Infinity Ward Guy Goes Nuts On Activision Guy - UPDATED

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Infinity Ward Guy Goes Nuts On Activision Guy - UPDATED

Robert Bowling of Call of Duty: World at War [http://www.callofduty.com/CoDMW], saying he's sick of Heller's constant references to Call of Duty 4 in preview for World at War.

In an entry on his personal blog [http://www.fourzerotwo.com/2008/11/07/noah-heller-stop-doing-interviews/], Bowling wrote, "If I see one more Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Google alert come through my inbox, that ends up being a COD:WaW article that is only showing up because YOU referenced Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare more times than you mention World at War..."

Referring to a recent interview with Heller on CVG [http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=201150] in which he claimed that bolt action rifles might take "three or four shots" to kill someone in previous games in the series, Bowling wrote, "WTF are you talking about?! 'In previous Call of Dutys blah blah blah.' First of all, you didn't work on 'previous Call of Dutys,' so don't talk as if you're down with how/why things were designed the way they were. Second, you're completely f*cking wrong. Bolt action rifles are one-hit kills in every Call of Duty we (Infinity Ward) made!!"

"Promote YOUR game," he continued. "Don't compare it to another game, or reference what OTHER games did in the past, pitch YOUR game. I mean, you have lots of cool things you could talk about..."

"Can you guys please stop interviewing this guy?" he wrote, apparently addressing videogame journalists directly. "Talk to someone who actually works on the dev team at Treyarch [http://www.treyarch.com/] and knows what the f*ck they're talking about. Not Senior Super Douche Noah Heller - who apparently has never played the game and doesn't even work at the developer."

Ironically, Bowling is Infinity Ward's community relations manager.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare was one of the top-selling games in 2008, with over ten million copies sold across all platforms. Treyarch's Call of Duty: World at War, which launches in North America on November 11, returns the franchise to the Second World War, while Infinity Ward is currently at work on Call of Duty 6. The game is currently targeting a 2009 release, but no other details have been revealed.

UPDATE: This isn't the first time Noah Heller has been called out by a Call of Duty studio - but the first time it happened, it was actually Treyarch that took issue [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/84756-Call-of-Duty-Rep-Bashes-Brothers-in-Arms] with him.

Back in the summer, Heller said that Brothers In Arms: Hell's Highway [http://www.gearboxsoftware.com/], "wasn't even in the same league" as Treyarch and Activision. "We don't even think about them. They're not even a game we even think about when we're playing," he said. "We want to look at the games that do great storytelling. We don't want to look at someone who's just making a crappy war game."

Heller's ill-considered comments earned an immediate response from Treyarch, which apologized unreservedly for the cheap shot. "We want to let everyone know that we found those remarks offensive, and they do not in any way represent the feelings of any developer at this studio or at Activision," Treyarch Community Manager "JD" wrote in a message [http://forums.xbox.com/21173868/ShowPost.aspx] on the Xbox forums. "We hold all of our peers in the development community in the highest regard. We have nothing but respect for the guys and gals at Gearbox."


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fluffylandmine

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Jul 23, 2008
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I'm with infinity ward on this one.

Update: Ok now I'm really mad he went after gearbox. They made a better game than COD:3 and now he's treating them wrong because it didn't get the top sales.

Fire the guy, he's causing trouble and he most likly is a peon or replacable.
 

Raven28256

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Sep 18, 2008
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There is a lot of tension between IW and Activision, and it is just getting worse. Basically, Infinity Ward is getting annoyed at how Activision handles Call of Duty, like making it a yearly franchise and giving it to other developers like Treyarch.

It leads to stuff like this. Frankly, I think Infinity Ward employees have a right to be angry. Activision isn't exactly being nice to the franchise. Call of Duty: World at War is a $60 WWII mod of Call of Duty 4. Activision has reduced the franchise to the "Random Game Generator" and "Same as last year" levels, while Treyarch is mostly riding off of Infinity Ward's popularity.
 

TheBadass

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Aug 27, 2008
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It's a franchise. What was the guy supposed to do? "Well, obviously this wo't bbe as good as Cod4, but buy it anyway."
 

TsunamiWombat

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Sep 6, 2008
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So wait, let me see if I got this.

The guys who dev'd CoD4 are pissed off because the guys deving CoD:WAW keep comparing their games to try and ride off the coat tails of their success? Or something?
 

Fire Daemon

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Dec 18, 2007
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TsunamiWombat said:
So wait, let me see if I got this.

The guys who dev'd CoD4 are pissed off because the guys deving CoD:WAW keep comparing their games to try and ride off the coat tails of their success? Or something?
I think the IW guy (402 his username is) is pissed off that Activision is trying to sell the game by bringing up CoD4. I think that he would rather Activision try and sell CoD5 by it's own merits, not by using the popularity of CoD4.

Basically he wants Treyarch to talk about CoD5, not activision talking about both four and five. It's not Treyarch referring to number four, it's Activision.

Thats what I got from this anyway.
 

Amnestic

High Priest of Haruhi
Aug 22, 2008
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Malygris said:
Senior Super Douche
I'm using that in the future.

TheBadass said:
It's a franchise. What was the guy supposed to do? "Well, obviously this wo't bbe as good as Cod4, but buy it anyway."
Do exactly what Mr. Angryman said. Promote the game they're making, not ride the coat tails of CoD4's success to try to get sales. Of course people will associate the two, they're the same franchise, but that doesn't mean advertisers or people speaking for WaW have to compare the two.
 

x434343

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Mar 22, 2008
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What the hell? Gearbox made, in addition to BiA:HH, Opposing Force and Blue Shift, two very good games endorsed by VALVe and I like them.

Seriously, the fact he's calling out other Call of Duty's...

"Half-Life 2 is going to be like Doom 3, but better. Our Melee are 2 or 3 hit kills, instead of 40 hit kills."

Would you respect VALVe if they did that?
 

Dommyboy

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Jul 20, 2008
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I want to see both of these guys in a boxing ring and than in a review for CoD WAW, will defiantly lead to some funny situations.
 

thenumberthirteen

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Dec 19, 2007
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We need more community relations managers like this. Usually they talk in nothing but marketing speak, but it's refreshing to hear someone called a "Senior Super Douche". They should have made this a press release, it would have been terrible for the company but funny as hell.

*News Reader*
Game developers Infinity Ward released a press statement today declaring Activision producer Noah Heller as a "Senior Super Douche" who doesn't know what he's f*cking talking about. Activision replied to this statement by speculating as to Robert Bowling's paternal ancestry.
 

Johnny Danger

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Oct 19, 2008
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Well, since COD3 was also made by Treyarch and apparently crap (don't know from experience, just heard), I wouldn't want my game compared to theirs either.

But who knows, maybe they can make a good game this time? I think it's retarded how Activision is playing hot potato with the franchise though.
 

Jsnoopy

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Nov 20, 2008
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Haha good job mister IW angryman. I was pissed too when I found out they were going back to WW2, and even more pissed when I bought the game and found out ITS THE EXACT SAME GAME, except in WW2 and with shitty old guns, no red dot, and extremely annoying tanks. It makes me wonder what the hell the developers at Treyarch were doing for 2 years, because there are no new useful or even fun to use perks and essentially only 2 new attachments, the drum and the bayonet. Maybe they were finding ways to make the campaign as annoying and frustrating as possible.
 

Darkwolf9

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Aug 19, 2008
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Fire Daemon said:
TsunamiWombat said:
So wait, let me see if I got this.

The guys who dev'd CoD4 are pissed off because the guys deving CoD:WAW keep comparing their games to try and ride off the coat tails of their success? Or something?
I think the IW guy (402 his username is) is pissed off that Activision is trying to sell the game by bringing up CoD4. I think that he would rather Activision try and sell CoD5 by it's own merits, not by using the popularity of CoD4.

Basically he wants Treyarch to talk about CoD5, not activision talking about both four and five. It's not Treyarch referring to number four, it's Activision.

Thats what I got from this anyway.
The paper is more about Heller being a horrible rep. The guy doesn't know anything about the game he's trying to promote so he's pointing to the earlier popular game to try and sale it.
 

300lb. Samoan

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Mar 25, 2009
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sorry to raise this thread from the dead, but I just wanted to mention that Senor Super Douche would be my favorite mexican wrestler, if there ever was one with that name