I wonder if anyone else remembers this. It came to my mind because I was reading this story:
https://www.sbsun.com/2023/08/19/shop-owner-shot-killed-over-rainbow-flag-outside-clothing-store-near-lake-arrowhead/
The owner of a clothing shop in Cedar Glen was shot and killed Friday night, Aug. 18, after a person made several disparaging comments about a rainbow flag displayed outside the store, authorities said.
The suspect was found nearby by arriving deputies, who shot and killed him, San Bernardino County sheriff’s officials said.
This is... horrible. I don't even know how to describe it. For the first time in my adult life, I'm genuinely horrified and fear for my LGBT+ brothers and sisters, as well as their allies (which includes me, fuck).
2013 felt... different. Two years later in 2015 gay marriage would be legalized nationwide.
I remember thinking EA was trying to pull the wool over our eyes. I remember thinking that LGBT+ acceptance in 2013 was doing well. I remember thinking they were throwing up that people voted for them as worst company over LGBT+ inclusion as some kind of way to hand-wave away their awful business practices. Going back, though...
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/04/ea-executive-responds-to-worst-company-poll-we-owe-gamers-better-performance/
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.
Does anyone else feel like me, and feel dumbfounded and like I just didn't think conservatives were that organized at the time? More to the point, I just didn't trust anything EA said and thought they were lying. I don't think they were lying anymore. I was wrong.
I wonder, does that mean that far fewer people hated them than we thought, for their business practices? I mean, we've seen years of steady profits for EA, it's not as though they've lost a ton of business...
I'm curious what other Lemmings thoughts are on this. I just kind of had a bit of an epiphany about it recently and came back around to thoughts on the subject because of (sigh) how awful everything is.
They are a terrible company but I never thought it was for any LGBT reason.
Right, they've been terrible for years. Buying up companies, firing the old guard and pumping out shove ware versions of the games. On the consumer side, broken games, no polish, annual release games that are just reskins of the previous one, DLC/micro transactions, shutting down servers while there's still a strong playerbase.
If I saw a poll for worst game company in 2013, it would have been an easy pick from me. Nowadays, it would be harder, but only because the other AAA studios have all gotten shittier since then.