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I meant business wise, about how they just makes games and let the games speak for them. But yea, we're getting off topic.
So do tons of studios like Sega, Capcom, well pretty much any Japanese studio. It's just a different form of marketing.
-last post I swear-
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On May 30 2010 09:50 FliedLice wrote: The ratings will just get deleted without a comment and 99% of the people crying now will guy the game anyway. And why shouldn't they? It's a good game.
Yah and if we voted on all the major gaming sites? And if we gave varying scores? Are they going to delete all 2's and 3's? Maybe theyll delete everything below 10 :p
Imagine what happens when the metacritic score starts goes down. Do you know how many gamers base thier purchasing decisions at least in part on those scores?
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this kind of policy and business won't live in a entertainment business. I'm sure activision blizzard is going to either crash and burn or be completely reworked and management changed at some point. Needless to say I'm going ubisoft and ea games for the most part now, with some other studios on the side (rockstar, valve, gearbox, bethesda) only getting sc2 out of necessity, because as much as I want to boycott activision I want sc2 more.
As someone going through school heading to the game industry the policies of this company scare me, their vaguely reminiscent of the policies of apple with the iphone/itouch.
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On May 30 2010 09:50 FliedLice wrote:
It's not.
It's acting like butthurt babies. .
You obviously know nothing about gaming history.
Long-term gamers don't let companies who advertise "listening to the community" get away with the kind of shit Blizzard is dragging us thru right now. It's not worth a company most of us known about and loved since diablo or warcraft ONE. We're definitely NOT letting them get away with this.
See, the whole "listening to the community" thing was going on until W3 and the early days of WoW. Back then they ACTIVELY read forums, get fan opinion, picked people to test their shit etc... Nowadays ? Fuck'em all ! We're making our bullshit systems and to hell with everything else !
Back then, they responded tangibly to critics on their forums. Nowadays ? "olulzulz Bnet 2 so awsom we roxckz me mod delete your baby post lulz"... From participation to censorship of (not even inflammatory) opinions ? Fuck'em !
The few gaming companies that actively went the (current) blizzard way got to severely regret it. Ask EA, Valve, NcSoft or even ID to some extent.
Now, internet "2.0" having opened the gates to every dumbfuck 12 years old makes it harder for us from the 80-90's but we're not gone. In fact we have more influence than all of your kiddie Wow-paladin generation mishaps.
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On May 30 2010 09:59 Santriel wrote:Show nested quote +On May 30 2010 09:50 FliedLice wrote:
It's not.
It's acting like butthurt babies. . You obviously know nothing about gaming history. Long-term gamers don't let companies who advertise "listening to the community" get away with the kind of shit Blizzard is dragging us thru right now. It's not worth a company most of us known about and loved since diablo or warcraft ONE. We're definitely NOT letting them get away with this. See, the whole "listening to the community" thing was going on until W3 and the early days of WoW. Back then they ACTIVELY read forums, get fan opinion, picked people to test their shit etc... Nowadays ? Fuck'em all ! We're making our bullshit systems and to hell with everything else ! The few gaming companies that actively went the (current) blizzard way got to severely regret it. Ask EA, Valve or even ID to some extent. Now, internet "2.0" having opened the gates to every dumbfuck 12 years old makes it harder for us from the 80-90's but we're not gone. In fact we have more influence than all of your kiddie Wow-paladin generation mishaps.
A true gamer, I was gaming since I was five, and fourteen years is enough to tell me what companies I should trust, and what companies need correction. Gaming was never this businesslike (hurr hurr, get the bad pun?)
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Amazing article, a lot of research was put into this.
This just shows how everything goes from bad to worse in the kind of unrestricted capitalism we live in today, the video game industry being no different. The investors want money, they will get money, if destroying a franchise is more profitable than keeping it alive, they will do it. if they want to milk it for as much profit as they can in a short period of time (like EA did with CnC) they will do it. What needs to be understood that the need for profit never coincides with the needs of the people, in this case, the need of the community (gamers/fans).
I just can't imagine how tournaments will be run with the B-net2.0 forced platform. Imagine hosting a tourney in a gaming cafe, impossible now. How will WCG and other tourneys be run? Renting a B-net 2.0 emulator from blizz? All these fees that (if they get introduced, and they probably will) will kill off a lot of events that are common in communities, unless you are a big tournament with sponsors and advertisment income, you won't be able to afford hosting a tourney, or anything else...
...I lost my chain of thought and for that i apologise, I'm just utterly disgusted after reading the article.
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I'm really kind of curious how many Starcraft II preorders have been canceled in the last 2 or 3 days. I'm pretty sure that I've seen ~200 people claiming to have canceled a preorder on TL.net. I realize we're the diehards here, but if even 10% of TL's reaction is going on other places, that's going to speak to AB where they apparently think it counts: the wallet.
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A tremendous post! That part about possible in-game advertising was probably most disturbing of all (and it was all disturbing). If they try that, they will sink deeper then I thought possible.
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On May 30 2010 10:06 mortus wrote: A tremendous post! That part about possible in-game advertising was probably most disturbing of all (and it was all disturbing). If they try that, they will sink deeper then I thought possible.
I'll take in-game advertising over terrible interface any day.
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On May 30 2010 09:59 Santriel wrote: In fact we have more influence than all of your kiddie Wow-paladin generation mishaps.
awwww :3
how is EA any different? sure they came out as the big saviour after the whole MW2 thing with BFBC2 still having dedicated servers... Still they are whoring around with their DLC bigtime and milked their C&C cow all the way to the end
and i'd say the kiddie paladins from wow are all they need to make a huge huge load of money and still be able to just shit right in your face
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there is no problem with this process at all. let them make these great games and let them get as much money out of it as possible.
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In fact we have more influence than all of your kiddie Wow-paladin generation mishaps.
No, the minority never has more influence over the majority, no matter how right they are or how dumb the majority is. Thank you capitalism and democracy!
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I actually knew about all this before but when it's presented all together you realize how fucked up Activision is.
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On May 30 2010 09:34 KungKras wrote:Show nested quote +On May 30 2010 09:23 Garrl wrote:On May 30 2010 09:19 KungKras wrote: It's official. If Blizzard has become corrupted by the insanity of the gaming industry, Nintendo will be the only games company left that actually does things right.
I really hope their disruption of the industry is successful. Because games companies as they work now needs to be destroyed. What about Valve? I haven't really followed Valve's business, so I can't have a fully educated opinion about them. But they did give us Portal for free, and that's awesome. I just haven't kept. Still, even if I say that Nintendo and Valve are the only sane games companies left, even with twice the number of sane games companies, there still aren't a lot of them out there.
- Bethesda is still producing quality games in the fallout and elder scrolls universe, along with brink later this year which looks promising. - Gearbox is just about the only company I've seen give DLC thats more than worth it's price tag in borderlands. - Ubisoft is still being smart, creating independant games and creating sequels that are sensible, and not 20 spinoffs driving the game into the ground. - ATLUS is still producing amazing rpg's as was seen with demon's souls - mondo media is working on little big planet 2 which so far is looking revolutionary, and could change the way map editing on consoles works - rockstar is starting to reform from making its more tasteless games that emphasized on murder, extortion, and drug smuggling along with a dash of smut. Red dead redemption is a brighter change, although still somewhat retaining undesirable aspects from gta.
I wouldn't particularily consider nintendo sane with the way the wii is. The console should have compatibility with actual controllers that each game can be played with so that user preference can choose to use the remote or a controller. (super smach bros: brawl was smart enough to do this)
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Very nice post.  What happened to music and movies is happening to gaming. Corporations don't mind if you beg or try to be "calm and reasonable". Making you "calm and reasonable" about getting buttfucked is one of their PR tactics. They would sell you your own shit in a bag if they could. You would have to buy piss separately.
People who get angry about something might act and if they do that is power. Power is the only thing big companies listen to. So yes shitstorms do help if they are visible. Praying and keeping the faith only make the expansion packs suck too.
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For whatever its worth, I won't be buying SC2 (or Diablo 3 for that matter). Obviously as an individual I don't matter at all. That said I do think that the SC community is more uniquely positioned than most gaming communities to actually make a dent and be heard.
I don't want to make all the broad, sweeping, idealic and revolutionary statements that people like to spout on the internet, but there are absolutely enough people in this community to make a difference. Take the original post in this thread and post it everywhere. Do the same with the Frozen Arbiter thread on the state of battlenet 2.0.
As crazy as it sounds in this age of the internet, write a letter, on paper, to Blizzard. Bombard them with stuff that, if enough people do it, will force them to deal with it in some way, force a response.
I'm pessimistic and cynical and I doubt enough people will take these steps to make a difference. But I do believe there are enough people who care about these issues that we could make a difference if we tried.
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Concerning OP. Of course it makes sense...its all about the moneyz...
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On May 30 2010 10:11 Half wrote: No, the minority never has more influence over the majority, no matter how right they are or how dumb the majority is. Thank you capitalism and democracy!
I didn't mean it in terms of "textual majority" but in terms of input. Long-term gamers generally have WAY SUPERIOR technical and coding knowledge most 'nowadays gamers' have.
I mean... Who here can say they were part of the neogeo emulation scene ? 3-5 people out of 100 ? This happened in 1996...
If gamers back then could make a company like ID bend over, shut up, integrate anti-hacks and community-related suggestions over the threat that their sales were going to TANK (and ask them, they did anyways), NOTHING can stand.
Not blizzard, not battlenet 2, not anything.
People rooting for the mediocre side here get it wrong: Gaming is dominated by gamers. If gamers these days had ANY idea what a good game ACTUALLY IS (fun to play vs "olulz amazing grafx must be good"), there wouldn't be such giant fuckups as Bnet 0.5.
Gaming became a mass-consumption thing colonized by kidiots starving for real life experiences. I miss the days where just playing Blood or Quake for more than 3 hours a WEEK made you a no-life geek because... well... you had to be somewhat 'above the norm' to get it all; Random kidiots couldn't just hop into gamespy and hope to play; you had to LEARN THE FUCKING GAME FIRST, ALL BY YOURSELF !
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On May 30 2010 10:27 Santriel wrote:Show nested quote +On May 30 2010 10:11 Half wrote: No, the minority never has more influence over the majority, no matter how right they are or how dumb the majority is. Thank you capitalism and democracy! I didn't mean it in terms of "textual majority" but in terms of input. Long-term gamers generally have WAY SUPERIOR technical and coding knowledge most 'nowadays gamers' have. I mean... Who here can say they were part of the neogeo emulation scene ? 3-5 people out of 100 ? This happened in 1996... If gamers back then could make a company like ID bend over, shut up, integrate anti-hacks and community-related suggestions over the threat that their sales were going to TANK (and ask them, they did anyways), NOTHING can stand. Not blizzard, not battlenet 2, not anything. People rooting for the mediocre side here get it wrong: Gaming is dominated by gamers. If gamers these days had ANY idea what a good game ACTUALLY IS (fun to play vs "olulz amazing grafx must be good"), there wouldn't be such giant fuckups as Bnet 0.5. Gaming became a mass-consumption thing colonized by kidiots starving for real life experiences. I miss the days where just playing Blood or Quake for more than 3 hours a WEEK made you a no-life geek because... well... you had to be somewhat 'above the norm' to get it all; Random kidiots couldn't just hop into gamespy and hope to play; you had to LEARN THE FUCKING GAME FIRST, ALL BY YOURSELF !
Honestly I'm in agreement with the second part, but realize that isn't the minority beating the majority, thats the minority banding together while the majority remained indifferent. It's not like the majority didn't want anti-hacks.
Which is the case in chat channels for b-net 2.0. Chat channels aren't against the interests of the majority, just irrelevant. That's why I still have hope.
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Oh, so they aren't stupid, just evil!
... that's much worse.
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