Not content to just spit in the face of its customers, reviewers, and of course, Jim Fucking Sterling Son, Digital Homicide is now trying to destroy any potential good will remaining between it and the community. Today, for the third time in about a week, they have thrown their latest abomination, "Temper Tantrum 2," onto Steam Greenlight. It is the third time because they keep getting destroyed every time they put it up. Pages of criticism telling them in no uncertain terms that their latest "game" is, like the others, a lazily thrown together smattering of pre-made Unity assets, barely functional gameplay, and shameless delusions of grandeur.
The members of Digital Homicide simply can't, or refuse to see that every decision they make hurts no one but themselves. Robert, who I guess is the one that runs the whole show, recently baited Jim Sterling into an "interview," in which Robert made accusations that bordered on the insane. Robert accused Jim of "stifling innovation." He claimed that he has written thousands of lines of code. It goes on and on. Outrageous claims. Insults towards the gaming community. I even had a minor Twitter "discussion" with him a few weeks ago in which he insulted me a few times after I said some of the same things I'm saying in this blog post.
This man, his company, and everything they do makes it harder for true indie developers to make a living. They flood the market with some of the laziest attempts at game development I've ever had the misfortune of witnessing, and that offends me. I take it personally, because if I ever get a game up and running, games like theirs are only going to make it harder for me to distribute mine. They think the community is stupid, and for some reason, feel like it owes them something. They release garbage and then have the gall, the arrogance, to become filled with indignation when that garbage doesn't make them mountains of cash overnight. Most games take several years to make, even for experienced developers with a full crew and plenty of funding. What does it say about Digital Homicide that they've release five games in the past year and a half (Slaughtering Grounds, Deadly Profits, Temper Tantrum, Forsaken Uprising, and Medieval Mercs), in addition to having two more on Greenlight (Six Nights At Susie's and Temper Tantrum 2). Seven games in a year in a half. Let that sink in for a minute. That alone should tell you how much these people care about providing their customers with a quality product.
I have a full time job. It's a good job. My employers are good people, and I enjoy the work that I do. However, I've never wanted anything more than to make video games, and to make a living doing that. It is something I wake up thinking about, and one of the last things I think about before I fall asleep. I may succeed, I may not. I may release a string of hits that win awards. I may release some games that crash and burn. Something I will never do, is lie to my customers, allow my ego to swat away good judgement and reasonable criticism, or bite the same hands I expect to feed me.
Monday, July 27, 2015
Wednesday, July 8, 2015
No More COD For Me Until It Goes Through Rehab
COD has become a drug addict. A thin, weak shadow of its former self that is still trying to convince us that it has it's shit together even while it hits us up for some spare cash. It needs to be sent to rehab, and I won't let it set foot in my home again until it is.
Alright, enough with the metaphor. This is simply a list of things that would need to be removed or changed in order to get me to buy another COD title. I skipped Modern Warfare 3 and Ghosts, and was extremely let down/furious with Advanced Warfare.
*Activision's overall disdainful attitude towards the customer: Activision essentially sees its customers as wallets with feet, or as children nagging wallets with feet to buy them the latest release. Everything they do is geared towards providing an endless, nearly unimaginable revenue stream. And there's nothing wrong with that on its surface. Businesses exist to make money. Businesses making money off of Johnny and Jane consumer are how the economy stays afloat. But, the services rendered for our hard earned cash need to be worth the asking price, and need to not be shoved in our faces by corporate suits that barely hide their contempt for us. They need to, through their actions, essentially say "We know times are tough and you're spending some of your limited funds on our products. We respect you for that." Instead we're getting "You'll buy this because you always do, no matter what bullshit we try to pull, and you'll buy anything extra we tack on, because the product we've given you is gimped otherwise!"
*We need real dedicated servers: For several years, we've seen connectivity and matchmaking issues, trouble joining friend's parties, and inconsistencies with latency/host advantage/who shot first/etc. I recently saw a video where someone theorized that this has been done intentionally to keep the skill gap small (more on that later), and it wouldn't surprise me. However, I'm just going to roll with my initial assertion. Activision is too damned cheap to implement proper dedicated servers. Especially with the release of a COD title every year, that's a lot of servers to maintain. Heaven forbid something cut into their revenue stream that is for the good of the customer. This is the highest selling franchise in gaming history. They throw millions of dollars towards PR and marketing. But can they get up off their asses, and throw some money at some true dedicated servers? Not this hybrid garbage that they keep shoving down our throats. Real life dedicated servers. I don't care if there's a server browser or not, either. I just want consistent, reliable performance that doesn't cause me to question every kill I get.
*Outdated tech: This doesn't really bother me, as long as a game looks good, can support modern gameplay features, and performs well...so yeah, COD needs a new engine.
*The appeal to the LCD of gamers: COD is designed to make anyone a rockstar of first person shooters. Between the small map sizes, the lack of any real respawn delays, the random (and often completely ludicrous) spawn points, and the general approach to gameplay (sprint and spray), every COD player can rack up some kills. No one wants to play a game where they get destroyed constantly. But they've crushed the skill gap so much that there's virtually no learning curve. It boils down to using a lightweight, fully automatic weapon and shooting the other guy first. Weapons like shotguns, LMG's, and sniper rifles are considered weapons requiring skill to use instead of being weapons designed for different situations. Everything, including the sniper rifles, are used by the player base in fast paced, relatively close range combat. Maps and sniper rifles that prevent sniping by design, exist only to provide the illusion of variety and to, once again, keep that skill gap small.
*The small map sizes and limited game types: This all basically stems from my previous points. Game modes that emphasize team work, and maps that allow for some tactical freedom would pull away from the small skill gap and "make everyone feel like Rambo" approach. Changing this would also interrupt their brisk development cycle, thereby interrupting the revenue stream, and once again, Activision simply cannot allow that.
*Abusive DLC practices: How much money does someone need to spend before they realize they're being taken? Activision is clearly pushing hard to find out. For Advanced Warfare, we had the base game ($60), the season pass ($50), cosmetic DLC (roughly $1.99 each), and, wait for it, extra armory and loadout slots sold in packs ($1.99 per pack). This last item in particular infuriated me. We paid full price, and then some, for a full featured game. Why in the holy fuck are they charging us for extra loadout and armory slots, especially when the armory slots are tied to the best new feature Advanced Warfare possessed (the loot system)? I can picture Michael Condrey telling an Activision higher-up, "I don't think this will fly with the playerbase." I can also picture that same higher-up responding with "You must be new here. Every year, we push the boundaries of what we can get away with in terms of how we charge the players for a complete experience." It is absolutely insulting and disgusting that in order to earn (and keep) all of the content that came with the Advanced Warfare base game, I need to shell out extra money for slots that took Sledgehammer probably about fifteen minutes to add to the game, and should have been there in the first place. I uninstalled the same day that was announced. Not that I had gotten much playtime in anyway...
*PC players getting shafted: I realize that consoles are now the primary market for COD. But if you're going to put a half-baked, lazy ass port of a PC version together, don't bother at all in the future. Advanced Warfare's LAG and issues getting into games took weeks to be resolved, and by the time they were, the entire community had sort of given up from some of the other things I've mentioned and general franchise fatigue. When the game was finally stable and playable for me, all I could find was TDM and Domination matches. Wheee. I'm ready for this carnival ride to stop now.
It's simple. Activision is too greedy and proud to relent in any meaningful way to its customers. Especially now that Destiny is becoming their new cash cow. Mark my words. If they don't make some big changes in the coming years, they will run COD straight into the ground. A lot of talented people will be out of work. Everyone will lose in some way. Except for Activision. Who will continue to reign as one of the wealthiest, yet worst publishers in the business. I've already floated to shore. I'm just waiting for this leaky, rat infested ship to completely sink. Shit, another metaphor.
Alright, enough with the metaphor. This is simply a list of things that would need to be removed or changed in order to get me to buy another COD title. I skipped Modern Warfare 3 and Ghosts, and was extremely let down/furious with Advanced Warfare.
*Activision's overall disdainful attitude towards the customer: Activision essentially sees its customers as wallets with feet, or as children nagging wallets with feet to buy them the latest release. Everything they do is geared towards providing an endless, nearly unimaginable revenue stream. And there's nothing wrong with that on its surface. Businesses exist to make money. Businesses making money off of Johnny and Jane consumer are how the economy stays afloat. But, the services rendered for our hard earned cash need to be worth the asking price, and need to not be shoved in our faces by corporate suits that barely hide their contempt for us. They need to, through their actions, essentially say "We know times are tough and you're spending some of your limited funds on our products. We respect you for that." Instead we're getting "You'll buy this because you always do, no matter what bullshit we try to pull, and you'll buy anything extra we tack on, because the product we've given you is gimped otherwise!"
*We need real dedicated servers: For several years, we've seen connectivity and matchmaking issues, trouble joining friend's parties, and inconsistencies with latency/host advantage/who shot first/etc. I recently saw a video where someone theorized that this has been done intentionally to keep the skill gap small (more on that later), and it wouldn't surprise me. However, I'm just going to roll with my initial assertion. Activision is too damned cheap to implement proper dedicated servers. Especially with the release of a COD title every year, that's a lot of servers to maintain. Heaven forbid something cut into their revenue stream that is for the good of the customer. This is the highest selling franchise in gaming history. They throw millions of dollars towards PR and marketing. But can they get up off their asses, and throw some money at some true dedicated servers? Not this hybrid garbage that they keep shoving down our throats. Real life dedicated servers. I don't care if there's a server browser or not, either. I just want consistent, reliable performance that doesn't cause me to question every kill I get.
*Outdated tech: This doesn't really bother me, as long as a game looks good, can support modern gameplay features, and performs well...so yeah, COD needs a new engine.
*The appeal to the LCD of gamers: COD is designed to make anyone a rockstar of first person shooters. Between the small map sizes, the lack of any real respawn delays, the random (and often completely ludicrous) spawn points, and the general approach to gameplay (sprint and spray), every COD player can rack up some kills. No one wants to play a game where they get destroyed constantly. But they've crushed the skill gap so much that there's virtually no learning curve. It boils down to using a lightweight, fully automatic weapon and shooting the other guy first. Weapons like shotguns, LMG's, and sniper rifles are considered weapons requiring skill to use instead of being weapons designed for different situations. Everything, including the sniper rifles, are used by the player base in fast paced, relatively close range combat. Maps and sniper rifles that prevent sniping by design, exist only to provide the illusion of variety and to, once again, keep that skill gap small.
*The small map sizes and limited game types: This all basically stems from my previous points. Game modes that emphasize team work, and maps that allow for some tactical freedom would pull away from the small skill gap and "make everyone feel like Rambo" approach. Changing this would also interrupt their brisk development cycle, thereby interrupting the revenue stream, and once again, Activision simply cannot allow that.
*Abusive DLC practices: How much money does someone need to spend before they realize they're being taken? Activision is clearly pushing hard to find out. For Advanced Warfare, we had the base game ($60), the season pass ($50), cosmetic DLC (roughly $1.99 each), and, wait for it, extra armory and loadout slots sold in packs ($1.99 per pack). This last item in particular infuriated me. We paid full price, and then some, for a full featured game. Why in the holy fuck are they charging us for extra loadout and armory slots, especially when the armory slots are tied to the best new feature Advanced Warfare possessed (the loot system)? I can picture Michael Condrey telling an Activision higher-up, "I don't think this will fly with the playerbase." I can also picture that same higher-up responding with "You must be new here. Every year, we push the boundaries of what we can get away with in terms of how we charge the players for a complete experience." It is absolutely insulting and disgusting that in order to earn (and keep) all of the content that came with the Advanced Warfare base game, I need to shell out extra money for slots that took Sledgehammer probably about fifteen minutes to add to the game, and should have been there in the first place. I uninstalled the same day that was announced. Not that I had gotten much playtime in anyway...
*PC players getting shafted: I realize that consoles are now the primary market for COD. But if you're going to put a half-baked, lazy ass port of a PC version together, don't bother at all in the future. Advanced Warfare's LAG and issues getting into games took weeks to be resolved, and by the time they were, the entire community had sort of given up from some of the other things I've mentioned and general franchise fatigue. When the game was finally stable and playable for me, all I could find was TDM and Domination matches. Wheee. I'm ready for this carnival ride to stop now.
It's simple. Activision is too greedy and proud to relent in any meaningful way to its customers. Especially now that Destiny is becoming their new cash cow. Mark my words. If they don't make some big changes in the coming years, they will run COD straight into the ground. A lot of talented people will be out of work. Everyone will lose in some way. Except for Activision. Who will continue to reign as one of the wealthiest, yet worst publishers in the business. I've already floated to shore. I'm just waiting for this leaky, rat infested ship to completely sink. Shit, another metaphor.
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