A Formal Thread about Activision/Blizzard

Dwarvenhobble

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Based on the flying pose, its a reskin of the Vulpine Familiar mount that's been on the store for a year or two. So like, 90% of the work has been done because the rig and movements already exist. So I don't think this thing took more than two weeks to put together. If that. And that assumes they don't already have half a dozen of these things already premade and ready for release at pre-determined intervals.

Also WoW only has one kind of subscriber. There's no 'whale' tier unless you count being able to subscribe X months in advance.
I mean Whales who will buy the mounts for premium prices not just try to get them as drops from seasonal bosses.
 

Dwarvenhobble

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Well... in accordance with Earcaraxe above, I seem to recall it being about the mid-2000s when people started get pretty pissed at Activision, mostly for finding creative ways to gouge players.

That said, Activision and more so EA already had a reputation for lazy franchising rather than funding high quality by then. However, one might note EA and Activision are still going strong, where many of their contemporaries from that era are not.
I mean THQ kinda killed themselves with the uDraw tablet. Like reading about how much money they threw at that it's pretty telling why they failed.

What's the phrase "There's one born every minutes" well EA and Activision figured out how to capitalise on those ones born every minutes it seems. Or the people who aren't the one born every minute but are susceptible to scummy stuff being done to manipulate people.
 

Gordon_4

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I mean Whales who will buy the mounts for premium prices not just try to get them as drops from seasonal bosses.
Store mounts don’t drop from seasonal bosses. Some of them are occasionally offered as a reward for the 6 month subscribers - the robot dragon for example - but WoW otherwise very clearly delineates between a store mount and an in-game mount. They are parallel and never have they met.
 

Samtemdo8

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Well... in accordance with Earcaraxe above, I seem to recall it being about the mid-2000s when people started get pretty pissed at Activision, mostly for finding creative ways to gouge players.

That said, Activision and more so EA already had a reputation for lazy franchising rather than funding high quality by then. However, one might note EA and Activision are still going strong, where many of their contemporaries from that era are not.
EA still has too many franchises that are collecting dust and doing nothing with them.
 

Piscian

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One of the reasons to buy franchises can be to deny them to others.
Due to all the legal issues around IP, if they can buy a studio that owns a bunch of IPs or an individual IP cheaply it makes it easier for them later on if they want to due a similar concept or come up with a reason to use it. Sometimes it just behooves them to snag something up when its incredibly cheap. I forget which IP it was but one of the big popular ones atm got snagged for like $50k at one point. Hell I think Terminator recently sold for 8 million, all rights.

Though not necessarily to maliciously deny it to someone else the effect is the same. Why spend 300mil on advertising a new IP when you make a new scifi horror game when you already own Dead Space? It's depressing how many small studios have already written a synopsis and storyboards for a new entry for some series they owned in the 80s-90s but cant do anything because they cant get companies like EA to even pick up the phone unless they want to make the game for EA and go through the corporate rigimoral. Dangit just noticed Drecom bought Wizardry last year, bah missed my shot.
 
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BrawlMan

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EA still has too many franchises that are collecting dust and doing nothing with them.
As is Konami and Sega. Though at least Sega bothers the outsource some of their IPs now to smaller studios. Though they can still do better and more.
 
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Samtemdo8

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Another walkout planned, this time demanding the resignation of Bobby Kotick for, at the very least, being complicit in his lack of action in regards to the harassment.

1. Hopefully this will last longer then a single day until he does get the fuck out of there.

2. Who do they have in mind to replace him?
 

thebobmaster

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1. Hopefully this will last longer then a single day until he does get the fuck out of there.

2. Who do they have in mind to replace him?
1. I agree, but given the fact that the board is standing by Kotick, I don't expect this to work out well.

2. I don't think they have thought that far ahead.
 

Bedinsis

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2. Who do they have in mind to replace him?
Is it standard that people calling for the resignation of a higher-up that is responsible in breeches in ethics also provide who they think should replace them?
 

Gordon_4

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Is it standard that people calling for the resignation of a higher-up that is responsible in breeches in ethics also provide who they think should replace them?
I've never worked that high in corporate, but usually if a higher up - even the top position - leaves then the most immediate thing is the person immediately below them will step in since they'll (in theory) have the most corporate knowledge/experience until an actual replacement is sourced. What I was never clear on is if they'd just recruit normally or if the board had to vote on them in lieu of a more traditional job interview.
 

The Rogue Wolf

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Samtemdo8

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It's almost like fratboy culture is utterly incapable of learning and can only be dealt with by uprooting it and firing everyone guilty of it.
"The article also describes a 2007 party Oneal attended, along with Kotick, in which “scantily clad women danced on stripper poles,” while a DJ “encouraged female attendees to drink more so the men would have a better time.”

This seems entirely in character with the gaming industry in the 2000s. Remember booth babes in conventions? Xbox Original was certainly the biggest example



Remember The Guy Game? Remember Dead or Alive Xtreme 1? Remember the general horniness in games themselves? God of War was horny, Prince of Persia Warrior Within was horny. Etc.

Heck I go as far as to say the 2000s was entirely a very horny decade in media. They had commercials on TV showing Girls Gone Wild.
 

Hades

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Wouldn't it be nice if this was the end of Bobby boy? It won't be.....but it would be nice.
 
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Dwarvenhobble

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Seems it's getting worse for Bobby






Another walkout planned, this time demanding the resignation of Bobby Kotick for, at the very least, being complicit in his lack of action in regards to the harassment.

 

Dirty Hipsters

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Bob_McMillan

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I don't know if this is old news, but apparently they're planning to ban alcoholic drinks in the workplace. Which is just crazy to me. I can just imagine a bunch of game developer nerds bringing drinks to the office because it makes them look cool. It wouldn't surprise me if this is how it all began, a bunch of losers thinking they're hot shit for making hip and cool video games and using that as an excuse to act unprofessionally.