I'm sorry, I may have made some (incorrect) assumptions as to why you didn't like EA in the first place. I understand the reason behind not supporting companies who have unethical business practices; I avoid some brands and companies for the same reasons.

Generally hatred toward EA in the games community is because they have a reputation for putting out shovelware, yearly sequels (sports games) with minimal quality improvements, and overall just poorly made products produced to capitalize on quality licenses, popular brands, and the ignorance of most mainstream customers unaware of the relative quality of what they buy. I was simply pointing out that in that regard, EA has made many improvements; Spore, Bloom Blox, Skate, etc being fine examples of their recent push for creativity and independance in the games they publish. That was all I intended in my defense of EA, and if you have further reason to avoid their products or do not approve of their business practices then by all means continue to do so.

Cheers.

"In any event, it's kind of silly to demonize game publishers like that, though. Just buy the games that interest you and let market forces deal with the business side of things."

I happen to dislike EA. I choose to not purchase their products. Isn't that me exerting my (limited) market force? Is it silly to have an opinion? It's not like I just said "EA is teh suxorz" and left it at that. I don't think holding a corporation accountable for their bad behavior is silly at all.

In the specific case of EA, they have historically behaved in a manner that would vaguely call "bad" for at least 10 years or so. It will take at LEAST that amount of "good" behavior before I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Think of it as them filling in the hole they've dug for themselves. Their watered down apology and hand waving doesn't immediately grant them a clean slate with me. They have work to do.

I choose to NOT isolate the people from the product. I don't read blogs from people whose opinions I have no respect for. I don't buy music made by people "exposed" as pedophiles, and I don't just, to paraphrase you: "buy stuff and let the market sort it out". That's the type of behavior that brought us cultural phenoms like "Flavor of Love" and "Who Wants to Marry a Midget".

WE are the "market forces". Maybe it's time for us to collectively have an opinion instead of shoveling whatever is handed to us down our throats. Be they bad games, or bad business practices.

All that being said, Colby, EA has definitely made considerable strides from the days when they were just putting out some kind of Medal of Honor, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Need for Speed, and Madden game every year. They've given Wright complete control over Spore and are letting him take all the time he needs to get it right, they're putting out original efforts like the aforementioned Bloom Blox, Skate was far superior to any of the million Tony Hawk games of the last few years, and at least Army of Two was an original IP. They may just be baby steps, but at least they're taking them.

Look at what Activision is doing and it's pretty much EA of five years ago down to a T -- yearly sequels of all their big franchises (in the investor briefing following the Activision-Vivendi deal Activision's CEO literally promised as much -- how many Guitar Hero games are coming out this year again?) Call of Duty 4 was amazing, but that was all Infinity Ward's doing. When Call of Duty 7 comes out in a few years or CoD8 the year after, is the series still going to be as fresh? I doubt it.

In any event, it's kind of silly to demonize game publishers like that, though. Just buy the games that interest you and let market forces deal with the business side of things.

Let's translate this into ENGLISH:

"In the past year EA has made radical changes to decentralize the company and put creative control back in the hands of development teams."

"In the past year" = We just started doing it

"radical changes" = We didn't really want to change, but we were forced to

"decentralize the company" = We've rearranged corporate policies to make the employees THINK that we have..."put creative control back in the hands of development teams."

I still think EA wants to eat my children. It's going to take alot more than this to make me think they are "Good Guys" now all of a sudden.

And since when have hostile take-overs been a "good thing" as far as creative control?

We should take their own advice and "Challenge Everything!" they tell us.