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Topic: Suck it EA (Read 11031 times)
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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Copped this from that other site, because I don't normally read stock price news. Industry stalwart Electronic Arts has been forced to issue a profits warning – an announcement that has caused the company’s shares to plummet by 13 percent, to $57.74. The company lowered its fiscal 2005 outlook to between $3.1 billion and $3.13 billion, down from $3.28 billion to $3.33 billion.
In an official statement, EA gave the reason for the less than expected quarterly profits as a 'significant falloff' in sales of older, catalog games, as well as the impact of hardware shortage of the PlayStation 2, and to a lesser degree the Xbox, over the Christmas period.
"We clearly underestimated the impact of the hardware shortages on our 4Q sales," EA CFO Warren Jenson told Reuters. He added that the company's fourth quarter titles were performing well, "but we had expected more."
The company also cited lower than expected sales of its Need for Speed and NFL Street franchises in the U.S. as an additional contributing factor, with GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age and The Urbz, all of which received a mixed reception from critics, also underperforming globally.
At an analyst level, fingers were pointed at major competitive titles such as Half-Life 2 and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, with EA president Larry Probst singling out World of WarCraft in particularly as having "had an impact on everyone in the industry."
"Everybody in the industry has been surprised with World of WarCraft," he said. "I can tell you from firsthand observation that there are people who haven't played games in years who are now spending 15 to 20 hours a week playing World of WarCraft."
Whether this obvious admiration for Blizzard’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game will result in Electronic Arts focusing more on that sector is unclear - it seems to be a genre which the company has had little influence in, following the waning of support for Ultima Online and the relatively disappointing performance of The Sims Online.
No suggestion was given as to how the company would combat a lack of demand for older titles, although some analysts are noting that the company’s policy of yearly updates for many of its franchises may be lessening the appeal and shelf life of older titles. Yeah, because when Madden 2005 is available in both new and used copies, for less than full price, someone really wants to pay full price for Madden 2003. EA... making stupid exucses since 1980. I mean, what the fuck does the company expect? The only original titles they've put out either suck or were built by dev houses they no longer do business with (either because the dev houses smarted up, like Irrational, or got borged, like Westwood). Their catalog is one long line of shit, broken up by a few very rare bursts of mediocrity. And they should be worried about WoW, because their entire MMOG strategy has been a looping film clip of Wile E. Coyote opening a box only to have his face blown off ad infinitum. Yet I'm sure that dumbass investors will buy their shares back up and bolster their share price right the fuck back up in time.
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WayAbvPar
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They need to go back to the old school flat boxes. Those were the bomb!
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When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM
Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood
Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
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Riggswolfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8046
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
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"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
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WayAbvPar
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
I am at a point where there are several games I would like to play that I haven't purchased simply because I do not have the time to play them- and WoW is a major reason why. Every time I get the urge to go buy a PC game, I look at the unopened copy of HL2 sitting on my desk. Has even slowed (but not stopped) my purchase of Xbox games.
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When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM
Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood
Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
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Big Gulp
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3275
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
I can't conceive of it not having an effect. And the curious thing is that of the 10 or so people I personally know who would consider themselves MMO players, only 3 of them play it. Sure, it's anecdotal, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the majority playerbase for WoW is composed of MMO virgins. Those are the kinds of folks that if they're currently playing and enjoying a game they aren't going to be rushing out to get the new shiny. We're the freaks that don't finish most games before we're running out to pick up a new one.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
Back during my catass EQ days as a guild leader, I think I spent about 2 years where I didn't buy a single new game. I didn't have time to play one, so why would I? I mean, I would likely put in 3 hours a night in EQ, and on nights I didn't play, I usually had some duty to perform for the guild that took up most of the night. Shit, I barely watched sports or movies, either. Of course, the other part of the reason I didn't play many games was I was flat broke most of the time then too, but still, the time factor was much bigger than the not having money for it factor. Though WoW is a more casual game, there's a shitload of people playing it, and they are probably buying less other games because of it.
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AcidCat
Terracotta Army
Posts: 919
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
I am at a point where there are several games I would like to play that I haven't purchased simply because I do not have the time to play them- and WoW is a major reason why. Same here.
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Biobanger
Terracotta Army
Posts: 110
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If WoW is having a significant impact on non-MMO sales I find that quite interesting. It never even occured to me that that might happen to be honest.
Back during my catass EQ days as a guild leader, I think I spent about 2 years where I didn't buy a single new game. I didn't have time to play one, so why would I? I mean, I would likely put in 3 hours a night in EQ, and on nights I didn't play, I usually had some duty to perform for the guild that took up most of the night. Shit, I barely watched sports or movies, either. Of course, the other part of the reason I didn't play many games was I was flat broke most of the time then too, but still, the time factor was much bigger than the not having money for it factor. Though WoW is a more casual game, there's a shitload of people playing it, and they are probably buying less other games because of it. I agree, many of the MMO friends I know want to only play MMOs because of the value of the entertainment. $50 + $15 a month is pretty cheap compared to a new game every 2-4 weeks. If WoW did more than grab the current MMO population, then many will notice the money they saved.
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Charlie says: Always tell your mommy before you go out somewhere. Playing: WoW. Waiting on: Gods and Heroes, Guild Wars
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shiznitz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 4268
the plural of mangina
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I always thought this timeshare issue was obvious from a business perspective. This is why it is so difficult for me to understand why EA kept giving up on new MMOGs. Now, it is way too fucking late. If they want to compete, it is going to cost them $100MM AND talent. They have the former. For similar reasons I am baffled by Microsoft bailing out of the genre so fast. They spent/lost $2 BILLION on Xbox but dumped MMOGs after AC2 cost them, what, $10MM? Microsoft should be developing/funding 10 MMOGs as we speak. It is not even a goddamn rounding error.
Edit: I forgot about Vanguard, but they should be doing more.
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« Last Edit: March 23, 2005, 01:40:00 PM by shiznitz »
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I have never played WoW.
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Biobanger
Terracotta Army
Posts: 110
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I always thought this timeshare issue was obvious from a business perspective. This is why it is so difficult for me to understand why EA kept giving up on new MMOGs. Now, it is way too fucking late. If they want to compete, it is going to cost them $100MM AND talent. They have the former. For similar reasons I am baffled by Microsoft bailing out of the genre so fast. They spent/lost $2 BILLION on Xbox but dumped MMOGs after AC2 cost them, what, $10MM? Microsoft should be developing/funding 10 MMOGs as we speak. It is not even a goddamn rounding error.
Edit: I forgot about Vanguard, but they should be doing more.
Well, EA doesn't have to develop it, they can buy the companies developing the big name MMOs that are upcoming if they like. Probably go for some that just started development, like Gods and Heroes, Star Trek Online, etc.
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Charlie says: Always tell your mommy before you go out somewhere. Playing: WoW. Waiting on: Gods and Heroes, Guild Wars
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Riggswolfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8046
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Well, EA doesn't have to develop it, they can buy the companies developing the big name MMOs that are upcoming if they like. Probably go for some that just started development, like Gods and Heroes, Star Trek Online, etc.
I wouldn't buy Star Trek online. It's about to go through what Star Wars did in the 80's. Enterprise is leaving the air and Paramount has said maybe it is time to give Star Trek a break from the public eye.
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"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
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Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542
The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid
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Enterprise is leaving the air and Paramount has said maybe it is time to give Star Trek a break from the public eye.
Boooo...I always liked TNG.
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Fear the Backstab! "Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion "Hell is other people." -Sartre
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Roac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3338
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Enterprise is leaving the air and Paramount has said maybe it is time to give Star Trek a break from the public eye.
Boooo...I always liked TNG. It's not that the franchise needs a break, it's that they need new writers and marketing deals that don't suck. My local cable company doesn't even carry UPN. Not only that, put putting it on at Friday at 8PM They're putting Star Trek on UPN up against Stargate on SciFi. Stupid, stupid, stupid. SciFi Friday has (now) three shows lined up starting at 8. What's a geek to do?
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-Roac King of Ravens
"Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us." -SC
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Strazos
Greetings from the Slave Coast
Posts: 15542
The World's Worst Game: Curry or Covid
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I don't know...I watch Law & Order reruns starting at 7pm EST...hehe
Though Stargate I still find to be interesting on the occasion I decide to watch it...
Richard Dean Anderson, For Teh Winzz0r!
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Fear the Backstab! "Plato said the virtuous man is at all times ready for a grammar snake attack." - we are lesion "Hell is other people." -Sartre
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Samwise
Moderator
Posts: 19324
sentient yeast infection
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Richard Dean Anderson, For Teh Winzz0r!
My only complaint is that he never fixes things with paperclips or anything cool like that. His talents are wasted on that show.
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Riggswolfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8046
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Enterprise is leaving the air and Paramount has said maybe it is time to give Star Trek a break from the public eye.
Boooo...I always liked TNG. I did too. However, we're not talking reruns, we're talking new shows. They're saying they may not make new shows.
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"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
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Evangolis
Contributor
Posts: 1220
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Not only that, put putting it on at Friday at 8PM Space Vampire Nazis didn't help Enterprise and the franchise one bit. Amazingly, it was a tired cliche before it was even new. I suspect that EA and MS are staying away from the MMO market because they are heavily, and happily, invested in the console market, particularly MS with Xbox Live, and consoles compete with MMOs, see this discussion. Sony has a different approach to the market than MS, as well as a winning MMO strategy (no longer #1, but still they have the only MMO stable on the planet), so they may be less MMO-adverse. I understand Haemish's joy, but I can't be happy about any game company having issues. If his hopes payoff, EA is in big trouble, and the market could easily follow it down, as has happened to this industry before. Beyond that, if MMOs are just cannabillizing the game market, that is not a good thing, except for the PC game market, since MMOs offset the biggest issue with PC titles, piracy.
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"It was a difficult party" - an unexpected word combination from ex-Merry Prankster and author Robert Stone.
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Roac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3338
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Space Vampire Nazis didn't help Enterprise and the franchise one bit. That was the last episode I saw. I thought the season was good up until that episode. No, even the episode was good; all they had to do was nuke the last 15 seconds of it. Up until then, we'd been using Enterprise to go visit my in-laws (they have dish). After that ending, none of us wanted to see anything else of the series.
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-Roac King of Ravens
"Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us." -SC
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Jain Zar
Terracotta Army
Posts: 1362
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I honestly wouldn't mind the industry big companies taking a hit. I think another videogame crash is really what we need frankly. Its too commercial and saturated right now. The only problem is EA and Microsoft would probably survive and do the same crap they do now and it would mostly be the little guys who get hurt. When they aren't the problem.
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Roac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3338
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...then don't hope for such a crash, becuase that's apparently not what we need.
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-Roac King of Ravens
"Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us." -SC
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WindupAtheist
Army of One
Posts: 7028
Badicalthon
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I hope the entire gaming industry is annhilated in a massive market crash. Then I can come here and read posts about how checkers suxx0rz and backgammon is teh pwn. :-D
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"You're just a dick who quotes himself in his sig." -- Schild "Yeah, it's pretty awesome." -- Me
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schild
Administrator
Posts: 60350
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I hope the entire gaming industry is annhilated in a massive market crash. Then I can come here and read posts about how checkers suxx0rz and backgammon is teh pwn. :-D
Everyone knows Mario was better than Sonic back in the day. But now Ratchet is better than Mario. Leon is better than any of the characters from Maniac Mansion. And the two Taiko dildo drumsticks are better than Donkey Kong. Chess is better than both Checkers and backgammon. But Go is teh pwn. It owns them with easy.
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sinij
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2597
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I'm glad EA doing poorly, its time they took a hit for rampaging idiocy and shitting unfinished product on customer's heads.
With regards to WoW - I'm glad that its WoW and not SimsOL or equally shitty product that hit it big. Larger overall mmorpg player base means we are less of a niche and that is good thing. Even if most players enjoying otherwise unumbitious and bland WoW in 5 years they will want something better and it will likely be available.
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Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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sinij
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2597
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I hope the entire gaming industry is annhilated in a massive market crash. Then I can come here and read posts about how checkers suxx0rz and backgammon is teh pwn. :-D
Checkers are PvP and we all know from your posts only griefers would want PvP in their games. You got to 'jump' your opponent's checker without consent, oh the horror. You should not be allowed to intrude on your opponent's fun - you should be only allowed to move your checkers without 'jumping' Only 12 year old antisocials with serious mental issues would want to do 'jumping'.
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Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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SirBruce
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2551
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Space Vampire Nazis didn't help Enterprise and the franchise one bit. That was the last episode I saw. I thought the season was good up until that episode. No, even the episode was good; all they had to do was nuke the last 15 seconds of it. Up until then, we'd been using Enterprise to go visit my in-laws (they have dish). After that ending, none of us wanted to see anything else of the series. Actually, you missed what was probably the BEST season of Enterprise. There were several really good episodes this year that, had they actually done during the 1st year, could quite possibly have saved the show. Bruce
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sinij
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2597
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Space Vampire Nazis didn't help Enterprise and the franchise one bit. That was the last episode I saw. I thought the season was good up until that episode. No, even the episode was good; all they had to do was nuke the last 15 seconds of it. Up until then, we'd been using Enterprise to go visit my in-laws (they have dish). After that ending, none of us wanted to see anything else of the series. Actually, you missed what was probably the BEST season of Enterprise. There were several really good episodes this year that, had they actually done during the 1st year, could quite possibly have saved the show. Bruce 
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Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.
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Riggswolfe
Terracotta Army
Posts: 8046
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Checkers are PvP and we all know from your posts only griefers would want PvP in their games. You got to 'jump' your opponent's checker without consent, oh the horror. You should not be allowed to intrude on your opponent's fun - you should be only allowed to move your checkers without 'jumping' Only 12 year old antisocials with serious mental issues would want to do 'jumping'.
Jesus, your blatant trolling is pathetic.
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"We live in a country, where John Lennon takes six bullets in the chest, Yoko Ono was standing right next to him and not one fucking bullet! Explain that to me! Explain that to me, God! Explain it to me, God!" - Denis Leary summing up my feelings about the nature of the universe.
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Ironwood
Terracotta Army
Posts: 28240
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I hope the entire gaming industry is annhilated in a massive market crash. Then I can come here and read posts about how checkers suxx0rz and backgammon is teh pwn. :-D
Checkers are PvP and we all know from your posts only griefers would want PvP in their games. You got to 'jump' your opponent's checker without consent, oh the horror. You should not be allowed to intrude on your opponent's fun - you should be only allowed to move your checkers without 'jumping' Only 12 year old antisocials with serious mental issues would want to do 'jumping'. Checkers is PVP with rules. So blow me. And Chess owns all. Since it is PVP with simplistic rules that make for a infinitely complex game. Did I mention 'Blow Me' ?
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"Mr Soft Owl has Seen Some Shit." - Sun Tzu
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Tebonas
Terracotta Army
Posts: 6365
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The analogy you are searching for is the 12 year old antisocials ignoring the rules of checkers and jumping around on the board like they want, because "otherwise the game mechanics wouldn't make it possible to put your pieces everywhere on the board". Oh yes, and they would run out of the room and hide after pulling this trick, so that you can't punch them into the face for their behaviour. Just to return a few days later with a false moustache.
You can blow me as soon as you are done blowing Ironwood twice. But please brush your teeth inbetween.
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SirBruce
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2551
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Is there a line forming?
Bruce
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Paelos
Contributor
Posts: 27075
Error 404: Title not found.
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I think whenever someone on the board busts out any kind of analogy for gaming I can automatically assume the thread has gone to hell.
And you don't have to blow me, I don't know where Ironwood has been.
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CPA, CFO, Sports Fan, Game when I have the time
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Sky
Terracotta Army
Posts: 32117
I love my TV an' hug my TV an' call it 'George'.
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My only complaint is that he never fixes things with paperclips or anything cool like that. His talents are wasted on that show. Though in the first season, Sam Carter did say she was going to 'macguyver' the DHD on a remote planet... EA: The reason for our shitty sales was anything but our being corporate shitbags that stifle innovation and creativity, nor our business plan of buying up talent and watering it down with our infrastructure and administration, nor the disolution of said dev houses later. It's clearly because of the hardware market, and mmogs. Now...that doesn't mean we'll actually ship a new mmog to replace our 8-yr-old warhorse, in fact we'll waste a ton of cash to....err, strike that last part, ok? It'd be funnier if it weren't true, imo.
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HaemishM
Staff Emeritus
Posts: 42666
the Confederate flag underneath the stone in my class ring
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We'll waste a ton of cash...
Signing exclusive licensing deals with sports leagues and buying up as many other publishers and dev houses as you dumb-ass investors will continue to pay for. Then we'll make hats of money out of your savings and wallow around in puddles of our own filth fiddling while the game industry goes down with us.
Fuck you, Larry.
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Roac
Terracotta Army
Posts: 3338
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EA may be hurting their bottom line, but it's got to be incredible pressure on the smaller dev shops to compete.
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-Roac King of Ravens
"Young people who pretend to be wise to the ways of the world are mostly just cynics. Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it. Because cynics don't learn anything. Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us." -SC
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Stormwaltz
Terracotta Army
Posts: 2918
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Well, EA doesn't have to develop it, they can buy the companies developing the big name MMOs that are upcoming if they like. Probably go for some that just started development, like Gods and Heroes, Star Trek Online, etc.
Given that the founders of Perpetual left EA en masse after working on TSO, I'd call that particular option as about as likely as me returning to Turbine. And on the off-topic of Enterprise, the new fourth season writing team also thought the Space Vampire Nazis were stupid, and tried to shuffle off that plot (and the whole retarded "temporal cold war" concept) as quickly as possible.
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Nothing in this post represents the views of my current or previous employers.
"Isn't that just like an elf? Brings a spell to a gun fight."
"Sci-Fi writers don't invent the future, they market it." - Henry Cobb
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