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

[Yokai]

Well, he's kind of an asshole, but he's light-years better than Atkinson (My heart goes out to you Australians), or whatever tweaker came up with Ubi's new DRM scheme. Then again, I don't own a single Activision game, simply because most of them don't interest me. So maybe I just haven't had much experience dealing with his shenanigans.

 

[Glademaster_v1legacy]

I do understand what he is trying to say butthe only I have any gripe against him is that he did nothing to stop IW from the IWnet idea and cutting content off CoD:MW2 for PC. That for me was a very big thing being a fan of series. If he had of stopped that I wouldn't think of him as so bad as he does have control over studios the company owns.

 

[Sebenko]

What the hell is going on? This is not normal.

I mean, not that I will complain, because who knows maybe the next headline funk posts is "Micheal Atkinson reconsiders his stance on the R18+ rating."

This is more confusing than Ubisuck's Dynamite Rape Management scheme.

What's going on, I don't even...

 

[Mantonio]

Well, I think he's defended his case well.

Kotick is a necessary evil I feel. Like taxes.

 

[Onyx Oblivion]

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.

Yeah. If he took the fun out of PLAYING games, that'd be a different story. But game development is serious. Have too much fun and you'll likely overlook a few things and release a buggy/glitchy game. And you'll probably take longer to do it, too.

 

[Captain Blackout]

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.

Confucious: Find what you love, and do that for a living. For a hardcore designer there's beauty, elegance, and sometimes even meaning in the numbers. Not every moment of debugging will be brilliant but working hard at a craft one loves to produce something one loves should have it's moments of joy, and yes, even fun. When Kotick made his statement it was like he was pissed he didn't get to enjoy his job so he kicked the chairs out from under the employees who were enjoying their work. Horrible morale management. If there is a problem at a company with workmanship, you take it up with the employees privately, not in a public forum. Finally, we're talking about video games for God's sake. My Dad loved his job and had a hell of a lot of fun doing it. He was a doctor. If my Dad got to love and have fun at his job, why can't video game designers? I mean really?

Bobby Kotick has a LOOOOONG way to go before I'll believe he's not a pissed off CEO who needs to step down, let someone happier do the job, and go back to something he actually likes. He needs to quit being a prick to the industry until then.

 

[Klepa]

Bobby Kotick doesn't seem to realize, that consumers aren't happy for him when he makes a big sale.

It's as if I went to a mate's apartment, and stole his TV, and when he blames me for it, I tell him that he should be happy for me having a new TV, and that he's a bad friend.

 

[BonerMacTittyPants]

How dare he compare himself to the ultimate badass villain in movie history. It covers Vader's name in shame.

Oh wow 500,000? Yeah, that suddenly makes him the good guy right? Pathetic publicity stunt.
Valve turns mods into games and hires the teams that made them. Activision made MW2 un-moddable (for some time, before people managed to get through).

He's just a douchebag.

I'd call him Gabe Newell's uncool evil twin brother.

 

[bjj hero]

Personally I think he's a dick after describing how he maintains a company culture that is grounded in feelings of "skepticism, pessimism and fear."

I don't care if you are making Modern Warfare 2 or rubber stamps, those are real people you are making miserable, with real familys. No need for the douchebaggery. It is possible to run a company without squeezing you employees until there homelives are destroyed and they are alcohol dependant.

I don't see him as darth vader. I see him as a fat seedy bully with a complete lack of charisma... and probably a regular client for more than a few prostitutes.

 

[Gildedtongue]

This is kinda unrelated, but, did anyone else think the guy's attire was just... kinda odd? I mean, yes, the master of ceremonies had no tie and an opened shirt, but, here's Kotick in what looks like pajama pants and a hoodie. Yeah, way to make it look like you care about what's being said. I know you're trying to go for the "Yeah, I'm just like you." look, but... jeeze, business casual maybe?

 

[sidereal_day]

I love Bobby. His statement that he wants to take all the fun out of making games is a good one. If you're running a relaxed, devil-may-care and I-don't-want-to-do-that-because-I-won't-have-any-fun business, you and all your employees are going to be in the unemployment line pretty damn soon.

And his bit about sequels is just a good business decision. Maybe if gamers stopped buying them, firms would stop selling them.

 

[Narcogen]

Agreed. That said, if he's been payed CEO wages, why is he incapable of realising that MAYBE customers wouldn't be thrilled by saying the things he says.

Or, perhaps, being paid CEO wages, he's smart enough to know that people will generally buy games based on personal desire, system, genre, and price-- and not based on whether or not the developer or publisher's CEO can't help coming off as a jerk because he's a jerk.

Just a thought.

For instance, I might very well believe that EA's executive team eats babies for breakfast every day, but I'm still playing the heck out of Mass Effect 2.