Age of Kotick

[XT inc]

He is ignorant in the fact that his things sell because they are all thats left. They sucked the life out of indi companies who did great work, but putting forth unreasonable demands and abusing their creativity for their own gains. Like allot of awesomebands who lose everything and have to call it quits due to shit contracts and misuse by their lables, Like the dead kennedys losing all their songs via contract.

the best games that will ever come out would have financial backing from big corps with little strings attached to give them the room to grow. Not being "exploited" (their phrasing) but being sold fairly. winning over hearts and minds like valve does. Its an artistic product where the devs at least want to be remembered and applauded instead of cashing fat paychecks made of the blood and sweat of the people who over pay to get their games "finished"( ie all dlc downloaded) product.

or at least it used to be

 

[erztez]

Your tassadar line really made me laugh, and now I get your point, completely understandable.

In your mind, would a quick recap at the start of each of the expansions aid with that problem?

You know what? Yeah, price them as expansions and do that, it'll be fine.
Also, don't wait with balancing, took you 6 months to fix DKs in WoW, and that's an MMO.
Please don't take a year to balance MMM in SC2...Not that I don't use it every chance I get, it's just that I'd gladly lay down the sword of rushing with basic units and WINNING EVERY DAMN TIME, if only the other guy had to do the same.
Right now, playing fair in SC2 gets you killed. Playing ZERG gets you raped.
Fix that and I'll withdraw my objections to SC2.
Changes nothing about my overall stance towards ActiBlizz though, they'll have to do a lot more than fix their own bloody mistakes for that.
I'm thinking Bob+Car battery+Clamps+National TV ad time.

 

[erztez]

Thompson! I almost forgot how much I hated him in all these conspiracy theories about Kotick.

I honestly think Thompson would have tried to sue the makers of GTA for somehow convincing a child through game play to help an old lady across the street, and thus trying to get her hit by a run away car that some crack addict stole. Even if there was no such car, and no such addict. But Frogger would be a good secondary scapegoat. Anything to get the extremists in a buzz against the video game industry.

Maybe the granny that Kotick tried to kick through the door was mother to a disgruntled employee? That way he can use the lawsuit against her for property damage to further blackmail the employee into not getting paid the bonuses for their latest game release.

Actually, Thompson would've sued if there was no lady. He would've sued if there was no child. He would've sued if there was no street. Hell he'd have sued if there was no video game. The only thing that would stop Thompson from suing would be if there was no Thompson.

Nah, Kotick had all the employees families move to an undisclosed location (read: dungeon under ActiBlizz HQ) a long, long time ago.

 

[erztez]

Mario and Pokemon, two of the most successful game series in the world. Hardly any noticeable growth over a period of almost 30 years. Grow? Rehash, rehash, rehash, rehash and rehash. What's Activision doing? same thing. Copy+paste a bland generic shooter over and over. Release veiled album packs as "NEW GAMES!" and so on. As long as every XXXULTRASNIPER and AMERICANBRAHWEED93 will keep shelling out 60 bucks for latest rehash of the month, companies like Activision will get by just fine. Why in the world would they ever try to sell games to anybody but the gamer who happens to make out society's lowest common denominator?

Sure, Nintendo, but they STARTED with their business model like this Also, they sell toys, not games(no, Wii is NOT a current generation console, take out the hardware and you barely get a last generation smartphone).

12 year olds and frat boys can collectively suck it, as far as I'm concerned. Selling to the lowest common denominator is fine, but you inevitably get down to the level of your customer base being too retarded to understand a controller(Nintendo already rented a room there).

 

[phoenix352]

Someone please email this article to the Activision board of chairmen. Plant the seed to the end of Kotick!

OT: Kotick is a train wreck i cant believe Activision cares that much about their reputation to drop him.That guy needs a one way ticket to the north pole he can milk anything he wants there to death....

 

[The Random One]

Hey remember when EA was the big evil of gaming? They barely changed since then, but they've done quite a few quiet, subtle marketing stunts (yeah not really sure how 'quiet' and 'subtle' apply to 'stunts') and managed to become at worst 'acceptable' in the gamers' minds. Of course they couldn't have done it if their number one competitor's CEO didn't have his foot surgically stuffed in his mouth.

So if you need to work at an enormous heartless moneymaking corporation... go for EA.

 

[erztez]

Hey remember when EA was the big evil of gaming? They barely changed since then, but they've done quite a few quiet, subtle marketing stunts (yeah not really sure how 'quiet' and 'subtle' apply to 'stunts') and managed to become at worst 'acceptable' in the gamers' minds. Of course they couldn't have done it if their number one competitor's CEO didn't have his foot surgically stuffed in his mouth.

So if you need to work at an enormous heartless moneymaking corporation... go for EA.

Amen.
They may be Evil, but they're OUR Evil.
ActiBlizz is an unholy hybrid of Satan and Steve Jobs sans the marketing ability.

 

[Altorin]

I still think the interplay between the big two was very interesting...

I remember when EA was the big horrible developer... There was a time when EA was the bane of the gaming world's existence, and Activision were like quiet little tinkerers next to this behemoth that was EA..

We were all calling for the downfall of Riccietello, and EA was innundated with seething hate from the internet masses...

And then a curious thing happened.. EA started taking interesting chances.. it started to show a sense of humor in its marketing.. And at the exact same time, Kotick stood up and literally started stealing the "Evil Corporate Empire" limelight from EA.. And all Riccietello had to do to erase years of bad press, was to quietly point at Kotick from across the room and mutter "Man, that guy's crazy."

Kotick is the best thing that ever happened to EA.

 

[erztez]

Kotick is the best thing that ever happened to EA.

Hell, Bob would make Umbrella Corp. look good.
And you wouldn't have to point across the room and mutter, then man wears the crazy like a badge.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Godammit Shamus, give me a reason to disagree with you.

 

[Boba Frag]

That was brilliant, Shamus. I'd love if the share holders got wind of this and decided that early retirement for Bob would suit him....

 

[SelectivelyEvil13]

Kotick epitomizes what is wrong with the coporate structure and CEOs that are not doing their job properly: There is no accountability.

All companies want to make money, but Kotick makes this inherent goal of business into an effrontery to all potential consumers of his company. He is not simply greedy, but he has the position and means to advertise his avarice.

Openly confirming that only games that can be exploited franchises will be used pretty much pegs his motives for the company to in turn exploit the consumer until people finally cease their support. Sadly, this is pretty much a pipe-dream.

His ineptitude with public relations culminates into a wholly awful representative for Kim Jong Il, let alone a corporation. That pompous man-child with the plastic guitar? Yeah, he's the paragon of the trolling, belligerent, and bilious twats that pollute online games (like Call of Duty in fact...).

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

...And one can't milk Blizzard forever... they're bound to die out some day, just like everything else.

I keep telling people that WoW is reaching the end of it's shelf life, and SC2 is already rotten.
Hell, ActiBLizz is telling people that WoW is going to start winding down in a few years.
Why does everyone think that WoW and CoD and GH and...'eh, no idea...are enough to keep a monster like ActiBlizz afloat?
It's a rule of any organism, if you don't grow, you die.

I'm a WoW fan, but even I know its reaching its terminal phase. I think they have room for one more xpac after Cataclysm. And then what? World Of Starcraft? And when was the last time they came up with something new? Diablo 3 is still going to be Diablo, Starcraft 2 is still Starcraft with better graphics and a few new updates. So what next? A reboot of Blackthorne? Another Lost Vikings? Perhaps I'm asking too much to say that the gaming industry can't live forever off of past glories. And people like Kotick are the cancer.

 

[Formica Archonis]

My problem with the man is that despite all of his outward greed (which is apparently the sole driving force in a capitalist economy

It's more complicated than that. To crib from Hesiod [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eris_(mythology)#Characteristics_in_Greek_mythology]:

So, after all, there was not one kind of Strife alone, but all over the earth there are two. As for the one, a man would praise her when he came to understand her; but the other is blameworthy: and they are wholly different in nature.
For one fosters evil war and battle, being cruel: her no man loves; but perforce, through the will of the deathless gods, men pay harsh Strife her honour due.
But the other (...) is far kinder to men. She stirs up even the shiftless to toil; for a man grows eager to work when he considers his neighbour, a rich man who hastens to plough and plant and put his house in good order; and neighbour vies with his neighbour as he hurries after wealth. This Strife is wholesome for men.

It's good to be a bit greedy, it gives one incentive to work hard. It's rapacious greed that's the problem, and that's the sin that Kotick is guilty of. In addition to several others. I could make an argument for sloth and pride without even trying, but that's another story.

 

[omicron1]

Problem is, the situation with the games industry is a different market than for any "consumable" product you can name. Take, for example, detergent. You have a few name brands - four or five, maybe more, I don't really know. You have a bunch of outlying brands, with store or minor names. They aren't as well known, or as popular. Thing is, they're all making detergent, and if one brand tries something outrageous, it's not hard to switch to another. This keeps the producers in line.

With games, it's different. The games industry isn't catering to one consumer base - it's catering to dozens of different groups that like different things. A lot of the time these interests cross over. But each product is sold to a market category - say, the people who like military shooters.

Thing is, games are a lot more differentiated within their market groups than comestibles. Where the difference between soaps may not even be noticable, the difference between an AAA- and a B-list game, in terms of polish and support; and crucially for many people in terms of the multiplayer pool, is huge.

The games industry is a collection of monopolies. There tends to be just one person sitting on top of a given genre, a given market, with everybody else crowded around at the bottom trying to whack him off. This is ESPECIALLY true of the mega-sellers: Call of Duty, Halo, and World of Warcraft each dominate their respective field. And it's a lot easier to knock off the leader of a singleplayer market than that of a multiplayer one - take the MMO field over the past 6 years as an example.

Sometimes, as with the competition between Guitar Hero and Rock Band, a real market develops. And, as with proper markets in other industries, the competition has kept Activision more honest than otherwise. Customers stopped buying the dozens of Guitar Hero clones that they've shoved out the door recently. I count fifteen core games in the Guitar Hero series, thirteen of them made in the same period that Harmonix made just six. The customers have a choice here. And they're choosing, and Activision is hurting. They're going to change their business model in this area, or they're going to lose.


To summarize (with added spice):

Call of Duty is an example of what happens when a series gains a genre or market monopoly: A field day of profiteering.

World of Warcraft is becoming similar. Activision are masters of profiteering, and they will do so wherever they have influence.

Guitar Hero/Rock Band are an example of an open market killing a profiteering attitude.

Now, I expect that Call of Duty will soon be dethroned. Medal of Honor is a serious contender, and depending on which way the reviews swing, it could establish itself in the same position Harmonix' series holds. Similarly, the prior Infinity Ward presidents could knock Activision's cash cow off its perch - all it takes is a worthy alternative product within the same genre/market to get the rats to leave the ship.
And when Activision's cash cows are down... there follows Activision, and its scummy CEO with it.

 

[PhunkyPhazon]

By far the biggest problem with Koltic, I think, is the way he treats everyone in the industry, whether it be competition, business partners, employees, or even customers. I could pull up a dozen quotes for each of them, neverminding the major things like the Infinity Ward fiasco and the flame war going on between him and Tim Schafer. Now I wouldn't expect anyone to just lie down and take it when someone publically calls you out (Though Schafer says he meant it to be off-record), but Kolticks response, well...says a lot about the man.

"Schafer was taking too long and Brutal Legend looked sucky anyways."

Oh boy, where to start? Alright, first off, if a CEO doesn't like where a project is going and decides to cancel it, then alright. But when Brutal Legend got picked up by EA, Activision sued Double Fine. Now come on, don't tell me Koltick didn't have anything to do with that, he had to have some kind of input in that being CEO. And the act itself is just...someone else put it best. It's like if you divorced your spouse and then sued them when they found someone else. What the hell did you think an independent studio was going to do? You may have been willing to publish it, but it was still THEIR game. If you decide you don't want it, they have every right to take it to someone else.

Second off, Koltick is entitled to his opinion on Brutal Legend, but it still strikes me as odd that he would call the game sucky when it clearly inspired Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, a game published by his own company.

Third, is it just me or does Koltick not respond well to criticism? I know I just said a minute ago that I don't expect anyone to lie down and let someone dump on you, but you don't have to do it publically. Or you could at least present your response in a more professional way.

This man just...gah! It's not even that Activision is a bad company, they have published several games that I like. But this man is the worst game company CEO since Bernie Stolar from Sega in the late 90's. (For a good description of THAT asshole, take a look at the sixth paragraph of this TV tropes page. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SegaSaturn])

 

[Atmos Duality]

It's good to be a bit greedy, it gives one incentive to work hard. It's rapacious greed that's the problem, and that's the sin that Kotick is guilty of. In addition to several others. I could make an argument for sloth and pride without even trying, but that's another story.

I know, I know...without self-interest, we really wouldn't have much of a will, would we?
Besides, I was being mostly facetious with the greed statement.

 

[CheckD3]

I think that they should fire him. His public relations already make the board look bad, and I'm sure that removing the cause of hate would bring some gamers back, because there probable are some people who don't buy from Activision because of the way he's running it

I could understand holding on to someone like him if he's a smaller fry and you use him as a stunt to bring media attention in, but not as the face of the company. I'm about to watch Human Centipede and I'd rather see that in charge of Activision than Mr. Kotick

I speak for not only myself for many gamers I'm sure when we say "WoW fees are fine, but charge me for multiplayer (especially if you're already paying for Xbox live) and I'm done with you"

 

[Phantomess]

I knew Kotick was bananas, but this just cemented it.