12-03-2004, 03:47 AM
Cryptic,Nov 19 2004, 01:36 AM Wrote:It just amazes me how corrupt and useless EA has become.
As a longtime gamer, my first exposure to Electronic Arts was as a kid - my best friend got a Commodore 64 for Christmas, 1982, and after we played through the Zorks, we discovered Electronic Arts.
For those who don't know, EA was at that time the very finest software maker in the world. There were Ultima and Wizardry and the Infocom titles, but EA from 1983-1985 was in a realm entirely its own. The games were revolutionary - Archon, Pinabll Construction Set, Racing Destruction Set, Murder on the Zinderneuf, Seven Cities of Gold, the Adventure Construction Set, Mail Order Monsters, MULE - and each was produced in a beautiful portfolio format, with a special capsule explaining the programmer's hopes and dreams in producing the title. They were "artists," not programmers, and the mission of the company was to promote them as creative individuals. Each game had thoughtful ads specifically tailored to advocate the game not just as the "next arcade thing," but as a springboard for ideas.
Critics responded to this thoughtful approach, and you can find reviews lauding the way racism is subtly addressed in Seven Cities, how MULE teaches principles of supply and demand, how ACS empowered adventure designers as never before, how Archon merged the cerebral with the visceral in a revolutionary fashion. As a kid, EA was the first company I advocated as something that I was proud of in the business world. I even made them the subject of my "big" 8th grade report.
Fast forward two decades, and all I associate EA now with is: a lack of innovation, slave driving, and crappy assembly line sports games where only the digits and the names ever seem to change.
What happened?
:ph34r:
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I couldn't have said it better myself.