Okay, fuck this. I don't really like or hate EA at all anymore than I'd like or hate any other publisher, but some of these reasons are really stupid.
"Forced Multiplayer". Waaah. MP In ME3 was fun and kind of unique in how it was tied into the single player. You didn't have to play it to beat the game, I'm 99% sure you didn't have to play it to get the best ending, and complaining that it was tacked on is stupid. As is complaining that the SP would have been better without the MP being there. No shit, I'm sure the SP of Left4dead would have been better if they didn't put resources towards multiplayer...but they did and that's the game they made. If you don't like MP, don't touch it.
Actually, for ME3, to get the BEST ending, you do...
[DO NOT READ the SPOILERS and DO NOT click the Link unless you finished ME3 already]
With a high Military Rating of 5000+, you take the "Red" path (Destruction) - then you will get the best ending:
Shepard kills the Reapers; squad-mates live; and Shepard lives.
See here for details. (http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/End_Game_Chart_-_With_Spoilers)
EDIT:
5.) Buying Out Studios And Gutting Them - Holy shit, the first real complaint!
EA are NOT the only ones to do this!
There have been numerous studios w/ other publishers, who wound up also closed. We all seen what happened to Troika and the makers of Blur, right? They were w/ Activision.
I think Activision's much worse than EA on most of this stuff - NO CONTEST.
Honestly, I think gamers just need to be more patient w/ games. There's very few incentives these days for buying Day 1. If you can, avoid Day 1 purchases. Unless the game is something you'll play or replay for LOTS and LOTS of hours (think 20+ hours), don't do it! There will be patches, eventually - to put the game in a better state! Price-drops are so frequent on base games not too long after its release and there's so many Ultimate Edition re-releases much later, you just might as well wait it out, if you can - this is especially true in the PC gaming side and especially w/ the digital distribution side.
Actually, for ME3, to get the BEST ending, you do...
[DO NOT READ the SPOILERS and DO NOT click the Link unless you finished ME3 already]
With a high Military Rating of 5000+, you take the "Red" path (Destruction) - then you will get the best ending:
Shepard kills the Reapers; squad-mates live; and Shepard lives.
See here for details. (http://www.ign.com/wikis/mass-effect-3/End_Game_Chart_-_With_Spoilers)
I was under the impression that you'd still be able to reach that high of a Military Rating level with your default (non-mp boosted) Galactic Readiness score, but it would be a bitch to do so. At least that was the line when I was playing the game at launch
And I totally agree with both of you, there are valid reasons to dislike EA, but people seem to look for more and more justification for it and I have no idea why (groupthink?). They also seem to kind of gloss over that most other major publishers/studios do pretty much the same thing. And that they do the same thing because the market more or less dictates that they do. In Jim Sterling's rant, he commented how EA stated that they were going to change a few years ago. But he neglects to mention that they, for all intensive purposes tried. Mirror's Edge was new and different and people didn't buy it. Brutal Legend was a risk that didn't pan out. They answered the call of fans with Alice: Madness Returns, and I don't think that really worked for them. If I was to take a guess, I'd say that they're more reactive to the trends of the industry rather than ruining the industry as a whole. The thing is, guys like Jim Sterling won't accept that because they don't understand that for 90% of the people who buy and play games, it's just a light hobby rather than a lifestyle. Sure, we all play games and probably focus on them more than a lot of people, but I get the impression from people like Sterling that they really look at the industry as something more than it really is.
OH wow... As shocking as this is. This is actually a good thing.
This'll make game follow the artists rule of changing a minimal 35% of the origonal into something new before its no longer considered plagiarizing.
EA is screwed.
One of the more stupid quotes I've ever read. I mean, apart from the fact that this is an obvious arts student, which mean that the entire statement is wrong in a lot of ways, how the fuck does this imaginary "artists rule" explain still life or AAARGH. That person sucks balls.