Why Knowing A Companies History Is Essential In Modern Day Social Media Management

For those involved in the online gaming space, you’ve more than likely heard about the recent controversy surrounding a tweet posted by publisher Electronic Arts. The post in question, which now has close to sixteen thousand responses, plays into a recent online trend in which users apply their own twist to the template “he/she is a 10 but…”. The joke is completed with something the user finds unappealing, or disagrees with, indicating that someone is otherwise an attractive person with the exception of this one particular trait or opinion. The tweet by EA reads “They’re a 10 but they only like playing single-player games”. 

 

To the unassuming, this may read as completely harmless or inoffensive, being nothing but a joke at a person's preference. But with the added context of the company's history, actions and product output, the level of hypocrisy, and to some extent disrespect, makes this simple post an incredible lapse in judgement. Here’s an insight into why this is, and what we can learn as public relations and marketing practitioners to avoid making a mistake like this.

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A Tumultuous Single-Player Reputation

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To understand why this post misses the mark to such an extent, there has to be a basic comprehension of EA’s rocky history with single-player experiences. Whilst the company has been responsible for publishing some of the best games in this genre's history, its treatment of the studios behind them, and the games themselves, are certainly eye-raising to say the least. Visceral Games, founded in 1998, were responsible for countless gems. Dead Space, a single-player survival horror game developed by the studio, stands as one of the most iconic and acclaimed of its genre, receiving sequels that slowly declined in quality due to publisher EA’s insistence on pushing out new titles quickly and orienting them towards an action focus to meet impossibly demanding sales quotas. This mistreatment led to the franchise coming to a halt after the third entry in 2013, and just a few years later the studio itself was dissolved in 2017. 

 

In addition to this, EA has struggled to produce solid single-player offerings throughout the 2010’s, seemingly due to a lack of understanding of player wants, and too big of a focus on sales numbers as well as cashing-in on trends. In 2013, shortly after Disney purchased the rights to Star Wars, EA were given the exclusive rights to develop Star Wars games, a deal that would leave many dismayed due to its declining reputation at the time. These fears were slowly proven correct as the publisher struggled to put out anything that wasn’t a mobile tie in or multiplayer-exclusive. To this day, the company has only released one purely single-player Star Wars game, with everything else being predominantly multiplayer focused or simply online-only. These few examples alone paint a larger picture of the publishers incapability to properly handle or manage their single-player offering, and makes their recent tweet all the more insulting to those they have let down or simply forgotten about in their purely profit driven goals.

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“Did EA Forget They… Make Single-Player Games?”

 

It's fair to say that, with the context above, most would understand that a tweet like the one they made would not go down well with consumers and audiences. Those of you who think this would of course be correct. Over fifteen thousand people took to their keyboards to respond to the post, practically all of which in utter disagreement to the joke. Many responses blasted past the engagement numbers of the original tweet, amassing several times as many likes and showcasing how exactly not to appeal to your core demographic. Forbes writer Paul Tassi responded with: “Understandable you are unfamiliar with the concept of 10s”, a jab at EA’s struggle to release games with high achieving ratings in recent years. As well as this, hugely popular gaming influencer Jacksepticeye hit back with: “They’re a 10 but they thought this tweet was a good idea”, which doesn’t really need explaining.

 

However, not all of the responses came from social media influencers and popular online personalities. Many of the frustrated replies stemmed from actual EA employees and developers, most of which currently work on the publishers single-player titles. Vince Zampella, head of Respawn Entertainment (a huge development studio under EA) for over a decade, chimed in with a simple face-palm emoji. Mike Laidlaw, former creative director at Bioware and known for his work on the huge single-player role playing series Dragon Age, tweeted: “Absolutely. Tone. Deaf.”, an obvious reference to the company’s troubled history and inability to hear the criticism of its fans.

 

The other thousands of responses and quote-tweets follow a similar trend, criticising EA for its hypocrisy and seeming ignorance of its past. The fact that the publishers own employees struck out against them publicly showcases the huge miscommunication this tweet displays, and does not take into account common criticisms levied against the company for its wrongdoings in recent years.

 

A Pivotal Response

 

With all company missteps comes the inevitable company response, an opportunity to save face and prevent anymore loss of community goodwill while still possible. EA responded with an element of self-deprecation, turning the joke around on themselves in an attempt to share the same sentiment as their community and bring back some kind of relatability. Their response reads: “Roast well deserved. We’ll take this L cause playing single player games actually makes them an 11.”. I personally have my criticisms of this response, primarily the poor attempt at making it seem as though the joke was actually in favour of those who enjoy single-player offerings, though I do appreciate the swift nature of the response (coming within the same day due to the huge backlash it garnered in such a short period of time). The tweets ability to admit they deserved the response is also somewhat appreciated, though does not do much to negate the negative sentiment shared by the online gaming community.

 

Tin-Foil Hat Time: Could This Have All Been A Marketing Ploy?

 

As with every poor corporate social media post, there is of course the small notion that the entire thing may have been intentional, even down to the huge backlash it would undoubtedly receive. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” is an idea that does reign true in some cases, though the extent to which this can be pushed is of course debatable. Some users in online gaming forums such as Twitter and Reddit have pushed forward the idea that all of this bad reception could indeed be an intentional move to drum up engagement numbers and click-throughs to the companies social media presences and profiles. ‘Surely there is no way a company can post this seriously whilst ignoring their history, right?’ is a sentence many have uttered across the web since the putting out of the tweet, and with this idea comes the theory mentioned above. Ultimately, whilst there is no evidence to prove this notion true, I believed it to be worth mentioning to some extent.

 

Let’s Not Repeat This: What Can We Learn From EA’s Blunder?

 

With all distasteful marketing comes a lesson to learn. In this instance, it's ensuring your marketing and PR team understand the company's history and mistakes, and navigating the social media space with this knowledge like it were a minefield. The internet doesn’t forget, and this is especially relevant for dedicated fans to game franchises and developers. One small and harmless joke that may appear innocent on the surface could be interpreted in a plethora of ways by those more in touch with a company's past, and with this interpretation begins a snowball effect in online circles that only ends in disaster, as it did in the example discussed here. The consequences of the tweet published by EA will, as well as more negative public reception, be the inability to escape the message they sent out with their one poorly made joke, a message that will undoubtedly be utilized against them for years to come as they attempt to build back the damaged relationship they already have with their communities.