Writin_Reg

Electronic Arts: What Is the Problem?

One word as to why EA is failing - SECUROM 7.

It could have the best games in the business, but if Securom 7 is on it - like all EA games have since last summer (2007) and you get bit by the nasty side of this draconian DRM, you are going to avoid that companies games like a plague.

Myself, I love EA's games. My now grown family loves EA games and have been buying their games and investing in their stocks since the early 90's - then they switched to Sony DADC rootkit-like DRM and damaged my pc. EA's reply is denial, denial, denial. So they are being sued by not one but three different lawsuits due to this Securom 7 and the damage it does to pcs that EA refuses to acknowledge. In fact their CEO had the nerve to call all it's buying, money spending consumer base pirates if they complained. Like we should just dismiss the fact their DRM borks new pcs, and say thank you - may I have another.

No thank you!!! I love your games EA, but don't like you very much and can't stand your DRM. So I'm not about to buy your products - anymore, and I sold your stock - thank goodness back while it was still in the high 40's. Oh and EA, I'm not alone. There are many of us casual gamers following suit.

Simply put, you want us back - drop Securom 7, but rest assured we are not going away - we just aren't buying your products, your stocks, or you BS explanations and excuses. What's more we are many and we tell our many friends.

That Mr. Everiss is what is wrong with EA and erts stock.

EA’s Riccitiello Talks DRM, Ads and the Economy

AGAIN John Riccitiello missed the mark on why consumers are unhappy with EA's DRM, just as he totally is out in left field over the numbers who are fed up with EA's DRM. We could care less about DRM because real gamers buy their games, don't steal them. Real gamers tell buddies looking over their shoulders as they play the new games to go BUY YOUR OWN. Real gamers that prefer PC Games over console (because lets face facts in a low economy a pc makes sense to spend money on, but consoles don't seeing our lives involve a lot more than just gaming and pc's fit in a money tight household because of this) also cannot afford to have software like EA's games disabling half the hardware on your pc - because it is a pc - your pc, not EA's - that you have to use to do other things besides gaming. The fact is John Riccitiello has just grabbed numbers out of the air and has not looked at the actual numbers of angry pc owners whose had to face hardware replacements and huge pc bills because the family computer ran EA's published games like Mass Affect, Spore, and The Sims 2's last three expansion packs that all have this awful Securom DRM. Every game site that was established for these different games have as many gamers with unuseable or damaged pcs from these games, as they have gamers still playing. So in my book the actual figures of angry gamers with EA is more like 50%, not.2%. John Riccitiello needs to get his head out of the sand and actually visit the game sites. Also on the Spore game site and the Sims 2, you are not allowed to post any of your DRM problems on the main boards or they will ban you. On Spore if you get banned, your game will no longer work if you can not connect to the site. This is EA's idea of apparently keeping their number of troubled gamers actually known, apparently. But they fail to realize we are not pcs, and they cannot stop our mouths from warning others of how EA actually deals with this DRM. Fact is EA does have the games many of us prefer to spend our money on, but because of the DRM and our experience with it, we'd be idiots to buy these games.

EA Displeases Customers with Poor DRM Disclosure

OK, let me set you a bit straighter on a few facts - 1- Yes Securom has been around for some years, but not the version of Securom 7 that EA is using. Unlike the Securom 4 found in games like Diablo II, Securom 7 resides in the main kernal of computer systems where the operating systems and pc security systems reside.

EA incorporated Securom & in use in Early summer of 2007, sending shock waves through the Sims 2 Community in EA's The Sims Division with their Bon Voyage Sims 2 Expansion pack. They had also used Securom on two Sims 2 Stuff packs, but because stuff packs do not require their disks to play the game, Securom was not activated. Expansion packs on the other hand DO require the activation of Securom, and in activating the game, a lot of Sims players immediately noticed pc problems - and almost always it was on brand new computers. Getting a 150 dollar bill at the pc shop on your brand new computer tends to make Gamers angry. Finding out that your disabled equipment, including firewalls, antivirus protection, other software, and components like dvd-roms and printers failing to function all because of a thirty dollar expansion pack that installed this third party software on your pc and caused this damage makes people furious. Go to the website reclaimyourgame.com and you can see first hand some of the many gamers stories with this horrible DRM. It makes the Sony BMG music debacle look like a walk in the park in comparison.
Spore on the other hand and also Mass Effect also owned by EA, has Securom 7 with the addition of online activation and limited installations. Believe me with EA games reputation for buggy games, limiting the activations is outright thief, as it is a known factor that any changes a user makes in the Operating System or pc components, kills your activation on that pc. In other words Securom tells the user they are using a different PC when they are not just because they upgraded a video card or their anti-virus. Many new players exhausted the 3 activations before they even got to play Spore. EA's help line also charges the customer absurd cost, and unlike EA told you, they do not easily give out new activations. If you do get one, your phone bill will tell you how that activation just cost you an additional ten dollars. EA thinks nothing of denying your request and tells owners they wiill have to buy another copy to play the game.

The Spore site had so many Securom complaints from disabled pc parts, that the moderators started warning people they would be banned if they posted any more Securom problems on the help boards. This is how EA treats their customers. You make it sound like a walk in the park, you really need to be educated. This DRM is outright dangerous to PC gaming and does not stop pirates at all. All it does stop is gamers playing that game or any other and from reselling the game because EA will not activate a game not bought from them even though they state otherwise in the Eula. EA has not even seen the lawsuite from the Sim 2 players and we are not settling for anything less than the end of Securom's use in our games.

Ultizen's Lan Haiwen Discusses the Latest Gaming Industry Developments

The Ultizen game publisher may find his success in this market may depend on the DRM he decides to go with as people are totally fed up with EA and it's use of dvd-rom damaging Securom. EA can blame their big xtock loss on Take-two, the economy, or anything else it wants to blame it on, but after a year of people fighting to play their EA pc games with this horrid Securom, they have just plain had enough. Might I add the one star ratings found on EA's Spore is mild to the numbers of unhappy gamers at game forums. You won't see much on EA's forum because they hide and delete most of the complaints they get there and their other official sites, they also give ban warnings if you post in any of the general forums where the general public would see the unhappiness.

So I say welcome to a new game maker, and as a pc gamer I do hope they also work on pc games, but I implore them consider the consumer because we will no longer buy even the best game out there if it has DRM that damages our pc components and drives and security programs.

Will EA Change the Gaming Industry's Revenue Model?

EA has weather on their pc games. We have winter, summer, spring, and fall on our The Sims 2 games since the expansion Season's came out. It's nothing new for EA.

Electronic Arts: Growth is Coming

Correction to my above article - I meant to say the DRM does not uninstall from pcs after an EA game is uninstalled.

Thank you

Electronic Arts: Growth is Coming

World of Warcraft does so well for Blizzard because Blizzard does not includ a crippling DRM with the software, which EA does now and claims to be putting on all their games, so it will be on the Online games too. EA's DRM is the surprised gift that just keeps on giving, even after their games are uninstalled. It has this particular habit of making some very good gaming machines, be far less a good pc after this DRM, that incidently resides on the Ring 0 = meaning the main command center where Operating Systems live, and continues to exist there making the owners game and work life difficult, as it does not install when an EA game is removed. Nevermind the fact everytime you go online it updates - linking to Sony DADC. Lord knows what it's sending those people, because I don't know, my logs are in encryption form. What I'd like to know is what business EA has putting this DRM on my pc, even though I have removed all of EA's software that has this DRM on it. So what is it sending, receiving and updating - as the games are gone!

You get no help from EA other than the cost of a phone call to the tech help, a long wait on line, and in my case I got hung up on.

What I see for stockholders and people considering Erts stocks added to their portfolio, is a lot of trouble down the line when they do get all those gamers you speculate about with these 2 Online games, and they have some of the problems I encountered with my pc. Never mind the fact you have to reformat your harddrive, or live with it. It's your dollars people, because it's surely not going to be mine. At least not for the long haul anyway.

Report from Inside Electronic Arts' Shareholders Meeting

I'm pretty darn sure that online site mentioned in the article is the site known as The Prism, as it is a site dedicated to helping gamers whose pcs have been made impossible to run properly, if at all, after players have ran any of EA's newly released games over this past year, and all because of EA's so called iron-clad contract with Sony DADC's SecuRom DRM. Between the shoddy coding of such games like the Sims 2, the change to Securom DRM, and nearly no customer support from EA (which by the way is not a toll-free call), players often go limping into The Prism seeking their help. I have been there. They are a dedicated group of amazing individuals that help players get back the full use of their pcs - of course sans EA's games, as there is just no way with this DRM to do both.

I would disagree with that CEO, EA does not listen to their gaming communities. Instead they bury complaints about the games and Securom from consumers off the main boards of each forum. I know at the Sims 2 board that if you post on their General forum about Securom, even to ask a question, the Simmasters on that site threaten to ban the posters for doing so. I have heard the same thing is happening on the Mass Effect game forums.
Many of EA's customers that have been with this companies games for as long as ten or more years recieve hardly more than grief from EA. I was even hung up on for calling for tech support for my own pc when Securom disabled my dvd-rom and one of my two firewalls among other things, on my pc. I got told by a very rude young man at EA that "Securom doesn't do that" in a loud and gruff manner, then he slammed the phone down. In the end a technician at a pc shop which reformatting my pc, confirmed that Securom did do that. EA was no help to my technician either, as they told him they did not have a tool to remove Securom from my pc, which was why there had to be a reformat to begin with. It does not uninstall with unstallation of EA's software.

I just know one thing a lot of customers are awfully angry with EA over this move to Securom, and main kernal memory leaks from broken coding in games that are never fixed. To add to insult EA has even began using an even harsher form of Securom in this new seasons game that give customers a limit on the amount of times they can activate their games, and even their offline games must have an internet connection to activate. Customers are not happy and angry customers will stop buying EA products in the long run.