Post by kevinfelixlee on May 4, 2011 3:43:06 GMT -5
First, let me be clear. I am not a fan of any publisher/developer, including Activision. I simply do not care. If a game is good, then I will support it. I don¡¯t engage in pointless debates about how Treyarch is inferior to Infinity Ward (or vice versa). However, every once in a while, something happens that enrages me to the point that I will brave the trolls and address the idiot gamers runescape gold out there. Recently, Activision made some important decisions that impacted the lives and employment of 500 people. At this point a lot of you gamers will spew forth an anti-Activision tirade born of monumental ignorance and immaturity. Let me give you two pieces of advice. One, don¡¯t do that. And two, your life is going to suck until the day you die if you don¡¯t stop playing the victim.
Activision announced that development of Guitar Hero would cease. Many gamers accuse Activision of draining the veins dry of any successful IP it owns, and often cite the Guitar Hero franchise as evidence. This opinion is completely void of common sense and knowledge of business strategy. First off, no product is capable of an infinite life span, which means it will see diminishing profits. Oversaturating the market can decrease any game¡¯s lifespan, but I would argue that Activision knew the music-genre was fading. In addition to trying to profit as much as it could, it was also supplying work rs gold to the Guitar Hero developers. Had Guitar Hero 5 and Warriors of Rock never been released, on top of the franchise dying after GH World Tour, the developers would have suffered an earlier fate. Either way, the idiots out there seem determined to fault Activision regardless of the decisions they make.
In Activision¡¯s Q4 2010 Earning¡¯s Call, they revealed that True Crime Hong Kong would be canceled, the Guitar Hero unit was no more, and due to restructuring, 500 jobs were being dissolved. There was also mention of DLC stuff, but that too was distorted by the Internet fools as being evidence that the company doesn¡¯t care about anything that¡¯s not Call of Duty related. So, as a favor to the masses, let me put the whole situation into the proper perspective for you.
Ifollow Dan Amrich¡¯s One of Swords website and podcast pretty regularly. In case you are unfamiliar with Dan, he is Activision¡¯s gamer liaison (akin to Microsoft¡¯s Major Nelson). Yes, Activision pays him, but I¡¯ve come to recognize that Dan is really just a good guy who loves games, and remains as objective as possible. He is not a corporate lackey. One of the best ways to summarize the recent Activision lay-offs was put forth by One of Swords co-host, Hugh Sterbakov. He said, ¡°those who are offended by layoffs in the gaming industry simply do not understand the industry, period.¡± This is true of game development as well as my own industry, web development. Any industry runescape money that relies on a single product or service is at risk of short-notice unemployment. When the demand for that product/service runs dry, so do the paychecks. It sucks, and I¡¯ve felt the sting of sudden unemployment, but if I wanted stability I could have chosen a different industry.
Most gamers who consistently attack Activision either lack common sense, or lack an objective perspective on the role of a publisher (sometimes both). Here are some comments by gamers about the recent Activision news:
Regarding TC: Hong Kong ¨C ¡°¡Activision thought wrong when they said the game wasn¡¯t good enough.¡±
Regarding Guitar Hero¡¯s hiatus ¨C ¡°It saddens me that Guitar Hero actually is dead.¡±
General ignorance ¨C ¡°Activision needs to get back in touch with its inner gamer.¡±
Regarding the 500 layoffs (directed at Dan Amrich) ¨C ¡°you better [perform sexual favors for Kotick as I'd hate to see you lose your job]¡±
For ignorance and stupidity on a more professional level, do a Google search for ¡°kotaku kotick¡± or ¡°arstechnica kotick.¡± If you¡¯re not familiar with Bobby Kotick, he is the CEO of Activision and is frequently taken out of context to support weak attacks on Activision. I have neither the time nor the space to accurately address everything wrong with the ¡°hate Kotick¡± bandwagon, but if you are interested in a balanced response to the hatred, read this. Those Kotaku and Arstechnica articles are prime examples of ¡°professional¡± media outlets propagating ignorance in the gaming community. If your opinion of Activision has been influenced by either of them, you¡¯re being used.
If I had to give one reason why many are wrong about Activision runescape items and Kotick, I¡¯d choose this: it is not a publisher¡¯s job to be innovative or push the artistic boundaries of gaming. That responsibility belongs to the developers. Most gamers¡¯ stance on the role of a video game publisher is similar to expecting an art gallery to create art and invest in art no one is buying or interested in. Publishers have one goal, to make money. This involves capitalizing on already established IPs (Intellectual Property), and investing in developers who can deliver successful and original IPs. But instead of realizing this and focusing their expectations on the developers, focus is shifted to Activision. A lot of gamers have given Activision inaccurate responsibilities and expectations. I¡¯ve learned an important lesson in life: if you like being disappointed, maintain false expectations.
A big portion of the complaints against Activision comes from a perceived lack of support for their lesser-known IPs. I bought Singularity and loved it, but I was confused by Activision¡¯s lack of advertising for what seemed like a promising release. That is, until I realized that money spent on advertising is not a direct correlation to money earned through sales. In other words, Activision could dump Call of Duty amounts of advertising into any IP and that will not guarantee Call of Duty sales figures. This is mostly due to the difference in target audience between triple-A titles and new IPs. Games like C.o.D. have a huge target audience that ranges from the hardcore to the casual. I would argue that the largest subsection of this audience runescape accounts is the casual gamer who does not keep connected with industry news outlets. Because of this, advertising must involve a wider (and more expensive) range of sources (television, internet, and print). But when you look at an original game like Singularity, casual gamers might purchase it when it goes platinum, but the realistic target audience is mostly the serious player. Most of these gamers will be connected with gaming news outlets, so advertising to them is a lot cheaper. If sales figures were that dependant upon advertising dollars, every decent product released, in any industry, would receive ridiculous amounts of advertising. But that conclusion is not based on common sense.
Let me close with some facts. Activision supports original IPs and original established-brand spinoffs. In 2009 they released DJ Hero and Prototype, in 2010 they released Blur, Singularity, War for Cybertron and Shattered Dimensions, and in 2011 they are slated to release fewer original IPs, but are still financing X-Men, Spider-Man and Transformer titles. And in 2012, they are scheduled to launch Prototype 2, a game that should be on everyone¡¯s radar. Do some searching around the Internet and you can get a better of idea of just how much Activision spends on lesser-known releases. If you¡¯re upset that True Crime: Hong Kong was canceled, step back for a minute and appreciate that the company actually paid for work that was done, but decided to take a loss and not publish a sub-par game. Chances are you¡¯d be more upset if they had released it and you spent 60 bucks only to be disappointed.
In short, Activision fronts a large amount of cash for non C.O.D DLC and iterations, but in the long run, it¡¯s not their job to shape the industry, just to capitalize on promising titles. But they have proven willing to take risks on developers with artistic ideas and original IPs. Gamers need to detach their emotions long enough to approach gaming related news with more common sense and way less victim mentality. We accept this form of capitalism and innovation in a diverse range of industries, but loving video games is a sorry excuse for attacking people like Dan Amrich or companies like Activision on account of hurt feelings. These issues don¡¯t require expertise, just a healthy dose of objectivity and proper perspective. When your opinion involves faulting someone, no matter what has transpired, at best, you¡¯re wrong at least 50% of the time. At worst, you¡¯re a troll that gives decent gamers like me a bad name.
The opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer, and do not represent the views of The Adrenaline Vault or its parent company NewWorld.