There has been a double whammy of news going on this week. So much that it will drive you mad.
First off, is Electronic Arts. In the last two years, EA was declared the worst company in America by Consumerist, no thanks to the Mass Effect 3 ending drama and the SimCity debacle. But this year, it seems EA met its match.
Video game giant Electronic Arts stepped into the Worst Company In
America nonagon of unpleasantness this morning crowned with two Golden
Poos and with the confidence that the tournament’s only two-time winner
deserves. But in the end, it wasn’t EA that was carried out of the arena
in victory — it was Time Warner Cable.
In the narrowest margin of victory since 2011, when BP beat Bank of America for the WCIA by less than one percent, Time Warner Cable upset EA’s attempt at a three-peat by eking out 51.2% of the vote.
Despite its cock-up of the Battlefield 4 and Titanfall releases, EA
just didn’t have the all-out support that it had received in the
previous two tournaments. And while Time Warner Cable has always merited
a spot in the WCIA brackets, the company’s pending merger with former
WCIA champ Comcast undoubtedly played into readers’ voting decisions.
Judging by the absolute crushing that Comcast brought down on Yahoo in
its first round match, there is a lot of hatred out there for the
nation’s largest cable/Internet provider, and today’s TWC result
confirms that voters are more than happy to spread that hate around.
In theory, there could be a final Death Match showdown between merger
partners TWC and Comcast, but there are some big speedbumps in the way.
Before we can even start planning that contest, TWC will need to defeat
Koch Industries in Round Two.
What an upset. But when you go up against a company that wanted to merge with Comcast and make itself the most powerful Cable/Internet company in the world, it's no contest to why Time Warner Cable managed to squeeze out EA.
Our second whammy comes from Leland Yee. Many know this fellow at the California State Senator who wanted to regulate violent video games like tobacco and alcohol, is now under fire when he was arrested on March 26th on bribery and corruption charges. What did he do for bribery and corruption? Well GamePolitics has this to say.....
In the fall of 2012, in exchange for a $10,000 campaign donation to
help pay down the debt from his failed mayoral campaign (the legal limit
on individual donations applied to retiring such a debt is $500), Yee
put in a good word with the Department of Public Health and wrote an
official letter of support for a software consulting company that
desired to expand into the San Francisco Bay area.
On March 29, 2013, in exchange for a $6,800 campaign donation towards
his bid for Secretary of State, Yee had a staff member present an
official State Senate proclamation on his behalf at the Chee Kung
Tong's 165th anniversary dinner. What's the Chee Kung Tong?
Essentially the Chinese mafia. Seriously.
So wait a minute. Lemme get this straight. You mean to tell me that Leland Yee doesn't like violent games getting into the hands of kids, but he favors a mafia? What kind of hypocrisy is this anyway? But it gets worse from here.
During the summer of 2013, Yee introduced a medical marijuana
businessman to two state legislators that could help him expand his
business into California in exchange for $21,000-worth of donations to
his campaign for Secretary of State. In this case, $6800 is the legal
limit for individual donors.
In an attempt to solicit even more donations, from August 2013 right
up until about two weeks ago, Yee tried to broker a deal between an arms
dealing acquaintance of his and a Jersey businessman with admitted mob
ties (another undercover FBI agent).
Yeah, didn't see that one coming, did you?
There were talks of $50,000 for the first successful arms deal (that
would have brought weapons from the Philippines to a port in New Jersey)
and Yee using his position as Secretary of State to help ship weapons
to Africa and launder money from the proceeds made by future sales of
weapons.
As it happened, Yee's weapons contact fell through but it turned out he knew another arms dealer in the Philippines.
You know, I'm beginning to think that Leland Yee gets his ideas from Grand Theft Auto of all games. For someone who wanted the game to be sold like cigarettes, he sure shows he ain't a moral champion.
Summing up, Yee could be on the hook for one count of "Conspiracy to
Deal Firearms Without a License to Legally Import Firearms" and six
counts of "Wire Fraud of Honest Services" (the illicit campaign
donations). The former carries a penalty of up to five years in prison
and the latter 20 years. Both carry a $250,000 fine. Add all that up
and that could possibly amount to 125 years in prison along with a fine
of $1.75 million.
I'm not the one to laugh it up, but I gotta say this.
HAH HAH!
There was a third whammy that went on. Earlier this week, Facebook bought out the Oculus Rift and that lead to a fury of flames. However, due to the complexity of this story and the drama surrounding it, I cannot cover everything in this one page. Keep your eyes peeled for my Oculus Rift Drama update.
Works Cited:
Consumerist
GamePoltics
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