Game News 2.0

Sonics2k · 03-08-2021 7:34pm

Whilst I'm not fan of Activision, and certainly can't stand someone like Kotick, I think it's a bit silly for people to be focusing their anger at Activision-Blizzard. These issues kicked off long before Activision came into the picture and largely seems focused on the people at the top of Blizzard.

I think it's that old nostalgia thing, we don't want to blame the thing that brought us a lot of joy and fun many many years ago, so we'll look to another reason or place to put blame.

Although it's great to see the rampant misogyny aimed Jen Oneal and claims her being a 'token' promotion, despite her years of experience in Vicarious Visions and even Activision in the early 2000's. J. Allen Brack hasn't done a good job leading Blizzard over the last few years and isn't exactly popular with the community, especially since his infamous "You think you do, but you don't." statement. The fact is that the Blizzard of the past is long gone, where they once openly decried the concept of selling in-game gold for real money, it shifted to 'maybe' and now it's one of their biggest money makers, but it did little to battle the problem of gold-farming and botting in the game.

EoinMcLovin · 03-08-2021 9:39pm

https://twitter.com/ZhugeEX/status/1422657372435193859?s=20

https://twitter.com/jasonschreier/status/1422653540774907907?s=20

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Harika · 03-08-2021 9:46pm

Kotick is now in full command. The good old blizzard that was already dead has now a knife in its cold heart to never wake up again.

Curious who else will go. There are tons of people involved in this frat culture that are still with the company.

Penn · 03-08-2021 10:41pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117701966#Comment_117701966

Yeah, as Schreier said in another tweet, the heads of Blizzard have gone from being CEO, to President, and now just Co-Leaders; a sign that Kotick/Activision have essentially assumed full control of Blizzard.

But Kotick is still culpable for what's happened at Blizzard over the last few years. Things can't happen at that scale for that long in the company, and especially since the investigation began two years ago (meaning they had to have been bad enough before that to warrant the investigation), without the head of the whole company being responsible at the very least of failure to see what's going on in the company and to act accordingly.

Kotick shouldn't be able to claim ignorance and absolve himself of responsibility.

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2021 12:26am

Kind of sickening as well that you know that these higher ups at Blizzard are leaving with big fat exit fees and probably stocks and a NDA to stop them talking to the press. Nice little parachute for all the abuse they caused or let run rampant without intervening.

Varik · 04-08-2021 1:48am

After hours stock price climbed up back to where it was last week after the +20% above predicted returns, might climb higher again when it opens for the rest of us.

Looking at the put options a lot of people will be losing money by the end of the week, strike prices were mostly sub 80 down to 50.

Penn · 04-08-2021 8:47am

Saw a tweet this morning that some of the shareholders are attempting to sue Activision-Blizzard as they didn't reveal that there was such an investigation on-going (and other relevant information) which could affect share prices.

Hard to see if they have a case, but at the very least it's pressure on the company from the people who matter most to the likes of Bobby Kotick... the shareholders.

https://www.engadget.com/activision-blizzard-investor-lawsuit-210106008.html?src=rss&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABegEnOHOgQzj28xZRM2DQk3s7xbQ-SBGO3pece9ed_jZQVMUZiQzF0bDruwq3jRvibGcwrJY_gkcC9KSf0khLOcDpa4vIetgXiVyXmr11LXlnhlu-OfQsVk01kUUZ6MKTcakaFnQKW5sdT2ALv1TlFPa_FQWo22-nbJFzIQnB-A

pixelburp · 04-08-2021 9:07am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117703135#Comment_117703135

I wonder what Kotick's golden parachute looks like; whether he's thrown to the wolves or not, I can't imagine he'll walk away at any point impoverished.

Unsubscribed from their channel 'cos I was finding it hard to enjoy the constant, slightly obsessive raging - the wrestling stuff kinda bored too TBH - but presumably Jim Stephanie Sterling and pundits of their ilk will be making hay from this sorry, sordid affair. At least they can claim validation for their angle of "the AAA industry is shít" with all this recent maelstrom.

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2021 9:33am

I don't see Kotick going. He took Activision out of the financial gutter in the 90's. Love him or hate him, as a businessman he has managed Activision well and that's all the shareholders care about.

CastorTroy · 04-08-2021 2:14pm

Well good to see where the shareholders priority lies. They're not upset about what's happened or the investigation. It's that they weren't told something that would negatively affect share prices

Varik · 04-08-2021 3:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117704979#Comment_117704979

It's a class action, the lawyers sue first and then find the clients after/during

CastorTroy · 04-08-2021 4:18pm

https://twitter.com/WeAreSecretMode/status/1422920257870737409?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1422920257870737409%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=

I had it on the A600 years ago. Came along with it and Striker, Pinball Dreams and a Word Processor program.

Don't think I got too far. Gave me a weird craving for Chupa Chups though

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2021 4:29pm

I was always envious of my Amiga owning mates and zool 1 and 2. Then I upgraded my C64 to a Megadrive and got to play Zool and it's a standard euro platformer with all the bad airplane hanger level design and wonky controls that go with it.

Won't be picking this one up, not got the nostalgia for it. Now if that PS4 Turrican collection came to steam, that would be a different story.

super_furry · 04-08-2021 4:48pm

I mean mostly I'm just wondering - why?

I had an Amiga back then and even I knew that Zool was just a case of Amiga owners convincing themselves it was a good game so they didn't feel jealous of the Megadrive or SNES. Same with Bodyblows and, well nearly anything from Team 17 back then. Superfrog, I'm looking at you.

pixelburp · 04-08-2021 4:57pm

I mean, where ANY of these "we want a mascot too!" platform games any good? Seems like in the great goldrush to have one's own Mario/Sonic, no time was spent actually copying what made those games tick along so nicely.

super_furry · 04-08-2021 4:59pm

I still believe that Mr Nutz was and is a really good game - even on the Amiga - but they were mostly rubbish alright.

CastorTroy · 04-08-2021 5:07pm

I'm sure there's a list of failed mascots somewhere that includes Cool Spot, Bubsy and many others.

BlitzKrieg · 04-08-2021 5:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117705940#Comment_117705940

rocket knight adventures

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2021 5:10pm

Anything trying to copy mascot games from America or Europe at the time were rubbish. Most of the good western developers were PC based and japan ruled the consoles.

There's some great Japanese mascot games. Rocket Knight Adventures is for me (and I'd argue unarguably) the second best game on the Megadrive and sparkster, the star of the game was Konami's attempt to make a mascot. Absolutely class game even if it's quite difficult but that's what you get when you task the Contra team with making a mascot platformer.

Namco's Klonoa is another real stand out. While every one and their dog falls over themselves to fawn over the quite frankly mediocre Crash Bandicoot games, Klonoa was far and away the best platformer on the PS1 (and PS2, Klonoa 2 is fantastic). Tail Concerto is another, and I'm currently playing Sony's Ape Escape which is well worth a revisit.

All japanese though. I'd struggle to think of a good Western one. Even stuff like the megadrive Aladdin or earthworm jim are kind of fur coat no knickers in retrospect.

J. Marston · 04-08-2021 5:17pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117705979#Comment_117705979

Don't forget Dynamite Headdy.

CastorTroy · 04-08-2021 5:31pm

Too late. Already forgot him. Didn't play most of the games. But you reminded me of Dynamite Dux

BlitzKrieg · 04-08-2021 5:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117706044#Comment_117706044

forgettable character

but what a game!

It's 16 bit treasure platformer. Thats peak boss fights and quirky game mechanics

Also they beat Paper Mario by almost 10 years to the whole the entire game is actually a theatre show aesthetic that works great.

Though Gunstar Heroes is still better and it's characters were Red and Blue...

though to be fair the villains were Green, Pink, Orange and Black.

Retr0gamer · 04-08-2021 6:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117706044#Comment_117706044

Awesome game although don't think he was really pushed as a mascot.

Mr Crispy · 04-08-2021 6:16pm

I remember Fire and Ice on the Amiga. It was decent as I recall, but the mascot character was called Cool Coyote.

Jaysus.

Mr Crispy · 04-08-2021 8:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117693109#Comment_117693109

And now she has deleted her Twitter account entirely. I'm sure everyone will forget about it now.

johnny_ultimate · 05-08-2021 2:01am

A very odd statement released by Gone Home studio Fullbright (now working on Open Roads)…

https://twitter.com/openroadsgame/status/1423071532952080386?s=21

… followed by a very unflattering story about Steve Gaynor’s workplace behaviour. (For those who don’t know the name, Gaynor has basically been the studio’s main public spokesperson / creative).

https://www.polygon.com/22610490/fullbright-steve-gaynor-controversy-stepped-down-open-roads

“Although Gaynor is no longer a creative lead on Open Roads, he is still working on the game as a writer. He currently has no day-to-day collaboration with the rest of the team. Instead, Annapurna Interactive is operating as a mediator between the studio developers and Gaynor, as development continues with a fraction of the company. Multiple former employees expressed concern that Gaynor was even operating in this capacity — that it was weird for a man to be writing a story about a mother and daughter, particularly a man that has allegedly demeaned several female employees.”

Yikes

Absolutely baffling that they’re letting him continue working in this bizarre way.

Zero-Cool · 05-08-2021 8:10am

Aw ffs. I just said to myself the other day "at least you find that bollox acting at Annapurna studios" Gone Home is one of my favourite games and I'm really looking forward to Open Road but this doesn't sound good.

I wonder if that's why Karla Zimonja left Fullbright to start a new company..

After reading the polygon article, Fulbright does not sound healthy one bit with the amount of people that left and multiple similar stories. Looks like Gaynor is at least aware of his behaviour but still, what a **** situation.

The Raging Bile Duct · 05-08-2021 1:03pm

Was he not an equal opportunities asshole rather than a sexist one? It looks like the had a very female heavy workforce and no one witnessed any sexual harassment. It sounds like his way of dealing with employees in general was completely toxic.

Mr Crispy · 05-08-2021 3:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/117709923#Comment_117709923

It looks like he favoured picking on women, according to Polygon's sources anyway.

The report highlights that, while no women have reported sexual harassment or "explicit sexism", the studio's toxic culture led to women allegedly being broken down by "microagressions". Former staff claim Gaynor had a tendency to "disparage and discredit the contributions of female staffers in particular".

Mr Crispy · 05-08-2021 3:28pm

A Fallen Order sequel has been pretty much confirmed.

https://twitter.com/geoffkeighley/status/1423067051753492484?s=20

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