Hi Sean,
I found this interesting: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/going-gold/6790-You-Get-What-You-Pay-For
The author correctly sees the core implosion but what is his solution? We should accept “new payment models” from the industry so that it may make more profit from us again! Do we look like the government, like we’d give bailouts to the industry?
Holy moly, that is one clear piece of propaganda that writer is doing. Everyone should read it and laugh.
Escapist magazine really is turning into a Industry propaganda machine. Wow.
Now, the author of the piece says that the MW2 boycott has ‘failed’. If this is true, then why write about it? I think the MW2 boycott is having an effect. It may not affect launch sales but it will definitely decrease sales over the long term due to the poisoning of Infinity Ward’s reputation.
Overall, I think the Dedicated Server issue is good in that it is revealing to gamers just who and what the “Game Industry” is. The “Game Industry” does not like you and does not care about gaming.
While a CEO like Bobby Kotick may be individually rich, the idea that games developers are laughing all the way to the bank by ripping off poor consumers is a complete myth. Game development is not a particularly well-paying profession, and despite the high visibility of a few big-name developers, it’s nowhere near the madness of Hollywood paying $20 million for a few months of a director’s time.
Why is everything compared to Hollywood?
What about game developers who make board games? How much do they get paid?
What about game developers who make pinball tables? How much do they get paid?
What about other types of entertainment creators out there? I assure you that the writers out there are not getting paid much at all.
Interesting how the propagandist is unable to defend Kotick but uses the cliche “game developers starving in garage working on your game”. The Infinity Ward guys get paid a significant amount of money.
But the complaint is not about people making money. The complaint is that Activision is chasing revenue instead of the customer experience and willing to hurt the customer experience in order to increase its revenue.
But if we want other publishers to be able to continue to take risks on new IPs, we are going to have to start dialing back the hate for new payment models.
Dialing back the hate! Oh no!!!!
Above: Malstrom offers this dial phone so we can ‘dial back the hate’.
New payment models! How dare you peon customers object!
Remember folks, you aren’t gamers. You are nothing more than walking wallets to them. Pay up! Pay up!