EA blames WCIA 2013 votes on "homophobia".

[Kyle]

No, I am not joking. Once again, EA poorly attempts to shift the blame from their more than questionable business practices onto a scapegoat. Last year, they claimed to have gained most of their votes for Worst Company In America due to Mass Effect 3's ending and SOPA. In reality, it was their constant purchasing of small, successful companies in an attempt to milk their franchises to death. This year? It's the fault of homophobia! That, and the idea that people disagreed with the cover of the latest Madden NFL, but that's the lesser of two evils right now.

“In the past year, we have received thousands of emails and postcards protesting against EA for allowing players to create LGBT characters in our games. This week, we’re seeing posts on conservative web sites urging people to protest our LGBT policy by voting EA the Worst Company in America.”

- Peter Moore, CEO of Electronic Arts

It's hard to imagine that a company could sink to such underhanded measures of covering up for their massive crimes towards the gaming industry. (No Capcom references, please. This is the 'Worst Company In America')

Source: Consumerist

[Loken]

Yeah EA is pretty despicable. around 2009 when they came out with alot of cool IPs and such I thought they were finally going to stop being so crap. It's gotten far worse from there. They whore out their franchises and vomit day 1 DLC. Not to mention always online and DRM crap. EA is a pretty shat company.

[Kyle]

Alas, Day 1 DLC is a cancer that is afflicting most companies these days, Loken. Come to think of it, what was the first ever video-game to use that concept? Whatever it was, IT SOWED THE SEEDS OF MADNESS!

In all seriousness, though. EA is a complete joke. Heck, I've got a one-word punchline for ya' right here, too. "Origin".

[Deleted]

It's getting more and more ridiculous how EA's living up to its reputation as the worst company in America.

[ZEROrevive]

Apr 7, 2013 16:45:31 GMT -5 Kyle said:

Come to think of it, what was the first ever video-game to use that concept? Whatever it was, IT SOWED THE SEEDS OF MADNESS!

I think, it was supposedly this game...Makes much sense, with microsoft and Xbox live and all.

Funny enough I almost never heard much news about EA. Now I do. And its all negative, all the time. Irony, i guess.

[Kyle]

MechAssault was the first?! Okay, now that's funny! MechAssault was the game a guy would use for hacking his Xbox. Karma can be a bitch sometimes. Eh, Microsoft?

[Bean]

Their ability to shift blame is unlike anything I've seen in the gaming industry. Peter Moore is pretty insufferable himself, being the man that uttered the phrase, "Ya know, things break" when he worked at Microsoft as they were releasing defective machines to the market. I have a feeling that this gen will not be very kind to those anti-consumer practices.

Oh, and even though I know that Bank of America and other companies in this little Consumerist tournament are much worse than EA in the grand scheme of things, it is an internet poll that doesn't change anything in the grand scheme here. That's why I hopped online and voted for EA, a terrible company that still doesn't get it after around twenty years of killing studios.

[Dashe]

I'm surprised EA is the only company to have won WCIA for two years running, myself. I guess unless it does something drastic, it'll become like Pixar with the Best Animated Feature Oscar, only they'd be consistently winning a golden poo award for being terrible.

[Mr. Foetus]

My god, EA...To stoop this low. This is like punching the entirety of the LGBT community in the face. While I can't speak for them, it seems unimaginably disrespectful to pull that card, turning something people feel strongly about into an ego tool. At least we can call homophobes ignorant good-for-nothings, but this is just....I don't even. Good job, EA. Good job.

(See: Appropriate titles for companies)

[satoh]

The thing that makes it really irritating is, yes, they do probably get lots of emails protesting the LGBT characters that are able to be created...
But its not like its anything new. There's always a contingent of protesters about every issue, its just something big businesses have to deal with.
There's people protesting that EA is too LGBT friendly, and there's people undoubtedly protesting that EA is not too LGBT friendly enough.
I'm sure there's people protesting EA's lunch policy!

That's what public relations is for in the first place! Its not a question of IF there's a complaint, its a question of funneling the pointlessly large number of complaints into a place that no one has to look at.
I'm sure there's also complaints that EA is too religious and not religious enough... too shallow, not focused enough on beauty... every issue has at least a few hundred people who will write angry things about them in both directions.

EA is just a sickening excuse for a business... especially if that's the best scapegoat they can come up with.

[Kyle]

(The following chunk of text is relevant, don't worry. EA owns BioWare. It'll help to give y'all a view of what EA thinks everybody should support.)

BioWare and the Dragon Age franchise is a good example of pandering to the LGBT-friendly demographic. Don't get me wrong, to each his own, but it was near sickening that almost every companion in Dragon Age II was bisexual. And this is coming from a pansexual. I think it's mostly insulting that it's only bisexuality. Not one character is strictly homosexual, or even asexual. Nope! It's hump everything that moves! 

In the first Dragon Age, only two companions were bisexual, and they actually had reasons for it. One being raised in a brothel, the other being something along the lines of a sex-spy-turned-priestess. Okay, Bioware weren't gong to win any Pulitzer Prizes for that writing, but they were legitimate(?) reasons nonetheless. In Dragon Age II, every living being suddenly became universally understanding of bisexuality. And this being in a medieval-esque world strictly controlled by a church. It doesn't fit the setting...

Also, nobody in this universe seems to have heard of a platonic relationship, either. I had to break off several would-be intimate relationships before they had a chance to begin, and take a support hit with each respective character because of it. Go, BioWare!

[Loken]

Bethesda's Fallout New Vegas is one of the only games that has done LGBT well.