Annotated 25-3
I clearly had a lot of fun with Thomas, using him to take shots at Apple and the black comedy of being in a workplace with dysfunctional leadership, something I knew a fair bit about by then.
In an earlier draft, Ferris’ motivation for going into HR’s basement was that after Carol chewed him out in their last scene, he was worried he’d be fired and was seeking some information he could use to make himself essential. Instead, we intensified his belief in the company, making his words here a blast of morale that Carol didn’t realize she needed. I think that heightens the irony of his fate and definitely makes it harder on Carol, who might otherwise try to rationalize his loss as “that guy I almost fired, making a really poor decision… I mean, of course it’s tragic, but…”
I did a whole lot of ultimately fruitless research into the world of gaming at the time, looking for more concrete examples of bad behavior than “Electronic Arts: It really sucks!” But all the links I found are dead now, so maybe simple was the better way to go. “Our games have soul in them” (wink, wink) was Phil’s addition.
Yeah, I think for an offhand remark, that much research was probably overthinking it. Honestly, it would have been weird if it was more specific!
I have a friend that to this day has swore he’d never play another Electronic Arts game. The Hellgate London debacle in particular was the straw that broke the camel’s back for him.
I doubt you’d have found anything else of interest that Hurricane probably wouldn’t be guilty of (unless the arcanometry would have allowed them to avoid the standard bullshit in the game industry)…so ‘EA sucks’ is pretty much the safest bet. >_>
I mean, at last they’re not Konami, AMIRITE?
The way it works is this: EVERY company is trying to not be *that* company, but the demands of capitalism and the way narcissists thrive in organizations under pressure mean they all end up dysfunctional in some way or other.
And every company is full of people who are telling themselves “At least we’re not *THAT* company”.
And then eventually they fall out of that notion.
I suspect it goes even deeper than that. Pretty much everyone rationalizes their own bad behaviour or soothes their bad conscience with “at least I’m not …”
“yeah, I’m showing off but I’m not driving one of _those_ cars”
-> “I got a huge car but it’s a hybrid”
-> “but my private jet is really quite small”
“I’m drinking, but only on weekends”
->”I’m often drunk but at least I don’t misbehave”
->”… but at least I don’t do heroin”
->”but at least I’m not injecting”
->”I’m injecting but I don’t hurt anyone, unlike some drinkers I know…”
… no matter how well you or your company live up to your own expectations, there’s always something to be uncomfortable about and somebody else to point at who’s worse at it, to make you feel better about yourself. So, really the phrase becomes both not incredibly meaningful, and ubiquitous.
I thank Origin every time I see it for making EA stuff easier to avoid.