How
important is your entertainment?
| This
question occurred to me as I was reading Delekhan’s musings
about Electronic Arts on Desslock’s
site. For those who don’t know, Electronic
Arts is the giant parent company for many subsidiaries. What Beatrice is to Fleischmann’s and Egg Beaters, EA is to Bullfrog
(Dungeon Keeper),
Maxis (The Sims, SimCity), Westwood (Nox)
and other game developers.
At
the beginning of May, EA announced its intention to showcase
a new branding strategy at E3 2000.
From that point on, all packaging and promotions
will be consolidated under one of three EA logos: EA Games,
EA Sports, and EA.com.
Delekhan
pointed out that “While as gamers we may hold at times
sentimental and nostalgic attachments to brand names like
Origin, Westwood, Bullfrog, and Maxis, the bean counters
in major corporations only care if that brand helps to
generate revenue.”
That’s
certainly true, but I think this streamlining may have
an auxiliary benefit for the company-- one that is less
than beneficial to the activist gamer.
|
| Have
you ever written to a game company with criticism
or feedback about a game?
|
|
Many
of you are aware of the negative press Origin has received in
the past – the lawsuit by Ultima
Online players, the shutting down of official message boards
because of justified complaints by users, poor customer service,
and most recently, the release of
Ultima IX: Ascension, the game awarded the dubious distinction
of Worst Game of the Year by several gaming sites.
Pressed by greed to meet the Christmas shopping rush,
the game was released prematurely, and was literally unplayable
by the majority of gamers. It was plagued by memory leaks, had terrible Direct 3D support,
and was buggier than a trash heap in August.
But
there was some recourse. Gamers were quick to react with public
outcry and a boycott. By doing so, they were able to
send a message to Origin that their actions were unacceptable.
Origin responded with more of the bad behavior they have
earned a reputation for, and now the crows have finally come
home to roost with the departure of Richard “Lord British” Garriott
and the less-than-stellar earnings for the entity he founded.
EA appears to be responding by gathering all its ducks
home under new labels that carry none of the negative baggage
of the previous ones.
While
I believe many gamers are too smart to be fooled by EA’s tactics,
I also theorize that it may not matter. After all, it’s a lot harder to boycott EA Games or EA Sports,
simply because of the sheer number of titles.
Temptation to play will probably overwhelm the ethics
of all but the most passionate gaming activists.
It was easier to target Origin when a gamer could instead
play an offering from Maxis or Bullfrog.
In addition, EA Games will be large enough that a lack
of sales on a game or two, even if gamers make a concerted effort,
may not send a clear message of frustration – the company may
just figure it’s a bad game, cut its losses, and move on without
ever hearing the truth of why it failed. When you’re that big, with that many horses in the stable, you
can afford to ignore the loss of a few. The world’s largest
developer of video games can afford not to care.
Additionally,
I have to wonder just how many care enough to make a difference.
There are plenty of folks who write into the Letters
sections of gaming magazines, it seems, but almost certainly
there are more that do not.
I know I have a list of companies in my head that are
blacklisted for a variety of causes.
For example, I never buy certain food brands, for political
reasons. While I realize that my little boycott hurts that manufacturer negligibly,
it makes a difference to me because I know I’m not helping to
put money in their pocket.
I also know that if I don’t act and speak out whenever
possible, it’s unlikely that things will change.
Maybe I was just born a crusader: it is not my nature
to stand by and remain apathetic.
But
is entertainment important enough to give it the same treatment
(if not the same weight) as a political cause? How serious are gamers when it comes to expressing
how they feel about the options available? It’s recreation –
and people don’t like sacrificing that.
But if they continue to buy and continue to remain quiet,
they’re not getting full satisfaction from their gaming dollars.
And gaming sites and magazines aren’t likely to do the
work for them – few are willing to bite the hand that feeds
them by giving negative reviews on a freebie game from one of
the big publishers.
I
would be interested in hearing feedback from readers on
this. How many of
you have ever written a gaming company, either via e-mail
or snail mail, to complain about a game?
For whatever reason – sexist portrayal of female
characters, crummy interface, doesn’t matter. How many of
you have refused to fork over your $50.00 for a game because
of that, and bothered to follow it up with a letter saying
so? How many have had no interest in buying Game X because you found
something about it offensive, either from the cover art
(such as the tarts on the EverQuest
box), or from something you knew about it from reading a
game review? Now, how many of you rolled over just because
even though you didn’t like it, you wanted to play something,
and it just wasn’t worth the effort, or you were too busy,
or you forgot? Be honest when you vote in the poll above.
|
If
you’re a gaming activist, please keep up the hard work.
If you’re one of the slackers, shame on you!
The good news is that it’s never too late to change.
All of you can do something right now – with the advent of e-mail, it’s never been
easier to tell a gaming company how you feel.
Below
is a list of gaming companies, with e-mail addresses already
provided for feedback. If
you care about seeing better products, pick at least one, and
(politely) share your opinion on one or more of their games.
You may even want to tell the company they’re doing something
right – I let Bioware know how much I appreciated the character
customization in Baldur's Gate, for example. If the company
doesn’t listen, don’t buy their games.
Instead, spend money with smaller developers who will
listen to what you have to say.
Also, go to the source – get on message boards and talk
to the actual programmers and developers as soon as you hear
about a game you’re interested in – if you tell them what you
want while they’re still coding, you may be more likely to see
positive results. You’re
likely to have more success influencing individuals than trying
to take on the whole corporate juggernaut, but it doesn’t hurt
to send your message to several folks or departments within
the same company. The
more that see it, the more awareness you spread. I am not suggesting that you spam anyone, but
a few well-placed messages to the right people are more likely
to achieve success than one to an overwhelmed customer service
representative who may just file your letter in the dustbin.
Remember, you get what you settle for.
Female
gamers can be vocal and can make a difference. Other groups have done it – with a little effort,
and perhaps a bit of help from our male gamer friends, we can succeed in getting games developed
that are worth the expenditure of our precious leisure time.
Links
to just a few gaming companies:
Acclaim
(http://www.acclaim.com/index.html)
(Forsaken,
Mary Kate & Ashley, Shadow Man, South Park)
consumerservice@acclaim.com
Bioware
http://www.bioware.com
(Baldur’s
Gate, MDK2, Neverwinter Nights, Shattered
Steel )
http://www.bioware.com/info/contacts.html
(they have a different e-mail addy for each game)
Blizzard
http://www.blizzard.com/
(Diablo
II, Starcraft, Warcraft)
sales@blizzard.com
Eidos
http://www.eidosinteractive.com
(Omikron
the Nomad Soul, Thief,
Tomb Raider, Revenant)
techsupp@eidos.com (the only e-mail addy I could find)
GT
Interactive http://www.gtinteractive.com/
(Unreal
Tournament, Total
Annihilation: Kingdoms )
GTsupport@aqinc.com
(only addy I could find)
Hasbro
Interactive http://www.hasbrointeractive.com
(Rollercoaster
Tycoon)
Id
Software http://www.idsoftware.com/
(Quake,
Quake II, Quake III Arena)
Jellyvision
http://www.jellyvision.com/
(You
Don’t Know Jack!, Who
Wants to Be a Millionaire? )
amanda_lannert@jellyvision.com
Maxis
http://www.maxis.com
(The
Sims, SimCity 3000)
support@ea.com
(the only e-mail addy I could find)
Microsoft
http://www.microsoft.com/games/
(Age
of Empires, Pandora’s Box )
Ritual
Entertainment http://www.ritual.com/index.html
(Sin)
info@ritual.com
Sierra
Studios http://www.sierrastudios.com/
(Gabriel
Knight III, Half Life,
Homeworld, Pharaoh, Tribes)
customer.service@sierra.com
suggestions@sierra.com
Yale
Brozen, publisher of Computer Games Online at ybrozen@cdmag.com
Michael
Brown, Director of CNet Gamecenter at MichaelB@cnet.com
The
E3 Media Relations team at e3expo@cohnwolfe.com,
or call their hotline at 310-967-2946.
