Oof. So my kiddo was looking forward to his very first to-be-released game (all others he’s played up until now have just been “out”, things that already existed, ready to play). And wouldn’t you know it… it got delayed until next Spring. He’s been talking about it a lot too… we were even discussing picking up the Lego Razorcrest to build together and unlock in the game.
So we had to have “the talk”, where I explained to him the birds and the bees of video game development, and how sometimes deadlines don’t get met, etc, etc. It was rough. I’m not sure he really grasps the concept of time on that scale yet, so next spring may as well be a million years, and he was really excited about more Lego Star Wars this fall.
He probably took it better than I’m recollecting, but my heart shatters any time he’s disappointed, so…
The “acquired by EA” line was the most brutal part for me. Your son may(and you) may be disappointed by a delayed game, but there’s always at least the hope that it’ll come out better because of the delay and every minute you waited was worth it. On the other hand, if it’s “acquired” by EA, the whole range of emotions are horrific. I mean, you KNOW that they’re going to destroy everything you’ve ever loved about a game/publisher, monetize it and then take a steaming victory dump on it but there’s always that one little hope that this time…maybe… Read more »
Hello my name is Juul and I am also an EA-victim.
*Monotone voices*
Hello Juul……
How did Ea hurt you brother? for me it was Spore and i never touched one of their games again
Idk about Juul, but for me, it was Command and conquer. I remember being in middle school, and having to use our dial-up to research whatever happened to Westwood…. I know this is messed up to say, but I remember it just as well as when I saw 9/11. oof. … things a child shouldn’t see.
The “aquired by EA” is what got me, not gonna lie.
I think when its time to explain EA to my son, ill put on the first 5 minutes of the transformers movie.
“OK son
Unicron = EA
Planet = Studio
Screaming robots running in terror = The Dev team members not part in on the whole selling their souls for cash
And thats why your favourite game is now full of micro transactions. Shall we get some Ice cream?”
Wouldn’t favourite game be the death of Optimus?
I will be forever bitter about them killing Westwood Studios!
Same. Those fucking bastards….
I want to buy the remastered C&C because, well, C&C. But I abhor the idea of giving those vampires a single dime…
I just want to hear the sound of Tesla coils delivering plasma-laden doom to my enemies, one more time.
C&C remastered brought in a lot of the old Dev team, and most of the work was co-oped by fans. It might be owned by EA, but EA had NOTHING to do with it being made. they just made it anyway, and offered EA partial profit for permission. I bought it. I’d like to see EA offer more chances for developer autonomy. make a positive example of this. … make them believe that there’s a profit margin to be gained from backing this kind of initiative.
YARH HAR, FIDDLEY DEE
Can’t upvote this hard enough. Truly, a fate worse than death.
All very true, though there are upsides as well, such as in the case of it being a game you both are looking forward to that got delayed you can talk to each other about it and what you are looking forward to most. When parents and their kids share a hobby, there is this positive feedback loop that happens, your excitement feeds each other, and when it comes to disappointments you aren’t just alone in feeling that way as you can talk it out as they get older.
A favorite game “acquired by EA” is like a friend saying they have cancer. They’re not gone immediately, but you know the good times you spend together are finite and go into heartbreaking downward spiral that ultimately leads to their untimely demise.
For me, it was Andomeda. And, like, I was able to get past the faces. I could accept the shit colony growth method. The repeat of the “Horror” of what the enemy was doing to people which was just a rehash of the Reapers when you think of it. But I hit a game breaking bug in a character mission, one that prevented ALL forward progress. And it was just… That was it. You seriously didn’t come across this UNAVOIDABLE bug and couldn’t be bothered to fix it before launch, or afterwards with a hotpatch? And then all the rest… Read more »
Ive said it so many times back in 2017, but ill say it again here:
When i saw people complaining about the faces and animations in Andromeda, i knew they hadn’t really played much/any of the game. Not because they were wrong, but because Andromeda had SO MUCH MORE wrong with it that the animations and faces pale in comparison.
At least they let Fallen Order shine.
Having that one game be an exception just shows the rest in further damning clarity. It’s proof that they can do it right, but choose not to.
I can feel how he feels it. I’m currently in the “released in time as planned but half the features are missing and will be patched soon” phase.
My son is 8 and just recently really got into gaming. It was hard to explain to him that when he beat his favorite game (Luigis Mansion 3) that it was really the end. Their were no more levels to play. He was so upset…and then I said well you can try and beat it faster! He went from a 40 hour complete time to 20, to 16 to 12. He’s still trying to get faster…
Future speedrunner in the making. Just wait till he gets down towards *looks up record* somewhere close to 3 hours.
I had this with the PS1 game Hogs of War as a kid. It was a great game but so so short. So I kept replaying it as different teams and ended up learning all of the characters lines.
to be honest,sounds like spoiled kid …nes era once game was finished it was finished, didnt need parent to explain that its finished,didnt need parent to tell play again with speed run; back then it was natural
Haha I had that as a kid, that’s when I started doing weird challenges. Trying to do it fast, trying to do it without using the OP weapon, trying to 100% it, ect.
Yeah, they really have to grow up a little bit more to be able to parse the “best to wait for a proper game than to get a buggy mess that was forced out the door before it was completed”. Although I may be showing my age here, because nowadays people don’t mind uncompleted games under the banner of “early access” and promise of DLCs. It’s another issue entirely, I know… but I’m STILL miffed about some titles which could have been great and ended up thrashed by unforgiving release dates. My childhood scar of that is Gabriel Knight 3,… Read more »
Being a gamer parent is a new kind of hard mode/challenge as a parent.
Duke Nukem Forever…
Nuff said. LOL!!!
Better than the overhyped, under-delivered game that was released far too early and is too buggy to play.
You’ve just described my entire experience of Bethesda games. And I get them about 6 months after release.
That’s just good sense. For me, when I play a game, what matters to me is if I enjoy it ‘at that time’, so whether I pay $50 or $25 for a game is irrelevant as far as enjoyment so I tend to pay $25. I can’t even keep up with my meagre 100 or so games got on sale mostly (some far discounted). It isn’t that I don’t want to support devs and studios at full price, just cannot. So my option is either give them half price eventually, or give them nothing. I also find that if I… Read more »
My young’un’s not to that point just yet. We’re just tooling around without a care in the world, catching every single bug and fish we see in Animal Crossing.
If Nintendo one day pulls an Amiibo Festival on her, though, we’re going to have words.
“acquired by EA”
/me shivers down my spine
Now I go way back (my first game console was the original Atari 2600 and my first computer was Apple IIe, then Commodore 64). One of my early arcade games was Space War. That said, I recall the early EA games, before platforms, before in-app purchases and monetization and nerfing and patch after patch. You go the game, you had the game, you played the game, they usually tested it cause updates didn’t exist mostly, and so the release was as good as it would be ever. And EA’s early sports games were good for the time and enjoyable. When… Read more »
Man, I actually kinda miss that stage… Wondering when Wind Waker was gonna come out for PS2 since I had no concept of exclusives. Having my knowledge of game releases be strictly limited to whatever was on the store shelf at the time. Playing through some absolute hot garbage that ran like crap, looked like crap, and played like crap but THOROUGHLY enjoying it because “Look, that’s the guy from the show! That’s who I am!” Now I have to worry about all that stupid stuff, like “quality,” and “value,” and “predatory and/or anti-consumer business practices I refuse to support.”… Read more »
Always look on the bright side of life *lively whistle tune*
I have just one name.
Duke Nukem Forever.
Oh man… stuff like this makes me glad I’m not a father. I dunno how I’d be able to deal with explaining this to my kid.
ANYTHING that is “Acquired” by EA immediately has the kiss of death on it.
Honestly I thought that this was about the passing of Chadwick Boseman until I got to the 3rd panel.
May he rest in Peace.
Canceled and acquired by EA walk hand in hand half the time, so acceptance comes with knowing that the former happens shortly after the latter.
I thought this was about Chadwick Boseman right up until the punch line.
The really disturbing thing is how similar this talk is to the one I got as a kid when our synagogue was vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.
Just to bring the mood down, y’know.
People whose heads are that screwed up need some help. In the meanwhile, they need to be called out and challenged. That kind of action is pretty dang far from any standard of civilized behaviour. I just had to tell my 13 year old redheaded sunshine that a close family friend who she was close to died last Wednesday at 48 from a heart attack out of the blue despite exercising for hours every day and eating nothing but healthy things. This on top of losing her 15 year old ‘big brother’ (as she saw him) to bone cancer after… Read more »
And the real benefit: When you display compassion and empathy and they know they don’t have to ‘suck it up’ or hide their feelings because they’ll be mocked, they learn to face their stuff, rather than let it build up and twist them up inside. And they also then tend to look at others through the lens of emotional intelligence and awareness and they will even try to comfort you, the parent, when life throws you something you feel is too big for you. That’s when you really know your kid gets the importance of resilience and of reaching out… Read more »
“Acquired by EA” – Maxis was the first of those for me. Was the first game company I really liked… then EA got them. Don’t get me wrong, the sims (first couple games) and spore were good games, but I feel like they were boxed into a narrow gap of only what could make money and then forced to do all they can to cash out on it. It’s like EA is a retirement home for game companies where they are forced to do slave labor until they die, become a zombie and continue to pump out the same game… Read more »
I never finished The Mandalorian, his ship is really called “Razorcrest?” No shit? That just screams “I was made to hawk stuff to 10-years-olds.” I should know, I grew up with Digimon.
To be fair kids are some times disappointed if you can’t have pizza for dinner and the look on their face is just as bad. My nephew actually cried the other day because he wanted to play a video game with me way too early in the morning and I said no and went to bed.
I am not an artist, nor am I an art critic, so I don’t know exactly what artistic qualities are causing the effect, but there is something really wholesome in the way that you draw your wife and your kid. Somehow the familial bond is shown in the artwork.
Yeah! I finally found the EA anonymous meetings site. Yes, those bastards have crushed my hopes and dreams a few times as well. I can feel ya brothers and sisters.