Comments on: It’s The Zombie Apocalypse. Bring Friends.

By: James G

James G — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 23:05:48 +0000

@PHeMoX

I’m assuming that they’ve done the calculations and have realised that it will net them more than enough extra sales to make up for the advertising costs. I’ve got a friend who is currently looking at buying a 360, but doesn’t know where to start with the gaming media, and thus all the games he’s mentioned to me have been ones which have had television advertisments recently. Sure, he’s not an idiot and subsequently went to check out reviews and forums, but for people who don’t check the gaming news regularly it may be the only chance they get to here of a game.

By: PHeMoX

PHeMoX — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 21:49:55 +0000

!!! 10$ million wasted on advertising… what’s the world coming to? !!!

I’m sure the game will do reasonably well regardless of how good the game is, just look at the recently released not-so-great Spore, but damn 10 million is a lot of money, especially when they take just about every opportunity they got to promote it through their own Steam.

By: x25killa

x25killa — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 18:14:12 +0000

Do all the zombies look like EA empolyees? Just wondering…

By: Okami

Okami — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:44:10 +0000

Yay, pointless discussions about developers selling out and the evil of EA for teh win!!

And EA bashing is soooo 2007! They are now the good guys and Blizzard/Activision are the new evil of video game publishing.

Move with the times, people!

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:11:21 +0000

I’m a frequent commenter here and have a fair share of both agreements and disagreements with people. You Grandstone are among the few names I don’t recognise, so playing the troll gambit is a bit rich.

My first post in this thread was not in response to another poster, as would be indicative of a troll. My first post was me expressing an opinion as equally consistent and contrarian as other posts. I hadn’t picked up on some sensitive issue on which a storm could be provoked like a troll would. I didn’t know anyone was going to respond, no one had to respond. I thought my post was pretty unremarkable. I wasn’t expecting someone somewhere behind a keyboard to get that “Someone is WRONG on the internet!” reflex kicking in where they percieve the offender to be a threat to the free world and fight it as such.

Go read my first post and see how utterly boring it is. Now read the responses and consider wether they were really proportionate given the tone and the number of them.

By: Funky Badger

Funky Badger — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:42:14 +0000

Weylund: it’s not us, it’s you… ;-)

By: Grandstone

Grandstone — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 04:29:12 +0000

You know what? I’m thinking Gorgeras is a troll. Well played, Gorgeras. Except you weren’t at least funny.

By: Heliocentric

Heliocentric — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 03:32:13 +0000

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3171038

Okay… Now i might get spore. But the hype is gone, so I’ll be waiting until I see it cheap :)

By: Gorgeras

Gorgeras — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:31:06 +0000

If you read into things, if you cherry-pick your examples, you will always be right. You can never fail to be right.

Why some small number of people have started with astroturf-esque posting here, only they can know. Lucky for the rest of us, claiming black is white and up is down doesn’t affect anything unless a whole lot of people start doing it. EA is primarily the overt and conspicous malefactor of the thinking influential opinionated game hobbyist, so no worries yet.

By: Weylund

Weylund — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:13:58 +0000

God, that was an awful trailer. “Guys used to laugh at me when I hit the rifle range at lunch…” Did a sentient being write that? Yikes.

The music was completely useless – what about that music attracted anyone to it? Pretty much any band in any genre could have generated those 30 seconds of filler.

Did I watch the same trailer that you guys just did? I ask myself: on the off chance that the people who had creative input on the game approved this ad, how stupid are they, and what does that say about the game itself?

I’ve already pre-ordered L4D, so maybe I’m just anxious it’ll actually just turn out to be s***.

By: Mo

Mo — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:48:51 +0000

@Gorgeras:
You’ve obviously have never read an interview with John Carmack. As id software is privately owned and privately funded he pretty much says whatever he wants. He’s bad-mouthed many a publisher, and also said that the iPod (Classic) SDK was a joke, and when Apple “black listed” id, he mentioned that too. Gabe Newell said the PS3 was a disaster, and that Sony should just start over. Etc, etc.

Basically: if id software or Valve weren’t happy with EA Partners, we would have heard about it.

On the subject of evidence, you’re right, the word of developers may not be true. However, this still leaves you without a shred of evidence. EA’s history isn’t the finest, but EA have admitted that themselves. And I may never forgive them for killing Bullfrog and Westwood, but they’ve manned up to their mistakes and have said that they’re working towards change. I’d like to give EA the benefit of the doubt. You know, “innocent unless proven guilty”. By all accounts, they seem to be working towards what they stated they would.

Also, Maxis were all about “artistic considerations”. They wanted to make a game that anyone could play and that anyone could be creative within. They were successful in this regard. Just because it isn’t an over-complex simulation (and thank goodness it isn’t) doesn’t mean they sold-out.

Anyway, I know this is a big waste of time, because EA haters will always hate … stuck in the past, unable to move on from preconceived notions, that type of thing.

By: Y3k-Bug

Y3k-Bug — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:45:36 +0000

Has EA made a lot of bad decisions with developers? Sure. Will they continue to do so in the future? Absolutely.

But like the music industry, once you get to a certain level of success, the musicians (in this case, developers) call the shots. As is the case with id, as is the case with Valve.

EA’s partnership with Valve really means nothing interms of game content.