Activision's Evil Rep is Unfair Says Spider-Man Dev

[Grey Day for Elcia]

After the bombshells of what was going on with Acti in the Infinity Ward scandal, I'd have to disagree. They're definitely a bunch of greedy, ego maniacal control freaks.

Nah man, it's just cool to hate. For example:

The only problem, however, is that it's much more fun to blame big, evil, corporate overlords for everything. Life just wouldn't be the same without those little pleasures.

I rest my case. Haters gonna hate.

Anyway, on the topic: This is interesting, but I'm not sure it really means much. People usually speak well when they're actively on the inside, and only really go critical after the fact. I mean, is this guy going to really say "we hate Activision and how they keep publishing our awful Spider-Man games?"

Would be interesting if he did. I mean, if he says they are great 'cause they keep letting him make those piles of fail and ass and Activision takes it like a man, point proven. If they fire him, they'll can the games and we're all better off.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

If he was inept at his job, he wouldn't be rich.

You might dislike him, but he sure as shit did something right--and he did it all the way to the bank.

 

[geizr]

I have no love for Activision (or EA, for that matter), but let's be realistic about one thing: gamers are extremely fickle. It takes next to nothing to sway them to put companies on their "love" or "shit" lists. Any company, in the eyes of gamers, can be the crowning apotheosis of the perfect gaming company one minute, and in the very next minute (and I mean that literally) be the absolute shit-house of the gaming industry, hated by all. All it takes for this flip-flop is to give them a few goodies to pacify the rage or do any one thing that causes even a minor inconvenience that stokes the rage. There is just no nuance of a middle ground, and there is no way to actually please gamers, because, more than half the time, they really have no clue what it is that they want themselves.

 

[geizr]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

If he was inept at his job, he wouldn't be rich.

You might dislike him, but he sure as shit did something right--and he did it all the way to the bank.

That's always the interesting thing about gamers' opinions. Gamers' judgement of a person's competence often skewed by self-centered criteria (for example, how many free goodies is the person giving away) rather than more objective measures of actual success, such as the growth and viability of the company the person is managing.

 

[Emiscary]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

If he was inept at his job, he wouldn't be rich.

You might dislike him, but he sure as shit did something right--and he did it all the way to the bank.

If his job description was: "Have lots of money."

Than yeah, I'd consider him a phenom.

Considering its his job to manage & direct a gaming company's future- I don't consider him much besides bad at it.

 

[Grey Day for Elcia]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

If he was inept at his job, he wouldn't be rich.

You might dislike him, but he sure as shit did something right--and he did it all the way to the bank.

If his job description was: "Have lots of money."

Than yeah, I'd consider him a phenom.

Considering its his job to manage & direct a gaming company's future- I don't consider him much besides bad at it.

He is doing a good job at it. Know why? Money, money, money. Dislike him all you want, the games are still selling. Same with EA; everyone and their dog loves to call them a terrible company, but boy do they know their shit. You don't get to the top by being bad at your job.

 

[Emiscary]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

If he was inept at his job, he wouldn't be rich.

You might dislike him, but he sure as shit did something right--and he did it all the way to the bank.

If his job description was: "Have lots of money."

Than yeah, I'd consider him a phenom.

Considering its his job to manage & direct a gaming company's future- I don't consider him much besides bad at it.

He is doing a good job at it. Know why? Money, money, money. Dislike him all you want, the games are still selling. Same with EA; everyone and their dog loves to call them a terrible company, but boy do they know their shit. You don't get to the top by being bad at your job.

If you think intelligence is a prerequisite for success than you've never heard of George Bush Senior's biggest let down.

 

[Emiscary]

Hating on Activision is stupid. I respect Activision. While EA goes around being a cartoon villain, Activision keeps making a shitton of money without making huge controversial moves and pretty much bullshitting the media to hate Gamers.
Bobby Kotick isn't an evil man. He's just a good businessman.

The only reason that Activision keeps making a "shitton of money" is because they keep releasing the same game every year, and people are stupid enough to buy it. Check out there current catalog. There isn't any other game/series even worth mentioning.

The best part is they know that the COD well is drying up. Now they are trying to repeat the process with the yet unnamed i.p. with Bungie.

Yep, And they will keep on making loads of dosh. That's why I respect them, they know how to get the best with minimal effort, something that mankind is trying more and more to master.

I don't understand why you respect the institutionalization of mediocrity.

Rofl. Thank you for that, you made my day.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

I dunno. I don't feel like they've done anything too dickish for a good long while. Maybe because EA is flinging out shit left and right, but they've seemed pretty tame.

 

[Urh]

Is Bobby Kotick "evil" in the traditional sense of the word? No.

Is he so hilariously inept at his job that he's garnered the hatred of millions of strangers? Yes. Which is why he needs to be managing a Quizno's franchise somewhere quiet where he can't fuck anything else up with his stupidity.

From an investor/shareholder viewpoint, Kotick isn't inept - he brings home the bacon for Activision, even if he does do it in such a despicable manner. From a consumer standpoint though, yeah, his reputation is well deserved. His decisions are lousy from a customer relations standpoint, but from a business perspective they clearly appear to be profitable. Although I still maintain that the only reason why the likes of Activision and EA get away with half the shit they do is because gamers as a consumer group are spineless pussies when it comes to voting with their wallets.

 

[Something Amyss]

Would be interesting if he did. I mean, if he says they are great 'cause they keep letting him make those piles of fail and ass and Activision takes it like a man, point proven. If they fire him, they'll can the games and we're all better off.

Hmmm...Win-win. I like this scenario.

 

[Robert Ewing]

No. It's not misunderstood. I'm certain that Activision is evil, and a money wringing defunct format, trying desperately to hold on to the last vestiges of power it can dig it's monolithic, evil obsidian claws into.

 

[grigjd3]

EA has destroyed too many of my favorite IPs to possibly consider Activision as more evil.

 

[paislyabmj]

I cant forgive them for what they did to troika(made them release vampire the masquerade bloodlines on the same day as half life 2)but I don't know if I could call them evil ,stupid dicks who destroyed a great company ,but not evil.

 

[irishda]

Hating on Activision is stupid. I respect Activision. While EA goes around being a cartoon villain, Activision keeps making a shitton of money without making huge controversial moves and pretty much bullshitting the media to hate Gamers.
Bobby Kotick isn't an evil man. He's just a good businessman.

The only reason that Activision keeps making a "shitton of money" is because they keep releasing the same game every year, and people are stupid enough to buy it. Check out there current catalog. There isn't any other game/series even worth mentioning.

Yet Square Enix can keep putting out the same JRPG game and no one calls them evil or the people that buy the game stupid.

The dirty little secret has always been that every single developer puts out essentially the same game over and over. Why? Because it equals money without a lot of cost. And in a multimillion dollar business where ungodly sums of money can be lost at the drop of a hat, it's rather important for a business to establish a safe revenue stream.

Capcom's got Street Fighter/Marvel v. Capcom/Resident Evil
Konami's got Metal Gear/Silent Hill/Dance Dance Revolution
Take Two's got GTA (don't tell me that isn't the same fucking game every time)/Civilization/and all 3 2k sports franchises (guess which one of those three tent poles is the best selling
etc.

Every fucking developer releases the same game, and I'm sick and tired of people pointing at EA's Madden or Activision's Call of Duty series as some kind of proof that they're evil and only in it for the money. All gamers' favorite developers release the same fucking games, and the only reason they're not "stupid" for buying it over and over is because it's their favorite.

 

[The_Fezz]

I'd say in terms of Activision vs EA, EA is worse essentially by default since Activision haven't let Kotick open his mouth for quite a while, or jumped on the online pass bandwagon (I think, I could've missed that since I don't play their games very often) whereas EA have basically vilified themselves by making masses of proprietary shit, moving away from Steam to create Origin, which offers nothing you couldn't get from Steam save for masses of DRM, closing Battlefield 3 servers in favour of rental servers (I'm trading it in, coincidentally, petty excuses ahoy!) and several others that I forget, likely because in the long run we're just watching a business run itself into the ground through terrible ideas.