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[fenrif]

FWIW: John Walker has a stick up his ass about Bioware and LGBT issues for some reason.

http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/frankenstein-monster-at-bioware.html This is blod called CrystalPrisonZone, talking about some problems with Bioware and game development in general. John Walker responded in the comments with baffling vitriol and the insistence that anyone who didn't like Bioware were homophobes guilty of hate crimes.

That said, Bioware's (and they're the only dev studio anyone is talking about when this issue comes up) generally handle same-sex realtionships with the finesse and class of a 5 year old. Characters are attracted to you no matter what because sexuality is a convenient choice like that! Wasn't there a huge stink about the scene in the DA2 DLC where the characters openly mock an NPC for being transgendered?

Also I don't think it's as simple as that. The people who voted for EA weren't doing it because they literally believe EA is the worst company in the world, I imagine. It's because it's something fresh in their minds, and they kind of deliberatly want to cause a stink about it. People get passionate about their hobbies and interests, and EA has been a bad PR magnet for a while now, but their response is "haha go do one jackasses." I think its more about sending a message to EA than it is making a statement about what company is worst in the world.

[Tilla]

FWIW: John Walker has a stick up his ass about Bioware and LGBT issues for some reason.

http://crystalprisonzone.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/frankenstein-monster-at-bioware.html This is blod called CrystalPrisonZone, talking about some problems with Bioware and game development in general. John Walker responded in the comments with baffling vitriol and the insistence that anyone who didn't like Bioware were homophobes guilty of hate crimes.

That said, Bioware's (and they're the only dev studio anyone is talking about when this issue comes up) generally handle same-sex realtionships with the finesse and class of a 5 year old. Characters are attracted to you no matter what because sexuality is a convenient choice like that! Wasn't there a huge stink about the scene in the DA2 DLC where the characters openly mock an NPC for being transgendered?

There definitely IS a huge segment of the people on the Bioware forums who ARE being homophobic about it though - I've seen the threads, it's there. John Walker isn't pulling this out of his ass. These same buffoons are also pretty common amongst the anti-Hepler faction who have gotten way out of control,  blaming her for choices made in games that she wasn't on the team of. Like, there are literally people blaming her for there being Gay characters in Mass Effect 3. She wasn't even the lead writer or that particularly high up on the team for Dragon Age 2 - people have made her a scapegoat for the wider problem: Bioware is broken and most of the real talent is gone.

Note that he clarified why he brought up the subject of the LGBT issues because it was addressing the wider issue of the ongoing ranting about Bioware - and that's a huge part of it. He was NOT implying the article itself was to blame. Several commenters did try to twist his words to make it seem that way but he corrected them.

[fenrif]

Oh yeah, I'm not denying that. But that's more of a statement about people and society in general than anything about EA or Bioware (And I think it's pretty commonly known that the Bioware forums are a horrible horrible place in general?). I was more referring to the whole "if you don't like bioware you hate the gays!" or "bioware are crusading for LGBT rights!" angle that gets thrown around a lot whenever anyone has anything negative to say about the companies involved. Walker isn't pulling it out his ass, but he sure goes out of his way to mention it a lot whenver someone has mean things to say about Bioware/EA...

[Tilla]

Oh yeah, I'm not denying that. But that's more of a statement about people and society in general than anything about EA or Bioware (And I think it's pretty commonly known that the Bioware forums are a horrible horrible place in general?). I was more referring to the whole "if you don't like bioware you hate the gays!" or "bioware are crusading for LGBT rights!" angle that gets thrown around a lot whenever anyone has anything negative to say about the companies involved. Walker isn't pulling it out his ass, but he sure goes out of his way to mention it a lot whenver someone has mean things to say about Bioware/EA...

Just finished editing my comment - he addresses this in those comments if you read them. He certainly wasn't calling ANYONE on that blog homophobic, merely bringing up the issues as part of the wider conversation on Bioware. There was a LOT of trying to twist his words by people there though to make  him seem more vitriolic than he really was

[fenrif]

Eh, I dunno dude. Gotta disagree with you there.

[Tilla]

Eh, I dunno dude. Gotta disagree with you there.

Liam - this article didn't display any homophobia at all. The wider debate it's reporting on has been horrendously homophobic, as revealed by the language used by those so despicably personally attacking Hepler. The article talks about the wider issues, and so do I. And a great deal of the discussion that's taken place has been very poorly coded disgust that there are gay characters in the games, and that gay relationships are offered. If you've not seen any of this, you are blessed.

Again, he's been involved in the actual discussions and gotten a ton of hatemail himself that was wildly homophobic for defending Hepler's statements.

Anyway, this tangent is way too silly and longlived, and rather subjective arguing over what he did or didn't say there.

I will say full disclosure I have been employed by EA in the distant past and it wasn't nearly as bad as the horror stories people put out there - as a workplace in fact it is the most pleasant I had ever been in. Sure there are hellgrinds, but that's indicative of every part of the software industry, not of EA in particular. Executive Chefs, free Starbucks, a library with basically everything a nerd could ever want for 'research' (anime, comics, other studios games, and a ton of books on every creative subject).

This does not prevent me from hating their business practices and their piecemeal destruction of everything they have ever bought from another studio. And every day they make it easier for me to not buy products - I'm not even bothering with the FREE Mass Effect 3 DLC because  I was so disgusted by how lazily the game itself was put together.

[nenjin]

Regardless of who is putting their genitals in whom, I'm getting rather tired of Bioware cramming sexual relationships into every game they can. It was neat when it was filling in gaps in open world RPGs. But now it's becoming schtick to me.

You can have deep, character-driven interactions that aren't boiled down to sex. (And ME has had plenty, so I don't know why they feel like every hero needs a love interest.)

Maybe if they're put more time into their ending sequence instead of thinking up new ways for characters to pork each other, fans wouldn't be so pissed.

[fenrif]

Regardless of who is putting their genital in whom, I'm getting rather tired of Bioware cramming sexual relationships into every game they can. It was neat when it was filling in gap in open world RPGs. But now it's becoming schtick to me.

You can have deep, character-driven interactions that aren't boiled down to sex. (And ME has had plenty, so I don't know why they feel like every hero needs a love interest.)

Maybe if they're put more time into their ending sequence instead of thinking up new ways for characters to pork each other, fans wouldn't be so pissed.

Bioware's increasing focus on the bumping uglies portion of their games is probobly one of the biggest cases of missing the point in video game writing. It's like they're pandering to the absolute worst aspects of their fanbase.

Tilla: Did you work for EA before or after the whole EA-Spouse thing?

[alamoes]

Its funny cause its true. 

[Neonivek]

I don't know EA could be legitimately the Worst company in the US if you think of it like this:

Is EA a worse GAME company then the Bank of America is at being a Bank?

[dogstile]

Hey, isn't this a poll that anyone can vote on and as such shouldn't be taken seriously because of how absolutely non-scientific it is? Just sayin'

[Moghjubar]

This survey: results = game players are more likely to take surveys.

[darkrider2]

This survey: results = game players are more likely to take surveys.

It was also on the internet so... results = game players are very likely to use the internet.

[Bouchart]

Worse than MF Global?  Jon Corzine should be in prison.  EA looks like boy scouts compared to them.

[Microcline]

Man, watching EA's spin control is like watching the town drunk claim he's not an alcoholic.
"I don't have an alcohol problem"
"There are plenty of people with worse alcohol problems than me"
"You just hate me because you're racist/homophobic/misogynistic..."

Seeing the response makes me feel that maybe they were right to give them the award, especially if examined from a deontological rather than a consequentialist perspective.  It could be argued that the corruption and subversion of a culture's attempts at artistic endeavor is an especially unethical act.