Got Boycott?

[|TG| B]

Call of Duty 2 community has risen. If you are a call of duty fan that followed the game since the first one, you will also feel the disappointment that CoD 2 is. The word is still spreading.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27959
http://www.cod2hq.com/modules.php?na...iewtopic&t=202
http://www.forumplanet.com/planetcal...34&tid=1788869
http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index...howtopic=17541

[leejo]

For me COD is like watching Independence Day - it was ok once.

[Addict]

Maybe I'm just not getting it, specifically what is the issue? Cheaters? Big deal, every game suffers from that. Not enough response from the developers? You think maybe they are kinda busy in the month after a release to fix bugs and release a patch(as has become the SOP these days... guarenteed patches...)??

OTOH, in general, I agree that more interaction would be better from companies, and more active support is never a bad thing... but I don't see how this is a special situation? Seems like their comments are valid about most of the last years releases...

[|TG| B]

The special thing is:

For the first time this boycott has actually has shown the user what kind of power they have. If this goes through this kind of organized boycott can become common.

Notice the boycott does not only concentrate on Activision's revenue but their reputation. The community has made major online news websites including inquirer.


I would not get into the specifics of the game itself since this is a Sandbox where we chat it up. But it does have some serious issues. To sum it up... Activision made one game for a console and shipped it to PC for 50 bucks.


See the bigger picture and then negate. It is not about the game, it is about what a community can do.

[Addict]

Heh, every time I hear someone say something like "To sum it up..." I think of as Inigo Montoya says in The Princess Bride, “Let me explain…no, there is too much. Let me sum up"

Responding to your summary, wasn't HALO made for a console and ripped to PC for whatever common price Games were then? I don't see that as having been a good thing, but nor was it a particularly bad thing. So Activision did the same thing? Again, big deal. I don't particularly like it (controls tend to be dumbed down), and so i don't support games that do that by buying them, but still I see the develpment sense of it, and don't see what about it deserves a boycott(from people that already payed??) or smear campaign??

Yeah, if you actually motivate the masses to do anything, they have a lot of power. Again, no big revelation there.

Is this a big deal because it is the first online boycott of something??? I seem to get an aweful lot of hits from google searching on "online boycott".

Maybe I "get it", but it just doesn't seem like a big deal to me?

1) Their specific greivences neither seem well represented nor specific to their case. So I don't know what kind of response they expect, nor do I hear anything that makes me gasp and say "how COULD they!". So they have some (common) issues, and are standing up for themselves. Ok, I guess, good for them. But not a big deal?

2) It's demonstration of the organizing ability of gamers makes me shrug as well. People try boycots all the time. Some work, some don't. Maybe I'll be impressed if the boycott actually happens, and it has some kind of effect beyond a short statement from the devs like "yeah, we hear you, and here is a patch to prove we've listened and rectify some of these issues(oh yeah, WORKING ON THE PATCH IS WHAT WE WERE ALREADY DOING, K THANKS)" .

Meh, I'm probably over analyzing this. Yeah, it'd be nice if we(gamers) had more interaction and updates from developers. For standing up and saying something, go them. I'll leave it at that.

[|TG| B]

Well the word has spread all over the place. The last ideas I heard was locking all the servers and then naming them "On Strike", and one idea to email the people who watch Activision and Infinity Wards' stocks. So far the thread has 527 replies from clans to support their cause and 45411 views.


Also the media has gotten into it as well... This list includes countries all over the world. I just copied and pasted them. Some say they have seen the local news mention this boycott as well. But I am not sure about credibility.

http://www.ic-games.com
http://www.planetcallofduty.com/
http://www.ggmania.com/?smsid=20288
http://www.callofduty-news.de
http://www.cod-infobase.de
http://www.justgamers.de
http://www.extrem-players.de
http://www.gamona.de
http://gameguru.box.sk/
http://www.worthplaying.com/
http://www.fpsadmin.com/
http://www.nofrag.com/2005/nov/26/19675/
http://www.cod2.fr/
http://spottergaming.com/
http://www.fz.se/
http://www.callofduty-news.de/
http://cod.justgamers.de/
http://www.bluesnews.com/
http://www.rage3d.com/
http://dx.ampednews.com/?game=cod
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=27959
http://www.boomtown.net/da_dk/articl...w.php?id=65779
http://callofduty.filefront.com/news...n_Strike;23450
http://3dgameman.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40354
extreme-players.de
justgamers.de
krawall.de
gamevision.de
game-basis.com
gamona.de
daddelnews.de
worthplaying.com
bluesnews.com
prosieben.de (large german TV Station)
pcgames.de (Games Magazine)


I am pointing this out because we know how bad EA is.

[Mateo]

I'm a big fan of voting with my feet. Nothing organized, just opting out. I only got BF2 because it was going to get the proper treatment here. Otherwise, I wouldn't have dropped the $ on it.

Valve does a decent job, Blizzard is excellent, I buy every Relic game I can. Seems to me it's easy enough to find something else to spend my money on.

[AzzMan]

I liked COD2 alot, what the hell.

[SmokingTarpan]

Here's my feelings on this topic, and keep in mind that I've never played this line of games, nor likely will I (not due to the boycott, just because it's not a series I have interest in).

From what I can see, the two issues are 1) no anti-cheat and 2) poor community relations. I understand the frustrations here, but feel no pity. I went through CS:S not having a coporate anti-cheat system for months, and I only know of two games where the gaming company employees post regularly to the community (WoW and DDO; and DDO isn't even out yet).

Though this boycott seems to have attracted much press, I don't believe it has much power for two reasons. Here is one: You can't vote with dollars in the past. Unless the servers that will be shut down pay a fee to Activision, the company won't feel any immediate financial impact. Even if there was a fee involved, a one day boycott also fails to yield a financial impact, unless money is paid on a daily basis.

The other reason: Gamers need to play games. We (myself included) tend to pick up anti-game causes very fiercely for a short while, but almost always wear down for various reasons- the prime of which being that we need to play. I was anti-pay-to-play for a long time, but have now played numerous MMO's. Look at how many people scream on developer forums, "This is the last straw, I quit!" and are back in a week. And, if you look at only one example of this behaviour, then I ask that you examine this next one very closely.

Battlefield 2: Special Forces. Remember how so many said long ago that they would not buy the expansion until the original game was fixed? Recall how many people had the anti-SF banners in their sigs? Where is that outcry now? I'm willing to bet 80% or more of those people bought SF, and are having fun. I don't see very many banners in sigs anymore (I took mine off because I'd rather have Bucky), and many problems that people hated still remain. Yet I heard no report of poor sales.

If you want to make a statement, don't shut down the servers for a day. Stop buying games from Activision (or COD2-related producers) until you get what you want. Make sure the company knows why their sales suddenly suck. If you've already spent the money, nothing you do now with COD2 will matter; the company has its money. You must stop spending money on them in the future to have an effect. Unfortunately, the gaming community as a whole contains very few members with the resolve to say no and stay the course... because damn, that game looks so cool!

My post isn't directed at any one person, but at a community as a whole. Yes, it's harsh criticism- and I'm sure that some, if not many, will take insult. No apologies from me, though, because I'm merely stating what I've witnessed first-hand for years upon years.