I had a thought about Sekiro this weekend. I had been considering boycotting it as a general principle of "I don't want to give Activision my money anymore, because they are run by filthy whores" but after pondering that stance I realized, if I stop giving my money to singleplayer games, that is going to send them the message that singleplayer games are not worth the investment and that is not the message I want to send.
So unfortunately (fortunately), I will be buying Sekiro because I want them to know that there is still an audience for singleplayer games.
I'm buying Sekiro to profit From Soft, because I love all of their games.
I'm going to buy Warcraft III: Reforged because, as far as I can tell, this is the only and maybe last barometer from Blizzard of any interesting in Warcraft as a real-time strategy game.
Not a promise or anything of that sort, a mere "indication"--"Hey, we know we used to make those games. We think about them once in a while. We even can put a little thought into it."
I don't expect it to go anywhere, but at the same time, I do expect to enjoy it.
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AxenMy avatar is Excalibur.Yes, the sword.Registered Userregular
I had a thought about Sekiro this weekend. I had been considering boycotting it as a general principle of "I don't want to give Activision my money anymore, because they are run by filthy whores" but after pondering that stance I realized, if I stop giving my money to singleplayer games, that is going to send them the message that singleplayer games are not worth the investment and that is not the message I want to send.
So unfortunately (fortunately), I will be buying Sekiro because I want them to know that there is still an audience for singleplayer games.
I'm buying Sekiro to profit From Soft, because I love all of their games.
Yeah, if it makes things more palpable for people, Activision is acting as a traditional Publisher in this instance. They've nothing to do with From Software or the game itself and are only handling the release of the game in the West. The success or failure or Sekiro is very unlikely to affect Activsion in any real way.
Axen on
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
So, just when you think Activision is done grubbing for money for the time being, they just announced that loot boxes are coming back to Call of Duty! Yay!
"-It’s a $60 game.
-There are direct cosmetic microtransaction purchases.
-There are tier skips for their Battle Pass style “content stream.”
-There’s a $50 Season Pass.
-Now there are loot boxes."
Undead Scottsman on
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Whenever people question my hatred of the stock market and investors, THIS. THIS is why.
Here's a weird question: if one was going to get into the full-length Warcraft novels, who was pretty familiar with all the non-novel Warcraft media...where would they start?
Here's a weird question: if one was going to get into the full-length Warcraft novels, who was pretty familiar with all the non-novel Warcraft media...where would they start?
Here's a weird question: if one was going to get into the full-length Warcraft novels, who was pretty familiar with all the non-novel Warcraft media...where would they start?
I found the Warcraft manga actually pretty good.
I've actually read some of those, and I don't disagree.
Mostly I was thinking of using one of my audible credits to buy a Warcraft novel before I cancel the subscription. Christie Golden seems recommended.
Here's a weird question: if one was going to get into the full-length Warcraft novels, who was pretty familiar with all the non-novel Warcraft media...where would they start?
I found the Warcraft manga actually pretty good.
I've actually read some of those, and I don't disagree.
Mostly I was thinking of using one of my audible credits to buy a Warcraft novel before I cancel the subscription. Christie Golden seems recommended.
I haven't read them in years, and a lot I like less now because Blizzard had a habit of turning every character with a name into some big huge important figure.
Seriously, Day of the Dragon was a book about some a random troublemaker mage named Rhonin being sent out on a shit mission, and meeting up with a random Elven archer (who I'll admit did have the name of Vareesa Windrunner, but they don't call attention to it) and a random Gryphon rider named Falstad. I like this book because it wasn't about the big name characters. You really felt like these were the nameless units turned into characters, and it made the book much better IMO.
But Blizzard's gotta Blizzard, so Rhonin became leader of the Kirin Tor for awhile and Falstad became chief of the Wildhammer Clan (Vareesa got caught up in the Sylvanas stuff, but I'll forgive that a bit since they did give her the name Windrunner)
The one about Thrall was alright, though it feels super rushed in getting from point A or point B. Routinely Thrall needs to accomplish something, so he'll set out to do it and be done with it in like four pages after the first thing he tries works, no matter how much of a long shot it is.
I hated Last Guardian at the time, as it retconned a ridiculous amount out of stuff, but that's pretty much everything Blizzard does at this point.
The War of the Ancients trilogy was blatant fan service where they just brought the Rhonin and Krasus (Rhonin's mentor and secret red dragon) back into the past, rather than letting it just be the story about the War of the Ancients.
I think I stopped reading Warcraft novels at that point.
Sorry, that brought up some deep seated resentment. Also, at this point there are probably a dozen Warcraft novels I haven't read, so one of those might be good.
Day of the Dragon in itself is probably one of the better ones, if you don't have my dumb hangups.
I recall the Starcraft novels not being great, but most of the Diablo ones were pretty good, especially the ones written by Richard A. Knaak.. (Which is weird because I probably like Diablo the least out of those three properties)
Sorry, that brought up some deep seated resentment. Also, at this point there are probably a dozen Warcraft novels I haven't read, so one of those might be good.
Day of the Dragon in itself is probably one of the better ones, if you don't have my dumb hangups.
I recall the Starcraft novels not being great, but most of the Diablo ones were pretty good, especially the ones written by Richard A. Knaak.. (Which is weird because I probably like Diablo the least out of those three properties)
The Timothy Zahn Starcraft novel was decent, but he's a decent writer and tends to write fairly enjoyable characters (although they tend to follow fairly consistent archetypes). It did make me painfully aware that the setting is mostly hanging together by strings and misdirections as it starts to fall apart as soon as you pay attention to the fridge logic present all over the place thanks to all the retcons and SC2 storytelling increasing priority of cool scenes with a disinterest in doing all the heavy lifting to make them fit into the rest of what has been written.
I recall hearing some dissatisfaction with the Richard Knaak Warcraft novels, but I haven't read them myself so I don't know what the exact nature of the dissatisfaction was.
If you played World of Warcraft at any point a lot of them are apparently good to read to get the majority of the story pieces left out of the game. A lot of major things happen in them and set up situations that are briefly dealt with in the game and then the fallout continues in the novels.
Bobby Kotick's worth over 7 billion, why does he need a salary at all?
Le sigh
I guess not everyone can be Keanu Reeves and donate the majority of their salary to charities or use it to pay off the debts of the various people working on the movie because, "I've more money then I could ever spend already".
Would be nice if more people were like Keanu Reeves.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
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Warlock82Never pet a burning dogRegistered Userregular
I mean, I do not begrudge people, even CEOs, making money. But you look at Nintendo - when the Wii U sales were down and 3DS had not picked up speed yet, Iwata and a lot of senior management took voluntary pay cuts. I feel like there were probably other options than laying off 800 people suddenly while Kotick/etc make a ton of cash.
Also probably some that wouldn't cause a massive stock drop :P:
I mean what do you think they do with the bonuses? They tank the stock price then buy up all the shares, do some short term shady stuff to boost it up and offload it.
I mean, I do not begrudge people, even CEOs, making money. But you look at Nintendo - when the Wii U sales were down and 3DS had not picked up speed yet, Iwata and a lot of senior management took voluntary pay cuts. I feel like there were probably other options than laying off 800 people suddenly while Kotick/etc make a ton of cash.
Also probably some that wouldn't cause a massive stock drop :P:
But all the money I made from selling pre-firing, buying up at the dip, then reselling after the bump is still here, thanks to the tips I got from insiders.
I had a thought about Sekiro this weekend. I had been considering boycotting it as a general principle of "I don't want to give Activision my money anymore, because they are run by filthy whores" but after pondering that stance I realized, if I stop giving my money to singleplayer games, that is going to send them the message that singleplayer games are not worth the investment and that is not the message I want to send.
So unfortunately (fortunately), I will be buying Sekiro because I want them to know that there is still an audience for singleplayer games.
It's hard to vote with your dollar when everything is owned by like 3 companies.
I don't think the comparison to a traditional Japanese business is really warranted.
Job posts continue to be much less fluid in Japanese business, particularly at the highest levels. Seniority is more important than talent, loyalty more important than innovation. Iwata and execs accepted a pay cut because they weren't going to leave Nintendo even when their salary dropped. That's also why executive leadership there puts less emphasis on short-term gains because the execs themselves are with the company for the longer haul.
Blizzard just lost two highly paid CFOs to better positions at other companies. The absurd pay is to attract and keep the "best" execs who have a billion other opportunities competing for them. They make short-term company decisions that award themselves with massive bonuses and stock selloffs because they might as well go join another successful company than weather one with low share value. No social media campaign is going to change that, except maybe replacing Bobby with an even higher paid person.
And now Activision is the subject of some class action lawsuits from investors who bought shares between August of last year and the announcement of the bungie split, stating they were mislead about Activisions longterm plans for Destiny.
On one hand: fuck investors. On the other hand: fuck Activision/Blizzard.
Its truly an aliens vs predators situation. Though in this case I'd actually side with activision, because fuck the investors they are the reason 800 people got axed and now they are mad they didn't make enough money off that.
I would like some money because these are artisanal nuggets of wisdom philistine.
On the other hand, those 800 people are the fortunate ones, because now they are not employees of Satan.
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
Eh in this case I'll say "fuck the investors." This is a group that specifically bought shares in the last half of last year, vs a group that bought shares when the Bungie contract first came about. If this was really about that deal specifically, they would've been in at the ground floor.
Activision is evil again after a period of being dormant, but investors / the stock market will ALWAYS be evil.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
I don't blame investors for trying to make the best of the broken system that is unregulated capitalism.
I do blame them for being panicky idiots with no conception of the word "future."
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
"I bought stocks on the stock market that didn't pan out!"
Nobody gives a shit nor thinks you're entitled to a single fucking thing. People call it gambling for a reason. Hope you lose your asses in court, and hope Activision winning the court case causes their stock to drop another several points because their investors "can't trust them" or some such feelings-based bullshit.
"I bought stocks on the stock market that didn't pan out!"
Nobody gives a shit nor thinks you're entitled to a single fucking thing. People call it gambling for a reason. Hope you lose your asses in court, and hope Activision winning the court case causes their stock to drop another several points because their investors "can't trust them" or some such feelings-based bullshit.
The investors’ grievance is that Activision had their Investors Call in which Activision said everything was perfectly fine, then like a week later Bungie leaves.
Something that big doesn’t typically happen that fast without a fair bit of warning and negotiating.
So the theory is that Activision knew about it, but failed to mention it to investors. Which if it is true (certainly seems like it on the surface) then that is grounds for a very valid lawsuit and SEC fines too.
A Capellan's favorite sheath for any blade is your back.
I mean, we know it took a lot of negotiating. And money. Last week a number was floating around about how much it cost Bungie to buy back whatever publishing rights and contract termination fees and all of that stuff. That doesn't just happen overnight. It involves meetings between company executives, lawyers, etc.
Posts
I'm buying Sekiro to profit From Soft, because I love all of their games.
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
Not a promise or anything of that sort, a mere "indication"--"Hey, we know we used to make those games. We think about them once in a while. We even can put a little thought into it."
I don't expect it to go anywhere, but at the same time, I do expect to enjoy it.
Yeah, if it makes things more palpable for people, Activision is acting as a traditional Publisher in this instance. They've nothing to do with From Software or the game itself and are only handling the release of the game in the West. The success or failure or Sekiro is very unlikely to affect Activsion in any real way.
As a resetera poster put it.
"-It’s a $60 game.
-There are direct cosmetic microtransaction purchases.
-There are tier skips for their Battle Pass style “content stream.”
-There’s a $50 Season Pass.
-Now there are loot boxes."
I found the Warcraft manga actually pretty good.
I've actually read some of those, and I don't disagree.
Mostly I was thinking of using one of my audible credits to buy a Warcraft novel before I cancel the subscription. Christie Golden seems recommended.
I haven't read them in years, and a lot I like less now because Blizzard had a habit of turning every character with a name into some big huge important figure.
Seriously, Day of the Dragon was a book about some a random troublemaker mage named Rhonin being sent out on a shit mission, and meeting up with a random Elven archer (who I'll admit did have the name of Vareesa Windrunner, but they don't call attention to it) and a random Gryphon rider named Falstad. I like this book because it wasn't about the big name characters. You really felt like these were the nameless units turned into characters, and it made the book much better IMO.
But Blizzard's gotta Blizzard, so Rhonin became leader of the Kirin Tor for awhile and Falstad became chief of the Wildhammer Clan (Vareesa got caught up in the Sylvanas stuff, but I'll forgive that a bit since they did give her the name Windrunner)
The one about Thrall was alright, though it feels super rushed in getting from point A or point B. Routinely Thrall needs to accomplish something, so he'll set out to do it and be done with it in like four pages after the first thing he tries works, no matter how much of a long shot it is.
I hated Last Guardian at the time, as it retconned a ridiculous amount out of stuff, but that's pretty much everything Blizzard does at this point.
The War of the Ancients trilogy was blatant fan service where they just brought the Rhonin and Krasus (Rhonin's mentor and secret red dragon) back into the past, rather than letting it just be the story about the War of the Ancients.
I think I stopped reading Warcraft novels at that point.
Sorry, that brought up some deep seated resentment. Also, at this point there are probably a dozen Warcraft novels I haven't read, so one of those might be good.
Day of the Dragon in itself is probably one of the better ones, if you don't have my dumb hangups.
I recall the Starcraft novels not being great, but most of the Diablo ones were pretty good, especially the ones written by Richard A. Knaak.. (Which is weird because I probably like Diablo the least out of those three properties)
The Timothy Zahn Starcraft novel was decent, but he's a decent writer and tends to write fairly enjoyable characters (although they tend to follow fairly consistent archetypes). It did make me painfully aware that the setting is mostly hanging together by strings and misdirections as it starts to fall apart as soon as you pay attention to the fridge logic present all over the place thanks to all the retcons and SC2 storytelling increasing priority of cool scenes with a disinterest in doing all the heavy lifting to make them fit into the rest of what has been written.
I recall hearing some dissatisfaction with the Richard Knaak Warcraft novels, but I haven't read them myself so I don't know what the exact nature of the dissatisfaction was.
If you played World of Warcraft at any point a lot of them are apparently good to read to get the majority of the story pieces left out of the game. A lot of major things happen in them and set up situations that are briefly dealt with in the game and then the fallout continues in the novels.
Le sigh
I guess not everyone can be Keanu Reeves and donate the majority of their salary to charities or use it to pay off the debts of the various people working on the movie because, "I've more money then I could ever spend already".
Would be nice if more people were like Keanu Reeves.
Also probably some that wouldn't cause a massive stock drop :P:
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198004484595
But all the money I made from selling pre-firing, buying up at the dip, then reselling after the bump is still here, thanks to the tips I got from insiders.
It's hard to vote with your dollar when everything is owned by like 3 companies.
Job posts continue to be much less fluid in Japanese business, particularly at the highest levels. Seniority is more important than talent, loyalty more important than innovation. Iwata and execs accepted a pay cut because they weren't going to leave Nintendo even when their salary dropped. That's also why executive leadership there puts less emphasis on short-term gains because the execs themselves are with the company for the longer haul.
Blizzard just lost two highly paid CFOs to better positions at other companies. The absurd pay is to attract and keep the "best" execs who have a billion other opportunities competing for them. They make short-term company decisions that award themselves with massive bonuses and stock selloffs because they might as well go join another successful company than weather one with low share value. No social media campaign is going to change that, except maybe replacing Bobby with an even higher paid person.
If I'm reading that correctly, Bungie apparently paid nearly 100 million to Activision for the publishing rights to Destiny.
Activision went on to fire nearly 800 people dispute that cash infusion.
Makes as much sense as anything else from this mess.
Y'THINK?
pleasepaypreacher.net
This part isn’t much of a story.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
It’s saying ‘we know we said that firing all those people would increase efficiency, but actually we make no promises.
And now Activision is the subject of some class action lawsuits from investors who bought shares between August of last year and the announcement of the bungie split, stating they were mislead about Activisions longterm plans for Destiny.
On one hand: fuck investors. On the other hand: fuck Activision/Blizzard.
Its truly an aliens vs predators situation. Though in this case I'd actually side with activision, because fuck the investors they are the reason 800 people got axed and now they are mad they didn't make enough money off that.
pleasepaypreacher.net
Activision is evil again after a period of being dormant, but investors / the stock market will ALWAYS be evil.
I do blame them for being panicky idiots with no conception of the word "future."
Nobody gives a shit nor thinks you're entitled to a single fucking thing. People call it gambling for a reason. Hope you lose your asses in court, and hope Activision winning the court case causes their stock to drop another several points because their investors "can't trust them" or some such feelings-based bullshit.
The investors’ grievance is that Activision had their Investors Call in which Activision said everything was perfectly fine, then like a week later Bungie leaves.
Something that big doesn’t typically happen that fast without a fair bit of warning and negotiating.
So the theory is that Activision knew about it, but failed to mention it to investors. Which if it is true (certainly seems like it on the surface) then that is grounds for a very valid lawsuit and SEC fines too.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126