The small world of Electronic Arts



  • http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/450/questionjh0.jpg

    The Electronic Arts support website displayed this, uh, comprehensive drop-down country list.

    The fact that 'Nederlands' means 'Dutch' and the country is 'Nederland' without the s is just a minor annoyance, dwarfed by the tragic nuclear exchange that destroyed the Americas, Asia, Africa, Oceania and most of continental Europe. I'm writing this post at the edge of a huge molten crater where Belgium once was. On the bright side, we won't have to worry about outsourcing anymore.



  • That is a... erm... somewhat limited list indeed

     I'm belgian btw, and funny enough, it IS freakin hot today :)



  • I live in Dutch!



  • Hmmmm.... i don't see the problem here. As we all know Belgium is really a province of The Netherlands and America is part of the British empire. Asia is carved up between the two and Sweden rules Scandinavia (except for, apperently, Danmark).

    I suppose this means at least 90% of the Internet users should know what to fill in here.



  • As a minor point, you'd figure the country list would at least be in alphabetical order.



  • Nah, putting them in alpha order is cheating.  Makes it way too easy on the lusers.  The Real WTF is they didn't list every country on the planet (including the little pissant ones that aren't in the UN) and then not have them in any obvious order.



  • Not to mention that the text above the drop down appears to be Portuguese, which, as we all know, is commonly spoken in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.  I'm pretty sure it's, like, the most common language in all those countries.



  • @Brother Laz said:

    [ ... snip ...] a huge molten crater where Belgium once was. On the bright side [ ... snip ...]


    That *is* the bright side!

     



  • @bstorer said:

    Not to mention that the text above the drop down appears to be Portuguese, which, as we all know, is commonly spoken in the UK, Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden.  I'm pretty sure it's, like, the most common language in all those countries.

    I hear there's also this "Portugal" country that somewhat uses the language.



  • @poochner said:

    [Snip] The Real WTF is they didn't list every country on the planet (including the little pissant ones that aren't in the UN) [Snip]

     Yeah, the pissant ones not in the UN like: United States, Russia, China...



  • That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.



  • The REAL WTF(tm) is that:
    1) This crappy CS forum isn't smart enough to put a reply button, even if I'm not signed-in (and redirect me to the sign-in page, and back to the post reply) that I have to sign-in, and click reply
    2) This crappy CS reply page weights 350Kb (which slows down my porn downloads)
    3) The text above the "Please select country" is in Portuguese
    4) The text below "Bem-vindo ao guia do Suporte do Produto.." is English

    OMG
    Fist!
    Captcha!
    DOOM!
    The Real wtf is...



  • @Savior said:

    The **REAL** WTF(tm) is that:
    1) This crappy CS forum isn't smart enough to put a reply button, even if I'm not signed-in (and redirect me to the sign-in page, and back to the post reply) that I have to sign-in, and click reply

      Waittaminnit.  You're saying the real WTF is that you have to sign in and then click reply, instead of clicking reply and then signing in?  Dude, it's commutative.  That's like saying "The real WTF is that it expects me to add 2 to 3, instead of expecting me to add 3 to 2".

     



  • @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    That's not a WTF. Many americans don't realize this, but those are distinct entities (even if they do overlap). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_%28terminology%29
     



  • @Brother Laz said:

    http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/450/questionjh0.jpg

    The Electronic Arts support website displayed this, uh, comprehensive drop-down country list.

    The fact that 'Nederlands' means 'Dutch' and the country is 'Nederland' without the s is just a minor annoyance, dwarfed by the tragic nuclear exchange that destroyed the Americas, Asia, Africa, Oceania and most of continental Europe. I'm writing this post at the edge of a huge molten crater where Belgium once was. On the bright side, we won't have to worry about outsourcing anymore.

     Not really surprising. EA is pretty much just one giant WTF these days, anyway.
     



  • @DaveK said:

    @Savior said:

    The REAL WTF(tm) is that:
    1) This crappy
    CS forum isn't smart enough to put a reply button, even if I'm not
    signed-in (and redirect me to the sign-in page, and back to the post
    reply) that I have to sign-in, and click reply

     
    Waittaminnit.  You're saying the real WTF is that you have to sign
    in and then click reply, instead of clicking reply and then signing
    in?  Dude, it's commutative.  That's like saying "The real
    WTF is that it expects me to add 2 to 3, instead of expecting me to add
    3 to 2".

     

     

    I spent many of the dullest hours of my life studying usability, and I can quite patronisingly inform you that such behaviour ignores a Usability Heuristic:

    Flexibility and efficiency of use

    Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

    or to put it another way, since the actions seem commutative, why not treat them as such with the interface and allow both orders to be used?

     



  • @Abscissa said:

    @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    That's not a WTF. Many americans don't realize this, but those are distinct entities (even if they do overlap). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_%28terminology%29
     

     I don't mean to imply or assume you're american. It's just that I'm from the US, I know first-hand a lot of people around that don't understand that there's a difference between those.
     



  • @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    "Technically, they're not the same thing," is the only possible justification I can see for this.  And even then, it doesn't make sense.  There must not be any  Scots who've complained.



  • @Abscissa said:

     I don't mean to imply or assume you're american. It's just that I'm from the US, I know first-hand a lot of people around that don't understand that there's a difference between those.

    Being an American, I find us (as a whole) to be a relatively proud and ignorant people.



  • @DaveK said:

    @Savior said:

    The REAL WTF(tm) is that:
    1) This crappy CS forum isn't smart enough to put a reply button, even if I'm not signed-in (and redirect me to the sign-in page, and back to the post reply) that I have to sign-in, and click reply

      Waittaminnit.  You're saying the real WTF is that you have to sign in and then click reply, instead of clicking reply and then signing in?  Dude, it's commutative.  That's like saying "The real WTF is that it expects me to add 2 to 3, instead of expecting me to add 3 to 2".



    Yeah, pretty much this.

    Take these step-by-step examples.
    User is looking at some message board, is registered, but because he likes too much porn has to clear the cache constantly (yes, I'm joking, or not. whatever. you get the idea), and there goes the cookies.
    Then, he finds something that he wants to reply. The steps are:
    1) Look at the post, decides to reply
    2) Look around, and realize that there's no reply/quote button
    3) Look around, try to find the small, up there, sign-in link
    4) Fill the data, click sign-in
    5) Get redirected to the page, now, once again:
    6) Locate the reply button, click it
    7) Go to the reply to post page
    8) Writes the reply, click post.

    While, with the phpbb-like foruns:
    1) Look at the post, decides to reply
    2) Click on the reply button
    3) Get auto-redirected to login
    4) Login
    5) Get auto-redirected to the reply page
    6) Writes the reply, click post
    7) ???
    8) Profit!
    9) Do not use.

    See the difference?
    Oh, wait... the phpbb-like foruns have more steps!
    OMFGLOLWTF
    What's my captcha?



  • @Abscissa said:

    @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    That's not a WTF. Many americans don't realize this, but those are distinct entities (even if they do overlap). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_%28terminology%29
     

    However, I cannot imagine any scenarios which could require you to select from all three in a single choice.



  • @ssprencel said:

    @poochner said:

    [Snip] The Real WTF is they didn't list every country on the planet (including the little pissant ones that aren't in the UN) [Snip]

     Yeah, the pissant ones not in the UN like: United States, Russia, China...

    Hmm.  We may not be communicating well.  The parenthetical "including" means "as well as."  All of those you listed are in the UN; they are in point of fact all permanent members of the Security Council.  I was thinking more along the lines of The Holy See.  Though I note that FYROM doesn't seem to be listed as a UN member state, which sort of surprises me.

    Ah, it's listed under "T". 



  • @Abscissa said:

    @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    That's not a WTF. Many americans don't realize this, but those are distinct entities (even if they do overlap). See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_%28terminology%29
     

    When it comes to the standard ISO country list, it's pretty simple. You should use UK and leave out Great Britain and England.



  • @poochner said:

    @ssprencel said:

    @poochner said:

    [Snip] The Real WTF is they didn't list every country on the planet (including the little pissant ones that aren't in the UN) [Snip]

     Yeah, the pissant ones not in the UN like: United States, Russia, China...

    Hmm.  We may not be communicating well.  The parenthetical "including" means "as well as."  All of those you listed are in the UN; they are in point of fact all permanent members of the Security Council.  I was thinking more along the lines of The Holy See.  Though I note that FYROM doesn't seem to be listed as a UN member state, which sort of surprises me.

    Ah, it's listed under "T". 

    Dude, my bad!  I was thinking EU. 

     Sorry, I can't talk right now...I have a big ass foot in my mouth!



  • @Jojosh_the_Pi said:

    @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    "Technically, they're not the same thing," is the only possible justification I can see for this.  And even then, it doesn't make sense.  There must not be any  Scots who've complained.

    Are you seriously saying that England == Great Britain == United Kingdom?

    Though you could argue that the last two are indeed equal. (unless Ireland is also part of GB, I do not know this for sure)
    England, however, is only a part of the United Kingdom, which also consists of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.



  • @madjo said:

    @Jojosh_the_Pi said:

    @djork said:

    That's nothing. Our company has a country list that includes separate entries for the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England.

    "Technically, they're not the same thing," is the only possible justification I can see for this.  And even then, it doesn't make sense.  There must not be any  Scots who've complained.

    Are you seriously saying that England == Great Britain == United Kingdom?

    Though you could argue that the last two are indeed equal. (unless Ireland is also part of GB, I do not know this for sure)
    England, however, is only a part of the United Kingdom, which also consists of Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland.

    Dude. He's says "Technically, they're not the same thing", which should indicate to you pretty clearly that he is NOT SERIOUSLY SAYING that "England == Great Britain == United Kingdom".
    However, from the point of view of a "list of countries" for most imaginable corporate uses, including these three separately seems unlikely to accomplish anything of utility, and could lead to significant confusion and when one is expecting several things to be in one category, but they're fragmented across all three.



  • @djork said:

    When it comes to the standard ISO country list, it's pretty simple. You should use UK and leave out Great Britain and England.

    That's because only the UK is actually a country.  The other two are things that seem a bit like countries, but are in fact not countries in their own right.


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