Disoa, I love you

I'm in for the Black Ops session -- I will make it my Playing With Swords event for next week. I will also try to join in for SSFIVAE on PC -- yes on PC -- from home.

Who knew they made a Willow arcade game? Me. Duh.

But what if they add something and I don't use it and it's good? Change is terrible and new ideas should never be allowed! Especially if I choose not to use them anyway!

HOLY SHIT WAS THAT RAGE QUITTER SONG AWESOME OR WUT

Interstate 76. Seriously. See who was actually in Bullmark and it all makes sense.

"I love how mega-corporations can act like this and then blame the consumers for said corporations own shortcomings."

Mole, you gotta educate yourself, because right now you are part of the problem. Read my Kotick article, realize that you are passing around out-of-context quotes, and make the world a better place by being smarter than that.

http://oneofswords.com/2010/08/bobby-kotick-those-infamous-comments/

If you find my research is inaccurate, show your work and let's talk.

Kieran sent me a mail regarding the price of map packs, and I was in the middle of answering it when my PC freaked out, and now I can no longer find either his message or my response. Kieran, send me another note please.

@GwaR: "hit Dan with some actual hard questions and call him to the carpet with some specific scenarios in Activision's recent past. They've mis-handled plenty of things, by admission from multiple developers recently. So let's ask them to de-bunk those 'myths'."

Drop me a line. If it's something I can comment on, I will, but if it's anything to do with a lawsuit, I'm probably not going to be able to offer any insight or even personal opinion. Your internet rage is not worth my job or my appearance on a witness stand. But otherwise...I was not bluffing with the two-way communication thing. My email is dan@oneofswords.com.

I think a lot of people here totally missed the point, or only read what they wanted to read. I am not saying "Activision is big" is the ONLY reason people hate Activision; I said it's a factor.

You say DLC is more than you want to pay? Well, developers gotta eat. I considered getting into the $15-for-5 vs the $10-for-3 model (which is what other games have done, with less criticism) but that's not the way the conversation went.

You didn't want a plastic skateboard for Tony Hawk games? Well, you also said you didn't want to play another one like the old ones, and you constantly say you want innovation and fresh ideas. So they tried one, and went big on it. Didn't work out. Didn't sell. You didn't buy it, I'm guessing, so it didn't affect you personally. Unless you want to offer some respect for them trying a completely new idea and assuming all the fiscal and creative risk that came with it, it's time to let this one go.

COD comes out every year? Yes, and the developers have two years to work on their title. The market has responded very strongly to this. If the devs are getting what they need and the gamers are getting what they very clearly want...I don't agree with this objection.

Everything people are citing here as their personal reasons for hating Activision are valid. I don't agree with all of them, and there are other sides of this that people are not considering. Unpopular decisions that the company makes, from pricing to cancellations to marketing to whatever else you can think of, can be detailed until the cows come home. I can help rattle some of them off. Not listing them specifically doesn't mean you're wrong. Doesn't mean I'm wrong either.

Chris and I could have gone on about a lot more, and I could have offered more than just the two examples I offered -- but he had a deadline, I had other stuff to do, and I think they are the biggest factors in how Activision got to where it is now as a star in the Week of Hate.

@VaneTrago: It's funny how people recall history differently. I remember being personally harassed by PGNx members in IMs -- really childish stuff, frankly -- and if you can tell me how I was shitty to you, let's have a conversation. Because you're apparently holding a grudge for, what, 10 years -- and I don't even know what I supposedly did? You better bring some details, and they'd better be compelling.

If you can disprove my research on Kotick's quote, you should step up there too.

Interesting article simply for what it leaves out of the Edge source. For instance:

"Perhaps the most surprising claim is that Activision gave Bizarre the choice of buying itself back; even more surprisingly, the answer was no. “Without going into details, yes, there was [an opportunity],” Martyn explains, “but I personally thought there was far greater potential for the security and well-being of the company if a third party could come in.”

That's a very interesting point which David does not address.

But hey, I'm biased, right? Why read the whole article?

When you say bundles, do you mean console hardware bundles? Because many of the games on this list -- GH3, WT, Wii Fit, Wii Play -- were, in fact, sold in bundles with their respective specialized controllers.

Also, this list doesn't account for inflation, so it's possible that if it did, GH3 would simply have a wider lead. But calling out all the things the list doesn't cover makes it sound like it should all be discounted...which is kind of an insult to the people who made those games, as well as the people who bought those games and liked 'em.

When you find research data that makes your personal favorite game "win," by all means, post it and claim victory.

I also stand by my editorial from earlier in the year. If you take Activision to task for relying on one or two franchises, then when they release original IPs and fresh games, you need to support them accordingly.

http://oneofswords.com/2010/06/editorial-and-singularity-makes-four/

@DLSemen "Somewhere in LA, Dan Amrich is crying a little."

No, not really. I understand David's perspective and his commentary makes sense. But...well, David has come to this conclusion now, so imagine what has happened since Activision came to the same conclusion long before.

It might be intended as tough-love criticism -- or it might just be a slow news day where traffic needs to be generated -- but either way, it's not really insightful. Then again, "You shouldn't put all your eggs in one basket" makes a less sexy headline because that advice is literally 400 years old. http://www.blurtit.com/q737605.html

So reading it, yeah, I totally get his point. But I think the kind of developments and evolutions that he says need to be made are already being made -- they just haven't been announced yet. So I'm not crying, I'm just waiting to see how things turn out.

Finally, we know what Mario would look like on the Atari 2600. I like this kind of stuff, the abstracting of games into raw materials.

Dur. This year it's 40 in 2010.

In 2008 you found 20 bad examples. In 2009, 25. This year, it's 2010.

Whatever you're doing to stop this, it's clearly not enough.

Brett, tell me more about the sex friends.

Yep, just killing. You know what my favorite game kill is? Tetricide.