Gaming BS of the week

Darth Tagnan said:
I'm talking about the trend and the tendency. The fact that, the bigger you get, the worse it gets - doesn't change that he seems to be emulating the exact same paradigm only on a much smaller scale.

The message is important, true - and I completely agree with him about the problems of the industry.

To me, where it gets distorted and dangerous is when you over-sell it, and you ignore the nuances of what it's like to compete in the higher levels.

On the other hand, I feel the same way about the obscene hatred towards politicians or whatever other exclusive segment of the populace where human nature is particularly visible.

If we don't try to understand how things happen - and only focus on the shit - we'll never solve anything.

Again, it's not about Kotick or any specific CEO. It's about a system and a culture - and we all contribute to it.

We don't change anything by pretending we're not human ourselves - and that money makes us all do things that aren't "good" or "beneficial".

It's hypocritical.

What's even worse is when people like Sterling speak from a position of authority that they clearly don't deserve.

Now, I stopped watching his videos a long time ago - but I can give you my personal guarentee that his insight into the gaming industry is skewed to the point of absurdity and the ridiculously one-sided.

Making a video about a tirade against a single person in such an elaborate corporation and every other sentence is demonizing that person and saying "Fire Kotick" a million times does not represent anything even remotely nuanced or based in reality. It's pop-culture perpetuation of the outraged gamer indignation.

I doubt he's enjoying himself too much, either. I think he's trapped - like so many YT personalities have trapped themselves in this strange new semi-celebrity culture so infested with misinformation and stupidity crusades.
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I don't think there's a need for nuance when 800 people lose their jobs after doing their best and helping the company make the record profits.
 
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Ivanwah said:
I don't think there's a need for nuance when 800 people lose their jobs after doing their best and helping the company make the record profits.
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Yes, because you know each every one of those 800 people and what they did for the company.

Activision is a business, not a charity. They don't focus on profit because they want to be nice to people and let them keep their jobs if it's counterproductive.

They look at the bottom line - because that's what the system and our culture is telling them to do.

If they fired those people, it's because they believe it's better for the company and the shareholders - and they're the ones financing the whole show.

Money is finite, sadly.

As for Blizzard, I have no idea what goes on behind the scenes. But if I take a look at the last few years, they've done exactly squat considering their potential.

WoW utterly corrupted that company. It's the same old story. Things get too big and people lose perspective.

It's pretty predictable, all things said.
 
I don't know what they did for the company but I don't believe those 800 are slackers who were fired because they were lazy. Like you said, they were fired simply because that was the best for the company and the shareholders. Those making the decision (Bobby Kotick among them) ignored all nuances of that move. They didn't care those people have families, they didn't care what they did for the company, they didn't care the workers were actively discouraged from unionizing, they just did what was best for the company. Why should we (as in common people, working class) treat them differently?
 
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Ivanwah said:
I don't know what they did for the company but I don't believe those 800 are slackers who were fired because they were lazy. Like you said, they were fired simply because that was the best for the company and the shareholders. Those making the decision (Bobby Kotick among them) ignored all nuances of that move. They didn't care those people have families, they didn't care what they did for the company, they didn't care the workers were actively discouraged from unionizing, they just did what was best for the company. Why should we (as in common people, working class) treat them differently?
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You can treat people however you want. I'm not the police.

If you prefer to tell yourself these stories of a demon called Kotick who doesn't think in nuance - and who fires people for evil reasons, that's your choice.

I'm trying to demonstrate that it's not about Kotick - or people like Kotick. It's about a sick culture.

But, that's just my opinion - nothing more.
 
I think a lot of it comes down to a point he touches on, which is how the machine kind of runs out of control once a business becomes a publicly-traded corporation. Of course every business is run for a profit, but it's not fundamentally necessary for a business to drive for huge short-term gains, which is what our current systems incentivise in those corporations. Some businesses run very well on striking a balance between immediate profit, and long-term sustainability, including building trust and respect with their customers.

So, it's not so much that there are demons pulling the strings, but that the program is flawed, and the AAA industry is getting to that stage of a bursting bubble.
 
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Yes, and Sterling is showing very, very clear signs of being a machine running out of control as well.

In the end, I guess my point is that pointing fingers won't do shit.

We need the system and the culture to change at a base level - and we definitely need to include ourselves as accountable.
 
I'm just marveling at the fact that I somehow managed to mix four metaphors in one sentence. :biggrin:
 
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In a way, perhaps so.
 
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Culture doesn't make decisions, people do.
When Nintendo had financial problems, Satoru Iwata and other upper management people took pay cuts and refused to fire employees.
When Activision-Blizzard had financial problems, Bobby Kotick decided to fire 800 people.
You can make the culture excuse, but it's just a cop out in my opinion. When someone commits a crime we don't blame the culture. We punish the criminal. What Kotick did is not a crime legally, but is highly immoral.
We demonize people who deserve it but sometimes it happens to people who don't deserve it. We need to be careful not to demonize people who don't deserve it. Kotick definitely deserves it.
 
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Ivanwah said:
Culture doesn't make decisions, people do.
When Nintendo had financial problems, Satoru Iwata and other upper management people took pay cuts and refused to fire employees.
When Activision-Blizzard had financial problems, Bobby Kotick decided to fire 800 people.
You can make the culture excuse, but it's just a cop out in my opinion. When someone commits a crime we don't blame the culture. We punish the criminal. What Kotick did is not a crime legally, but is highly immoral.
We demonize people who deserve it but sometimes it happens to people who don't deserve it. We need to be careful not to demonize people who don't deserve it. Kotick definitely deserves it.
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Nintendo isn't an American company, now is it.

If you think Japanese culture doesn't influence Japanese companies - I don't know what to say.

There's no excuse involved. There's a thing called reality.

Again, if you think you know what you need to know to demonize a stranger you clearly know next to nothing about - that tells me all I need to know about you, and your standards.

You get your information from YT and you judge strangers based on that information.

Cool, now I know.
 
Japanese culture is the reason… Gimme a break.

You may equally deduct all americans are scammers by ignoring every USA gaming company except EA/Warner/Activision, mustbe it's the american culture thing. Well, it's not.

The reality is some people are scum. Regardless of their age, ethnicity, nationality and culture. This scum of our species is so hardcore thanks to "wool comes from ignorant sheep" motto they've learned from religions in the past and put it to practice - while being minority this scum of earth posess the most wealth and power.
That's the reality.
 
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Since when? I know at least one that isn't: League of Legends.
 
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Konami is also a Japanese company and it treats its employees like shit. It has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with the fact that some people are scum.
 
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Ivanwah said:
Konami is also a Japanese company and it treats its employees like shit. It has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with the fact that some people are scum.
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Another company where you know all the details, amazing ;)
 
Just because most (if not all) of my views on gaming industry align with Jim Sterling's doesn't mean he's my only source of information.

You get your information from YT and you judge strangers based on that information.

Cool, now I know.
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You literally get all information about me from this site and you judge me based on that. Now, that's ironic...
 
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Square-Enix posted their Financial Results for 2018.

Link - http://www.hd.square-enix.com/eng/ir/
Initial sales of Just Cause 4 were below our expectations, but we intend to grow sales in FY2020/3 by offering updates and through other initiatives.”
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CNBC has a new article about “Unrealistic Expectations”Hurting AAA Companies.

Link -https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/18/for...me-firms-ea-activision-blizzard-take-two.html
"I think the problem is … not just Fortnite," said Tom Wijman, senior market analyst at Newzoo, a marketing analytics firm specializing in games and esports.

"The main reason is that expectations are too high and Fortnite is an easy thing to point your finger at — but it's not the cause of the problem."

Wijman said that every game is now being compared to Fortnite, "but the way Fortnite exploded in terms of popularity, there is no comparison."would be "foolish" to assume that Fortnite is "the one and only reason" for the troubles that the top gaming companies are facing, said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partners.
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You literally get all information about me from this site and you judge me based on that. Now, that's ironic…
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I don't judge people no matter how much information I have about them.

But I do establish details about them as they are revealed to me, including their name and how much information they need to judge other people - based on how much information they need to judge other people.

I'm not into the whole judgement thing. I leave that to people like you :)

It's hardly a surprise that you missed that, but my entire point in this thread is that we should be careful judging people based on limited information.

That's why I gave the example with Sterling, because it would be just as easy to judge him and label him a "bad person" because he depends on the wealth he gains from perpetuating these lemming-type videos with zero nuance involved.

But I don't know if he actually believes he's doing good - and I don't know Kotick and his plans or his motivation.

I do know the system and the american culture of status and wealth. I also know something about human nature in general, and what happens to people when they're part of a corrupt and toxic system.

Which is why I don't necessarily think it's wise to single out Kotick as a particularly terrible CEO. We just don't know enough about him.

It's too easy for me - and I don't have that need to demonize strangers with so little information.
 
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