User blog:Lost Labyrinth/EA - Can they be trusted?

Hey guys!

I know we've all heard about the recent graphics glitch with The Sims 3: Pets and how that annoyed many players. EA still haven't announced a fix for the issue. Then again, there are many issues that need to be fixed relating to EA...

From connectivity issues...
From reselling DLC to server issues and non-working online passes, EA have epically failed at many things. The image on the right shows how The Sims 3 on my PS3 failed at connecting to EA's server upon start-up. That happens every time I go to play the game, which has been patched. I find it rather odd that a game that needs very little interactivity with the internet fails at connecting to a server yet I can play Call of Duty, which needs a lot more interactivity with the internet, with no issues whatsoever. Bearing in mind that this game has been out for a year now, it's like EA doesn't care. And it's not just consoles that are affected...

...to ruining your whole game
The issue with TS3 isn't the only one. The same screen appears with Battlefield 3. Moments before that screen appeared, I was playing a match with no lag at all; in fact I was doing pretty well. Then suddenly I am disconnected from EA's server....just like that. Seems server maintenance didn't fix much. In fact, I'm wondering if EA even bother to update this page.

In regards to EA's laziness, they know about an online pass issue with BF3 but they don't seem to be doing much to improve it. I'm thankful my online pass did work but I have fears that I won't be getting my free download of Back to Karkand. EA only seem to bother with an online pass because "servers cost money" and you'd have to buy one if you purchased a used copy of a game. Seems EA only want the money...

And of course, the graphics glitch
Thanks to EA changing the animation engine in The Sims 3: Pets, a whole load of new problems have arised from broken custom content to the graphics glitch. I know EA had to obviously tweak the engine so that they could add Pets into the mix but changing a vital component just makes things worse. It's like trying to run Mac OS X software on Windows - it just doesn't work. This is why a developer should never change something major in a piece of software as it causes issues everywhere (yes iOS 5, thanks for rebooting my phone all the time because of your Wi-Fi glitch). When will EA patch this? Who knows? I'd just hope that the issue isn't so severe that it can't be patched but at the end of the day, EA shouldn't have changed the engine.

Let's not forget Origin...
Recently, EA rebranded the EA Download Manager as Origin. Not only did Battlefield 3 players on PC have to put up with it but so did anyone who played an iOS game developed by EA and it has hit The Sims series on several occassions. This piece of software powers EA's online platform as a whole and it is known for phoning home to "suggest improvements". If that is true, why does EA still need to take responsibility for tons of problems? I wouldn't be surprised if the "social features" in The Sims 3: Showtime were Origin-powered but I wish players were given the choice to opt-out. More about EA's move to a social platform within games can be found on LiR's blog and on the Showtime announcement blog.

While I'm here, if someone wants to know how I got those screenshots (and doesn't already know how to do it natively within iOS) then feel free to ask me on my talk page! :)

So what do you think about EA?
Everything I mentioned above, plus many other things, represent the problems that EA seem to cause and what they don't seem to want to fix. I'd be lying if I said I'd never pick up a game published by EA ever again (Mass Effect 3 is coming) but I wouldn't be lying if I said that I'd have a hard time trusting them until they get something right and it seems many people feel the same way.

Do you trust EA, based on their problems? Yes, I have faith that EA will fix everything I trust them but I wish they'd test their products for bugs beforehand I'm kind of neutral about them I don't trust them as much as I once did I don't trust EA in the slightest

What do you think? Feel free to vote and comment! :)

14:07, November 5, 2011 (UTC)