14 DAY TRIAL // Electronic Arts is attempting to get another "worst company in the world" award, according to the VP of its mobile division, Frank Gibeau.
He tries to explain, in a recent interview with GamesIndustry, just how people should perceive the fiasco regarding the mobile version of Dungeon Keeper, in order for the company to remain profitable and not be spat on by everyone with every occasion.
It should be noted that EA has a long history of underpaying its testers and programmers and enforcing crunch as the de facto way to go about software development, and is largely regarded as a slave driver by anyone who is old enough to have played FIFA 99.
The company did, to its credit, change its ways since the murky times of the Y2K craze, but it appears that, just like the One Ring's corruption made Gollum jump into a volcano, its old exploitative ways are still deeply rooted within its greedy self.
But let's just get to the matter at hand. The free-to-play "reboot" of old-time strategy game Dungeon Keeper was a disaster. It was not as much as a game as it was a beggar, consistently pestering you for change at every step and hiding all its features behind a massive paywall that led you to believe that building an underground lair would be simpler to pull off in real life, armed with a trusty spoon and a lot of determination.
EA used to be one of the top premium game makers a while ago, but since then it had to adapt to the increasing trend of free-to-play games, and as such decided to turn a soulful, beloved franchise that it chose to ignore for 15 years into a cash cow.
The game was unplayable. The development team did a good job, but the management was probably inspired by Orwell's "1984," and wanted to devise the only game that would be allowed under such an oppressive regime.
The only thing missing from its aggressive monetization approach was having to call friends and tell them how much you love EA and having to shout "All hail EA!" from time in time in order for the game to let you play it.
After patting itself on the back for a job well done murdering a beloved franchise by targeting it at a completely different demographic and forgetting that Molyneux's genius was that many of his ideas were brand-new and experimental, not merely copies of other successful projects *cough, Clash of Clans, cough* that he also wanted to cash in on, the company now has the Audacity to claim that the game wasn't successful because of us.
"I don't think we did a particularly good job marketing it or talking to fans about their expectations for what Dungeon Keeper was going to be or ultimately should be. I think we might have innovated too much or tried some different things that people just weren't ready for. Or, frankly, were not in tune with what the brand would have allowed us to do."
These are his exact words.
How someone can say something like this without having their head implode is a mystery to me. How someone can hold such a high position at EA and say something like this without batting an eyelash is indicative of the company's intention to do something like this in the future.
Making a reboot of Dungeon Keeper is by no means a bad idea, as long as you remember that the people who used to be fans of Bullfrog and its innovative ways are the same ones who think DLC is content you have taken out of the game only to be charging extra for at a later time, and who prefer the money-up-front kind of deal, rather than inching their way through a freemium app on the dole.
Now, there also seems to be a bit of confusion at EA in regards to what Dungeon Keeper was about. In the old games, you took on the role of an exploitative ruler that worked his minions to death, a nice spin on the classic Tolkienesque model used in all manner of fantasy creations.
The point was for the player to be the exploitative one, not for EA. Instead, the company shipped a non-game that does not require any skill or experimentation, but only that you supply a steady stream of cash, in spite of EA's contempt for you or whatever expectations you might have had regarding a Dungeon Keeper remake.
Gibeau makes it very clear, EA owns the IPs and it will do whatever it sees fit with them, ignoring your affective bond with them or whatever they used to stand for. EA didn't apologize for misleading its fans or for desecrating a legend. It made you accountable for its mistakes, and it's making you responsible for the fact that you didn't want to bribe your way to victory like so many casual gamers do.
It's interesting to see how effective marketing really is, and how lying through your teeth and completely neglecting any form of context seems to be an effective way to address your consumers, all the while joking that you're probably not going to do a sequel, ignoring the fact that your interference made it flop.
The company is not greedy, you're just misinterpreting the fact that it's holding the gameplay for ransom. It's not exploitative, it just wanted to make a quick buck by butchering something that many people love. And now, it's not contempt it's showing, instead you're to blame for not getting with the times.
Oh, and if you want to give the app less than five stars, it asks you to fill out a form. Five stars you're good to go, but less than that? EA won't have it and will make you do stuff that nobody wants to do in the hopes that you'll just give up and not blemish its flawless record.
Stop asking for quality experiences and fork out the cash like the casuals do, EA wants to get as rich as King did for ripping off brainless "match three" games.
So, good luck winning your third worst company in America award, EA. Now only if consumers stopped buying your games long enough for you to listen to them!