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Monday, April 9, 2012

Games Breaking: Internet Polls May Be Biased

Posted by The Stranger Testing Department on Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:06 PM

So game company EA won/lost Consumerist's 2012 Golden Poo for "Worst Company in America" last week, beating out the sweeties at Bank of America and many other, seemingly more nefarious corps. EA has many, many faults—they nickel and dime their customers to death with premium downloadable content, they ban players for forum infractions and are helping to kill off the used-game market. Contrast that with foreclosures, hidden bank fees, and the global economic catastrophe, and you'd think there'd be no contest, even given the preponderance of opinionated gamers on the internet.

Is this evidence of the increasing importance of the game industry in American culture? Not so much. Like all internet balloting (except legally binding Slog polls, obviously), sampling bias drops a heavy thumb on the scales, and recent events have made EA an inviting target. Mass Effect 3 came out recently, and as the latest EA-related title to feature hot all-dude action (between space marines, no less), it's attracted a shitstorm of homophobia, though a much milder shitstorm than the one that ME and ME2's all-girl action prompted. EA is trying to pin all their woes on this one point, but while they should get an A+ for their efforts to expand access to all gamers, the homophobes aren't driving this on their own.

Bioware
Spoiler alert: This is not the space marine you are looking for.

Gamers have been pissed at EA for years—all the while buying their games, their DLC, and their merch—and the Consumerist released its poll at the worst possible time for the company. Hundreds of thousands of gamers had just reached the end of Mass Effect 3, which offers what is widely seen as an extremely disappointing ending to a much beloved series. Add those white-hot points of frustrated rage to wild homophobia and mounting nausea over terrible customer relations, and you've got a recipe for a Golden Poo.

The Stranger Testing Department is Rob Lightner and Paul Hughes.

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Comments (21) RSS

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I stopped buying EA games a few years back. Their terrible, terrible PC port of GTA4 was the last straw for me. I wonder if anyone on their dev staff bothered to bug-check it or if they were just too busy insulting their customers and high-fiving each other.

They obviously don't care if their products are garbage. Their principle market (pre-teen and teen boys) doesn't know any better and will keep buying their shit in happy ignorance.

Ah well, what can you do?

Posted by Urgutha Forka on April 9, 2012 at 2:21 PM

I am shocked.

Even if EA sucks the big one.

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 9, 2012 at 2:21 PM

I would have voted for them three times based solely on my attempts to use Origin customer service. Goddamn, EA, if you're going to try to compete with Steam, at least, you know, actually try.

I don't want to get into stereotypes here, but their customer service center is definitely somewhere non-English-speaking and whoever they contracted it out from have done a shit-terrible job training their employees.

Posted by balderdash

on April 9, 2012 at 2:26 PM

I convinced my boyfriend to have his renegade Shepard romance Cortez and the sex scene was nonexistent. They kissed, fade to black, they wake up in bed together mostly clothed. The homophobes are squawking about nothing as per usual.

Posted by keshmeshi on April 9, 2012 at 2:27 PM

@3 don't remind me. Trying to get the Katy Perry Showtime to download using Origin is liking sucking teeth out of a dead cow skull with two hands tied behind your back while vultures peck at your eyes ...

Posted by Will in Seattle

on April 9, 2012 at 2:49 PM

@4

Almost all of ME's "sexy" content has been pretty tame. I'm still pissed that all I got for romancing Garrus in ME2 was some mutually worried cuddling, especially after all that pre-game talk about how dangerous it could be to mix fluids. I can't help but wonder if all the brouhaha after ME1 was released made Bioware a bit gun-shy.

Posted by Zebes

on April 9, 2012 at 2:51 PM

My girlfriend and her friends have been lamenting Mass Effect's "heteronormative assumption of monogamy," by which I mean they want to hook up with Garrus and Kaidan at the same time. Now THAT probably would've made homophobic neckbeards and "concerned parents" alike blow their tops.

Sigh. If only.

Posted by balderdash

on April 9, 2012 at 2:53 PM

Mandatory link

Posted by Lack Thereof on April 9, 2012 at 3:00 PM

@7: LIKE.

Posted by The Stranger Testing Department on April 9, 2012 at 3:03 PM

Not to defend the crazy homophobic gamers or the AFA, but I get the impression from this and the Metacritic bombing last month that the real ire has been saved for the endings... Like that cupcake stunt from the Mass Effect 3 Wikipedia page.

Posted by AirBuddy on April 9, 2012 at 3:10 PM

Shepard should be allowed to be into Cerberus-style.

Posted by dirge on April 9, 2012 at 3:24 PM

@8 Thanks for the laugh.

Posted by ScrawnyKayaker on April 9, 2012 at 3:36 PM

Noooo....I come to slog to forget my abject bitterness over ME3's ending. Please don't remind me. & while I don't doubt that their are of course homophobes railing over the gay relationships, I think that it is also a convenient thing for them to point to as to why they got the Worst Company award. You know, instead of the whole treating their customers like crap and ignoring the basis on which they sold their game! Ok....stepping away to breathe now.

Posted by Snezeire on April 9, 2012 at 3:54 PM

Where is Jonathan Golob? He can splain you how internet polls are not biased. He demonstrated it with standard deviations and facts and his PhD.

I'm not saying I'd let the guy take out my appendix, but he's got proof that we should believe internet polls.

Posted by Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

on April 9, 2012 at 4:39 PM

@6,

In fairness, what would sex with an insectoid race look like? Bioware probably punted that for a good reason.

My fem Shep continued her relationship with Liara and I'd say the sex scene in ME3 was even longer than ME1, even if Shep was wearing her bra throughout the whole thing.

Posted by keshmeshi on April 9, 2012 at 4:42 PM

@7 I know, right?

Posted by sahara29 on April 9, 2012 at 4:47 PM

Don't even get me started on their "second place" and "third place" Poos, which are an easily-refuted mathematical crock of shit. You'd think the blog of Consumer Reports would be able to figure that out.

It's quite remarkable that BOA did not beat EA considering the huge hard-on that C-ist has had for BOA-bashing the past couple of years. Not that BOA is all awesome, but they're not so incredibly more shitty than Chase or WF or Citi (or even WaMu, suck it) that they should have gotten 2x the bad press of all the others put together on C-ist until recently.

Aside from BOA, EA had to beat Best Buy, Comcast, and AT&F'NT to get to the top. Srsly? Ess Arr Ess Ell Wye?? Something is seriously fucked up right there.

Posted by K on April 9, 2012 at 5:06 PM

I really wish I could read the comments here, but I haven't finished ME3 yet, and I don't want to run the risk of ruining the surprise of that is the steaming pile at the end of this franchise.

I didn't agree with the fan hatred that Bioware/EA met with regarding Dragon Age 2, but then it didn't seem to be so unanimous either. Personally, I'm expecting the Reapers to win despite whatever you do, and Shepard to be put in cryo for the next "cycle" (just like Javik was) so EA can cynically milk their fans and thereby extend the life of this established franchise.

Posted by Knat on April 9, 2012 at 8:13 PM

Lesbians caused more outrage than gays??

Gamers, I'm disappointed. :-|

Posted by sirkowski

on April 9, 2012 at 9:56 PM

@6 the sex scenes in the last 2 installments of the game were pretty tame but in the first one there's quite a lot of sideboob and ass shots in the "final" sex scene. Especially the girl-girl one (Shepard and Liara).

I think the whole homophobia against EA is more about them announcing that SWTOR would have same sex romance options due to pressure from the community in the near future.

Posted by spamky on April 9, 2012 at 10:07 PM

Surely in your reporting you found the EA was using bots to make the backlash against them seem like it was all homophobia. Not saying the polls are anywhere near perfect, but there were far better reasons that people had for hating them.

Gamers don't hate EA for gay sex. They hate them for being a bad company. I will concede there are other companies that deserved this dishonor.

Posted by prompt on April 10, 2012 at 8:22 AM