According to a report at Shacknews, it appears that a staff member at Electronic Arts has been playing fast and loose with the company’s Wikipedia page. The staffer, using an IP address registered to EA’s Redwood City offices, has made several attempts to alter the repository by removing references to EA founder Trip Hawkins, controversial chapters in the company’s history (such as the ea_spouse debacle), and altering the wording of the information pertaining to lawsuits brought against EA by its employees to a more favorable light. In addition to spinning the lawsuits, the would-be reverse oracle also added the line “Since that time, many other game companies have been struck with similar lawsuits.” to the end of the entry, in an effort to make EA’s Amistad-ian practices seem commonplace.
In an era where Wikipedia is becoming more and more accepted as the true communal history of humanity — proving the idea that reality is in the eye of the beholder — it’s not surprising to see corporations altering their own entries to spin historical record in their favor. Since the time of the ancient Babylonians, those in power have sought to redraw historical events to better benefit their legacy, and while this latest example trades cuneiform etchings for the exchange of 1s and 0s, the intent to defraud future generations is still disgustingly present.
