Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!hoptoad!farren From: farren@hoptoad.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Copy protection: boycott it! Message-ID: <2381@hoptoad.uucp> Date: Thu, 9-Jul-87 03:38:04 EDT Article-I.D.: hoptoad.2381 Posted: Thu Jul 9 03:38:04 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jul-87 13:48:16 EDT References: <4826@sgi.SGI.COM> <4238@jade.BERKELEY.EDU> Reply-To: farren@hoptoad.UUCP (Mike Farren) Organization: Nebula Consultants in San Francisco Lines: 43 Keywords: software terrorism, copy protection, South Africa This will be the last thing I have to say publicly on the subject(s) of copy protection and EA. As Mitsu says, more discussion via email is welcome. In article <2489@husc6.UUCP> hadeishi@husc4.UUCP (mitsuharu hadeishi) writes: >I'm just objecting to that blanket stance [of rejecting all EA >products] without actually looking at how EA has responded to >criticism (again, referring not to you, Mike, but to the "people >who would never again buy an EA product.") O.K., then, let's look at how EA has responded to criticism: 1) By ignoring it. EA has very consistently refused to respond, publicly and officially, to most, if not all, of the criticisms of its problems, bugs, or annoyances. 2) By dealing with it "on the sly" by giving fixed updates of their products to those who complain about the bugs, while leaving the rest of the public, especially those who are timid about such things, unaware that fixes even exist. 3) NOT by increasing QA procedures - recent EA products are just as buggy as the early ones were, and the copy protect schemes just as drastic. In short, not by behaving as I would wish a professional software house would. My opinion of EA was once quite high - their line of games for the Atari 800 are, in my opinion, unsurpassed by anyone short of LucasFilm. I would unhesitatingly recommend ANY of EA's first year or so's releases. Fine games, lovingly created. Sometime in the intervening time, though, things changed. While EA still has some of the best game concepts around in games like StarFlight, Amnesia, and Rommel vs. Patton, their corporate policy now seems to be oriented strictly towards making a buck, whether or not that is done on the backs of the unfortunate buyer. If and when EA decides to go back to its original policy of producing the best games in the best manner, with the utmost attention to ALL aspects of customer satisfaction, I will cheerfully recommend them again. Right now, though, I will stand by my statement that I cannot recommend, and will not buy, another game from EA. -- ---------------- "... if the church put in half the time on covetousness Mike Farren that it does on lust, this would be a better world ..." hoptoad!farren Garrison Keillor, "Lake Wobegon Days"