This Just In: Bobby Kotick Is a Moron

[Shin Johnpv]

Is it that time again for people to wage war on definitions of hardcore and casual?Are you just talking about old people and women, or people in general that don't normally play videogames? Considering the entire trend styles towards easier to play games, huge hype machines, and giant commercial pushes strikes me as them trying to appeal both to people that play a lot of games and also people that buy maybe one game a year (probably not counting Madden).

Something like Halo, in a comparison of something like Star Trek, will most likely never appeal to certain demographics but they can certainly try to push hard to appeal to the largest possible audience. The latest Star Trek movie was engineered to appeal to brand new audiences, but still isn't going to largely capture the specific Bridges of Madison County target demographic. To that end, you can't really blame any particular group for the rise of games that are built on advertising, it's pretty much just the nature of appealing to people in general.

IMHO if I was going to classify the casual crowd, its the frat boy group that buys Madden, and what ever the latest FPS is. FPS and TPS are IMHO some of the largest offenders of "experience" or event style games, that publishers are pushing like crazy. I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to bring in more people into the industry. The more games that sell the better it is for devs and the industry over all. You can't tell me though that there isn't a very large very vocal group who are all about 2 - 3 genres and lots of cinemas that are driving what most devs make today.

Besides that, we have such a ridiculous range of games these days, I'm not even sure what people are bitching about for having some event games occur. Cave is still making shit like it's 1992, Minecraft is like the greatest game from 15 years ago that we all forgot about, games that rely on atmosphere like Amnesia are only improved with technology, and so on. Event games often fuel developers who also make stuff just for fans (hello, Capcom) and help build the industry, which in turn can give more press to lower profile titles simply by virtue of having a larger audience with varied tastes.

I'm gonna completely disagree with this. Specially about Capcom. Cave is just 1 developer though. Most aren't acting like them.

I know this board is in love with their efforts this generation but for me personally, this has been the worst generation for Capcom games ever. Outside of MM9 and 10, I'm really not sure what they've done for fans. Where are the weird quirky games like P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Maximo, and even Killer 7. I also know this board loves SFIV, I really don't like it at all. For me this has been a generation of Capcom trying to ape western devs as much as they possibly can.

I don't know I'm just not enjoying as many games this generation as last gen. It feels like to me, and I could be wrong, that a large majority of the games being pushed this gen is stuff I'm just not into. It seems like so many series are becoming mini hollywood blockbusters with yearly releases. Like the Call of Duty series. Luckily I've managed to find some gems on XBLA and WiiWare. Which is seems is going to be the home of most of the quirky risky games.

If anything, we have more awesome games per year on an increasing rate.Most of that rising cost is because of the cinematics and such, if those weren't there then that money wouldn't magically go into gameplay and make it better somehow. Their time, focus, and how the project manager handles the groups is the bigger issue.

I'm glad you're finding more and more awesome games per year. It's the opposite for me though. Last gen was AMAZING. It rivaled the 16bit era for pure awesome gamingness for me. I just feel like devs aren't taking risks this gen. Outside of a few devs, and the DD services that is.

I do think if lest time though was spent on how many shaders they can cram into a frame, and the cutscenes, we might see more time spent on refining the gameplay. Or some of that money being used on the risks. I do agree with you though that the bigger issue is project management for sure.

I'm sorry if this is a shitty ramble that makes no sense, I can clarify things if you want. I've had a long ass day on little sleep so I'm sure shit doesn't make sense.

[Diff-chan]

You know, a lot of people forget how Bobby Kotick built Activision from a burnt out husk by recruiting some of the best creative talent and creating a corporate culture that kept business and creative decisions seperate. I'm not sure when or why exactly he changed, but he wasn't always this way.

Sometimes I read comments on Joystiq or Kotaku or whatever and all the people are like "Kotick is a motherfucker that is burning Activision to the ground." Of course none of these people realize this guy has been running that company since 1991. Where was Activision in 1991?

Whatever shitty shit Activision is doing now is exactly the same shitty shit EA was doing when they had all the dominant IP, and it's not nearly as bad as the shit Nintendo did as the big dog. It's just how it is, at least this is a creative industry which ensures healthy competition and turnover. We're not talking about DeBeer's here.

[Frogacuda]

Where was Activision in 1991?

They had obliterated all in-house development, changed their name to Mediagenic, abandoned all their brands, and were $20 million in debt. The ONLY reason Kotick bought them is because the Activision brand, while dormant at the time, still had a lot of consumer recognition. He really built the company we call Activision now from scratch. There was virtually nothing left of the old company when he came on.

[NeoZeedeater]

I know this board is in love with their efforts this generation but for me personally, this has been the worst generation for Capcom games ever. Outside of MM9 and 10, I'm really not sure what they've done for fans. Where are the weird quirky games like P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Maximo, and even Killer 7. I also know this board loves SFIV, I really don't like it at all. For me this has been a generation of Capcom trying to ape western devs as much as they possibly can.

Zack & Wiki's horrible sales probably have discouraged them from making more quirky original stuff (although with a name like that it was destined to fail despite the quality). As a Bionic Commando fan, I was quite pleased with Rearmed and the 3d sequel. A lot of people seem to hate the latter, though.

[Frogacuda]

I know this board is in love with their efforts this generation but for me personally, this has been the worst generation for Capcom games ever. Outside of MM9 and 10, I'm really not sure what they've done for fans. Where are the weird quirky games like P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Maximo, and even Killer 7. I also know this board loves SFIV, I really don't like it at all. For me this has been a generation of Capcom trying to ape western devs as much as they possibly can.

I think Platinum Games' formation was really a pretty major blow to Capcom. You can argue about whether or not their output is on par with Capcom's last gen stuff, but it's in the ballpark at least, and they took a lot of their ace talent with them. Like, the people that made all those games you just said that aren't Maximo and Killer 7 (which wasn't even really made by Capcom to begin with).

[YellerDog]

I do not understand the Maximo love to this day. It is the "Barney" to G&G's "Jurassic Park".

[Tain]

That's a pretty great way of putting it.

[Yoshi]

Yeah, his analogy is perfect. I guess the answer is that there is a place for Barney and a place for Jurassic Park. I'd pick the latter every time, but that doesn't mean the former doesn't do what it sets out to do.

[Yoshi]

I know this board is in love with their efforts this generation but for me personally, this has been the worst generation for Capcom games ever. Outside of MM9 and 10, I'm really not sure what they've done for fans. Where are the weird quirky games like P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Maximo, and even Killer 7. I also know this board loves SFIV, I really don't like it at all. For me this has been a generation of Capcom trying to ape western devs as much as they possibly can.

I'm thinking as I type here, which is dangerous, so I'll reach an overall conclusion at the end, but using the completely lazy Mega Man 9 & 10 as positive examples ruins your credibility in terms of evaluating current gen Capcom. If anything, that is a pretty strong piece of supporting evidence for your overall argument in their dropping quality. So I'm going to compare the last two generations on the fly here:

PS2/GC/Xbox
+ Resident Evil 1 (remake), 4
+ Devil May Cry 1, 3
- Okami
- Viewtiful Joe
- Capcom Fighting Evolution
+ Onimusha series

PS3/Wii/360
- Resident Evil 5
+ Devil May Cry 4
+ Dead Rising 1, 2
~ Lost Planet 1, 2
+ Street Fighter IV and Super
+ Zack & Wiki
+ Bionic Commando: Rearmed
~ Bionic Commando
- Mega Man 9, 10

I'm sure I'm forgetting stuff, but I'd say the two generations are pretty close and that the current one would get the nod when you include re-releases of Final Fight SSFIIT, etc.

However, both of these generations just get masscred by Capcom's 16 and 32-bit days. Where the fuck is Dino Crisis, you assholes?

[Yoshi]

Yoshi's all about the market and capitalism and corporate responsibility until it affects that thing he likes.

I'm for it there too, which is why I encourage people to vote correctly with their dollars to drive the casuals and non-gamers out.