me wantee

My objection is not with EA -- they've produced some excellent games and some crappy games (like every other publisher). My objection is with having Madden, and only Madden for a football game. I used to pay for two football video games so I'd get my fill. Now I don't buy anything, because I really don't want to reward EA's anti-competitive behavior. If EA really believed they could put out a better football game than their competitors, they would not want an exclusive license. The only reason they've walled themselves off from competition is to make sure folks pay the $60 for Madden each year.

Screw that. The game has been stagnating for years and the additions they've made haven't made it more fun. Instead of being a strategic game, it's about knowing which gimmick EA has added in this version. Simply put --- EA games has wrecked one of the best sports franchises in video gaming. Congratulations!

Madden sucks. It needs competition to be any good.

The real answer is not to purchase any NFL-branded games from EA. Considering that Madden hasn't voiced a single next-gen game, I really see no reason to purchase any "Madden" game.

I liked the NFL2K series -- Sega did a bang-up job delivering a fun-to-play football simulation. I enjoy Madden, but I'm not skipping work for it. I haven't bought a football game since I got burned buying the first two Madden games for the 360. More than the exclusivity contract, the crappy games for the 360 really drove me away from Madden.

That and realizing that my Redskins were always going to suck in Madden so it really didn't matter what year I was playing.

Exactly. I put up with advertisements on TV because I don't pay for the shows. I do pay for video games, and it's obnoxious beyond belief that they feel they can assault me with advertisements while I'm trying to enjoy myself playing a video game. None of the games I own currently have ads in them, and that ain't going to change. I guess it's no buying games then.

I can has tikkets?

ME WANTEE!

Even the possibility of a non-infringing use ought to be enough to convince a manufacturer of products for consumers to allow that use. Both formats were not designed with consumers in mind---they were designed to defeat traditional ideas of fair use and to kill all of the rights consumers believed they had. A pox on both their houses.

I'll stick with my DVDs. At least they can't change the encryption format on me and deny me my fair use rights with that. Additionally, I don't have to buy expensive new hardware that I'm not sure will even be viable a few years from now.

A last point -- I can watch HD video on my Xbox 360. I'm not that impressed. For football and basketball HD makes sense. Basketball really looks great, and the wider camera angle captures more of the action. HD movies, on the other hand, are not that impressive. First of all, there's still letterboxing even on my widescreen TV -- that's a BUG, not a feature. I bought a widescreen TV to get rid of letterboxing and I'm pissed that didn't happen.

I'm pretty sure I'll never buy an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. The formats are stacked against consumers and the format war helps no one. I'm also not anxious to start replacing DVDs less than 5 years after I replaced VHS tapes. The whole thing is a big money-grab, and has nothing to do with delivering a better experience to the consumer.

Again, a pox on both their houses.

send me to burlington, vt! tryin to get some snowboarding in up there!

me wantee

Who told all these music execs and musicians that it made good business sense to insult and attack their customers?

Now I feel bad that I bought an album on the iTunes mobile store yesterday while sitting at the bar. It was pretty cool from a "I'm downloading an album and drinking a beer at a bar at the same time" standpoint, but in doing so I did more to perpetuate the system that has produced such "musical" acts as Kiss and enriched such stand-up guys as Gene Simmons.

I mean, what kind of industry actively declares war on its customers? I just don't get it.