I don't know enough about corporate structure to point direct fingers but someone somewhere is a huge dickhead. Most people point the finger to Kotick...I'd lean towards pointing a finger at Vivendi for putting Kotick in charge. Warning incoming poorly written satire.

Activision Blizzard reminds me of a video game version of drug dealers. You want your maps I got your maps, 15 bucks...you wanna to change your name, I got that gimme like 10 dollas. "chat rooms?" man you don't want no chat rooms, I'll get you facebook. "I don't want facebook I want chat rooms" nah you don't man, you got UMS to play, did I tell you that I got UMS? 3 dollars each. "I don't want UMS man I want chat ro-...you know what nevermind what about community made 1v1 maps" I told you man I got your maps 15 bucks. "But they are community made, they should be free" Nah man we made that by giving you the tools to make it...we already had that idea and just hadn't used it yet...yeah that's it. "Do you offer any free services for the purchase of your game?" I told you man I got you facebook but other than that nah man nothings free if had my way I'd charge you to log on, charge you per match and add a monthly fee on that...damn that's a good idea.

Of course that's a bit hyperbolic in some cases and Activision has mostly milked Call of Duty franchise but the future business model of this company is down right scary. Anything seems chargeable and I wouldn't be surprised if later on down the line the expansions come out introducing new units to multiplayer becoming mandatory to play on battle.net and those that want to play on all regions end up having to sixty bucks nine times. Man I can't wait to watch free re-streams of their pay to watch GOM streams.

coldmath

United States13 Posts

May 29 2010 23:36 GMT

#163

Wow, it's way too easy to start a riot...

FliedLice

Germany7494 Posts

May 29 2010 23:42 GMT

#164

Wow, didn't know there were "gamers" left who don't know Kotick...

Also:

kmdarkmaster

France188 Posts

May 29 2010 23:42 GMT

#165

And now they are destroying the e-sport scene in Korea just for the sake of selling more Starcraft 2. Of course there's no need to support such evil, just cancel your sc2 order.

Oddysay

Canada597 Posts

May 29 2010 23:43 GMT

#166

realy good post

realy show that blizzard are not blizzard anymore

guitarizt

United States1492 Posts

May 29 2010 23:54 GMT

#167

I'm all for making money but kotick sounds like the walmart of video games. I'm holding out on buying sc2 for as long as possible and I really hope someone is able to make some kind of third party program to get around battle.net 2.0. The only problem is if someone like iccup does do this blizzard would sue them and make them take it down.

starcraft911

Korea (South)1263 Posts

May 29 2010 23:58 GMT

#168

Wow... i'm really sickened. I don't even know how to respond. I've been playing video games for around 10 years and this is the first time I've actually given any thought to stopping playing video games entirely.

Obviously the investors love this guy because he will squeeze every penny out of the games he's overseeing, but wow it looks like he's going to squeeze the fun and the life out of them in the process. This really sickened me.

zizzefex

Canada34 Posts

May 30 2010 00:00 GMT

#169

On May 30 2010 07:33 HoroBoro wrote:

Show nested quote +

Great idea. Everyone short Activision stock if SC2 comes out and they still refuse to listen. Profit for us, teach money grubbing slackers a lesson. WE HAVE THE MANPOWER!!!

Lol. Noone with money would actually short Activision stock. Half their consumers are mom's and dad's buying for children so they don't know any better. The other half is fucking retards that you can kick in the balls time after time and they will still buy your product and scream 'BLIZZARD IS THE BEST COMPANY EVA!'.

Archerofaiur

United States4101 Posts

May 30 2010 00:06 GMT

#170

On May 30 2010 09:00 zizzefex wrote:

Show nested quote +

What you can do is rate the game, which is free, easy, effective, legal and your right as a gamer.

Poll: Would you give SC2 a one star amazon rating to protest BNET?

Yes (6508)

83%

No (1331)

17%

7839 total votes

Your vote: Would you give SC2 a one star amazon rating to protest BNET?

(Vote): Yes
(Vote): No

mmp

United States2130 Posts

May 30 2010 00:13 GMT

#171

This is the sad truth of the gaming industry. Developers are very much at odds with marketing and need to churn out what is a sure sell - often leaving innovation and risk behind.

Big fish like Blizzard have already set a strong example and can continue to explore where their creativity takes them, but many of the smaller companies mentioned in the article (the ones laid off or closed) don't get anywhere near the satisfaction that their talents deserve.

Spiffeh

United States830 Posts

May 30 2010 00:15 GMT

#172

i don't get mad at people very often except for Bobby Kotick

ScytheMan01

United States114 Posts

May 30 2010 00:15 GMT

#173

Kotick is evil! What the hell man

Shizuru~

Malaysia1676 Posts

May 30 2010 00:19 GMT

#174

to be fair guys, Blizzard has always produced games of exceptional qualities, the three main franchise that they made are AWESOME games! and i have no doubt in my mind that SC2 will be just as awesome in terms of gameplay...

however, the problem we're having now is the platform (Battlenet 2.0) this game will be played on is forced down our throats. i WANT to play SC2, but i don't want to be forced to play SC2 on this poorly designed platform, the community has made it clear enough of what reasonable improvement we want, and yet all of us are getting ignored. thats what the recent uproar is about...

On May 30 2010 09:15 Spiffeh wrote:
i don't get mad at people very often except for Bobby Kotick

how about Uwe Boll?

KungKras

Sweden484 Posts

May 30 2010 00:19 GMT

#175

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.

Garrl

Scotland1974 Posts

May 30 2010 00:23 GMT

#176

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?

Reaper9

United States1724 Posts

May 30 2010 00:26 GMT

#177

Thank you for your diligent work. Whenever I read what the people's responses on Blizzard forums are, I rage incredibly hard. We, the people of Starcraft and Gaming, are trying to remedy a fault and wrong, only to keep on being obstructed by short minded "casuals" as Blizzard would like us to coin them. They are not casuals. They are the newer generation of gamers who do not understand what customer service and actual inspiration (requirements that any company should (but due to corporate greed and short-sightedness will not) deliver) has been an integral part as to the reason why early video gaming had taken off.

It was dedication of small struggling companies trying to make a name for themselves that brought innovation to the playing field. The most typical example being Nintendo, which started as a card making company (among others) and wound up being one of the most well known (and liked/disliked, as fame does to any company) gaming companies to still exist.

Voices do matter. If one person believes oh my opinion does not matter, why bother, then you have just contributed to the flow that a greedy company wants. By becoming one of those accepting ones, that in fact will harm the product even more if the company thinks they can get away with it. Of course if a game is good, and you cry about minor faults, that's a whole entirely different matter.

Now we are speaking of a major experience, the Multiplayer experience! If they force us to buy down-loadable maps like CoD, or say Halo, then they will further restrict us when they feel they can tread the water more and more dangerously. (They HAVE been doing that, look at region restrictions, (so they can better control monetary profit) No Lan, (Trying to prevent pirating- fail)
No chat rooms (So you have to use FACEFAIL, so they earn profits from the clicks on the site!))
NOW is the time to make our voices heard, it is not too late!

Meepman

Canada610 Posts

May 30 2010 00:27 GMT

#178

I miss the old blizzard that actually listened dammit

Rising_Phoenix

United States370 Posts

May 30 2010 00:28 GMT

#179

This is honestly scary...

VALVE!!! I COME TO YOU WITH OPEN ARMS!!! TAKE US INTO YOUR BOSOM!!!

Valve is becoming the only large company where the point of a game is to really get your value instead of this ridiculous gimping stuff.

themole

1 Post

May 30 2010 00:28 GMT

#180

Not sure if this is the best place for a 'first post', but woah. There is an intense amount of rage (and polls about rage) here. True; this dude is a douche, but what about the people stoking the fire?

I agree that Blizzard broke my heart when I read that article - and nobody will trust them as before - but they really have labored for years to iron out problems. Would Queen, Mule and Chrono even exist had they not tried 2 other solutions to a problem they didn't even realize - or massively underestimate?

Kotic is truly an evil man, and BNet 2 is seriously misguided, but those who are stoking the fire (I've seen that 'would you give SC2 a one star rating' poll about 20 times already..) seem just as bad. An emotional reaction is understandable, but shouting again and again and again the same thing..?