Difference between revisions of "Electronic Arts"

From SI410
Jump to: navigation, search
Line 18: Line 18:
  
 
===Cheating===
 
===Cheating===
 +
 +
In an online atmosphere, with EA Sports games and other alike, the temptation to cheat is always apparent.  Playing online, users can tinker with connectivity cables to intentionally lag out.  This causes games to go unfinished, and punishes other players who are trying to enjoy the entertainment. 
 +
 +
In EA Sports' FIFA 16 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_16], the popular Ultimate Team game mode is the most popular among online FIFA players.  'Coins' are a form of currency, and are won by users completing tasks within th e Ultimate Team game mode and winning games.  Coins are used to buy players over a transfer market, but many of the best players in the game are very expensive and simply unreachable for players.  On average, a player will recieve 500 coins if they win an online match in Ultimate Team.  Some of the best players can go for over 1,000,000 coins on the transfer market.  Since games are played with 6 minute halves, this would take immense amounts of time and an unimaginable number of games.
 +
 +
To counteract this imbalance of play, some users opt to paying for coins in real currency.  This questions ethics, because users are simply making their team better by playing real money.  EA Sports does not condone this, and actually can punish players if they are found out performing these black market trades.  This is done by users who have ridiculous amounts of coins buying players at a much overvalued price, giving the seller the coins.  Ethically, it puts those who do not have the capabilities nor connections to make these "illegal" transactions on the transfer market.
 +
 
=== NCAA Football ===
 
=== NCAA Football ===
  

Revision as of 16:19, 13 April 2016

Electronic Arts Inc. was founded on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins

Ethics in Modern Day Video Games

Previously, this article was written for Electronic Arts. I am shifting the focus to a more general topic of controversies in modern day video games, and how the ethics of these changes are presented. The predominant company referenced in this article is Electronic Arts, and examples are taken from infractions they have came across in the past. Whether this comes from the elements within the game such as trademark infringement or online from other players actions, there are many elements acceptable to analyze ethically.

Online Gaming

Electronic Arts, Inc. (or EA Games) [1] is an American technology company responsible for designing many popular video games. Games such as the FIFA series games, NBA Live, the Sims, the Need for Speed series games, and many more. Among Nintendo, valve, and Activision, EA Games ranks among the largest revenue-generating video game companies in the world [2]. With such a wide variety of game genera EA Games faces a number of ethical issues such as copyright laws and licensing as well as cheating.

One unique feature that EA does well is providing an online environment for their users to play. Allowing players to engage competitively with others around the world inhibits a new experience that is unique. Although usually a service provided by the console is necessary to play online with other players (such as Xbox Live or Playstation Network), this is a very popular method of gaming [3]. Creating new friends within the game play setting is a common way for users to get more out of their game play experience.

The online community can be seen as an Information Communication Technology or an ICT. An information communication technology is anything that can be used to communicate electronically. Luciano Floridi claims, we are in the information age where communication systems are necessity of life. Typically, most think of cellular devices, computer communication like email, or even radio. However, these gaming consoles now have interactive methods of communicating, whether it be chatting over text messages on screen or over recorded voice messages. EA, along with other game designers, often allow online multiplayer gamers to communicate while the game is happening, which allows them to strategise, or even trash talk the other team. Since gamers are paired up all over the world, this is an effective method for news to travel quickly across the globe, through the gaming community.

Online Sports Games

Most sports video games give users the option to play with another person over the internet. These interactions can range form multiplayer games where all the users see are the other persons user name to leagues with chat rooms and in game audio. Players can pair up with their real life friends or play completely random users. Another way players can interact is through chat rooms and video walk throughs. Players can become very wrapped up in these games devoting hours to play 162 game baseball seasons [1]

Ethical Issues

Cheating

In an online atmosphere, with EA Sports games and other alike, the temptation to cheat is always apparent. Playing online, users can tinker with connectivity cables to intentionally lag out. This causes games to go unfinished, and punishes other players who are trying to enjoy the entertainment.

In EA Sports' FIFA 16 [4], the popular Ultimate Team game mode is the most popular among online FIFA players. 'Coins' are a form of currency, and are won by users completing tasks within th e Ultimate Team game mode and winning games. Coins are used to buy players over a transfer market, but many of the best players in the game are very expensive and simply unreachable for players. On average, a player will recieve 500 coins if they win an online match in Ultimate Team. Some of the best players can go for over 1,000,000 coins on the transfer market. Since games are played with 6 minute halves, this would take immense amounts of time and an unimaginable number of games.

To counteract this imbalance of play, some users opt to paying for coins in real currency. This questions ethics, because users are simply making their team better by playing real money. EA Sports does not condone this, and actually can punish players if they are found out performing these black market trades. This is done by users who have ridiculous amounts of coins buying players at a much overvalued price, giving the seller the coins. Ethically, it puts those who do not have the capabilities nor connections to make these "illegal" transactions on the transfer market.

NCAA Football

The last installment of NCAA Football, NCAA Football 14, was released in July of 2013. The company announced that this would be the final installment of the series after the NCAA, SEC, Big Ten, and PAC-12 announced that they would no longer license their trademarks to Electronic Arts [2]. Due to NCAA regulations the games do not use the names of NCAA players. Electronic Arts claims that they do not use actually player likenesses and instead create fake players with similar physical attributes, abilities, and hometowns.

In March of 2016 former NCAA Football and Basketball players learned that they will receive compensation form Electronic Arts for the use of their likeness. 24,819 former players will receive between $259 and $2,703. Amounts will be based on the years in the video games (more recent players receiving more) and whether actual photos or avatars are used [3].

The NCAA Football video game released in 2011, and had Mark Ingram on the cover.

Buyout

Back in December of 2004, EA Games signed a contract with the National Football League (NFL) for publisher exclusivity for trademarks of the NFL, NCAA, AFL, and NFLPA [5]. Essentially, this gave them a monopoly over all football based video games, such as the popular series’ of Madden, NCAA Football, and other popular football games. These games were being produced for Xbox, Playstation, and Nintendo consoles, as well as PC games.

What this meant was companies such as 2K Sports, could no longer make football games. Without the right to trademark and copyright information, no team names, player names, or affiliations could be created within the game. As James Moor states in his “Why We Need Better Ethics for Emerging Technologies,” as technological revolutions increase their social impact, ethical problems increase. Although the gaming industry may not be a life-altering technological revolution, this was indeed a revolution within the gaming industry itself. The rights to sports related trademarks and logos is very important, because a large part of the market of video games sales relies around the sales of sports games. When EA bought the rights to the NFL’s associations, it was a sign to smaller, less competitive game design companies that they wouldn’t have a shot in the football market.

Action Taken

In Pecover vs. Electronic Arts, EA was challenged to their rights of the NFL trademarks for game creation. Other companies like 2K Sports protested by claiming they had the right to create games using these same, popularized NFL teams [6]. The lawsuit ended in EA games, performing a settlement with the prosecutors in the litigation case against them. They we’re required to pay $27 million dollars in a settlement fund, which entitled all those who had bought EA games between 2005 and 2012 a small portion of their money back. [7]. The refunds were given based on which system and games were purchased during these years. Although it was a small portion of the profits EA made for these games, it was a big win for smaller game competitors.

Resolution

With a large corporation like EA Games unable to monopolize video game markets buy using their monstrous income profits to buy out title rights, this is big ethical win for the video game community. Another aspect of ethics that are being explored are the intentions of FIFA, the associated organization in which EA bases its popular soccer video game series off of. FIFA is the organization oversees the international soccer play, but recently has had allegations of fraud and money laundering. Many believe EA Games should take a different approach to soccer games, reinventing the name and affiliations of the game’s primary identity [8]. However, such a major change in the system could deter current users from the game, because it is altering the traditional format in which they have enjoyed the game for many years previous. Either way, EA Games will be required to make choices that will continue them on their successful journey, but the ethics of information will be cautiously weighted factor.

Games

Previous Games

Electronic Arts current game line up has titles from Action, Shooting, Horror, Sports, Racing, RPG, Simulation, Strategy, Family, Kids, Music, Puzzle.

Upcoming titles


References

Moor, J. In Why We Need Better Emerging Technologies. Retrieved February 15, 2016.

Floridi, L. Ethics After the information Revolution. Retrieved February 16, 2016.

[1] http://www.thetoptens.com/top-video-game-companies/

[2] http://www.techtimes.com/articles/47085/20150418/playstation-plus-vs-xbox-live-gold-which-online-service-is-best.htm

[3] http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9728042/ea-sports-stop-producing-college-football-game

[4] http://www.technobuffalo.com/2011/04/07/ea-sued-for-supposed-monopoly-over-football-games/

[5] http://www.technobuffalo.com/2011/04/07/ea-sued-for-supposed-monopoly-over-football-games/

[6] http://www.polygon.com/gaming/2012/7/23/3177295/ea-sports-monopoly-lawsuit-settlement

[7] http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/27/8672659/fifa-arrests-corruption-ea-sports-video-game-sponsorship
  1. ↑ http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/ct-mlb-the-show-video-game-20160405-story.html
  2. ↑ ESPN Conference Trademarks http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9566556/sec-license-trademarks-ea-ncaa-football-game
  3. ↑ Former NCAA Athlete Compensation http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/14980599/college-football-basketball-players-receive-average-1600-settlement-electronic-arts
  4. ↑ Ashcraft, Brian · (January 8, 2008) · 2008 Tech Emmy Winners · work · Kotaku · August 30, 2012
  5. ↑ Schreier, Jason · (2015-06-15) · EA Announces Incredible-Looking Indie-ish Yarn Game Unravel · work · 2015-06-15
  6. ↑ lastname, firstname · (date) · New Battlefield Game Coming in 2016 · work · 2015-06-30
  7. ↑ lastname, firstname · (date) · New Mirror's Edge, Plants vs. Zombies Games Coming in Early 2016 · work · 2015-05-23
Retrieved from "http://si410wiki.sites.uofmhosting.net/index.php?title=Electronic_Arts&oldid=56656"