With more modern web browsers in use today(IE does NOT apply to my definition of this), popup windows operate entirely different from how they used to. Popups now mostly pop up in new tabs, or if it’s an all encompassing browser such as Opera, it just pops over the same page but within the same browser window. All of that change aside, I can’t quite fathom why designers for companies use them RIGHT after we choose a site location.
Let me clarify by example: Today I got a Canon Canoscan 8600F shipped to me for a review and needed to go download the most recent drivers. I visit Canon.com where I am presented a few options: Access to worldwide sites, country specific sites(chosen via a nice little map) and access to their press releases. So naturally I click on the United States and there it is, a popup! WHY would you use a _blank target for this? Furthermore, the website doesn’t remember my selection.
An improved example of the SAME scenario is Craigslist. When you visit craigslist for the first time it asks for your location and from then on(or until you delete that cookie) it takes you to the listings of your chosen city. Brilliant. I think something scary happened to the world of computing in the 90′s. You know, back when floppy disks were still the largest portable file type? People were extremely limited on data storage resources and since then have been brainwashed to believe that deleting cookies is an essential step to keeping your computer tidy. Now just about everything people believe about web browsing has some truth to it so I’m not ruling that out as something you should never do, but with that belief attached another sub belief that “Cookies are evil” What is wrong with everyone? Well another guilty offender to this situation is our beloved Wikipedia. Is it that hard to install a cookie automatically to remember your language each visit?
Wikipedia is forgiven because it is a small offense, but what about sites, like my first example, that use popups?
First my firefox popup blocker swatted that annoying popup saying “BAD CANON, BAD!” But also notified me of the thwarted attempt. Unfortunately, the content of this popup is actually what I was looking for so I allowed it. But I’m still failing to see why they made it a popup as opposed to taking me where I requested to go? I know I am just complaining about small unimportant things here, but come on. And they aren’t the only people that do this. Is there some great analytics benefit to doing this? Do they need that pop up for an increase in per-visit rankings? Do they need the extra exit link from their homepage? Are they otherwise incapable of tracking you globally? I know these aren’t the cases, so why?
EA’s website seriously SUCKS!
I’ve tried on about 20 seperate occassions to login to their server through games, no luck.
The Game:
I bought Need For Speed Pro Street for PC because the xbox360 lacks the support of my Logitech G25 steering wheel and the PC version supports it well, including the clutch and 900 degree steering. Also available at the time was the collectors edition upgrade, which included one of my all time favorite cars, the 2nd generation Acura NSX. Which was an additional $10… but, EA, the caring bunch of guys they are, stated that the $10 will cover all of the future updates to the game. But who knows if we’ll ever get those.
So I have an EA account, I’ve had it since skate came out. My login is gimptexturz and the password is the same password I use for all of my gaming accounts. I’m able to login to ea.com using my full email address of gimptexturz@hotmail.com and that same password. Once you login, you are presented with, “Select your persona.” I have added both personas, gimPtextUrz (Xbox Live Gamertag) and gimptexturz (EA ID). I select my EA ID and am sent back to the home page. Note, this is much more progress than I usually receive as in the past I more often received all white pages with no errors or content. When on EA’s site, try to make sure you have all of your bandwidth free, because almost every page you’re likely to view is going to automatically start loading a different trailer for one of their games. There is no way to stop the download of this streaming video either, other than by leaving the page.
But okay, that worked, why am I complaining? Well, let’s track back here to the login screen once again, in the middle of the page there is a different option: “Don’t have an email login?” “EA has improved the way you manage your account. If you still have an original “EA Classic Screen Name” login, please click below.” – (button”screen name login”) So let’s click on that.
Now we see:
Upgrade your account
“We have upgraded our account system! Use this page to login to your old account and you will be taken through a few steps to upgrade all of your old information. You will only need to do this once.”
EA Classic Screen Name:
Password:
So I login to this, as I have in the past. In fact, several times, spread across months. And… I’m sent back to the persona selection page. Where are these “steps” to get me a screen name login? I select a persona, even though it shows my EA ID as active, just doing this because there is nothing else to do here: and I’m sent back to… select my persona…..
I’ve tried logging in with just the screen name, gimptexturz, no @hotmail.com. Doesn’t work. I receive “The screen name and password you entered appears to be invalid.” Ya, no kidding, you wouldn’t let me create one without it. So in a game, like say, the one I just bought, EA ALWAYS wants to login when I first load the game, but I can’t login. only gimptexturz fits in the allowed space, and that doesn’t work. So the whole time I’ve had this game (which I purchased right as it came out) I’ve been unable to play online, receive updates, or get the collectors edition cars I PAID EXTRA $ FOR! That is, the way they want me to…
Regardless of whether or not you’re connected, go to “type in secret code” in the menu, type “collectorsed&” and BAM! you get the cars unlocked. It’s not a seperate download as EA would lead you to believe, it’s stuff already in the game you just purchased, hidden until you pay them more money for it. Or until you find a “secret code” somewhere. WTF is that! They should honestly refund everyones money if this really isn’t a seperate download. And yes, I should have been smarter than to actually believe what I read on their website and take it exactly how it’s written out for me, you know, download additional content.
I’ll be honest, I’ve had a sort of negative feeling towards EA for quite some time. Meh, let’s just go ahead and call it a full fledged hatred towards EA. I’ve hated what they’ve done to games for a while. And everyone knows about their purchase of all the NFL rights for gaming, being the only company to use actual players in their games. But nobody really knew what to expect with that. EA’s Madden was the top selling football game for a while, but we thought maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. The Madden collection was a superior game in many aspects to it’s competition, but we thought the games would at least stay at the same level of gameplay, graphics and innovation. Those who were really hopeful thought maybe the games would even still evolve at the rates they were before. But it isn’t just me who thinks the game is getting worse. It seems the support for things has really gone down the shitter. To borrow words from someone elses rant on this, EA has really dropped the ball on their Madden collection. Madden 2008 has a few new things to it as expected, but is it better? Many are on both sides of this question, but look at the difference in gameplay graphics between Madden 2006 and Madden 2008. 2006 just plain LOOKS BETTER! It’s apparent that the lack of competition not only is holding back developmental progress in football games, but it is getting EA so relaxed that the games are becoming WORSE! And EA has been buying out so many other smaller gaming companies lately, it freightens many of us gamers. All of EA’s games are adapting the same lame menu’s, the same lame EA Trax, and completely retarded and annoying announcers during in-game events.
If I ever have anything to do with the creation or marketing of an upcoming game, I am going to steer clear of EA and persuade anyone else involved in the project to do so. I am an official EA HATER!
This has been kind of wordy and I apolagize for that, but I’m truely boggled by EA’s ability to f*^& up their games. I’d really appreciate your input on this topic, please leave comments below.
**Note – Skate for xbox360 gave me a seperate range of issues completely but it’s for xbox360. And I did eventually get that working. I believe it’s working mainly because online play is coordinated through Microsft’s xbox live, which works GREAT!
Recent Comments