. Some get a free pass (Skyrim) some don't. Hate is the new thing in this world.

[porkChop]

Skyrim had bugs and performance issues, yeah. But EA's games have been significantly altered and "casualized" at their very core design. That cannot be patched. That's the difference with games like Skyrim, the game itself was great. Maybe not as good as previous games in the series, but it was still very much a TES game. Bugs and performance can be patched, game design cannot.

[mandf]

@ porkChop

Everything you said was true but Skyrim had game saving glitches that would corrupt the save file and you would start over again. That is game breaking. Casualising a game is a spit in the face to the core who liked it the way it is. A company has the right to make their game more accessable to the masses even if we don't like it. When we as individuals stop buying the said game, the company will take a loss. It's not a perfect system. Saying all that Skyrim was broken in multiple ways and was fixed by modders for Pc and the developer after a while. That is broken. Sim City is sad.

[Cam977]

MEDAL OF HONOR! They decimated a once fantastic franchise.
They also closed Pandemic; the company responsible fir The Saboteur & Mercenaries. Although they weren't the best, The Saboteur had lots of potential to be improved on.

[bunt-custardly]

To stop millions from buying their favorite franchises just because a few core gamers aren't happy. No chance.

All those FIFA, MAdden players will tell you to take a running jump.

[pompombrum]

I dunno, many people in the fifa pro clubs community are fed up of fifa with a good few buying pes.

[phantomexe]

There no way i'd sign that i enjoy alot of EAs games. I've said this before most real gamers don't follow N4g and for good reason. Everything is doom and gloom for hits.

[Hitman0769]

This should be a petition against Origin not EA as a whole. If you guys want it to succeed you may want to reconsider the terms of the petition. This particular petition will not be taken seriously unfortunately.

[BX81]

Yeah I'm not going to buy BF4 because of this s/

[guitarded77]

Sorry petition... I'll buy whatever the hell I want. Sure it sucks when companies make major mistakes which affect gamers negatively, or price gouge on DLC, or have bad customer service, etc... but you can find a reason to get mad at any company. Also, people need to understand that EA is the publisher with several development studios independent of one another, so if I'm pissed about one game, another game I like may be made by a different group of people completely independent of another.

[Kran]

I want to stop. I really do, but then you see franchises you grew up with come back; SimCity, Need for Speed

and you're just like.... I want to.

It's like Dragon Age III. I want to play it to see what it's like, but it means I'm giving a sale to them. As far as BF4 is concerned, I couldn't give a damn anymore.

[T2]

Dragon age 3? You lost me there ill be getting it used ... Dragon age 2 is tragic

[Kran]

Of course it was.

But if Bioware are doing what they said they were going to do (take the good from Origins and the good from 2 (if there were any) then it'd be good.

[TemplarDante]

I want to sign..
but..
but....
Battlefield 4 and Fifa...

[Kran]

Awwww. You're gonna miss out on FIFA?

Well here you go. Here's Fifa 13... and 12... and 11... and also 10, 09, 08 and 07...

I can carry on if you like

[Cam977]

Can't forget 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99 - all of which are worth 1p and work on your PS3!

[wantonGamer]

Yeah I'm gonna quit FIFA because some poor bastard can't play Sim City, lol.

[mi_titan27]

did you even read the petition, its to not purchase games that require "always on" connection to the internet

[LordHiggens]

Gamers are a disjointed bunch, they could care less about their fellow gamer. Most of them anyway. It's why we will never see major change in the industry.

[wantonGamer]

I didn't read it :P

[Swiggins]

Why? Because of the Microtransaction scandal?

Well...how about I just don't buy those....

I like Battlefield...and Deadspace....and I'm excited for what Respawns game is gonna be....

[2pacalypsenow]

Only Ea Games i play are Fifa anyways but i wanted to get this if it wasn't for that damn DRM

[LordHiggens]

Consider it signed.

[Godmars290]

Better to get people to sign an agreement no to buy EA games until they stop pushing single player DRM.

[sjaakiejj]

In my opinion most of the complaints people launch towards EA are petty, issues which they wouldn't make a big deal out of if it was any other publisher.

So no, I'm not going to stop buying EA games just because some people are having some issues with SimCity. Sure they made some mistakes, but they're working hard to resolve those and a petition like this one really doesn't help anyone.

[bluetoto]

I can't wait for another gaming collapse as only then will some of these idiots see that their actions have a widespread affect on all of us. They might not care now, but soon...

[adumbpolock]

I'm almost forced into this weather I want to be or not. I'm stationed in Japan and origin doesn't allow you to change your region settings. I recently built a nice new computer after a deployment and wanted to get Crysis 3. next thing i know it only offers it for 6800 yen... On a day with a crappy exchange rate that's about 75 bucks. Also, I don't know if its true (I wouldn't put it past EA) but some people are saying games don't transfer from one region to another. So if i do buy a game here it wont be playable when i return stateside.

Never had this problem with steam. Hell, Every time someone had a game I wanted on steam, I would log in and buy it. Then i would have them do a backup on disk and restore it it on mine so I wouldn't kill what little bandwidth we had on the morale net.

[adumbpolock]

I really don't hate EA. Its just this one feature/issue that is causing me problems. Its really that I like there products and want to play them that i'm urked so badly.

[DeltaCanuckian]

I like NHL. I like Dead Space. I like Battlefield.

No. I will not stop buying from a company because a bunch of people on the internet get pissed off at every little thing EA does, even if other companies have been doing it for years. EA screws up plenty, but a good 80% of the vitriol I see is completely unfounded.

What's pathetic that if all the bad press EA gets said Valve instead of EA, people would be eating it up and calling it the next step for the games industry.

[Ragthorn]

This shall be the glorious petition anthem. RISE MY FRIENDS!!! TO GLORY!!!