Alright, EA, your number's up.

For years now, I've been griping at EA and their hordes of identikit cloned games; games that get an annual graphical update but change nothing basic in the same old tired gameplay formula. They sell in their thousands and it sickens me.

But the games were not the only uniform aspect of EA. So too were their fans, same clothes, same attitude. During my tenure at a High Street retailer, we dreaded the EA fans just as much as the release of the games themselves �one begets the other you see.

Identically-dressed gangs of youths descended upon the shop during the release of high-profile titles such as FIFA Street, their foul mouths filling the air with words that would make the most hardened soldier blush. We feared them. Approaching the counter, they glared at us with sunken eyes, daring to smile or make small talk. Hoods pulled firmly over their rancid caps, proffering hands gnarled and nicotine stained filled with notes of dubious quality we served them. Woe betide any sales assistant who was approached for an age-rated game. Glancing desperately around him, he would find his co-workers huddled in a corner, their eyes everywhere but upon the face of their colleague.

"Do you have any identification to prove your age, sir?"

The words echo through the silent shop. It's so quiet you can hear a Gamecube disc drop behind you as a colleague, rattled by the question, momentarily forgets what his fingers are for.

"�you know, that's the second time that's happened today. Here's my passport."

And breathe out�

You see, not all EA customers were bad. And indeed, not all EA games are bad.

True, some EA customers are confused-sounding mothers, desperately clutching a list of game titles for Darren's birthday present. Others are worried-looking girlfriends, hoping to impress their boyfriends with their knowledge of their partner's love for videogames �and failing miserably, leaving as they often did with a copy of the latest FIFA. Others were the self-same identically dressed youths, chuckling at the witty repartee of the sales assistant and stating firmly, but politely, that Pro Evolution was not to their taste, but that they appreciated the suggestion nonetheless.

Whatever else you or I may think of EA or casual gamers, they both occupy a very important market niche for the videogames industry. Thanks to EA, gaming has now come out of the sweaty bedroom and into the limelight once again. And this time it is not for the alleged effects of games on impressionable young minds, but instead for wholesome family reasons.

Games such as The Sims have become a byword for young female gamers (and big sissy male ones) with mothers and fathers mostly satisfied that their children can play these games without being subjected to dangerous or unsuitable content. The countless iterations of the FIFA franchise can be played be anyone aged 6 to 60 with relative ease and are largely enjoyed by all. Pro Evolution Soccer may be a better game, but more people seem to enjoy FIFA.

And that there of course, is the key.

As I said in a previous article, a game cannot truly be awful if there is at least some enjoyment to be gained from it, and I have to admit, some EA games are a cracking good laugh with a group of mates or even on your own. Resident Evil 4 may well be the greatest game ever, but it won't quite draw laughing crowds of children like a good bash at Harry Potter, nor will your mum approve as she looks up bleary eyed from her 18th consecutive hour on The Sims.

All things being equal, however, that does not mean to say that EA are not the enemy of all things pure in video gaming. They are still an evil corporation bent on destroying the hobby we love with their floods of cynically coded and sarcastically marketed yearly updates, and they would happily run over Nintendog after Nintendog in their bid for dominance of the global market. After all, this is an industry just like any other, and money is its driving force.

Iun Hockley
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