Wed, Apr 27, 2011 | 05:58 BST

Activision on its reputation: “Some people are going to hate because hating is more fun”

Without a doubt, Activision’s the publisher that everybody loves to hate. But is the unending torrent of bile justified? After all the recent lay-offs and cancellations, you could be forgiven for thinking so. Activision community manager Dan Amrich, however, thinks gamers haven’t quite given the “evil empire” its fair shake.

“I’d like to think it’s both ways — Activision should keep trying to be transparent, to show skeptical gamers ‘this is why this was done’ and ‘this is how we feel about this thing which you also care about very deeply’ — that’s step one,” he replied to GamesRadar when asked how Activision should improve its standing with gamers.

“But gamers, on their part, have to be willing to listen to those things and take them at face value. If the audience says ‘But I don’t care because you’re Activision,’ well, that won’t work either. Activision could be giving orphan kids prosthetic limbs and you’d still have haters who say they’re building a cybernetic army for their own nefarious purposes. Some people are going to hate because hating is more fun.”

“But if we can get both sides to lower that wall a bit – the big corporate wall and the gamer knee-jerk reaction – then we might be able to get somewhere. But at the end of the day, if the games are not good, nobody will care anyway,” he added.

Amrich also noted that Bobby Kotick takes absurd amounts of flack (try Google image searching him for proof), but that’s not necessarily justified. “You know, if you get a meal you don’t like, you want to talk to the manager, not the chef,” he explained.

Now we just want someone to popularize an image of Bobby Kotick as a downtrodden, single-tear-crying McDonald’s manager. We’re not entirely sure that’s what Amrich was going for. At any rate, the full interview’s chock full of choice bits, so check it out if you’re interested in hearing from an Activision employee who’s definitely not afraid to speak his mind.

16 comments

Phoenixblight
27/04/11, 6:09 am

““But if we can get both sides to lower that wall a bit – the big corporate wall and the gamer knee-jerk reaction – then we might be able to get somewhere. But at the end of the day, if the games are not good, nobody will care anyway,” he added.”

Yeah that would be the problem except what games has put out that was good and not half baked out side Blizzard and COD. Prototype….. Nope that was pretty half baked lots of issues it had shown it was rushed, good idea but poorly executed. Guitar…… Alright couldn’t do it with a straight face.

“Activision could be giving orphan kids prosthetic limbs”
Well that would be a start on looking like a good company that and removing Kotick and cut his pay by half and put that money into actual innovation.

Activision died for me as a publisher when they closed shop on Troika Games.

I Am A Troll
27/04/11, 6:14 am

That penetrating stare is unnerving. Reminds me of the Elvish lady Galadriel. It is said by folk who pass by Ered Mithrin, that this Elf can read one’s most inner thoughts. I hope this not the case for Bob Kotick too.

dtyk
27/04/11, 6:21 am

Oh, my, god.

He totally just pulled a “Haters gonna hate”.

UuBuU
27/04/11, 7:01 am

He’s right. A lot of people will hate anything that’s popular. It’s exactly the same in music. But there are some legitimate reasons for disliking Activision as well.

Firstly, they milk their big franchises too much. This isn’t something new with COD… they’ve always done it. People are obviously going to get sick of seeing pretty much the same thing every year. Why can’t they take a page out of Rockstar’s book and keep people waiting between releases?

Secondly, there’s clearly a bitter taste in peoples mouths over the map packs. They make enough damn money from the franchise – why don’t they take a page out of Valve’s book and release new content for free? Or better yet, just don’t release map packs at all and let people modify the game to make their own maps.

HauntaVirus
27/04/11, 7:18 am

I’m a hater…yet I still buy all the CODS…fuck…

I’ll never buy a Treyarch game again though, that’s for DAMN sure!

Gekidami
27/04/11, 7:23 am

He’s actually right, most of the hate towards CoD is unjustified and hypocritical, most of the time.

Tomo
27/04/11, 8:25 am

Stole the words from my jpeg.

Blerk
27/04/11, 8:49 am

Hating’s certainly more fun than most of your games, Acti.