Possible delays with cata?

[Elader Arkon]

The game is good. Everyone else is good. Except the corporate side is terrible.

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/212109/activision-ceo-wants-to-take-the-fun-out-of-making-games/

That's just the tip of the iceberg. Activision runs its dev studio under sweatshop conditions. There should be fairtrade certified games, but seriously, if everyone is playing it, you want in on the action. A one man boycott ain't gona do anything.

Oh, and the "taking the fun out of videogames" comment, which you mention as an impetus for this group, is actually one of those comments that does not mean what people think it means. It was reported out of context and people ran with it. GameSpot actually transcribed the full interview:

Gamespot Article

Many people took his comments in a game development context, but he was talking at a banking conference to a financial analyst -- the entire comment is purely from a business perspective, NOT a creative-culture perspective.

"Taking the fun out" means avoiding fiscal risk and not making the mistakes that other companies have made, where they confuse the fun of playing games with the realities of publishing them. For instance, you may have heard wild tales of Atari -- a bunch of hippies in hot tubs, who certainly knew how to create great games but did not have the business know how, so they just sort of did whatever they wanted and the company eventually failed and was sold and all the things that you can read about at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari


That is actually what he meant, and he meant it as a joke...which was admittedly not funny. But it did NOT mean that he wanted to make developers into slaves or make everybody afraid to lose their jobs. He was telling the audience of investors that their money was safe because he didn't think making games was itself a game, and he was going to be a hard-*** when it came to weathering an economic crisis (which was a major topic of global discussion when that interview was given). That is what bankers like to hear!

The transcription from GameSpot is really the magic bullet. It's clear the depression he's talking about is financial, as in The Great Depression; when he talks about skepticism and pessimism, it's in terms of "how bad could sales of games fall if the economy tanks" and preparing for the worst. It is totally different from how people see or are rewarded for their daily jobs.

Dan's discussion with the Gamers Against Bobby Kotick FB group is an interesting read. People won't give it a rest, seriously. EA is just as 'bad', if not 'worse' than Activision... But nobody really cares about that. Gamers can be exceptionally deep rooted in their biases. People don't realize that without the business acumen of these kinds of corporations, we wouldn't have AAA titles.

 

[silverleaf]

Ah ok that explains some stuff, but it is still true that Activision is run like a sweatshop. THe worst thing is they can get away with it, as everyone wants in on that party, so they can continue to abuse their workers.

Even if WoW employed child labor, I'd find it real difficult to cancel my subs just on that. However if EVERYONE was willing to take a stand and unsubscribe as one, then I wouldn't hesitate. The problem now is big multiplayer game developers can get away with almost anything because we don't want to leave the crowd.

 

[XionTawa]

Dan's discussion with the Gamers Against Bobby Kotick FB group is an interesting read. People won't give it a rest, seriously. EA is just as 'bad', if not 'worse' than Activision... But nobody really cares about that. Gamers can be exceptionally deep rooted in their biases. People don't realize that without the business acumen of these kinds of corporations, we wouldn't have AAA titles.

IMO EA is worse than Activision...

Ah ok that explains some stuff, but it is still true that Activision is run like a sweatshop. THe worst thing is they can get away with it, as everyone wants in on that party, so they can continue to abuse their workers.

Even if WoW employed child labor, I'd find it real difficult to cancel my subs just on that. However if EVERYONE was willing to take a stand and unsubscribe as one, then I wouldn't hesitate. The problem now is big multiplayer game developers can get away with almost anything because we don't want to leave the crowd.

M$ has been using child labor for years...and have been called out on it many times... Now M$ wasn't "directly" using child labor, but when asked if they had reps visit their over seas production places, they said "yeah, like once a month"...LOL... :-/ http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/c...de-that-microsoft-mouse-youre-using/19440697/

 

[silverleaf]

The thing with pitiful, exploitative wages and child labor is while it is exploiting the 3rd world, forcing the corps out will actually only make things worse. That's why I find it is a very touchy subject, whichever side you take.
If microsoft pulls out, these people will be without a job. However, running a sweatshop ain't right either.

Now the issue I have with game devs is when they treat players like cattle, saying 'they will still keep playing anyway so we can do whatever we want'. That, I think is the main problem with Blizzard. They can do better, they can listen to community feedback more (like more players for diablo 3), but they WON'T. Even if we assembled a 1 million player petition to change something, they know that out of these 1 million protesters, only a few are actually willing to stage a boycott, and they don't care.