EA = The Evil Axis?

The world has finally lost it.

I have finally come to a point where I truly dislike EA. The exclusive deals pushed me, the broken pedals, the freezing while playing NCAA football if I skipped cutscenes,  and the somewhat bland fantasy football eperience.  Individually these issues are rather small but in a group they can take you down. 

EA discontinued their warranty policy of "don't ask, don't tell" and started mandating the 60 day rule. This is fine but what if I bought the first series of kits?  SOL!!  So my RMA was declined and reading a previous post on their forums stated they would still take stuff back if you tried to fix it yourself on their previous policy.  So I figured I will take a whack at it and apply my brothers engineerings to this project to create a sturdy alternative.  We created a foot pad made of a hard yet slightly flexible plastic, replaced all other parts with metal (springs, hinges, screws etc..) and placed a proper magnet on the toe.  Worked but just felt a little odd.  EA then retracts their policy and says that any modifcations will not qualify and you are stuck.  uhhhhh....   Fortunately my modded pedal was a spare one of my brothers that had broken (one of the 6 he has had break)  So I get an RMA and if I do not return the original I get charged $125 or something like that?  That is paying double the retail price of a full kit. messed up.

To furthr antagonize this, their official statement is that all of this breaking is caused by users improper use of the hardware.  Considering the seemingly high volume of breaks, I assume the whole world has no idea how to use their crap.  I wonder if Microsoft could have saved a ton by simply saying the RROD was because I did not know how to use their system?  The blame has fallen back to the consumer.  There lay the problem with this industry. All to often everything is designed for the creators an not for the end user.  A software application is worthless if the the end user can not use it the way they need to use it rather then the way you want them to use it. (I have had to fight developers and programmers about this on my own projects)

 

I am finally boycotting a company and I encourage all to follow to enact change.  EA, kiss my disposable, overpaid income goodbye.  As much as I loved Rock Band, not beng able to play it makes it worthless and I will not support your socialist regime and you evil doers. oops....broke into Bush there for a second....

Posted by amatwrestler @ 3:57 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Well Fed

I remember being a kid and getting a Collecovision and an Intellivision. I had a blast with these systems. The controllers always worked for me, the systems did not overheat and you could turn it off knowing it would turn on again. As the system aged (a lot longer than 6 months), I had to begin shimming my cartridges so they would play. As I grew older I got a NES. I played the hell out of Pro Wrestling, Duck Hunt and Maniac Mansion (which I can beat in under 20 minutes). After a few years, I had to shim those cartidges as well and an occasional blow.  I then moved up to the PS1. After about a year, it would not read any discs so I bought another one. The the PS2. 9 months after purchase Icould only play games that were not blue. I told Sony to stick it when they wanted $150 to fix it. I took that money and got an Xbox. No problems for quite a bit of play time I got out of it. The cooling fan quit working so I rigged up the power to the disc player and it worked fine (let's call it a shim to be consistent). I now come to my Xbox 360. RRoD, disc read errors, accessories that do not last quite as long as they should and a Live service that seems to be hit or miss on performance.

I had some spare time over the weekend and decided to play some Xbox 360. Unfortunately my internet connection has been crappy lately and was not functioning at all at this time. I looked through my games and could not find anything that looked like it would be fun. Just looking at Rock Band and my broken pedal that EA refuses to replace just pisses me off (Manu. date of Sept 27, 2007) Even if my internet connection was up, games like RB6:V2, H3, Madden, or any other MP game just had no appeal to me.

In a haste to beat the competitor, quality has taken the back seat. This goes for people you play against online as well as the game developers. Playing Halo 2 was fun until the MLG stuff started becoming popular.  I can not play a single game of Halo 3 without somebody playing like they are practicing for an MLG event whether it is friends or strangers. A random click on bungie.net inevitably leads to some sort of MLG related content. I do not have #'s but I assume pro gaming is like any other pro career. 99% of the population is not pro.  Don't get me wrong, I like to pretend I am Bo Jackson when I pick up a football but I know I am not. I also do not spend 4 hours a day doing drills much like I do not spend 4 hrs a day doing Halo 3 drills. I am tired of not being able to simply play the game as well as being told to practice and get better.

 

At this rate, the gaming community is going to burnout dwindle down to a few people that play the newest and hottest games and the majority that play games like Luxor. Damn those kids....

 

Posted by amatwrestler @ 11:40 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

41/2 Weeks

360 dies. I wait a week to get the box. It takes 5 days to get to TX. I have no way to track the status of repair as I did not note my serial #. E-mail says 4-6 weeks for processing.

$%^$%^$%^$%^

Add 4-5 days for return shipping and I was looking at over 2 months. Thats 2 months of forfeited Live and 2 Months of Gamefly and 2 months of having to spend time with my wife!!! Life is so much easier when she shops and I play games.

I called repeatedly and could never get anyone after holding forever. NEVER replying to my e-mails. 1 trip to the BBB and I get a call from Microsoft 2 days later telling me th re expediing my repairs and I should have a tracking number in less than 7 days after they have received my box. WTF?????

This is the most messed up thing about America. The bigger the @$$ the bigger the reward?

I finally realized it is not Timmy's fault, he is just getting prepared for the commercial world.

 

Cheers

Navigator

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Posted by amatwrestler @ 10:10 pm EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments

Thank God it's Almost Monday

1 week to go til I start down the home stretch of my Bach Degree. Some lessons to be learned during that week:

 

1. Never wait til the last minute to begin a research paper on Citizen Kane.

2. Technical Writing is so not for me.

3. Cramming in the previous month's data analysis, reporting, designing a re-org within the department, my son's third B-Day, and finals all in one week is almost too much to do without a 6 pack of Amstel Light.

4. Completely destroying all progress made in your office in 2 months is the quickest way to be made manager of said department. (Now you need multiple people to do the job as it is sinking fast)

 

Yeah this last one is a tad of bitterness. The QA person in our Florida office completely reveresed all the work I did in that office. What took me 8 months to establish (after I weeded out the last QA person there), she demolished in 2 months. (actually 1.5 months but I am padding it for her sake) Quality dropped by >60% in that office and my office increased by 23%. To correct the situation, she gets a promotion. To add to the misery, the AC unit in our office is on the fritz so it is also 120' inside.

 

And that is the American Way!

Posted by amatwrestler @ 5:59 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Clash of the Titans in HD?

I do think this is a good movie but does it really need to be in HD? (see Video Marketplace) Cheers to the Kracken!

 

Why does a freaking MBA have to be so bloody hard to get? Apply to school, transfer credits, apply for program and even then you have to take bizaaro classes and I am still 1 year from my BS in BA. I take classes during the quarter, classes in between fall/winter (11 weeks of class crammed into 2 weeks) and summer classes and I still feel like I will never get done.

In my spare time I get to play 360 with my 2 yr old son (Disney's Cars....) or continue to work on my new house or sit in the office and be the QA arse (if you have never been the liason between 2 corporate clients and local operations then you do not know what your missing)

1 year or so to go until I can rest which is oddly about the same amount of time until H3 releases....

 

Posted by amatwrestler @ 2:14 am EDT | Permalink | 1 Comments