EA: The Human Story

[whyBish]

Governor is to State as President is to Country.  ;)

Occhi
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Cheers.

so is it Mayor for Cities?

I don't think we have an equivalent to Govenor over here (unless we are lumped as one state, and equate the prime minister?)

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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/busines...condsubsection=

[whyBish]

Yes, since you ask, I confess I tell George Bush jokes.&nbsp; Does this have to do with a topic?
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No, but neither did minimum wage considering that it wouldn't apply (I assume) to these EA employees even after taking into account the claimed 90hr weeks.

[Freepaperclips]

Keep believing in that myth.&nbsp; Economic science is like physics, except that in economics, you can never account for all of the variables.

I have always believed that economics was more like biology then physics, by the very nature of not being able to account for all the variables.

“The more energy (read: life or in this case money) there is in a system, the more energy the system can support up to the minimum variable (food, water, shelter, etc.) available.”

The problem is that in order to control any system you need a certain amount of force and the bigger and more complex the system the more the force and the greater the control. What this means in practical terms is that the more a mixed (like ours) economy expands the more little laws and regulations you have to make in order to control it. It also means that the (slight, but ever expanding) excesses on those regulations need more exemptions and regulations to deal with them.

The end point is but a logical step away. Eventually the excesses add up and you end up with gross imbalances on all levels. It’s something like death of old age, when all the genetic misreplications cause toxins to be created, which cause even more misreplications at which point the body is weakened unto death. Hmm… that may be a bit more dramatic then I had intended (understatement).

The (other) problem is that people who bring up the monopolies of the past ignore a fairly basic principle of our economy: we are not a labor-based economy! We are a services-based economy. The difference is huge. My plumber gets paid way more then I do, and so do the concrete finishers up the street. People who can provide a service set a price on what they do by what jobs they accept. Those who have particular skills or talents continue to do so.

There is a man I know whose job it is to draw sketches of surgeries in operation. They must be exact and quickly done at every step of the way. He has unique talents and skills and is paid a hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year for less then fifteen active hours a week. He is paid relatively little by the standards of his profession.

The use and need for unskilled labor is the only thing that kept those monopolies going. As the workforce continues to specialize and the number of unions for those increasingly unique jobs continues to go up, any monopoly will be forced to pay out the nose for the people they need. And there will always be that company, willing to break out with some new product (and a temporarily slimmer profit margin) and change that industry.

Mac did it.

Microsoft did it (and how).

Blizzard did it.

And so will others in fields and directions that I can’t even imagine.

The very thought makes me feel good.




edited for precision

[Occhidiangela]

Yes, since you ask, I confess I tell George Bush jokes.&nbsp; Does this have to do with a topic?
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George Bush is a redneck if I am an NBA star. The man wen to Yale.

As to "On Topic or Off Topic" I was gently tweaking your nose over being offended by Doc's heavy handed wit.

That is all. :)

Occhi

[Doc]

George Bush is a redneck if I am an NBA star.&nbsp; The man wen to Yale.

As to "On Topic or Off Topic" I was gently tweaking your nose over being offended by Doc's heavy handed wit.

That is all.&nbsp; :)

Occhi
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Heavy handed...? Hey... You, wait a cotton pickin minute...

Does this wit make me look fat?

[Minionman]

George Bush is a redneck if I am an NBA star.&nbsp; The man wen to Yale.

As to "On Topic or Off Topic" I was gently tweaking your nose over being offended by Doc's heavy handed wit.

That is all.&nbsp; :)

Occhi
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George Bush sometimes seems like a rich, smart redneck. "Seems" is a key word here. Who says people from the country can't go to college?

[kandrathe]

George Bush sometimes seems like a rich, smart redneck.&nbsp; "Seems" is a key word here.&nbsp; Who says people from the country can't go to college?
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Is that something like "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can never wash the smell off his boots." Being a former farm boy, cowboy, and pretending to be a sophisticate in the big city, I understand. :)

[LavCat]

George Bush is a redneck if I am an NBA star.&nbsp; The man wen to Yale.

Occhi
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Going to a second rate school may be a handicap, but nothing to be ashamed of.

[Minionman]

Is that something like "You can take the boy off the farm, but you can never wash the smell off his boots."&nbsp; Being a former farm boy, cowboy, and pretending to be a sophisticate in the big city, I understand.&nbsp; :)
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Sort of. It's more that I have a lot of smart family from farms and small towns and its really annoying to hear people say that the country ones are dumb.

[Doc]

Calling me a dumb country bumpkin may cause a sackful of poisonous snakes to be mysteriously set free in your home. (If I know who you are of course :D )

[whyBish]

Economic theory argues that monopolies cannot exist under laissez-faire because a competitor willing to lower profit margins in the interest of increased market share will always break them up.&nbsp; Economic practice demonstrates otherwise.&nbsp; Because of their dominant market share, refusal to allow workers to unionize and wholesale purchasing, they can lower prices to sub-cost levels for months at a time, driving competitors out of business.

Yet unions are just another form of monopoly, and you are arguing for them?

[jahcs]

Economic theory argues that monopolies cannot exist under laissez-faire because a competitor willing to lower profit margins in the interest of increased market share will always break them up.&nbsp; Economic practice demonstrates otherwise.&nbsp; Because of their dominant market share, refusal to allow workers to unionize and wholesale purchasing, they can lower prices to sub-cost levels for months at a time, driving competitors out of business.&nbsp; Once you're the only game in town, wage levels are whatever you want them to be.&nbsp; Take it or leave it.&nbsp; Hell, they'll employ debt-contracted Guatemalan slave labour (not wage-slavery, SLAVE LABOUR) in Mexico if they can get away with it.&nbsp; Not a myth, it is well-documented from academic sources.&nbsp; It's nice for legislation to fall on the side of the worker once in a while.&nbsp;
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One benefit of large companies (near-monopolies) is efficiency of scale. Many large firms can offer products and services at lower prices due to volume purchasing, overhead being a smaller percentage of total cost, and that overhead being distributed over a larger income base. When a large corporation moves into town many smaller businesses will suffer and may dry up. Consumer education and preference can only go so far because everyone wants to save a buck.

Saying that, I do believe that true monopolies have abused their power and consumer trust, time and time again, through history.

[AtomicKitKat]

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.&nbsp; There were Ultima and Wizardry and the Infocom titles, but EA from 1983-1985 was in a realm entirely its own.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; They were "artists," not programmers, and the mission of the company was to promote them as creative individuals.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; As a kid, EA was the first company I advocated as something that I was proud of in the business world.&nbsp; I even made them the subject of my "big" 8th grade report.

Fast forward two decades, and all I associate EA now with is:&nbsp; 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.

[AtomicKitKat]

George Bush is a redneck if I am an NBA star.&nbsp; The man wen to Yale.

Education != IQ.

[Occhidiangela]

Education != IQ.
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May I point out that IQ is not the issue here, as assertion of redneckism is. YOu appear to be in the family of folks who assume a certain stupidity in anyone with a southern accent. If you are in that class of self important urbanites, I pity you. That attitude is what is divisive in this country.

President Bush may be an awful lot of things, good, bad, or indifferent, but one thing he is not is a redneck.

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

Going to a second rate school may be a handicap, but nothing to be ashamed of.
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Touché! :D

My brother went to Dartmouth: you seem to have summed up his analysis in a nutshell.

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

Yet unions are just another form of monopoly, and you are arguing for them?
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It's a bit more complicated than that in the states. What you say is about 40 years out of date, related to the US. Can't vouch for Aus or NZ, though in Italy, I'd say things are a bit closer to what you infer.

Here, it depends on the labor law. If the state labor laws allow "closed shop" then yes, a Union is just like a medeival guild. If Open Shop or Right to Work statutes are in force, then no, Union is not a monopoly.

Occhi

[Occhidiangela]

"There has never once been an economist who had to worry about where he was going to get his next meal."
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Crisp. I think I'll keep that one in the old hip pocket, and insert the suitable "fill in the blank" (NCAA official comes to mind this morning, UN bureaucrat as well) as appropriate. Thankee. :)

Occhi

[whyBish]

It's a bit more complicated than that in the states.

I wonder how often I end up taking an opposite point of view based on a concept that is culturally different?

I know that I've done it at least once before (in the 'Affirmative action' thread)

[whyBish]

Crisp.

Quoting a soundbyte of dubious merit probably wont win any arguement without including something to do with the actual topic to back it up. (Just thinking that this quote sounds like a diversionary phrase used by opposition politicians to dismiss anything at all regardless of content)