Supposed EA Employee criticize company over Simcity

[kwetzel345 101]

As the tile explains, a supposed EA employee has criticized the company on it's way it handled Simcity. As for if this guy is legit or not, it is unknown. However, I figured posting this to a community that has been very much part of this disaster from the start is only right. The link is below:

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertcoin/2013/03/08/ea-employee-chastizes-company-over-simcity-in-public-letter/

 

If this is true, than good for him for speaking out!. A title that has this much respect in the gaming industry deserves an explanation as to why it name was smeared and trashed. Anyways, enjoy.

[Jahnri 21]

Reminds me vaguely of the guy which texted about Swtor. Oy, what a mess that generated.

[horses33 4]

Must be true because someone posted this over on the official EA forums and it was yanked almost instantly.   EA trying to do damage control. 

[Shadely 63]

That letter is absolutely beautiful.

[lucidus 69]

Fake!  Whoever wrote that letter is clearly not evil enough to work for EA.

[el.lopan 54]

Disaster following disaster 

[arcology 224]

That letter is absolutely beautiful.

 

 

Agreed.

[Shadely 63]

Reminds me vaguely of the guy which texted about Swtor. Oy, what a mess that generated.

 

EA Louse was right though. I read his letter back then too but I didn't want to believe it because I was so excited for SWTOR. It may have created a mess but hey, he was spot on. I really wish he had been wrong though.

[snowhawk04 22]

http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/19xb2m/a_letter_from_an_ea_employee_to_executives/c8scea7

 

Claims he didn't delete the original post himself.

[GenXisT 127]

A sign of a spineless person is one who cannot take criticism.  Cannot accept fault for wrong doing.  Doesn't apologize.  Doesn't rectify.

How these people run companies and make all the money is an indictment on American society as a whole, if I'm being honest.

Too often, the heartless bullies run over the little guy in order to get ahead to make a buck.

And then complain when asked to share the load of the burdens that they have cause ALL of us.

After all, you simply cannot get to the top without trampling on everyone along the way.  That's the way it works.

 

It truly is a disgrace.  I hope this guy is real.  And I hope he doesn't get fired.

More people need to be bold enough to step up and not put up with this $%&^!.

 

Top man, that... 

[Jahnri 21]

EA Louse, now I remember. Sadly your right. A lot of the things he said were true. To be honest if this is another whistle blower so to speak it wouldnt surprise me. However the manner in which he described the topic is a bit odd. Its a word for word repeat of what we all said.

Fake or not, even if I love the game, I do not agree with the direction EA took. Taking out the true single player was like shooting themselves in the foot. 

[T Wrecks 10,209]

Must be true because someone posted this over on the official EA forums and it was yanked almost instantly.   EA trying to do damage control. 

Have they truly never heard of the Streisand Effect? Are they that stupid?

[Evil_One 119]

Must be true because someone posted this over on the official EA forums and it was yanked almost instantly.   EA trying to do damage control. 

Have they truly never heard of the Streisand Effect? Are they that stupid?

 

Yes, they really ARE that stupid.

 

At the very least, they're arrogant enough to believe it will work.

[fretz- 1]

The way that guy describes the EA campus, with banners extolling the company virtues but the reality being the exact opposite is textbook Orwellian Newspeak.

[reputationZed 4]

I thought it was a well written letter, unfortunately I don't hold much hope that EA’s leadership will take it to heart.

[nats 99]

God that was priceless! Lovely to see EA employees slagging off their employers on public media! Havent had such a laugh in a long time.

 

And it was a very well written critique of the whole mess, even though it pretty much says what everyone has been saying for months. We all knew it was coming!

 

I love those slogans though that EA has around their site - BE BOLD - lol! CUSTOMERS FIRST - fofl! I didnt know about those. If EA really has these things blazened all over the place and are completely disregarding them, what does that say about their whole outfit! What a joke. I agree with the poster above - fiorst thing I thought of when I read about them was the book 1994! I am surprised they dont have banners of the directors everywhere as well with slogans beneath them like 'careless talk costs lives!'.

 

Makes you realise above everything else just how despondant their employees must be. Certainly morale doesnt sound high.

What EA should do above everything though is find this bloke ... and make him a director! Guts like that doesnt come along very often and he sounds like he is probably one of the only employees with any sense. He obviously has scruples.

 

I wonder if its Ocean Quigley himself ?

[macvirt 361]

First of all, the person with whom the general message originates has absolutely zero understanding of how EA functions. 

 

Admittedly, most EA employees have no idea either. It is an integral part of the corporate narrative to maintain a strict seperation between the enterprise and its resources, the latter is what employees are a part of. Many publishers and even big studios suffer deliberately from this syndrome, because to create an environment where all noses point the same way without question is vital for the execution of corporate vision and policy alike.

 

2K Games has had similar upheavals on the release of Civilization V, mostly internal to the industry, aside of a minor blurb none of it really made it beyond the usual talk of the conference type of exchange. Firaxis had a somewhat larger issue, where two employees were a bit too verbal on the divide between the studio and the publisher prior to the title release. Ubisoft has had similar hiccups a few years ago in regards to advocated DRM policies. Blizzard has had a few people fired over small leaks showing dissent. CCP Games nearly broke itself when corporate management became so seperated from its product and so oblivious to the actual realities of both the company and the business that pants dropped over the course of several years in employee reviews of the company on industry job sites and ultimately a series of massive leaks showing utter disdain by the corporate management for the customer. 

 

It's nothing out of the ordinary for our industry. Truth be told, it does not even matter any more whether a leak or an open letter is from an employee, a former employee, the husband of the employee or a studio slave. It's symptomatic for something that most people who work in the industry tend to be completely oblivious to.

 

Everything is marketing. Marketing serves to have noses point the same way. That goes for customers. That goes for employees. Both are keen to embrace a project, a game, want to give it all they can, and the external and internal marketing serves to make that so. In the mean time the corporate affair, so to speak, could not give any rat's ass less about either. Resources. Expendable. Giving anything your all is not a factor. Company values are marketing. Pure and simple. 

 

 

I hate to say it, but every so often studios send fresh meat to industry conferences and conventions, who quickly find themselves torn in two categories. Those that quickly shun the veterans because they do not see their work as a privilige and an awesome challenge, and those who still believe the marketing. The next year the first have shut up and still have a job, the second have been replaced by even fresher meat. Irony pure and simple. 

 

The reality is that believing in anything you are told in this industry is only of interest if it serves a career progression, and that only works if you are smart enough to ditch across projects in the long run. Because ultimately everything and everyone is just as expendable as the workers good old Ford picked from at the gates of his first factory when the T model started to roll off the factory line. And people hate that realisation, especially in this industry because it is such a dream for so many. Working in this industry, making games, being awesome. And finding out that it is just another industry hurts enough already, finding out that you are less than a cog hurts even more for many. 

 

Incidentally, this is also why so many people who do find out while working in studios tend to just suck it up and try to keep their noses pointing the same way. Something which is one of the biggest reasons of all why projects go beyond budget or suffer severely in quality and service management. But that is something which on the enterprise level is factored in and calculated for. It is a non factor.

 

What people should realise where it comes to EA is that it is an enterprise which functions as an investment fund manager utilising venture capital. 

 

The current mess surrounding the SC2013 release I can assure you all was already factored in on two levels. That of the executive where people just provide that which serves the narrative, and just below that where the sharks fight to get to the executive level where a few smart ones actually succeed in working the good old paradigm of "there is no such thing as bad press" to achieve targets. I know, it sounds crazy, but anyone who has ever worked as a manager at the larger publishers can attest to the climate and the business models in play. This is how it works. 

 

Sure, it steps on dreams of those who do the actual work, but those do not matter in any way or form. Enterprise development is resource management first and foremost with the prime instrument of narrative control. Why do you think companies send employees to bootcamps? Why do you think companies invest in a corporate culture? Because it serves sales. 

 

 

Now on that open letter, I sincerely doubt that anyone working at EA would have posted that. I know quite a few, and the sheep mentality reigns supreme. And of those few that do observe the reality of our industry none would even dream to make waves. At best it's something posted by a friend of relation of an employee. Personally I think it is much more likely that a customer wrote it. If anything, it is far too eloquent for any EA environment

 

But as I said, it does not matter who wrote it. Nobody who sets policy is going to do more than laugh about it. It is irrelevant, because it provides no arguments that affect the business model. I can't make it any more clear than that. All nice talk, but zero relevance.