Activision Hate Not Based in Reality, Says Activision

[DTWolfwood]

Sure i guess we can just ignore everything Kotick have said to date that made him look like a tool to industry personnel and hardcore gamers alike. (If i was a share holder in the company i would think they were the most beautiful thing ever, but im not so fuck you activision! and damn you for your taint on Blizzard by association! grrr)

And since when does any company/organization would ever consider itself evil?
Im pretty sure the Nazi's never considered themselves evil lol

 

[Fasckira]

I think I would have more respect for them if they just said, "Yeah, we're evil and we're in it for the money - do one.".

 

[Fasckira]

And since when does any company/organization would ever consider itself evil?
Im pretty sure the Nazi's never considered themselves evil lol

Check this dude, its brilliant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEle_DLDg9Y

 

[DTWolfwood]

And since when does any company/organization would ever consider itself evil?
Im pretty sure the Nazi's never considered themselves evil lol

Check this dude, its brilliant:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEle_DLDg9Y

hah! XD

the US Navy is evil too!

Spoiler: F14 Tomcat Jolly Rogers

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I find it rather strange that he uses the "It's just good business" defense as if that somehow excuses anything or nullifies their public image. You can't run a cutthroat business that only cares about profit without gaining a reputation as a cutthroat business that only cares about profit. As long as they continue being that company, attempts to improve their image are unlikely to be well received. See this thread for examples.

This is true. But running a cutthroat business is a sound business strategy. There is no malice there. The bottom line is an impartial mediator of the decisions they make and the only one that they are beholden to as a public company. Their image is of no importance so long as people continue buying their games in ever increasing volume.

Activision isn't evil. They aren't good either. Gamers as a community seem to have a number of problems with this. They can't tell the difference between good and evil, they ask for things that are new and exciting and then never buy it while proceeding to buy the old and boring thing in record numbers at every opportunity and they mistake candid statements about the cold hard realities of business as equivalent to the hate speeches of Hitler himself.

I don't particularly like activision but then I don't have to. Our relationship is simple enough that my emotional response need not come into it at all. It turns out the only thing that really matters is that they produce games that I want to play.

 

[mechanixis]

This just makes me realize how preposterously bad at his job Bobby Kotick is. This guy seems at least somewhat respectful of his consumer base, even if he admits that his motivation is monetary; Kotick genuinely doesn't seem to understand why people get mad when he proposes charging for a free service or arbitrarily hiking prices.

 

[Tom Goldman]

How many lawsuits? How many sexual harassment lawsuits? How many public statements by Bobby Boy about milking gamers for all their worth?

Anyone surprised this came through Tom Goldman?

I'm not surprised. I write about things people in the game industry say for this website.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Hmm, I can't help but feel Activision may be biased on the opinion of itself.
They are money hungry power house, and evil soul sucking is simply part of good business.

 

[Admiral Stukov]

Notice how they didn't let Bobby Kotick answer this.
That man have his foot permanently stuck in his mouth, and pretty much everyone knows that.

But evil? They're a company. Companies goal is to make money. Some are more greedy than others.

 

[Grufflenark]

Activision has frankly been living off sheer force of the Call of Duty series' momentum and everything Blizzard does. And the only reason Blizzard seems to progress is because Activision has almost no power over them.

I bet it was Activisions fault we got Battle net 0.2 in SC2. I don't know how, but it was.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

I hate Activision.


Really.

 

[z3rostr1fe]

I hate Kotick, and he reflects Activision itself. Therefore, I hate Activision.

Admit it, Activision has the worst PR people in the world.

 

[Superfly CJ]

Shamus did an Experienced Points on Kotick which I felt made some pretty good arguments. In brief, the TLDR version is that Kotick lucked into a really good job, and frankly doesn't have the savvy and talent for it, but from a market perspective it's better to keep him on than to replace him.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8169-Experienced-Points-Age-of-Kotick

So what if he lucked into a really good job and isn't worthy of it? If estimations reason that it's more effective to keep him in place, then I see nothing wrong with keeping him in place.

Regardless, what I was saying is that we shouldn't care, and just play the games we want to play, regardless of who endorses or publishes them. There'll always be something to hate, and there'll always be more important things to hate on. Kotick is just a man with a loose mouth- at the end of the day, he'll always be kept in check by his peers and stopped from starting the apocalypse, like most people seem to think he's capable of.

Any time his name is mentioned, people come forward with barrages of insults and death threats, which doesn't exactly paint a great picture of the gaming community.

Goodwin's Law effectively states that the longer you talk, the more likely a given topic is to come up. You could just as easily make it about kittens or pies and it would be exactly the same. It is not proof of anything, nor is it an argument winner. The internet needs to stop treating it as such.

- J

I never said it was proof of anything. Notice how it was edited in and not in any way related to my post. It's a fun coincidence to pick up on, and I treat it as nothing more.

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Admit it, Activision has the worst PR people in the world.

What, is BP from another planet now? Second worst.

 

[Void(null)]

"We only killed your dog. I'm not a bad guy I mean fuck man... If we were well and truly evil we would have killed your kid instead, but did we? No! We just killed the family pet and put the dead body at the foot of your kids bed. You really should be thanking us."

 

[Excludos]

The gaming community speaks with two mouths. One mouth is the keyboard of the blogger/forum poster, the other is the wallet.

When it comes down to it, Activision (like everyone else in the gaming production business) listens to the latter. If you don't like their games, don't buy them. If they're losing money, they will change the things you don't like. If they're making money, they're not going to change anything.

How many people here rage and spew bile at the mention of Activision... and then buy one of their games?

Hypocrites if I ever.

I'm sorry, are we not allowed to enjoy a good game without loving the creator? I can't even buy a blizzard game without being a hypocrite in your eyes..

 

[Papadam]

Activision is the company who even destroyed Blizzard, one of the most creative game makers. Now they are just releasing sequels that are basicly the old game in a new skin just like all Activision games.

Maybe they wanted to screw Brütal Legend because they are making Diablo 3:Metallica edition!

 

[theriddlen]

They're not evil just because the evil lord controls them. Or are they?

 

[Excludos]

I can't even buy a blizzard game without being a hypocrite in your eyes..

Of course you can. Go ahead. Buy all the Blizzard games you like.

But don't claim Activision to be a bad company while you do it.

I'm sorry, but thats ridiculous. I like starcraft 2 and Wow, and I even like the Call of Duty series. It doesn't mean I have to be forced to like the company that makes them.

You see, the very reason why we hate Activision is because we care. If we didn't care about the company, then we'd just let it rot. But we like their games, and being the biggest game publishers in the world, they are also capable of making great games. This is why we want them to fix their act. Boycotting a great game because you don't like the company is the same as sticking your head in the sand: It wont solve the problem and it will only make them less likely to make that type of game again.

 

[TPiddy]

Hmmm, let's see here...

1. $10 price increase for MW 2 in Europe 'just for lulz'.
2. $15 for a map pack containing 3 maps, two re-hashed versions of old maps.
3. The continual pumping out and milking of Guitar Hero and Tony Hawk, now including overpriced shitty peripherals for BOTH games. (Seriously, does any Tony Hawk fan actually want to get on a fake skateboard and use it to play the game?)
4. The dropping of dedicated servers in a cost-cutting move to increase profit.
5. The expressed desire to have a subscription-based Call of Duty.
6. Dropping a game from a reputable developer only to try and sue them after the game gets made elsewhere.
7. Firing the two men most directly responsible for your most successful franchise, trying to deny them their piece of the pie.

When all of your decisions are clearly driven by the desire to make money... people will turn on you... look at the reputation Microsoft gained for doing exactly that. They learned from their mistakes and have now tried to fix their reputation, and it's starting to work.

Activision just keeps on getting worse.