It has been less than a week since EA and its subsidiary, DICE, stood up and took notice of the gaming community, led by the fine people within the Sarcastic Gamer Community. While we may be small, you all sure do carry a big stick, as most gaming media outlets found out.
Stepping back from the whole situation, I find it inconceivable that we actually pulled it off. I mean, just think about it. We stood up to EA and forced EA to cut off a revenue stream that was worth millions of dollars. Yet, there are still haters that are “tired” of hearing about the boycott, the “hollow” win and those “annoying bastards” from Sarcastic Gamer.
Sour grapes?
We, the community, stopped the second largest game company, in the world, from gouging gamers for millions of dollars in extra revenue. IN JUST TWO WEEKS. Think about that for a second. Your small site was able to mobilize every other small site, just like ours, into a force. That force did some good.
While Sarcastic Gamer’s feats of Internet organization reverberated throughout the Interwebs last week, it appears that some sites and other people within the “community” of gamers wish that we all would just shut up about it. I don’t know if it’s boycott fatigue, or if there’s something else festering within the community, I just don’t get it.
I don’t know about you, but after last week, I can’t stop smiling. I don’t know if it’s the fact that we actually did something worth while and succeeded, or what. I don’t think I’m the only one. We felt a huge shift in audience and loyalty from certain websites that didn’t participate, to those that did. Did Sarcastic Gamer receive a ton of press as a result of the successful Boycott? Heck yeah it did, but isn’t that the point when you’re trying to bring attention to a situation? How do you whisper from the rooftops for a call to arms?
Honestly, I don’t really care what the answer to those questions are because, at the end of the day, the SG community feels closer, personally and globally with the sites and the people that stood with us that represent those communities. We share that bond. That Band of Brothers. That’s more important than all of the page views in the world.
I’ll just make sure to leave the haters off the email list, the next time we all need to go kick some ass.
That’s the bottom line. Viva la Resistance!
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21 responses so far ↓
1 Mattyftm // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:12 am
Still can’t believe that this small community managed to overcome the giant corporate machine of EA!!!!! Sarcastic gamer ROCKS!!!!!!
2 Black-Eye Brick // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:20 am
With success comes enemies.
Was it worth the trade-off? Hell yes.
3 version2.0 // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:21 am
Forget the haters, they are worthless. This news is still great. I think anybody with half a brain is tired of EAs shenanigans, especially those of us that are in the industry and get affected by their monopolization on products. We, as a community, need to continue MAKING our voices be heard. We are our only hope when it comes to being treated fairly as consumers, so we have to step up. Like I said, don’t even let the whiners affect this win. They’re just upset they didn’t initiate and take part in this victory. VIVA!
4 Sefa Red // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:23 am
Call me a “hater” if you wish but I can’t help thinking this is being blown out of all proportion.
Does everyone think that EA are going to abondon something that’s worth “a revenue stream of millions of dollars”?
I’m pretty sure that if something like this is repeated EA will eventually decide to go ahead with their plans anyway, and find out that there are millions of people that don’t listen to podcasts or visit websites and will go ahead and buy the DLC anyway. And EA will make millions of dollars from it.
You have to allow people to make a choice rather than trying to cut the choice off at the source. What about the people that didn’t mind about the DLC plans? You’ve made sure the choice was taken away from them. If you didn’t like EA’s plans then boycott it by not buying it, and not by bullying everyone else into fighting against something that you personally found unacceptable. The constant pleading to do something in the previous episode became very annoying.
Also there’s the fact that the game is not even out yet, and much of this is based on guess work. If you’d played the game and then found out the DLC weapons were unbalancing the game, that would be a better reason for a boycott. But you haven’t, so you don’t know for sure.
I hope this sort of thing isn’t the future for Sarcastic Gamer , but I get the feeling it’s the start of a worrying trend. So, call me a hater if you like but I’ll think of myself as a realist.
5 Black-Eye Brick // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:32 am
@Sefa: Taking choice away? What are you talking about? I’m pretty sure that the only gamers who would actually be in favor of that DLC plan would be the 10-year olds who don’t care about money and can get their parents to buy advantages for them (EA employees aside).
And that advantage IS there, if we’ve learned anything from the dozens of FPSs we’ve played. The stats might tell one story on paper, but in a situation like this the player who has more choices has a definite advantage.
Besides, a bigger issue is that they’re releasing content that’s already completed. Why should they charge more for something that is already included in the game? B.S.
6 Doc // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:37 am
@Sefa
So you’re saying that if people didn’t like the plan they should boycott…. but quietly… so they didnt actually affect anything and take a choice away from someone who WANTED to pay for the guns rather than get them for free…. gotcha.
You’re not making any sense, to me. These imaginary people that didn’t want the guns free, who WANTED to pay money for them, have just as much the right and ability to organize and speak out about what THEY want.
Either those people are REALLY lazy, or they don’t exist. I’m going with the latter for the time being.
7 |3utters // Apr 14, 2008 at 9:59 am
@ sefa
I think one of the reasons for the boycott was to ensure we the gamers don’t get ripped off… but hey if you want to pay money instead of getting it for free be my guest. seems you just have more money and are very lazy.
8 grigger // Apr 14, 2008 at 11:14 am
EA is just trying to rip ppl off. They are greedy and dont care about it
That you SG for starting this boycott and following through to the end
9 sofew // Apr 14, 2008 at 11:24 am
well done guys! it might be time to give it a rest now though? you’re starting to come across as a bit “annoying”, move on to summin else.
10 Tempe4mental // Apr 14, 2008 at 12:12 pm
Please don’t flame little ol me, but! I believe that this boycott wasn’t entirely ours, it was such an outrageous idea in the first place that a boycott could have easily developed independantly on other sites.
11 Lono // Apr 14, 2008 at 1:58 pm
A win, is a win, is a win. Nobody can take it away from you all.
@teme4mental: Please email me with ANY site or article or forum post from anywhere that called for the boycott of Bad Company before we did. I would very much like to know who rallied the troops, if we didn’t do it, so I could shake their hand.
For those that are “tired” of hearing about the boycott, my answer, too bad. This is a big deal, believe it or not, and I, along with the people in the community and other websites that boycotted with us, are proud.
12 PrinceGaming // Apr 14, 2008 at 2:24 pm
IMO, the ‘haters’ would do the same thing if they were in the shoes of an SG member. Until they change EA’s mind about something, they don’t know the feeling of elation.
13 Doc // Apr 14, 2008 at 3:35 pm
heh…. you just said “I are proud”
14 sofew // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:05 pm
odd how us how are tired of hearing about this are somehow deemed to know less than you about the games industry lono. “believe it or not” constantly patting yourself on the back makes you seem like a jackass, and jackasses are often overly proud of themselves.
i’m a fan of sarcastic gamer but i don’t wanna see the same stuff everytime i visit the site.
15 Lono // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:11 pm
@sofew: I’m sorry you’ve achieved boycott fatigue after a mere two and a half weeks, but I’m not patting myself on the back. I was patting the community and the websites that supported us on the back.
Heck, I didn’t do a dang thing, it was everyone else’s emails, forum posts, videos, podcasts and blog posts that did it. It was a collective effort and we all should be proud.
16 cory // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:14 pm
~*~sarcastic gamer 4 life~*~
17 Blackswordsman // Apr 14, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Wow what is everyones problem?
If you dont want to read about the boycott then dont click on the article. jeez.
18 Dableo // Apr 14, 2008 at 7:34 pm
This was a triumph
I’m making a note here:
HUGE SUCCESS
It’s hard to overstate
my satisfaction
Electronic Arts
They do what they must
because they can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones that arne’t them
But there’s no sense crying
over every coin taken
You just keep on boycotting
till there forced to return em
And the game gets done
with 5 extra free guns
For the people who were
Still annoyed
Were not even angry
Were being so sincere right now
Even though you broke the game
To screw us
And tore it to pieces
And put every piece with a new charge.
As you learned it hurt because
We completely pwned you!
Now the fixed up game
makes a complete line
And we end the boycott
Because you listened this time
So we’re glad you got burned.
Think of all the things you learned
from the people who were
So annoyed!
Go ahead and launch it
Too bad you cannot steal our cash
maybe you’ll find someone else
to take from
maybe Take 2…
THAT WAS A JOKE, HA HA, FAT CHANCE.
As you know you missed that chance
Because you acted like jerks
look at me still talking when theres gaming to do
but when i look out there
i see theres so much to do
Rock Band has hit the run
Making UKers drop their funds
So really I am
Still annoyed!
19 WU GAMB1NO // Apr 14, 2008 at 11:17 pm
@LONO & SG.COM
Don’t lisen to these haters what we did to fight EA was great and I’m still smiling about it. I’m a big BF fan and could not believe the DLC BS was happening now I feel good about buying a game I love and we can talk about all we want.
20 rogg182 // Apr 15, 2008 at 1:51 am
Keep smiling, Doc, we did what needed done. The haters aren’t angry because we did it, they’re angry because the didn’t. Let them continue to bury their heads in the sand on issue like this. While companies using less than fair pricing tactics and those making bad games continue to shove advertising cash up their tail ends to keep them bent over and silent. When they finally realize they don’t know their own audience, it will too late, as we’ve already we don’t want to know them.
21 Mattyftm // Apr 15, 2008 at 5:03 am
@Dableo
That was hilarious. How long did it take you to do that?
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