Every year, Consumerist runs a competition to crown the Worst Company in America as decided by internet vote. Electronic Arts, the game developer and publisher you know and quite clearly don't love, has won the competition for the last two years. In the 2014 edition of the bracket, however, the game has changed: Time Warner Cable has knocked the reigning champion out of the running in just the first round, and I'm glad it happened.
The competition itself may not hold much real meaning or prestige, but it is referenced fairly often within internet culture. The fact that EA, of all the country's businesses, was the legitimate "worst company" two years in a row while others were contributing much more negatively to society and the economy was pretty unreasonable.
Sure, EA might nickel and dime you from time to time, more often looking to make a profit than do what's best for the consumer, like charging for in-game microtransactions. Yes, a few of their games had controversial endings and they made a mess of some game launches.
But at the end of the day, they're just a video game company, making a form of electronic entertainment. In addition, gamers are a vocal group and a high percentage use the internet, where the voting takes place, which likely influenced the results over the past two years.
Time Warner Cable, who rightly received more votes than EA, actually is worth criticizing. They're not helping the death of net neutrality, creating a huge corporation by merging with Comcast that will help corner the market under one name, and from what I understand have some of the worst customer service possible.
Banks, also, should be much more heavily criticized than a company that makes video games for their role in the economic crisis and their failure to invest our money well. Bank of America is in particular a negatively perceived company, generally acting in their own best interests in a way that hurts Americans.
Video game passions and allegiances can run deep, but in perspective the problems caused by EA are pretty meaningless. And besides, are they even really the worst gaming company? It might be clear to some, but that seems pretty cut and dry considering all that goes on in the industry. At least justice was finally served this year--keep an eye on the competition to see who loses by winning.
