It's Over 9000! Actually, More like 300 Million. On Second Thought, Nobody Knows.

Whilst spelunking the labyrinthine abyss known as the internet, I ran across an interesting article regarding EA and the way they handle their MMO projects. The news was leaked by a soon to be ex employee of EA (perhaps currently unemployed for all I know) who spilled the beans on the office politics and social disarray of EA management. He used the platform of a blog site to post an anonymous tell-all tale which illustrated the failings of EA when it came to the production of the "Warhammer Online" game.

Not to be cynical, but last time I checked very few people actually still cared about that game, but what DID catch people's interest was a small confessional embedded deep within the post about the upcoming MMORPG "The Old Republic". Captain anonymous, who also goes by the nomenclature: EA Louse, informed the viewing public that "The Old Republic" has currently racked up a development cost of $300 million and that most of the money was thrown towards the Olympian voice work going into the project. EA Louse had labeled "The Old Republic" as a failure and within hours, or perhaps days (To be honest I am too lazy to look up the exact response time) EA officials countered with their own explanation of what was happening internally and wished to debunk the disgruntled former team member and shine some light on their side of the story.

Now it wouldn't be the internet if people didn't start posting their opinions about this scandal, and post they did. Some sided with EA Louse to point fingers at the money devouring corporate entity, others saw eye to eye with the management and cited that this was merely the rantings of a desperate man who found himself in a position of no steady income. Still others pointed out that the anonymity of this whole debacle leads to the possibility that this person may not have actually been employed with EA and others suggest that the truth lies somewhere in between.

So, what do I think about this ordeal?

Well, the error that should immediately be spotted is the cavalcade of logical fallacies that most of the interweb goers are stumbling across; the most egregious being the golden mean and obedience to authority. However, when all is said and done all the evidence points towards the fact that there is no evidence. All we have as outside viewers are anecdotes and testimonials from both sides, neither of which are providing proper facts that we can use as a means of analyzing their claims.

Just to put my neck out and expose my devilishly sexy pasty white neck (remember executioner, aim for the tan line) I'll go ahead and say that I am not the biggest supporter of EA. Despite this admission, I am not the kind of person to go out and attack my opponents just because they have wronged me or because I disagree with their business Modus Operandi. Regardless of the mountains of posts and blogs and professional game site coverage devoted to this recent development, it still comes down to the fact that no one has demonstrated they are holding the briefcase that contains the golden truth. People need to accept the fact that until strong evidence comes out in support of either sides' argument the proper stance is to have no stance at all. Show a little humility and be willing to side with the age old scientific method of, "I don't know".