Here they stand, surrounded by the carved-up carcasses of their fallen competitors. “Make us proud… Win the poo,” the ghosts of the vanquished call out from another realm, demanding that these two remaining contenders for Worst Company In America prove that all this bloodshed was not in vain.
For the second year in a row, Bank of America has slaughtered its way through the WCIA brackets, only to end up in the Final Death Match against a rookie with such street cred it only needs to go by two letters: EA.
These contenders share a ravenous desire to swallow up smaller competitors in their respective industries with little to no regard to the possible consequences.
Bank of America expanded throughout the entire decade leading up to the collapse of the housing market and had the hubris to believe it could continue to do so even when things started to head south.
BofA can claim it had no idea it was buying such a toxic pile of crap when it scooped up the remains of Countrywide for virtually nothing. Even if you can believe that, the fact remains that Bank of America spent the years after the Countrywide acquisition doing little to nothing to repair the damage. False foreclosures, improper property seizures, misleading mortgage adjustment programs, robosigned documents and the subsequent lawsuits and settlements, have done significant damage to BofA’s public image and its coffers.
EA, meanwhile, has made a habit of sniffing out some of the best smaller video game companies, which are then acquired for their intellectual properties or to remove a competitor from the marketplace. Mass consolidation in any industry rarely works out to the benefit of the consumer, but the gaming business is one that regulators, the courts and the mainstream media have by and large ignored.
Another thing these two seemingly very different companies have in common is their desire to nickel and dime consumers at every turn.
EA is among the industry leaders in pushing for more and more “microtransactions” in users’ gaming experience. For its major titles it seems to be creating exclusive and add-on content, not with the game in mind, but with the sole intention of milking consumers who may not realize how quickly those small purchases add up.
And unlike the fee-happy discount airlines that use the “everything is a la carte” model to keep base prices low, a new EA game will run you $60 for the most basic version available, making it easily the most expensive form of home entertainment.
Many of EA’s sports titles — especially its Madden NFL franchise — are bestsellers with annual releases and exclusivity deals with the corresponding leagues. This means that no one else can enter the market to compete with a lower-price NFL game, effectively allowing EA to set the price for new releases.
The question you as WCIA voters need to ask yourself is whether or not such transgressions are on par or worse than Bank of America’s attempts to weed out those consumers who dare to have a standard checking account, especially one with balance smaller than five figures?
After all, if you want to avoid BofA’s fee-frenzy, there are any number of other banks and credit unions you can try. But if you want to de-stress from a day of being kicked around by the world by playing a game of FIFA Soccer with your friends, you’re out of options.
We’re almost down to the final buzzer, so it’s time to throw up a shot from mid-court and vote!
Voting for the Final Death Match will conclude at 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday, April 3
THE RESULTS WILL BE ANNOUNCED AT NOON ET ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4!
If you’re coming into the tournament late, below is the bracket, followed by links to each of the completed matches:
ROUND ONE:
* Target vs. Best Buy
* Bank of America vs. Chase
* Charter Communications vs. CenturyLink (Qwest)
* Wells Fargo vs. Citi
* EA vs. Sony
* Sallie Mae vs. Ticketmaster
* DirecTV vs. Dish Network
* PayPal vs. Capital One
* Sears/Kmart vs. Walmart
* Netflix vs. GameStop
* USPS vs. UPS
* Comcast vs. Time Warner Cable
* Spirit vs. Delta
* AT&T vs. Verizon
* Facebook vs. Sprint
* Google vs. Apple
ROUND TWO
* Best Buy vs. EA
* Facebook vs. USPS
* Comcast vs. DirecTV
* Bank of America vs. Citi
* Ticketmaster vs. Spirit Airlines
* PayPal vs. Charter
* AT&T vs. Apple
* Walmart vs. GameStop
ROUND THREE
* Bank of America vs. Ticketmaster
* PayPal vs. Walmart
* Facebook vs. AT&T
* Comcast vs. EA
SEMIFINALS
* Bank of America vs. Walmart
* EA vs. AT&T
More From Consumerist
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Worst Company In America Consolation Round: Comcast Vs. Ticketmaster
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Worst Company In America Semifinals: Bank Of America Vs. Comcast
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Worst Company In America Quarterfinals: Bank Of America Vs. Walmart
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Worst Company In America Round 1: UPS Vs. FedEx
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Worst Company In America Round 2: Sallie Mae Vs. Ticketmaster
Not even close.
BoA by a landslide.
I feel people are taking this thing way too seriously and that is why they’re confused as to why EA got so far. EA, in my opinion, got this far because people voted based on what relates more to them. I play games, I don’t bank at BofA so I’m voting for EA. It’s to have a golden poo and letter sent to them for crying out loud. If the winner got a complete executive makeover I’d vote for BofA for the better of society but they aren’t. They’re getting a prank gift telling them what people think of them. Because of that I’ll vote for who I want more to receive it and that’s to the one that’ll affect me most. People need to relax.
my two cents
EA, you have arrived.
You took lessons from Wal-Mart on Fair Labor Standards Act violations and used it to a tee against your artists and employers.
You studied Rockefeller and Standard Oil and consolidation of markets and to abuse a monopoly position and executed with perfection.
Then you studied Sony and how to secretly deploy DRM without the consumer knowing at point-of-purchase.
And now you’re truly pushing the envelope with micro-transactions… innovating on your own… trying to take everything you’ve learned from the masters one step forward into new territory to capture the golden poo.
You’ve arrived… and standing in front of you is a seasoned champion.
Good luck. I know you’ve earned your spot here, but that is one tough opponent. But, you at least have my vote.
Argh… abused your employees… artists and programmers.
I have been voting against EA since day one, but I’m voting against them today.
BofA will keep doing what it’s doing and nothing will change that, EA came out of nowhere and if it wins this will be all over the gaming press. I believe EA can change in light of consumer outcry, especially if it’s met with a hit to their sales.
The thing is, “consumer outcry” doesn’t equal damage to sales in the games industry. There has never been a successful games boycott, for instance, and generally games journalists and publishing executives act like games consumers are impotent nerds who will buy whatever the industry feeds them. The recent fiasco over Mass Effect 3, for instance, is entirely meaningless in the face of the sales records that the game set.
That particular industry is damaged due to a lack of restraint on the part of consumers just as much as bad practices on the part of publishers designed to take advantage of that lack of restraint.
Well put. The results of this contest will actually have an impact on the company. BofA couldn’t give two shits about the results of a contest on the internet. EA’s customer base is “always connected” (get it, Origin?) and will react a lot more different than BofA.
Well put. The results of this contest will actually have an impact on the company. BofA couldn’t give two shits about the results of a contest on the internet. EA’s customer base is “always connected” (get it, Origin?) and will react a lot more different than BofA.
I don’t buy EA games (they don’t make Grand Theft Auto IV-style games) and I like Bank of America because I’ll churn credit card sign-up offers with them.
EA – Inconveniences gamers and is allegedly a hellish place to work.
Bank of America – The largest player in torpedoing the world economy due to mortgage shenanigans.
The choice is obvious.
I am genuinely surprised to see that Comcast didn’t top the charts this year. I bet they’re ecstatic.
How could you compare to ripping off gamers and ruining video games to steering people into subprime loans they didn’t need and fraudulently kicking people out of their homes?
But…but you don’t get it! EA released a video game with an ending I didn’t like! They have to PAY!
…Just like I already paid them $60 and will inevitably pay them another $30+ for bits of that game they cut out before release to resell! Gamers UNITE!
If that’s what you think is the core reason why people are voting for EA, then you are demonstrating ignorance.
Oh I’m absolutely sure it is. There is no doubt in my mind that gamer outrage over the company’s practices regarding that specific game led to the current situation. There might be other, ancilliary reasons that EA is getting votes, but had the ME3 thing not happened I seriously doubt we would have seen it in the finals.
I don’t think this is “displaying ignorance,” I think this is simple pattern recognition. Video game consumers have regularly been shown to forget whatever wrongs a company has inflicted upon them in the face of the newest and latest piece of plastic or digital content they’re told they need to buy. It’s happened time and again – this time was just a perfect storm. If this wasn’t the case, we wouldn’t see the immense sales figures for both ME3 and its associated DLC – gamers would have been too jaded by EA’s practices to buy into their latest game. What we’ve seen, though, is that the gaming community tends to be very reactionary and vocal but also has a very, very short memory and a lack of purchasing willpower.
There’s an image I’d normally link that shows a “Boycott Modern Warfare 2″ Steam group with 90% of the members ingame in Modern Warfare 2. It basically sums up the situation right there.
Again.
You keep saying how much BofA is so much worse then EA, yet fail to acknowledge the true complaints people have stated.
Simply put, if you think BofA was bad. Imagine how much worse they would be if they employed EA’s business tactics. That is what some of us are trying to point out.
I’ll let you in on something. I’m not a gamer. I’ve purchased 2 game in the past 2 months and those games were relaxation games (Journey and Dear Esther). It’s been over a year since I purchased anything from EA. I’ve never played BF3 or ME3 at all. My decision is based on looking at the big picture between the two companies and comparing business practices.
Sure, BofA took people’s homes, after those people failed to pay under conditions they agreed to. But EA is guilty of the same business practice. But EA has done the same thing. They took away people’s access to products the customer already paid for, for reasons as simple as not liking what that person had to say. Sure, money wise it’s does not compare to what BofA did, but the principle is the same.
One thing I consider is the fact that if you don’t like BofA, you can go somewhere else since they are not the only company to offer that specific set of services. While it’s true you can refuse to buy EA products, you can not get the same service elsewhere. If EA puts out a product you want, you can’t get it anywhere else. And the difference is that EA knows this and is willing to abuse this fact.
I will say this to you again, and I hope it sinks in this time. It is not about the games, it is about the business practices EA employs. And if you can not acknowledge this, then you have no place to comment against others here.
Sounds like some gaming site heard about the contest and stacked the deck for EA. The possible good outcome of EA winning is that they might actually listen and modify their behavior. Whereas BoA cares less than Honey Badger, who we all know Doesn’t Give a SH*T.
Video games. Versus a bank. I think the choice is obvious here.
But this is the internet, and the obvious choice is never obvious, so I think Bank of America deserves to win/lose/get your vote here.
EA ALL THE WAY
EA is bad, but entirely avoidable. Its not always so easy to get away with not using Paypal if you like to shop online, especially for handmade products like on Etsy.com. Actually, Etsy should really be in this tournament! But I digress. Sallie Mae, USPS and other companies really deserve a shot at the title.
Could there be any doubt? BofA wrecks far more lives than EA could ever hope to. They do nothing to improve things either; they pay enough to Congress to leave them alone.
No contest.
The champion has been obvious since the start of the tournament.
Interesting match up. Should we vote for the architects of the downfall of the largest and most influential economy and currency, a company so vile that it puts profits above the sanctity of the american family and household, or should we vote for some stupid bank?
(on a serious note, I’m sure there’s an interesting article to be written on the question of why we might resent more the company that has been trying to profit more heavily on our tendency to seek entertainment that feeds our desires to escape our current conditions than we would a company who helped and continues to perpetuate those same conditions. “A grievance most poignant…”)
No contest – BoA
Alright, I’ll bite: where’s the voting link? (I’ve already learned from previous rounds that I need to enable javascript from polldaddy.com, so yes, I’ve done that…but what’s worked for every previous matchup isn’t working for this one, or for the consolation round. Firefox 11, Linux, NoScript, FYI.)
“Allow all this page” in noscript. Do that once or twice, worked for me under the same setup.
EA is everything that is wrong with video games. When I trace back the last 20 years in gaming, all the fond memories I’ve had, especially with PC games, have been effectively terminated by EA acquiring AMAZING developers and then destroying them. Westwood Studios in particular was a devastating move. Many genres of gaming today are either unserved or underserved solely because EA has put all the developers in those genres out of business. All the creativity in the video gaming world today comes from overseas, American gaming is a mindless repetitive endeavor, we’re no longer the leaders, and while there’s plenty of blame to go around, most of it is on EA.
Bank Of America. I can just pirate EA games and feel no remorse.
EA beat Comcast AND AT&T? Bullshit. For starters, either one of them alone affect more people negatively than EA can ever hope to. Comcast and AT&T are utility companies, providing services that most people need or want. EA only affects console sports gamers. I bet you there’s more people who still use a VCR than people who play EA games. (No, the fifty personal friends of yours who all game do not comprise a representative sample of society.)
Voting for EA. They are responsible for propagating the worst, most anti-consumer trends in the video game industry right now. They have succeeded in sucking all of the fun out of video games and turning it into a race to see who can extort the most money out of their customers.
Newsflash: when you make your customers pay for a full game and give them half, make them pay for on-disc content, make them use intrusive DRM, and require “online passes,” it’s an insult to them. Your customers are not stupid, and we will not stand for this. Many are already boycotting EA, and as long as these schemes continue more are sure to follow.
Nothing would make me happier than seeing that golden poo awarded to the most anti-consumer company in America.
I don’t get the EA hate. They’re way better now than where they were 5-10 years ago. If you’re going to go after a game publisher/developer, Activision-Blizzard is way worse than EA.
What exactly makes them way better than they were 5-10 years ago? Is it the fact that they bought up a bunch of new IP and studios? That’s what it seems to be normally. Have you seen what they’ve been doing with those franchises and studios? It’s not looking good. I keep reading about how talent leaves companies like Bioware and starts their own companies.
We don’t call it Bank of Evil for no reason, people.
EA can’t fuck you out of your home. ‘Nuff said.
Following the #occupy year, only BofA can win. They are the epitome of the 1%.
Of course EA can stand up to BofA in the finals. I mean EA customers might still have their homes and their computers. BofA customers are living in cardboard boxes and keep getting kicked out of the libraries when they try and use the public computers to vote!
I can’t torrent bank accounts to avoid the fees. BoA wins!
EA does make sense over AT&T. While AT&T unquestionably has far worse customer service, look at the damage each of them has caused to their respective industries.
EA nearly single-handedly destroyed the US gaming industry, while damaging the whole world’s. They have destroyed literally dozens of companies just to bury them, have pushed the Hollywoodizing of games so nearly all high end ones suck (and if it weren’t for the internet opening alternate avenues, would have made starting a new company nigh impossible), and are the main reason consumer-toxic DRM has become the norm amongst the big publishers, and have ended the careers of countless famous designers and developers. If it weren’t for the fact that gaming is a creative industry with huge numbers of entry points for the new developer, they would have destroyed an industry, a great source of entertainment, and an art form, all for the sake of their own self-destructive greed.
AT&T? Sure, their customer service is absolutely abysmal, and they’re part of the reason for the US’ ridiculous cell phone prices (compare to pretty much anywhere in Europe), but neither of those even begins to damage the phone industry in the way that EA has damage the gaming one. The only thing that even *begins* to compare to EA’s destructiveness is their support of warantless wiretapping, but I sadly don’t recall any phone company actually taking a stand against that, so AT&T simply has the largest share of fault on that.
Don’t get me wrong – AT&T is a terrible company, and they deserve the very high ranking they got in this contest, but EA really is worse.