Brotherhood. Unity. EA?

[Renegade]

As I am away from monday to friday, I have made it a habit over the last few months to at least browse Planet CnC and PPM once at weekends, to stay more or less up to date with what happens in the community.

Half an hour ago, through PPM's news, I was directed to several EA-related articles and Aaron Kaufman's consecutive reply to them. To cut it short, the crap I had to read of him installed an undefeatable urge to voice my opinion in me, and since I have the right tools at hand, why not do it? (The issue I am relating to is pretty well summed up in the first two posts here.)



Basically, what ticked me off was Aaron's hypocritical attitude along the lines of "Don't you see how much we do for the community. You're really not helping here!"

Hey Kaufman. FUCK YOU.

Let's take a look at one of the paragraphs:

I've spent the past year working relentlessly on both communities. I got this community two Zero Hour patches, an exclusive portal thru XWIS to have a community safe haven to play the old Westwood games online, community leader support to celebrate the 10th anniversay, and overall, as much interaction with the C&C community leaders as possible. It is not an easy task and managing my e-mail box is an even bigger challenge.

Hey, newsflash: The community is a little older than one year!
Let's see what your great gifts are:
-Two Zero Hour patches: So, you were the ones to fuck up the game in the first place, making patches necessary, and you actually made sure this sorry excuse for a mis-branded RTS lasts a little longer. And you want us to be happy about it?
-XWIS: Yeah! Right! You got us XWIS! MY ASS. EA were ones leaving WOL as a dead pile of shit, and all you did was the same you did to get a map editor: Wait until the community solves the problem and then take over. All you and EA did was point servserv.westwood.com to a different IP, and add serial number recognition to the server. Oh what great effort you put into us.
-"community leader support to celebrate the 10th anniversay": In other words: You abused the larger sites as a marketing vehicle for the greatest hits album. Yeah, I can see your community support in that.

Oh, and last but not least, my favorite statement: "as much interaction with the C&C community leaders as possible". Uh-huh. Would you kindly tell me what exactly a person qualifies as a "community leader"? I sure as hell don't remember an election around here, and I sure as hell don't see a C&C embassy in EALAnd, either. Truth is: You bought the webmasters with enough following to help your cause. Nothing else.

You also mention how "C&C:TFD is something many many fans are looking forward to."
Interesting. I have yet to meet one of them. What, again, was The First Decade? All the games I have already in a new box, with the C&C's mercilessly thrown together with the retarded eye candy?
You boasted about how you got "us" (really: The Fellowship of the Fakes) two Zero Hour patches, and how it shows your dedication. If that's you serving the community, then explain why I have to buy a bunch of useless games, just to get XP-patched versions of the masterpieces.
And explain why you love the community enough to get those ZH patches, and enough to patch the old stuff for XP, but hate us, the dedicated following of the real line of C&C RTSs that much, that you ignore our desperate tries to patch this game ourselves with our limited possibilities, and just put in plain, old RA2/YR again? Where is your love there?

[Insert several unfinished lines of thought here]


Now, let's look at the object of interest.
What we have:
INI Guide / ModEnc
XCC Tools
RA2StrEdit
SHP Editors
Voxel Editors
3dsmax plugins
Final Alert /2
XWIS
Rock Patch
Terrain Expansion
UMP
Modding Tutorials
Community Forums
Community News Sites
etc., etc.

Now, tell me, Aaron Kaufman: Where is EA's hand in that picture? There is nothing in it created by EA. Nothing. As mentioned, you took up FA and XWIS after you saw that you could "give" the community what it wanted for cheap by getting involved, but fact is, your contribution is close to nothing. Fact is, Final Alert's developement has grinded to a halt ever since "you" released FA2. One act of defiance with the unofficial patch, and that's it. Thanks a lot, EA. You really helped us there.

And now, after this entire community rose and fell without EA's help, now you come. Send packages. Suck up to the last few surviving webmasters. Tell us how EA loves us. The interesting question is...why?

Wild guess: Marketing reasons. Face it, people: There are two key factors in computer game marketing: Gaming magazines, and communities. No doubt EA has enough financial power to ensure good ratings in the magazines, but in order to get people to buy rather than to burn, they need us. People who have been with the series for long enough to support it by buying, and who are enthusiastic enough about the game to convince their friends to get it.
Now, honestly: Can you imagine the standard YR modder telling a friend "Yeah, that's the new Electronic Arts RTS. It's soooo cool dude, you definately have to get it!". No. And you know why? Because a) EA RTS's aren't "cool". They're either the same thing phrased differently (Engine + C&C-Sticker == Generals, Engine + LotR License == BfME, BfME + Patches == BfME2), or just a plain insult to the community (YR to a small extend, Generals in all it's glory).

Now imagine what a marketing departement would do to you if you told them that all their fancy C&C and LotR licenses were useless, because the community hates them. Hating people don't buy. They sail the seven seas, perhaps, but they don't leave money on your dresser.
They tell you to fix it. FAST.
So you go out all Mastermind ("Let's make some friends!") and tell the people what they want to hear - "We love you! We support you!", while, like Napoleon in Animal Farm, you just use other people's ideas and save support through cheap gifts.

-----------------------

I could sure expand this post by another ten paragraphs, but in about an hour, I have to leave again - army calls ?_?
So, I guess you get the basic idea. Make up your mind people. When EA does things "for" us, always ask yourself one thing: What are they getting out of it? That may sound paranoid and hostile, but truth is: If they loved us that much, they wouldn't have completely ignored us for years.

Zero Hour patches - gift of love or bugfixes that shouldn't be necessary in the first place?
XWIS support - attempt to save online play or cheap way to give the community what it wants and impose serial checks and corporate control on them?
The First Decade - their way of showing their love to the series, or just a best of album while we're still waiting for Tiberian Twilight?


A box of merchandising is peanuts for EA. Don't let 30 mousepads make you forget the past few years.