I’ve been kind of following the Worst Company in America competition, which consumerist does annually, and each time EA moved a tier higher, I was pretty surprised, since they were up against companies that people are known to hate. Bank of America. AT&T. Gamestop. Even companies like Ticketmaster are on there, but all fell to the mighty power of internet voters and their sudden revitalized hatred for EA, 2012′s holder of the Golden Poo award.
I don’t want to get political or talk too much more about what I feel about some of these companies (we’re a game site, people- go read your political diatribes elsewhere!) but it really just feels like this came just in time for a perfect storm around EA. First, there was Origin, which turned PC gamers against the company. Next was the Mass Effect 3 day one DLC, and following right after that was the Mass Effect ending. Combine all of these things and let them stew in hiveminds like Reddit, where everyone just agrees with each other’s hatred and allow it to fester, and you wind up with people raiding polls like this to send a message that you can foreclose on houses illegally, screw people over with used game prices, have poor coverage and expensive date rates with low caps, or many other things, but if you mess with my video games, well, THEN it’s unforgivable.
Like I said, I won’t get too far into this, since it is a silly, not-serious internet “award”, but man, it was pretty stacked, with 64% of people voting for EA in this. It’s been a long road for them, though, getting to that final bracket, and who knows? Maybe this could send some kind of message to them and they might start getting their act together a little more. And hopefully, next year, we’ll see someone else take home this prestigious award (also, I’d be stoked if Consumerist really sent people a little poop trophy).
