When I purchase a videogame these days I expect a certain standard from companies in many aspects, some of these aspects include:
- Pricing
- Service
- Warrenty
- Patching/Downloads
- Security
- Helpdesk

I'm not one to winge and aweful lot about my games, honestly I haven't really bought enough games or consoles to have a good idea of these expectations. Roughly though all companies should oblige that what they present to you should be truthful and valuable.
Electronic Arts and Electronics Boutquie are probably the worst offenders and this and thus I boycott them as much as I can. The difficulty in boycotting a companies like these are that they are everywhere and controll such a large portion of the market.

I'll explain why these two companies have failed my expectations. Firstly Electronics Arts, while they do have some quality games on the market and they are an empire in itself it has probably been their best selling game (battlefield 2) that has let me down.
When I bought the game about a month ago I came home to discover a cracked disc, I took it back and naturally got it replaced. I then installed the game to find out that my program key is invaild, 4th time I got sick of this and called their helpdesk.
To cut a long story short I was passed through departments like a bad smell, only to be told that my cd had been in use, and then banned for hacking. They told me to take it up with the place of purchase. Funnily enough this was EB Games. They then said that this was a problem that EA had to deal with not them. Called them up again and thus the same response. I then demanded to speak to a manager, I got onto the phone to a guy who knew about call centers but not videogames. He told me to send it in.

That was about a month ago. I got a return game from EA and in a letter (poorly written) I was said sorry. Happy with that I then installed the game, hit with a 500mb download for patching.
I don't know what a patch really is (I'm guessing a band-aid like solution to problems, feel free to explain or correct), but I downloaded it, installed it and became very annoyed when my computer kept cutting out when the game loaded, apprently "punkbuster" was attempting a connection, I blocked it thinking it was a worm or somthing. Now I get on a server and get booted because "punkbuster" check failed.
Feel free to explain punkbuster to me, because at the moment I'm really stumped.

Next is EB games, I dropped in there today to buy some Anime (Paranoia Agent), sold out. I found another Anime which I didn't have but collecting the series of (Samurai 7), apprently they didn't have the disc there at the time. After giving me some excuse that it was in the back they wasted 15 minutes trying to get the disc to no avail. I told them breifly that how are they ment to keep customers if they display stock which isn't actually in stock (make whatever sense of that you can). I walked into Big W (where I'm working now), and saw Battlefield 2 again, at least $20 cheaper.
What is with EB Games, everytime I'm in there the cashie seems to know little about games or is actually playing the games themselves, how has this business become so rich that I see their shop just about everywhere when they can't perform the most simple of customer service?

My third company that I boycott is MTV, but that's really another story totally. I don't usually winge about companies but them seem to be the ones giving me the most trouble.

PunkBuster is software which stops people from cheating during online play.

You're not alone with BF2. My copy of the game came in the form of a Pizza Hut promotion, it was free because I had a mate that worked there. The first time I tried to play I also had to wait for the patches to download than 'attempt' to install themselves. After several hours of frustration I finally got into a game and the people I was playing with were (for lack of a better word) complete assholes. I was immediately branded as a 'Pizza Hut Noob' and was then subjected to endless hours of frustrating bad-sportsmanship. In one example a pilot refused to take off with me as a gunner merely because of my rank. Then there are those low life-forms who kill you when you manage to pilot a vehicle they were after.

Battlefield 2 has been the most frustrating game I have ever played. To the point where I have completely stopped playing. It doesn't stop short at other players as well. The game itself is riddled with bugs and gameplay can sometimes be very frustrating, especially where you aren't rewarded for accuracy. I was great at Counter-Strike yet somehow my aiming skills never carried over to BF2.

Was going to move this, since it didnt seem PC specific, but changed my mind after reading Metalix's post :P

Whilst not having much playtime with Battlefield 2, other than the demo years ago, I have to say it's pretty bad if people are acting like assholes to newer people in a game. With regard to the patches, just download them off your ISP server before you get the game, and just install them after getting the game. Pretty much any online based multiplayer game will need a lot of patches to weed out cheats and fix up balancing issues or bugs.

I just hope you're not interesed in B2142 now, especially after it appears that it's a full price game, with in built advertising and also has spyware installed with it. To me, I have an expectation that no game comes with spyware, and I won't be picking up B2142 simply because of that reason. Hopefully they don't apply this into any of their other games (especially Spore and Bioshock).

That seems to happen a bit with PC games, if you jump online in a game late a lot ofthe "1337" players give you are time, comments like "GTFO n00b", :rolleyes: so stupid.

It seems a little odd that games that try to create a community end up alienating a lot of people. I know I'm not going to try CS or BF2 due to the fact that the more experienced players won't give me a look in.

It even exists in games where there's less requirement of 1337 motor skills, like WoW. Basically you'll be ignored by other players, even if you're asking a genuine question or even perhaps trying to be capitalise on the social aspect the MMO promotes.

Does everyone believe that if they focus enough (and ignore distractions like n00bs), that they'll all be the next fatal-one-tee, or some famous WoW character?

It seems that some people care too much about an insignificant number. Essentially any game which records and publically displays player statistics is asking for trouble.

In Counter-Strike, it wasn't so bad because teammates could do very little to upset the dynamics of a game, i.e. you couldn't kill teammates. But what was annoying were the rude people with their microphones. Other than that I actually found Counter-Strike very enjoyable, and on many occasions managed to rally my team together to act cooperatively despite the fact we were all complete strangers.

I think that it's stupid that videogamers have this culture that they're better than someone else just because they can play the game better, Some people like me only play their Xbox 360 or Computer Games maybe once a week and really don't have the time for it.
WHy do computer gamers also think that it's stupid if people don't play thier games 2-3 hours a day just to get a good rank. Also, what's a noob?

A noob stands for newbie, basically it refers to someone who is new to the game, it is usually intended as an insult.

I honestly haven't found WoW too bad, though I am on a new, low population server. I generally get an answer when I ask a question, and sometimes people will even stop what they're doing to lead me to a place, instead of just giving directions. I haven't had any other experiences with online games (except for Metroid Prime: Hunters), though.

I have two accounts in Battlefield 2, as one of them had to be created much later when I joined a clan that required I use a certain name. I experienced no prejudice about my lower rank. I've not been playing for quite a while, but when I did I stuck to the infantry servers, particularly with Sharqi and Karkand, and I never go for vehciles. The patches pissed me off to no end though, they would never install properly. Tbh I don't see how people can stop you from playing a game like cs or bf2, you don't have to listen to their voices or read their text, so why let it bother you?

In terms of ethics, I find in game advertising in 2142 disgraceful, so I might not get it. You can read about that here

I played cs for the first time in a while last night and I was reminded of the cheat factor! Garrhrrrrrr

I agree about WoW; I ask a question on the server I play on (high population too), and I get an answer. I haven't always gotten directions, but most players are able to give you a fairly decent location using landmarks.

BF2 is just asstrocious.

Just thought I would have a bitch about the unethical support I was just given by DELL.

I'm attempting to install my monitor using a digital connection, for that I need the right driver. The monitor itself came with no software so it is all currently 'Plug-n-Play'. I went to the DELL website to download a driver, and for all the monitors they have ever produced, there is only a driver available for one model.

So I decided to phone DELL. After five phone prompts and 10 minutes of listening to commands, I was put through to their Indian call centre. At which point I told them what it was I needed so she connected me to technical support (maybe the 10 minutes of phone prompt could have done that?) at which point I was told the technical support centre was closed. What a waste of time. No where on the site did it state the operating hours, nor did the phone prompts or the person I was connected to inform me of this fact.

I'm going to try to find the driver on a third party website...

I've never had a problem with Dell, I bought my second 19 inch screen about a year ago and that was a simple plug and play system, the whole setup itself was great and when I did need to call tech support (even though the guy was obviously Indian) he gave me all the information I needed.

Just a couple of clarifications:

One: I can't say that I'm all too sympathetic for the patching plight of BF2. It IS an online focused game and you have picked up the game after it has been out for a very long time. Online games are continuously patched to fix balancing issues and add new content.

Yes the BF2 patch is big at 500 meg but it also contains new maps, new abilities such as vehicle dropping, etc. The patching for BF2 has long passed 'fixing major bugs'.

Get into an online game late and you need to expect patch-o-rama before you can play. Sorry.

Two: The 'spyware' in 2140 that everyone has been going crazy about only tracks a very small number of things:

Gender, ip address, number of times an ingame ad was views, how long for, at what time and at what angle. Hardly the kind of stuff that should concern anyone.

I have issues with EA because they have a habit of buying up developers I like and then shutting down their main IP... but they do produce a lot of very good games by some very talented developers.

I have no issues with EB because they are no different to any retailer out there. They are hardly a big evil and their 7 day refund policy combined with price matching is a very good deal for consumers.

I understand where you are coming from, but even for myself, a player who bought the game when it was released; I found the maintenance of the game appalling really. The game was more or less fine with 1.2, and then they make the atrocity that was 1.3, and take god knows how long to fix it. Even with their latest patch, there is still server instability, and alot of the 'new' features in patches are just tiny reused features from their 'booster packs', which in itself was a load of crap.

I understand that it isn't spyware being used in 2142, but its definately not a plus when ingame advertising is used in a game like that.

Oh, and I don't mind eb myself, probably because I only ever go to a store a couple of times a year.

True, we all hurt with the arrival of 1.3. I wasn't really commenting on the quality of the patches (I agree, 1.2 was fine and should have been left alone) but it is important that if you are moaning about them you are moaning about them for the right reasons.

If EA pass savings onto the consumer's as a result of this in-game advertising then it is justified, however I can't see it happening and I most certainly don't like the idea of paying for an advertisement.

Needless to say I won't be getting 2142.

If they are creative with their ads and blend them well into the game world then I have no problem with that.

If a game is finished then why the need for patches, if you make a program/game you do it right from the start. It just shows how much effort and work that they've put into their game, if a developer has to patch a game on a regular basisis doesn't that mean that they've just rushed a game out the door?

Personally I don't like being ripped off when buying a game, and that's what EB Games has done to me for a while, every game I seem to get from them I see cheaper in Big W or Target.

Sometimes I can't be bothered price matching, I prefer buying games from anywhere besides EB. Alot of it has to do with there every increasingly fat geeky weird staff. :P

I can't stand technology freaks, I try to dodge those "LAN" shops and general videogaming exclusive stores. I went into the computer rooms at lunc today to e-mail my assignment to a sick teacher and there were these two really geeky year 8 kids sitting there.

The only few things I overheard was Radeon, Overclocking and AMD. I don't know about the last two but I knew what a Radeon was. They really bug me though, I was lte out of class for computing a few weeks ago (I was watching wakeboarding videoes off Youtube) and they were outside.

Anyway the smaller of the two asked me if I was there for Robotics, I chuckled and made a crack that unless they can get me out of dention then yes I was.
One of them started using words like noob, leat and pawnd on me. I just said to them "I bet you two are a pediophile's wet dream on the internet."

It was about then that I got an afterschooler because apparently the words pediophile and wet dream aren't meant to be used in the same sentance. Now the explination coming from a creepy looking 40 year old teacher make me shudder on a few occasions.

We're talking about an online shooter for PC though.

So there are a couple of things that have an impact here:

1 The PC isn't a standardised platform. There are a near limitless variety of hardware configurations out there and no developer can release a game and say "We know this will work 100% on all systems". The PC has always had patches for this reason... very few games out there will work all the time which is why there is no recent PC game that comes to mind that does not have patches.

2 Many of the patches for BF2 aren't just bug fixes. They deal with balancing issues, etc in order to make the game more fun based on consumer reaction. With competitive online games you can never emulate in house the variety of game styles and experimentation that will eventually occur as a result of thousands of people playing thousands of games a day. Things can always be better balanced, made more fun but they can only do this adequate feedback from the players. It is for this reason StarCraft and Diablo II were still getting patches for their online modes over half a decade after their release. People kept playing these games and Blizzard kept tweaking the experience based on how people were playing.

But those stores don't offer a 7 day-return policy. EB keeps their prices high to fund that competitve advantage they have over their competitors.

Of course you can also get EB to price match so if you want the best of both worlds just do a quick bit of research before hitting your local EB and get the best price plus the consumer protection offered by the 7 day return policy.

If you don't use that return policy then just go to the cheaper places.

However to say EB are ripping people off when they offer price matching and will take back a game from you at full price within 7 days of release even if the only reason you want to return it is that you finished the game seems a little extreme to me. Fundamentally, with a little bit of effort EB will give you a deal that can't be matched by any other game seller out there.