• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 12:08
CEST 18:08
KST 01:08
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
TL.net Map Contest #22 - Voting & Ladder Map Selection1Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO8 Preview4[ASL21] Finals Preview: Two Legacies21Code S Season 2 (2026) - RO12 Preview2herO wins GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)7
Community News
StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th103Weekly Cups (May 18-25): MaxPax wins doubles0Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League4Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double1Code S Season 1 (2026) - RO8 Results2
StarCraft 2
General
The death of cheese, from a professional cheeser. StarCraft II 5.0.16 PTR Patch Notes may 26th Changing from 12 to 8 is just asking for StarCraft TL Poll: How do you feel about the 5.0.16 PTR balance changes? Weekly Cups (May 11-17): Classic wins double
Tourneys
RSL Revival: Season 5 - Qualifiers and Main Event GSL Code S Season 2 (2026) Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Crank Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League GSL Code S Season 1 (2026)
Strategy
[G] Having the right mentality to improve
Custom Maps
[D]RTS in all its shapes and glory <3 [A] Nemrods 1/4 players
External Content
Welcome to the External Content forum Mutation # 527 Hell Train The PondCast: SC2 News & Results Mutation # 526 Rubber and Glue
Brood War
General
FlaShFTW vs A.Alm Grudge Match Event Soma's ASL Finals Review BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ OGN to release AI-upscaled StarLeague from Feb 24 BW General Discussion
Tourneys
[ASL21] Grand Finals [Megathread] Daily Proleagues Escore Tournament StarCraft Season 2 [BSL22] WB Final & LB Semis - Saturday 21:00 CEST
Strategy
Any training maps people recommend? Muta micro map competition [G] Hydra ZvZ: An Introduction Fighting Spirit mining rates
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread ZeroSpace Megathread Path of Exile Dawn of War IV
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Deck construction bug Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
Vanilla Mini Mafia Mafia Game Mode Feedback/Ideas TL Mafia Community Thread Five o'clock TL Mafia
Community
General
Trading/Investing Thread US Politics Mega-thread Russo-Ukrainian War Thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Dating: How's your luck?
Fan Clubs
The herO Fan Club!
Media & Entertainment
[Manga] One Piece Anime Discussion Thread [Req][Books] Good Fantasy/SciFi books
Sports
2024 - 2026 Football Thread McBoner: A hockey love story TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 Formula 1 Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread Facing Challenges in Mobile App Development
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Esportsmanship: How to NOT B…
TrAiDoS
Why RTS gamers make better f…
gosubay
ramps on octagon
StaticNine
ASL S21 English Commentary…
namkraft
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 1966 users

A short history of Activision Blizzard or how... - Page 8

Forum Index > SC2 General
Post a Reply
Prev 1 6 7 8 9 10 49 Next All
StarStruck
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
25339 Posts
May 29 2010 23:05 GMT
#141
Everyone should hold off from buying the game until our voices are heard. Don't give them a penny until they take action on our concerns.
pettter
Profile Joined December 2009
Sweden1032 Posts
May 29 2010 23:07 GMT
#142
I seldom buy games at all nowadays. I will certainly not buy a game company who pays such a guy a (no doubt insanely inflated) salary. Activision Blizzard, fuck you.
Koffiegast
Profile Joined February 2010
Netherlands346 Posts
May 29 2010 23:08 GMT
#143
I knew about some parts, but.... this much and this dramatic...dear sweet mother of god what happened to the game industry.
Wut
monkh
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
United Kingdom568 Posts
May 29 2010 23:09 GMT
#144
Awesome write up good job completely agree on all points. I've been wow play many years now ever since announcement of Activision Blizzard been feeling the effects of this recently quit wow but im just trading it for another Activision Blizzard game SC2.

now come to think of it do u think the Kespa ordeal had anythink to do with Activision? I bet it does!
Daeden.620
Deadlyhazard
Profile Joined May 2010
United States1177 Posts
May 29 2010 23:09 GMT
#145
Excellent, excellent post. I really commend you for it. I'm afraid of what the future holds for Blizzard. Oh how thy might seem to have fallen. At this point I'm not concretely sure though this evidence points towards the fall of quality...
Hark!
DrBoo
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada1177 Posts
May 29 2010 23:09 GMT
#146
wow...makes me really sad the direction video games are going atm. Never thought I'd say it.. but hell I miss the 90's
"DrBoo is an elaborate troll" -Pufftrees
deth
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
Australia1757 Posts
May 29 2010 23:11 GMT
#147
Front page this thread, it deserves it.
CharlieMurphy
Profile Blog Joined March 2006
United States22895 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-29 23:13:40
May 29 2010 23:13 GMT
#148
Ok, we get the facts. But what are YOU trying to say? Blizzard is bad? Boycott them? Be realistic, they control BW and SC2. Even if every single blizzard employee was a rapist pedo i'd still buy play the games.
..and then I would, ya know, check em'. (Aka SpoR)
Perfect Balance
Profile Joined April 2010
Norway131 Posts
May 29 2010 23:14 GMT
#149
This thread goes a long way towards portraying these men as evil, gentile, "anglo" men. That is the stereotype, of course. The reality is quite different. Start looking into these companies who only care about getting as rich as possible, and you'll start to discover a pattern. Here are some pictures of the people at the top; the people responsible. They don't exactly look like swedes to me. There's a common denominator here..

[image loading]
"Do you REALLY want chat rooms?" - You're good Blizzard! I was just fakin' it!
Hartigan
Profile Joined May 2010
United Kingdom12 Posts
May 29 2010 23:16 GMT
#150
On May 30 2010 07:46 Slow Motion wrote:
Show nested quote +
On May 30 2010 07:42 orgon wrote:
On May 30 2010 07:28 Hartigan wrote:
On May 30 2010 07:24 orgon wrote:
On May 30 2010 07:05 PrideNeverDies wrote:
lol at all the people in here crying about activision blizzard, but will still end up buying the game

face it, you have nothing better to do in your lives than play their video games. you know it. bobby kotick knows it. don't be mad he chooses to exploit your social ineptness. it is why he is the alpha male CEO and you guys are the sheep.



I agree completely. People complain about this and that but you will still buy the game and your friends will buy the game. Then you'll continue to complain on bnet but still buy the expansions.

Look if you want to punish Activision then you have to punish their stock. How do you do this? Well DON'T BUY their games. But that won't happen right guys?

The OP was a good read but definitely one sided. I always try to look objectively at both sides of the story and who knows the OP has a short on Activision stock.

The only solution I see is if you guys buy the game/expansions and love blizzard so much then just get some ownership in the company. I'm sure you guys will start rooting for this guy because he's making you richer.

It's called capitalism, don't hate it. Remember you can vote with your money.


Buying ATVI stock instead of buying Starcraft 2 or WoW subscriptions might make a difference, but it will also give them money in the process. At the end of the day no one can do what we all want to do which is fire Bobby Kotdick from the company and sue him on multiple counts of mismanagement and wrongful dismissal - no severance package, no golden handshake, no red carpet. A swift kick in the butt and a lawsuit to boot.


It's not an either/or. You can buy the game and buy the stock if you're so inclined.

But fine if you feel so strongly about this dude and the direction he is taking Activision/Blizzard then SHORT the stock and profit from the eventual destruction of the brand names this man is committing. I have a feeling that you're right and he is doing the above. If this guy crashes and burns all these quality brands he's going to get fired but only the consumer has that power.

Again vote with your money.

You're forgetting the other option we have in a capitalist society, which is to hurt their wallets by giving them as much bad press as possible. It's been proven to work as long as we can organize and show solidarity.


Yes, stirring up some bad publicity would be a great way to state our point. It would be interesting to submit all this controversy to a news agency and see if it picks up any interest, as I for one would think that the novelty of a fanbase might actually make a decent article if it was sufficiently controversial. Activision-Blizzard is big enough, and frankly based on the first page, bad enough.

As for shorting the stock or hedging it in any way, I simply dont have enough leverage to make any effective play at doing that, but if someone does, go for it. I'd rather take the legal avenue on this one to be honest.

Oh and one might also want to avoid saying too wrongly about Kotdick et al less you find yourself on the wrong end of a slander suit. Like he said, he'll pay the lawyers more than the developers.
mkfk1
Profile Joined April 2010
United Kingdom153 Posts
May 29 2010 23:17 GMT
#151
Time like this, I dont feel sorry for all the torrents and private server out there that pirate games.

If sc2 turns out to be this useless, than hello hamchi or some other pirate server.
Sabu113
Profile Blog Joined August 2009
United States11086 Posts
May 29 2010 23:17 GMT
#152
Do you really want to bring a racial element into this?
Biomine is a drunken chick who is on industrial strength amphetamines and would just grab your dick and jerk it as hard and violently as she could while screaming 'OMG FUCK ME', because she saw it in a Sasha Grey video ...-Wombat_Ni
iammaru
Profile Joined April 2010
Canada38 Posts
May 29 2010 23:20 GMT
#153
On May 30 2010 08:14 Perfect Balance wrote:
This thread goes a long way towards portraying these men as evil, gentile, "anglo" men. That is the stereotype, of course. The reality is quite different. Start looking into these companies who only care about getting as rich as possible, and you'll start to discover a pattern. Here are some pictures of the people at the top; the people responsible. They don't exactly look like swedes to me. There's a common denominator here..



You're racist.
"Teamliquid: Experts in demotivation"
Spawkuring
Profile Joined July 2008
United States755 Posts
May 29 2010 23:21 GMT
#154
On May 30 2010 08:14 Perfect Balance wrote:
This thread goes a long way towards portraying these men as evil, gentile, "anglo" men. That is the stereotype, of course. The reality is quite different. Start looking into these companies who only care about getting as rich as possible, and you'll start to discover a pattern. Here are some pictures of the people at the top; the people responsible. They don't exactly look like swedes to me. There's a common denominator here..


This is precisely why I dislike any threads focusing on Bobby Kotick or Activision in general. It always follows the same pattern:

- Talk about how much of a dick Bobby Kotick is
- Compile long list of wrongdoings that are unrelated to Blizzard at all
- Accuse Blizzard of being corrupted for offering 100% optional services that nobody has to pay for
- Start bringing up Jewish conspiracies and inject anti-Semitism in an attempt to demonize Mike Morhaime and Blizzard in general

Seriously, I hate Kotick as much as the next person, but these threads really go into a bad direction. This certainly won't change Blizzard's opinions or decisions at all, and only bring out the absolute worst in gamers. It reflects badly on all of us when you start injecting anti-Semitism over a video game.
Perfect Balance
Profile Joined April 2010
Norway131 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-29 23:26:20
May 29 2010 23:24 GMT
#155
On May 30 2010 08:17 Sabu113 wrote:
Do you really want to bring a racial element into this?


You sound like you're making a threat. Hahaha.

It's amazing how, in the politically correct world you americans live in, if ethnic iranians occupied ALL of your media and video game companies tomorrow, you wouldn't be able to point it out for fear of being labeled a "raciss". If those iranian CEO's also donated to causes that hurt your foreign policy and affected elections in their favor, you wouldn't be able to point it out.

You're wrong, it's not about racial elements at all, it's about the fact that all of these companies are dominated by a group that constitutes less than 2% of the total american population. It's amazing to me how so few americans realize this, and see WHY companies turn into money-making schemes when people of this group start inhabiting the positions of chairman and CEO.

Michael Morhaime belongs to this group. So does the CEO of Activision, and all the big video game companies (EA, Bethesda, etc), except Valve.

[image loading]

User was temp banned for this post.
"Do you REALLY want chat rooms?" - You're good Blizzard! I was just fakin' it!
commanderchobo
Profile Joined September 2007
Canada53 Posts
May 29 2010 23:26 GMT
#156
what a great post! very well researched and put together. my god man! have you thought about a career in journalism. it comes as no suprise this sort of thing is happening. you could see it in wow, you could see it in sc2, hell its everywhere.

fuck activision, i havent given them money in so long, pirated all my xbox games, computer games, and only paid the 15 dollar fee for wow
Teddyman
Profile Joined October 2008
Finland362 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-29 23:28:33
May 29 2010 23:26 GMT
#157
I should start by saying that Kotick is a class 1 asshole, as is EA's CEO John Riccitiello. They both have their own styles. While Riccitiello seems to prefer milking his companies for millions from shady deals while whispering sweet lies to gamers' ears, Kotick demonstrates some kind of superiority complex towards his employees and gamers.

That having been said, the OP is really biased and goes searching for all kinds of false evidence to support his argument. Let's look at some:

additional protection with the Blizzard Authenticator, so you’ll be safer against hackers for 6.50$ instead of for free

You do know this is an actual physical device that makes you input a code every time you log in to WoW or SC2? I certainly wouldn't like my subscription money being used to buy every player one (+replacements) just because some people want to run all the keyloggers they can find on the internet.

Blizzard Mobile is getting made for stupid phone sounds and pictures

Good thing that you put the word "stupid" there so we know how we should feel about that.

In the Thomas Tippl interview, you just highlight a few random words to make it seem all ominous. They are exploring opportunities? Certainly a sign of things to come...

Soon after, Kotick even believes, that with Activision Blizzard now being so big, he seems to have the right to dictate future consoles hardware design:

You make a pretty smooth leap from "influence" to "dictate." He also doesn't say anything about them claiming any right to do so.

Blizzard in a partnership with DIRECTV (and with increasing desire for more $$) provide Live Streaming of the Event for only 39.95$, although Streams from such events as the E3, Tokyo Gameshow or GamesCom are usually free…

I guess you didn't watch that, since there were 2 free streams that streamed the tournaments. Only the DirecTV produced stream cost money. As a side note the DirecTV stream was crap (didn't pay for it but many people livestreamed it until the streams were taken down.) Your choice of free stream with Artosis/Tasteless/bunny/djWheat or $40 stream with DirecTV commentators making jokes of nerds.

Anyway, the OP is mainly just every source of discontent with SC2 mixed with quotes from CEO/CFO-level interviews (surprise: finance department people talking to shareholders and investors talk about how to make the most money.) People are taking the "shitstorm" mentality Kennigit posted about to their hearts, but direct it at a place where Blizzard will read it, not TL forums.
"Chess is a dead game" -Bobby Fischer 2004
D3xter
Profile Joined May 2010
Germany17 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-30 00:06:49
May 29 2010 23:26 GMT
#158
On May 30 2010 08:07 pettter wrote:
I seldom buy games at all nowadays. I will certainly not buy a game company who pays such a guy a (no doubt insanely inflated) salary. Activision Blizzard, fuck you.


http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/10/kotick-made-nearly-15-million-last-year/

He made $14,950,102 in 2008 only cause of his great work

On May 30 2010 07:14 GG.Win wrote:
So I just read through all of that, and I have to say... if most of that is true, I seriously fear for the direction SC2 is taking. I hope its all just propaganda though.

It reminds me a lot of Origin Systems and EA.

Funny you should mention that, there was an Interview in 2004 (can't find the link right now) where a manager of Ultima Online/Origin was asked about the success of World of Warcraft and he said something along the lines of him believing that it would destroy Blizzard as a company.
Activision mainly just merged with Blizz because of the financial success of World of Warcraft, much like EA bought Bioware and keeps pumping money into them, because they hope the new Star Wars MMO "The Old Republic" will finally be big after they failed with stuff like Sims Online or Warhammer Online.

As Kotick himself said in his speech at the last DICE (on "Creative Talent" of all things...) he didn't have much interest in the company before that, and when WoW was being developed he didn't think it would make any money at first: http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/702673/dice-2010-activision-ceo-bobby-kotick-presentation.html

On May 30 2010 08:26 Teddyman wrote:
That having been said, the OP is really biased and goes searching for all kinds of false evidence to support his argument. Let's look at some:

I never pretended to not BE unbiased (in fact it should be pretty clear by my choice of pictures I am), it is a very hard thing to do if you see games you've been looking forward to for decades being ruined by business and marketing decisions, and my wording directly feeds to that end.

Concerning the Blizzard Authenticator, I know it is a physical device, but they could aswell have developed an Online system or a system in conjunction with a mail account for the encryption (providing said unique Token/Password that way), they instead chose to make it a "product" and market it, even though it should be one of their main concerns to keep their customers safe.

Of course I could have included things like: http://www.joystiq.com/2010/02/18/kotick-announces-activisions-half-million-dollar-indie-games-co/
Kotick announcing that half a mil "Indie game competition" or similar, but that wouldn't exactly help my point, would it? xD

I'd go as far as to say, every written sentence or opinion is "biased" one way or another and it's really up to the reader to make out the truth or form their opinion based on different sources.
kajeus
Profile Joined May 2010
United States679 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-29 23:34:56
May 29 2010 23:29 GMT
#159
EDIT: Okay, after reading more of the OP, I've decided there's a lot of evidence of douchebaggery here. Almost... evil. Definitely anti-artistic.
pro-MoMaN, pro-HuK, pro-Millenium
arb
Profile Blog Joined April 2008
Noobville17922 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-05-29 23:32:15
May 29 2010 23:31 GMT
#160
Ill be honest i just canceled my SC2 order, so im now 64.46 richer.
Artillery spawned from the forges of Hell
Prev 1 6 7 8 9 10 49 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Showmatch
16:00
Shopify Rebellion Sunday #3
Percival vs Lambo
ByuN vs Clem
YoungYakov vs GuMiho
ByuN vs Creator
Liquipedia
IPSL
16:00
Ro16 Group D
Dragon vs Artosis
dxtr13 vs Hawk
Airneanach14
Liquipedia
OSC
13:00
King of the Hill #250
Liquipedia
Maestros of the Game
13:00
Preliminary Stage
ByuN vs ShamelessLIVE!
Cure vs TriGGeR
RotterdaM1355
ComeBackTV 958
TaKeTV473
SteadfastSC199
IndyStarCraft 196
Rex138
LiquipediaDiscussion
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft 2
RotterdaM 1355
Harstem 387
SteadfastSC 199
IndyStarCraft 196
Rex 138
elazer 98
ProTech92
Railgan 72
BRAT_OK 54
Codebar 9
StarCraft: Brood War
EffOrt 1726
Horang2 1101
ZerO 463
Liquid`Hasu 334
Rush 248
hero 116
Last 110
ToSsGirL 57
Noble 41
Barracks 33
[ Show more ]
Terrorterran 30
Movie 29
sorry 26
Rock 23
Sacsri 21
GoRush 19
ajuk12(nOOB) 12
IntoTheRainbow 12
EG.Machine 1
Dota 2
qojqva2297
XaKoH 304
420jenkins244
LuMiX1
Counter-Strike
fl0m2220
x6flipin239
Heroes of the Storm
Khaldor282
Other Games
Liquid`RaSZi1664
Dendi498
Beastyqt286
Hui .259
B2W.Neo218
KnowMe147
Liquid`VortiX88
Mew2King49
XlorD43
ZerO(Twitch)18
fpsfer 1
Organizations
Other Games
EGCTV512
Counter-Strike
PGL208
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• StrangeGG 122
• HeavenSC 21
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Nemesis2779
• Jankos2627
Upcoming Events
BSL
2h 52m
OSC
7h 52m
Wardi Open
19h 52m
Monday Night Weeklies
23h 52m
Replay Cast
1d 7h
Sparkling Tuna Cup
1d 17h
WardiTV Spring Champion…
1d 18h
Maestros of the Game
1d 23h
The PondCast
2 days
Kung Fu Cup
2 days
[ Show More ]
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
2 days
Maestros of the Game
2 days
Replay Cast
3 days
Replay Cast
3 days
WardiTV Spring Champion…
3 days
Maestros of the Game
3 days
Replay Cast
4 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
4 days
Maestros of the Game
4 days
Replay Cast
5 days
Solar vs Classic
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
5 days
GSL
6 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

Escore Tournament S2: King of Kings
2026 GSL S1
Heroes Pulsing #1

Ongoing

BSL Season 22
IPSL Spring 2026
KCM Race Survival 2026 Season 2
Acropolis #4
CSCL: Masked Kings S4
YSL S3
SCTL 2026 Spring
WardiTV Spring 2026
Maestros of the Game 2
2026 GSL S2
Murky Cup 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 2
CS Asia Championships 2026
Asian Champions League 2026
IEM Atlanta 2026
PGL Astana 2026
BLAST Rivals Spring 2026
IEM Rio 2026
PGL Bucharest 2026
Stake Ranked Episode 1
BLAST Open Spring 2026

Upcoming

BSL 22 Non-Korean Championship
CSLAN 4
Blizzard Classic Cup 2026
Kung Fu Cup 2026 Grand Finals
CranK Gathers Season 4: BW vs SC2 Team League
HSC XXIX
uThermal 2v2 2026 Main Event
Heroes Pulsing #3
Heroes Pulsing #2
Esports World Cup 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer 2026
BLAST Bounty Summer Qual
Stake Ranked Episode 3
XSE Pro League 2026
IEM Cologne Major 2026
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2026 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.