I kinda agree on most points but I do have this to say. It most certainly is a Minority, to us that seems crazy to but the Gaming world has grown to huge proportions in the past few years and we, the educated, are now the minority; while games like farmville and wiimotes (not a bash on the wii, but you can't deny there is a link between casual gamers and the console) sell millions. We are not the target anymore and orgs such as activision just don't care, we are icing on the cake if they can sell to a few of us. http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=269Mimsofthedawg said:
Activision Wants to Improve Image
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
Stop milking the Call of Duty franchise and quit trying to charge for subscriptions to online play, then we'll talk.
1. Fire Kotick.
2. "We're sorry we have an image problem, its just cause we're so awesome!!!" ....shut up.
2. "We're sorry we have an image problem, its just cause we're so awesome!!!" ....shut up.
And they said their number one why? I thought they only publish games by people who aren't cocky buttlickers like Infinity Ward and Id Software. I didn't know that they deserve credit for games like Modern Warfare 2 and Quake 4.
These statements from Activision really just depress me instead of anger me, because it shows that they haven't listened to us at all. They know we're here, and they just complain about us.
Apparently, we are the "vocal minority" that they speak of. We don't like paying for DLC that we can make ourselves with a mod kit. We don't like seeing developers be effectively purchased by a huge publisher and then, because some of the higher-ups disagree with them, half the department disappears. We don't like paying more than what we feel we 'should' pay for a product which is not of the most outstanding quality.
I don't hate a company, and I'm not into brand name wars, console wars, etc. However, when things like this are said, I find it very presumptuous to say that they're number 1, or that they're number 1 by their appeal to people who aren't the "vocal minority."
All they seem to look at is the people playing their games; they don't question or wonder how or why that came to be. I could elaborate on this further than I will in the next paragraphs, but for example, I am responsible for roughly 20 sales of Starcraft over the years, and at least 9 or 10 of Unreal Tournament.
People who are not in the vocal minority might know someone who is. And we aren't just vocal on forums, but we have our own communities that we're part of, our own friends, in real life, our own family...
Every sale that we actually buy and enjoy, (let's call it a "hardcore" (hate the term, but just bear with me) sale to make it easier...) usually ends up with us telling our less "hardcore" friends about this "awesome game" that we're playing. That in turn leads them to them buying it, or checking out reviews, looking stuff up about it, looking into it, telling their friends "Oh my 'hardcore' friend is enjoying THIS right now" which in turn leads to OTHER people looking up reviews, checking ratings, etc.
I have people who come to me looking for great things to play, and they expect me to have this knowledge of superior products that are different than what the people that they talk to play. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation who gets the occasional call from a friend like "So what's a good shooter that came out in the past 6 months that I could go rent or buy?"
Because of this fact (and yes, it is a fact), we are a market that you still need to appeal to. It's why 80% of the Wii shovelware that only appeals to "people-who-see-the-game-on-the-store-shelf" failed horribly, and why the good games and the marketed games (not necessarily the same) came through.
Please listen to us, Activision. We are important, and we are the ones who will keep your game alive. We will keep the online community going in your new CoD title so that people who want to jump in and play a new map will be able to. We'll make them. Mods? We make them. We add value to your community. Not a number on your game's facebook page, or xfire stats, or your wallet.
We add value into your community. Starcraft is basically a spectator sport now. Quake Live too. Fallout 3 was an amazing game. People download mods to make it even more amazing. If they had to make it themselves, they wouldn't play those mods. How do those mods help you? They maintain interest in the game until your next batch of DLC is out. If they're still enjoying the game at that time, they'll pay for it. Otherwise, they won't.
We all contribute in some way. Just by being concerned about this, you understand our friends won't hear the end of how arrogant your letters are, and, yeah, it will probably influence at least one of their purchases.
You don't like losing money, and we don't like buying inferior products.
Help us both.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love,
Val
Battle.net 2.0 seems very, very, very Activision-based. Or just money-grubbing based.
Thanks for reading.
Apparently, we are the "vocal minority" that they speak of. We don't like paying for DLC that we can make ourselves with a mod kit. We don't like seeing developers be effectively purchased by a huge publisher and then, because some of the higher-ups disagree with them, half the department disappears. We don't like paying more than what we feel we 'should' pay for a product which is not of the most outstanding quality.
I don't hate a company, and I'm not into brand name wars, console wars, etc. However, when things like this are said, I find it very presumptuous to say that they're number 1, or that they're number 1 by their appeal to people who aren't the "vocal minority."
All they seem to look at is the people playing their games; they don't question or wonder how or why that came to be. I could elaborate on this further than I will in the next paragraphs, but for example, I am responsible for roughly 20 sales of Starcraft over the years, and at least 9 or 10 of Unreal Tournament.
People who are not in the vocal minority might know someone who is. And we aren't just vocal on forums, but we have our own communities that we're part of, our own friends, in real life, our own family...
Every sale that we actually buy and enjoy, (let's call it a "hardcore" (hate the term, but just bear with me) sale to make it easier...) usually ends up with us telling our less "hardcore" friends about this "awesome game" that we're playing. That in turn leads them to them buying it, or checking out reviews, looking stuff up about it, looking into it, telling their friends "Oh my 'hardcore' friend is enjoying THIS right now" which in turn leads to OTHER people looking up reviews, checking ratings, etc.
I have people who come to me looking for great things to play, and they expect me to have this knowledge of superior products that are different than what the people that they talk to play. I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation who gets the occasional call from a friend like "So what's a good shooter that came out in the past 6 months that I could go rent or buy?"
Because of this fact (and yes, it is a fact), we are a market that you still need to appeal to. It's why 80% of the Wii shovelware that only appeals to "people-who-see-the-game-on-the-store-shelf" failed horribly, and why the good games and the marketed games (not necessarily the same) came through.
Please listen to us, Activision. We are important, and we are the ones who will keep your game alive. We will keep the online community going in your new CoD title so that people who want to jump in and play a new map will be able to. We'll make them. Mods? We make them. We add value to your community. Not a number on your game's facebook page, or xfire stats, or your wallet.
We add value into your community. Starcraft is basically a spectator sport now. Quake Live too. Fallout 3 was an amazing game. People download mods to make it even more amazing. If they had to make it themselves, they wouldn't play those mods. How do those mods help you? They maintain interest in the game until your next batch of DLC is out. If they're still enjoying the game at that time, they'll pay for it. Otherwise, they won't.
We all contribute in some way. Just by being concerned about this, you understand our friends won't hear the end of how arrogant your letters are, and, yeah, it will probably influence at least one of their purchases.
You don't like losing money, and we don't like buying inferior products.
Help us both.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Love,
Val
Just a quick question for you: Have you been invited to the Starcraft II beta?Richard Allen said:
Battle.net 2.0 seems very, very, very Activision-based. Or just money-grubbing based.
Here are a few of your "features" :
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25170840862&sid=5000&pageNo=1
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117462238295974#!/group.php?gid=117462238295974&v=info
And if you have a lot of time: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
http://forums.battle.net/thread.html?topicId=25170840862&sid=5000&pageNo=1
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=117462238295974#!/group.php?gid=117462238295974&v=info
And if you have a lot of time: http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=128252
Thanks for reading.
Yes I am on the platinum ladderValiance said:
and that's why I said until recently. That being said, battle.net didn't change that much they pretty much only added on more features, better friend lists, and achievements which I like so I don't have an issue. I do have an issue with being required to be on bnet to play the single player but unfortunately I play the original sc to this day and I just can't pass up on sc2 because of this one misstep, it does however reek of Activision and Ubisoft ugh...EDIT: I'd also like to point out I'm ok with blizzard keeping control of distribution of maps because frankly, I have a trust in blizzard. They have released probalby the most fully featured easy to use engine to make not only maps but completely new games. It also allows players to make some money off of their work, while still having the option to publish for free. I'm not oppsed to preimum content or paying for excellent player made content, I'm opposed to being forced to only buy a publishers content.
As for chat channels and naming, I don't like that we're loosing channels but these days it's a bunch of idiots whining so I will build my community elsewhere, I do understand why people want them though, it's very similar to the dedicated server/community issues we are discussing here.
EDIT2: I realized you were responding to another one of my posts and in this post I didn't mention that blizzard has largely been free to do whatever the heck they want, although I have seen recently an Activision influence creeping in there.
It's not just that. It's the fact that they have successfully drained any creativity out of games. I respect EA a hell of a lot more these days for taking chances on things like Dead Space and Mirror's Edge. Bobby-boy's view of video games make Michael Bay look like a passionate and talented film-maker who loves his art. Yes, he is THAT much of a dick.Mimsofthedawg said:
P.S. Yeah, celsius. I spend all afternoon trying desperately not to fall asleep/write shitty emails to the facilities department about the broken air-con. :/
Great stuff. Wasn't sure if you were aware, is all, and you're an intelligent concerned fan, like me.Richard Allen said:Yes I am on the platinum ladder
EDIT: I'd also like to point out I'm ok with blizzard keeping control of distribution of maps because frankly, I have a trust in blizzard. They have released probalby the most fully featured easy to use engine to make not only maps but completely new games. It also allows players to make some money off of their work, while still having the option to publish for free. I'm not oppsed to preimum content or paying for excellent player made content, I'm opposed to being forced to only buy a publishers content.
As for chat channels and naming, I don't like that we're loosing channels but these days it's a bunch of idiots whining so I will build my community elsewhere, I do understand why people want them though, it's very similar to the dedicated server/community issues we are discussing here.
EDIT2: I realized you were responding to another one of my posts and in this post I didn't mention that blizzard has largely been free to do whatever the heck they want, although I have seen recently an Activision influence creeping in there.
I'm probably getting it anyway because the game itself is pretty damn excellent. And I know no protest will actually matter because it's going to be a huge hit regardless. The biggest issue I see with map publishing is the popularity system in searching for customs, and the 5 MB limit on map uploads. It seems like it's unnecessarily limiting players from making what they want or playing new things. That said, in SC1 people used other editors than the packaged StarEdit to make maps. SCM Draft was a popular one, as was StarForge, which allowed for more units, triggers, stacking of buildings, etc.
I just hope blizzard's new editor is as awesome as it seems to be, and that the creative minds behind all the stuff I end up playing aren't held back by it or anything.
And Bnet 2.0 should be okay for most people, but Blizzard has never integrated third-party software (ie: facebook) into their games before. And it's just I'm not sure how long that will last, or if the Facebook/Twitter "Web 2.0" thing really is how things are going to stay for a while.
I just hope Blizzard thought hard about where they want this game to be in 12 years, and who they want playing it.
Well, you could stop drowning kittens, that would be a good start.
And maybe stop sacrificing people to your dark overlords.
Just a suggestion though (please don't eviscerate me).
And maybe stop sacrificing people to your dark overlords.
Just a suggestion though (please don't eviscerate me).
Here's an idea or two!
1. Lay off CoD and guitar hero for a year or 50.
2. Start making new and interesting games people actualy want to play!
3. Stick kotick in a rocket and fire it at the sun!
1. Lay off CoD and guitar hero for a year or 50.
2. Start making new and interesting games people actualy want to play!
3. Stick kotick in a rocket and fire it at the sun!
Activision doesn't have an "image problem" it has an EVIL problem.
I am AMAZED that this guy can be so BLATANT about calling it an "image problem". No. You have done wrong, the solution is to admit your shortcomings, fix them or do better next time.
how fucked up is it to openly admit you are hated but brush it off as:
(1) "we have done no wrong"
(2) "our customers are just deluded"
(3) "they hate us just because we're number 1" (boasting, paranoia, accusation of jealously)
(4) openly admit they will fix this with JUST spin and PR. How patronising, as if we just need some "re-education"
Is Activision TRYING to do the wrong thing!?!? Is this guy trolling? Who is he talking to, who is he trying to impress?
They are haemorrhaging developers and talent, and what self-respecting developer would want to work for such a Publisher?!? Bad business. Bad people.
I am AMAZED that this guy can be so BLATANT about calling it an "image problem". No. You have done wrong, the solution is to admit your shortcomings, fix them or do better next time.
how fucked up is it to openly admit you are hated but brush it off as:
(1) "we have done no wrong"
(2) "our customers are just deluded"
(3) "they hate us just because we're number 1" (boasting, paranoia, accusation of jealously)
(4) openly admit they will fix this with JUST spin and PR. How patronising, as if we just need some "re-education"
Is Activision TRYING to do the wrong thing!?!? Is this guy trolling? Who is he talking to, who is he trying to impress?
They are haemorrhaging developers and talent, and what self-respecting developer would want to work for such a Publisher?!? Bad business. Bad people.