Bobby Kotick Doesn't Mean to Come Off as "a Dick"

[Christemo]

The guy literally said he wanted to take all of the fun out of making games. Something fundamentally designed to be fun.

I never thought game designing was meant to be fun.
Game playing, sure. That's suppose to be fun.
But designing? It's a job like anything else. Some guys might love it and have a blast, but it's still work. Not every debugger is going to be wearing a huge grin while plowing through page after page of code trying find the fix for that stupid bug.

I don't really mean to play devil's advocate, but maybe he's right in that regard. Take the game designing seriously, as serious work, and maybe you'll have less of a shoddy product on your hands. I don't know if that's what he meant when he said that, but it makes sense to me.

i really cant see how you cant develop a game while working unseriously. i dont know if this is exactly unserious, but the Executive Producer of Dante´s Inferno actually brought his 18 month old son to the studio, and with his help, they made the animations for the Unbaptized Babies. and do you know what the kid was doing to make those animations? he was just running around randomly with those motion-detector suits on.

i think thats quite the prestige for a barely-knowing child.

 

[Altorin]

The guy literally said he wanted to take all of the fun out of making games. Something fundamentally designed to be fun.

I never thought game designing was meant to be fun.
Game playing, sure. That's suppose to be fun.
But designing? It's a job like anything else. Some guys might love it and have a blast, but it's still work. Not every debugger is going to be wearing a huge grin while plowing through page after page of code trying find the fix for that stupid bug.

I don't really mean to play devil's advocate, but maybe he's right in that regard. Take the game designing seriously, as serious work, and maybe you'll have less of a shoddy product on your hands. I don't know if that's what he meant when he said that, but it makes sense to me.

Do you remember his language? the words he said? I don't remember them verbatim, but they were scary.

Like in an evil supervillain type of scary

and I disagree with your assertion that game development shouldn't be fun. I mean, it can't be ALL fun and games, I'll concede that, but to suck ALL the fun out of it (I'm almost positive he used those words), and instill a regiment based on fear.. No.

If you're good at something, and enjoy doing it, you should be allowed to have fun while doing it. Whatever you do. The ideal is that if you design games, then you love games, and you realize that even when what your doing isn't necesarily fun, the fact that you're in a creative field that you love, that should be fun.. or something. In another post I mentioned cottage cheese brain.

All work and no play makes altorin a dull boy.

 

[Sporky111]

[quote="John Funk] If he and Activision had offered something to the Boston-based music studio that went on to make Rock Band, things might have turned out differently.[/quote]I'm sure that Rock Band would have turned out exactly the same way that Guitar Hero has, if Activision had bought it. We'd probably be up to Rock Band 4, and Rock Band Beatles would be accompanied by Rock Band [insert 3 other band names].

Honestly though, I do think Kotick gets a bit too much flak for what he does. He is one of the seniors of the gaming industry and is responsible for many great games coming to fruition, but unfortunately he's become more of a Peter Molyneux than a Miyamoto in my opinion.

 

[Zer_]

I can see where he's coming from. I definitely understand the position he's in. Being so high up, he can't afford to focus too much on the gritty details. It's an unfortunate truth that the larger any company gets, the less human it seems (by human I mean in the sense of personal interraction with customers and even their own employees).

 

[Smokeydubbs]

Honestly though, I do think Kotick gets a bit too much flak for what he does. He is one of the seniors of the gaming industry and is responsible for many great games coming to fruition, but unfortunately he's become more of a Peter Molyneux than a Miyamoto in my opinion.

At least Molyneux cares for his games and works with the developers. If Activison published any of his stuff we would have Populous 18, Black and White 7, and Fable 5 would be coming out soon.

 

[Altorin]

I can see where he's coming from. I definitely understand the position he's in. Being so high up, he can't afford to focus too much on the gritty details. It's an unfortunate truth that the larger any company gets, the less human it seems (by human I mean in the sense of personal interraction with customers and even their own employees).

Riccietello makes EA seem a lot more human.

In that it fails.

Pretty Hardcore.

 

[alinos]

Michael Atkinson, it's hard to hate as I live on the other side of the world to him, but he seems to have worked himself into a little paranoia bubble that's quite interesting.

Despite also living on the other side of the world, I have found a reason to dislike Atkinson, it's because he's a gawdem fascist who wants to control even what consenting adults consume because he believes it degenerates morality, family values, (insert crazy right wing buzz word here) etc.

just be glad you dont have to deal with stephen conroy then hes like Atkinson only about the world not just games.

his plan is to filter out anpything that doesnt comply with australian law from the internet (which will lead us down a slippery slope of abuse) and hes not far off from getting to the point where he succeds(of course this is by ignoring just about everyone saying no dont do that you fuckwit)

the idiot still thinks he can get google to follow Australian laws even tho its an international company and the laws that he wants to impose on them could be done on this side but will cause his internet filter to slow things down to much

google just counter argue that it shouldnt have to take on a govts policies when they already have a method in place to censor other things and thats its not there Job to make the Govt look good by helping them avoid the negative backlash agaisnt something google is against

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Bobby Kotick is evil because he makes too many sequels, in gamer's eyes. Which I think is a silly reason to think that someone's evil (might as well hate every producer in Hollywood), but whatever.

Also, he is vilified for looking at the bottom line, the profit margin. News flash: He's a CEO. That's his job. His job is to make sure his company is making money at a steady rate. And he is doing well with that. Is that the issue, perhaps? That gamers dislike him for being more business-minded than, say, Gabe Newell?

 

[destroyer2k]

Yes Bobby we all know that now you want us to buy new guitar hero and other games so you can keep investors happy. But this still won't save your reputation for being the biggest dick in history of human kind.

More sequal is a good for company but the problem is to much sequal and salles go rock bottom very quickly. See music game first it was a strong entry, but 4-5 music game a year destroyed all interest into it.

Bobby Kotick is the worst CEO as he is destroying existing IP. If you make to much sequal then people will loose interest. Just like with food if you eat the same meal every day you will get sick of it and stop eating it and this is the same with game. First I like guitar hero but after the third one I lost interest and the same goes for a lot of there IP.

 

[Altorin]

I do sort of love the picture

he's holding a guitar controller, with a grin on his face that just says to me "You bought like a billion of these things? lol."

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

Bobby Kotick not wanting to sound like dick...the guy said he wanted to RAISE the prices of games and "take the fun out of games"...um that is dickish behavior Mr.Kotick.

 

[Desworks]

From what I can see, we're currently moving to the next stage of the "Evil Overlord" publisher cycle. 5/6 years back, EA were hated by gamers for the position on top, and Activision and Ubisoft were the 2 smaller publishers that were the resistance against EA's mighty regime.

Now it's Activision on top as the Evil Overlord, but it seems the tide is turning and with Ubisoft's recent DRM decisions, they are looking to be in a strong position to be the next Publisher we love to hate, while Activision will end up like EA are now, smaller but better liked for it.

And then the cycle will repeat, ad infinitum. It is the way of us gamers. We've got to hate someone!

 

[Dudeakoff]

Only fund games that have the potential to be exploited with sequels (think he said something about doing sequels every year).
Avoids original/risky IP.
Said he'd raise the price of games with expensive controllers (e.g. Guitar Hero) if he could.
Would raise the RRP of all games in a heartbeat.
the whole "take all the fun out of making video games." thing.
Has no interest in the creative growth of the medium.

Anything else?

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Well I suppose he isn't actually consciously trying to be a bastard, rubbing his hands together and cackling evilly as he schemes over his next plan to squeeze more blood from the gullible masses with the next boring sequel. And he DOES have a point, it was the glamorisation of game developers that led to the massive Ion Storm Fiasco which gave us Daikatana and ruined John Romero's career. But this doesn't change the fundamental fact that he clearly stated he aims to make gaming as bland, homogenous, repetative, uncreative and EXPENSIVE as he possibly can, making us pay more for more of the same stuff we already own. Saying he "doesn't mean to come off as a dick" is like saying to someone "you're a shitgargling assfucker... no offence meant, of course". Words alone don't make up for actions.

The independant game competition sounds like a nice idea though... until you realise Activision is just going to use it to identify impressive new talent, buy them up and force them to make bland sequels to whatever clever IP they can create.

 

[robinkom]

I can understand his position enough. He was a game developer himself after all. Suddenly he's a company CEO and doesn't get to be in the middle of all that creativity and programming. Instead he has to balance budgets, deal with stockholders, and all those things that lack fun and creative expression.

I'd rather be down there with the developers and art department too.

 

[oppp7]

So he basically tried to get rid of a game most people were disappointed in and tried to make his workers work harder, and for that he gets labeled as someone on par with Atkinson and Thompson? The hell...

 

[Altorin]

So he basically tried to get rid of a game most people were disappointed in and tried to make his workers work harder, and for that he gets labeled as someone on par with Atkinson and Thompson? The hell...

that's the way the cookie crumbles.

The guy is really as nice as the CEO of a successful company can possibly be.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I...
..What?

Who is this man and what did he do with Kotkick?

 

[Baron Khaine]

He's a necessary evil. Simple as.

The man has to be a dick to do his job, don't understand what all the hates about tbh.

Least he's not trying to ban video games, or stopping a lot of video games being released in certain countries.

People seem to forget that making games is a business, its not all fun-fun-fun happy lala, a shit load of work goes in to what we play, and because of Kotick, and his "dickish" attitude, people work harder, which means we get better games, and people get to keep there job's. Win-Win all round.

Cept for Bobby Kotick ofc, who gets labelled a monster. Imagine if there was no Bobby Kotick, and no one to control the scourge.

Bobby Kotick is the Lich King.

 

[seditary]

It was him that said he wanted Activision to focus almost only on titles that could be milked for years in sequel after sequel like the Guitar Hero stuff?

That was my main problem, wonder if the decline in that stuff has changed his thinking or he's just trying normal placatation. (is that even a word?)