Divine Divinity Review

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Divine Divinity

Review by Skinny Minnie and JenJanuary 2003

Minnie’s Skinny

Retro Role-Playing … Crushing Crashes … Double Trouble … Divine Divinity …

I am always a sucker for an old-school dungeon crawl. However, if I had put a screenshot of Divine Divinity onto my desktop, I would have seen more of it. It crashed back to Windows XP, sometimes several times an hour, throughout 70% of the game. I never run programs in the background of my Athlon XP/All in Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro rig, and I even swapped CDs at the store and then deleted and reinstalled the game, along with trying one or both of the two patches. Nothing helped. Four out of five WinXP DD players I polled had similar crashing issues. Most of us also encountered areas where random enemies would oddly disappear and reappear in the same spots, too (even patched). Okay, fine—but I should have had a free, unlimited invisibility spell at my disposal too! 

Divine Divinity’s compulsory combat is of the standard, mouse-clicking D RPG nature (you know: Diablo, Diablo II, Darkstone, Dungeon Siege, etc.), except that there is no multiplayer, and only one playable character can be chosen among the three character classes. There isn’t even a long-term, auto-piloted sidekick available.  Moreover, there are neither 3D environments nor modern camera controls (such as Dungeon Siege’s rolling 360-degree rotational view and zooming), although Divine Divinity is a late-2002 release.

Fine Flexibility

You must begin this computer RPG as a stealthy Survivor, a melee-effective Warrior, or a magic-wielding Wizard, but you may adopt skills from either of the other two classes at will sans penalty (once you earn skill points to apply to those traits by killing droves of dastardly demons and leveling up). This multiple-skill flexibility probably is one of Divine Divinity’s strongest features.  Warriors, those front-line combatants who are traditionally out of luck in long-distance fighting, can easily add ranged spell attacks from the Wizard’s repertoire. My own favorite, Meteorstrike, plus Hell Spikes, Deadly Discs, and Elemental Bolt are just a few of the choices, although some require your character to have a certain level of fight experience before use.

There are even spells natively available to a Warrior such as Repair, which fixes damaged armor and weaponry. (I never upgraded this spell because it would bring my hardware back to 60% usability even when cast at level one, and I only had to pause occasionally to repair things when my equipment icon would turn yellow, indicating something was damaged.) There are other worthwhile, earnable Warrior spells such as Enchant Weapon, which allows permanent magic to be cast on weapons and armor that can be charmed. These items then increase the bearer’s strength, constitution, mana or vitality.  Moreover, many subset Ranger (archer) traits can also be chosen with earned skill points to improve sight and missile weapon accuracy or to provide special arrow attacks; they are natively part of the Warrior path as well. (I’ve never been able to get into bows and arrows myself, though. Doink, doink, doink from ten miles away just doesn’t cut it for me in a heated, combative gaming atmosphere.)

Fire, poison and lightning damage can also be added to every melee strike. Certain skills like these from every class (including a backstabbing maneuver for the Survivor’s daggers) are passive once points are initially applied to them, meaning that they permanently remain active and improve every assault. The other two classes can also adopt Warrior traits as the Warrior may adopt theirs.  The Survivor’s Identify skill is especially handy, as it can separate the wheat from the chaff away from the few town areas where merchants can be paid to determine the value and specs of items you are carrying. I put five of my ballpark 40 earned skill points throughout the game into this skill, and I was almost always able to toss weaker armor and weapons on the fly, while holding on to the stronger ones for later use or better trades in town shops.

Packs, Hacks, and Heart Attacks

Hordes of skeletons, orcs, thugs, devils, trolls, ghosts, leech-like undead and their ilk will all rush you from everywhere once you leave the first safe town. There are even vampires rampaging about!  However, if a group seems overwhelming for your current power level, there are teleporters sprinkled about the expansive map areas that, once activated initially by collecting the appropriate scrolls from NPCs, will allow for quick escapes to safe towns or calmer turf. Moreover, there are two pyramid stones that you will have at times which offer hurried transport as well. There aren’t a great number of bosses, and many of those there are seem diminished in size and strength compared to other hack-and-slash RPGs. I played 90% of the game in melee style and even when my Warrior was surrounded, she survived via a native “special move” where she could spin her axe, mace, or sword in a circle and fell a whole swarm of baddies at once.

It isn’t until the ending campaigns that your character’s level 36 feels more like an IQ, unless you resort to more tactical, lure-em-out-and-pick-em-off or long-distance strategies. You will also be glad if you have purchased or found limited Shadows and creature statuette spells which allow brief periods of invisibility or morphing into animals for quick escapes.

These single-player campaigns of demonic destruction undulate between NPC-dictated quests that your lone character must accomplish.  As in any given RPG, experience points are earned for the successful completion of each, and level-ups occur after so many points accumulate, allowing chosen characteristics to be increased or added to your repertoire.

The Best of the Quests, Plus the Rest

Quests, which are largely item-gathering fests, begin interestingly enough, albeit within the super-stereotypical saga of sudden satanic calamity. You must heal the town’s head mage who has inexplicably gone insane, and later you must find a way to clone a magic, health-inducing gem so two dying NPCs can be saved. Nevertheless, errands eventually degrade into multitudes of unrelated, uninspiring inventory runs missing only a medieval UPS truck. Bring this message to the general.  Grab me that spell. Hoof halfway across the countryside to get me that new wheel for my cart. Bring me a pillow. Oops, that was my own personal quest—sorry! Most of these dungeon crawlers get bogged down with boring quests at one point or another, and this is a long game even compared to some other RPGs, so I guess I forgive it to a degree.

Picked up goodies themselves contain the usual suspects. Gold (for merchant trading in towns), health vials, mana (spell-casting fuel), and lots of lower-end armor and weaponry are mixed with the only occasionally found spell or higher-quality piece. Towns, as in many RPGs, are too few, so many items wind up tossed for lack of carrying space or teleport abilities, depending on what point you are at in the game. These are common RPG dilemmas, though.

A Review of the View

Divine Divinity is pretty despite offering dated, slightly grainy 2D backdrops. Spell effects aren’t spectacular, but flames nicely crackle then flare up in wall torches and water ripples elegantly in outdoor scenes. Forested landscapes and rambling farmlands do cycle through day and nighttimes, while churches are elegantly medieval and soldier barracks suitably imposing.  Underground crypts, sewers and caves don’t impart Diablo II’s level of bloody ambiance or Dungeon Siege’s ice-and-crystal shimmer, but the potentially ever-present minimap is just as useful.

DD’s automap feature is a humongous, full-screen, grab-and-move jobber that allows for custom flagged notes and quick perusal of all areas conquered and not. There are also icons for the quest log and hero characteristics there, but even with the automap closed, inventory, skills, weapons and current equipment icons are only mouse clicks away downscreen. Easy keyboard shortcut hints are reinforced via text into your subconscious every time you load a save, telling you, for instance, to hold down the shift key and move the mouse to the screen’s edges to peruse surrounding areas. Then you may click where you want to be and your character will find his or her way there.

The scant voiceovers are good for the most part, but conversations typically play out in text-driven RPG style. Although there are typos in the written dialogs, the comments themselves are often funny or sarcastic, something long overdue in traditional RPGs.  Even some of the load-game screen comments are humorous! As this very long game goes on there are a few jerky translations here and there, but speeches are never big and shortcutting through them is easy. The music is uniformly excellent, blending the timeless, new-age quality of other, similar games with a positive glow of its own.

Desktop Shock

Overall, my worst complaint about Divine Divinity is with its crashing issues, followed perhaps by a whine that the game feels like it should end before it really does. A late-game swamp area is unique in that your character must learn to morph into a ghost to get across it, but in the final battle against the evil deity, Mini Minnie had to assist me by pumping health and mana potions into my Warrior via programmable keyboard shortcuts for my ultimate success. Although combat isn’t revolutionary by far, it is addictive and fun nonetheless, and the perpetual RPG rewards of constant gold, spells, and equipment egg the player on even though it doesn’t offer Diablo II: Lord of Destruction’s higher level of customizable, powerful weaponry, spells, skills and armor. I do award DD a hesitant thumb up for its flexibility and ease of use, plus its addictiveness and hip humor, with the hope that a newer patch will soon be released to address the “Desktop Shock” issue.

Jen’s Jaunt

Unlike Minnie, I had very few crashing issues. I played under Windows 2000 on my aging desktop system, a 733 MHz PIII. Throughout the course of this 100-hour-plus game I had maybe eight or ten crashes back to the desktop, which I thought was reasonable. I did load the Hotpatch 2 before I began, which was the most up-to-date available at the time (maybe still is …) and includes the fixes found in the Hotpatch 1.

Outside of my last round of Zelda-ing back on the SNES, I am completely inexperienced with this type of game. I think that led me to do some things I was not “supposed” to do. For instance, whereas Minnie ditched all of the subpar booty she earned, I took all but the worst of it and teleported back to a shop and dropped it on the ground as a stockpile for future trading. Thus I almost never needed to spend money on potions or other goodies when I could just pick up excess weapons and armor from my pile and carry them into the shop with me for trading purposes.

When I was presented with the character-type choice, I picked the female Wizard because I thought it would be fun to do magic instead of all fighting all the time. It did not take me long to learn that I could choose new skills out of any of the three categories, like Minnie said. But I did wind up sticking mostly to “my” skill category; my second-favorite skill set was the Survivor’s, which included Lockpick and Alchemy.

My Wizard chick’s “special move” was a spiffy backflip-to-the-other-side-of-the-room maneuver. I used it exactly never.

Each skill or spell has five levels. Each time you level up you get a skill point to spend as you please, either on a new talent or on improving a talent you already have. From time to time you can purchase a new spell from a shopkeeper, and other times you might find weapons or armor that have a skill or two built into them.

I have a feeling that, due to my inexperience, I did a lot more of the side quests than Minnie did—it took me a long time to figure out that I didn’t have to do everything.

There was plenty of fighting, but it didn’t take long for my character to become powerful enough that she could just stand back and collect experience points as summoned netherworldy creatures did her fighting for her. And when these creatures eventually became too weak (not until the very end of the game) to do much good, I had a huge arsenal of spells at my disposal. Three of these were my favorites, though, and I only resorted to trying others on the rare occasions when these three had little or no effect.

The overarching story of the game is your standard one-person-saving-the-world-from-chaos theme. Pretty thin stuff to be sure, but the many varied side quests offered glimpses into the lives of the game world’s inhabitants.  Like Minnie said, basically you are playing UPS driver, but finding the items to be delivered presents some puzzling challenges.

I really liked the fact that the monsters never respawn; once an area is clear it stays clear. This helped to lessen the overall ratio of fighting to questing, although I still felt like I spent about 98% of my time killing one thing or another, sometimes en masse. The no-respawning did have one drawback—late in the game when I felt like I needed to level up a time or two to earn new skills that I wanted, I could not find anything left to kill.

Divine Divinity has six bosses, all but the last of whom you must defeat twice each over the course of the game. Only one of these bosses posed any challenge at all, but her level of difficulty more than made up for the ease of finishing off the rest of them.  The easy boss-killing suited me just fine; given the choice between a few easy bosses or way too many difficult bosses, a la Final Fantasy X, of course I’d choose the former.

I had a love/hate relationship with Divine Divinity. I would find myself hopelessly addicted to playing for days at a time, then get equally hopelessly bored and quit altogether for another week or two. Finally, as I neared the end and had had enough, I finished as many quests as I could in a big burst of activity and then performed the (I thought) final action that would take me to the game’s finish.

Much to my dismay, that was not the case. There is definitely too much of a good thing here—by the time I was ready to put this game behind me and move on to something else, I still had to spend another full day playing just to reach the “real” end, and that was with heading straight for the objectives—do not pass go, do not collect $200, whambamthankyouma’am. And then after all of the hours I spent on this accursed game, the finale was a big letdown. The endboss was frighteningly easy to kill, after a whole lotta work in getting there, and the “reward” cutscene was too short and left too much unanswered.

This disheartening development is the reason for my downgrading my verdict to a thumb up instead of a gold star. Overall, Divine Divinity has a lot going for it, especially for the adventure gamer looking to expand her gaming horizons. I thought the graphics were nice, the menus and features easy to understand and use even for this genre newbie, and the gameplay for the most part fun.  (But my opinion is formed, unlike Minnie’s, with no basis for comparison—it was all refreshingly fresh to me.)

Every player will have a different experience with Divine Divinity. There are literally millions of combinations of skills and levels of same, and the vast quantity of available subquests only adds to the possibilities. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Larian Studios Publisher: CDV Release Date: September 2002

Available for: Windows

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System Requirements

PII 450 MHz 128 MB RAM (256 recommended) DirectX 8 compatible video card with 8 MB RAM and 800×600 resolution (minimum) 100% DirectSound compatible sound card 4X CD-ROM drive Windows 98/ME/2000/XP 2.5 GB free hard disk space

Where to Find It

Links provided for informational purposes only.  FFC makes no warranty with regard to any transaction entered into by any party(ies).

      Copyright © Electric Eye Productions.  All rights reserved.  No reproduction in whole or in part without express written permission.

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33 Responses to Goons Loom at Infinity Ward

  • Meho

    So, you make your company a billion in profits in two months. Next thing you know, you’re investigated for insubordination, sued and sacked. Also, your team members are threatened by men looking like thugs yet not wearing uniforms. I guess Pandemic studios are now happy they were acquired by EA and not Activision. They just lost their jobs after making two moderatly successful games.

    Seriously, breaches of contract and stuff, yeah, I can get behind that but having people threatened and reporting “insubordination” sounds like some proper gestapo shit. One would think that after making the fastest selling entertainment product in history, Infinity Ward would be given SOME credit by their Activision Overlords, but I guess Bobby Kottick was serious about the air of fear and uncertainty he wanted to prevail in the Activision cubicle farms. A fascinating story, can’t wait to hear the rest!!

  • Andrew

    Harsh.

    I’m a little wary calling out anything too early but Activision isn’t exactly know for it’s good closure policy of studios, and removal of staff in the past.

    What transgressions they’ve done as publisher-owned, slightly-more-independent-perhaps CO’s – who knows? Will we ever know? 🙁

  • ajax19

    Now that is how you handle insubordination.  Send in security and throw their asses into the brig (i.e., fire them).  I reckon this will be a long and ugly process as most HR-related matters are.  As an attorney, I have had the (dis)plesure of reviewing various HR complaints and matters in my day.  Needless to say the things people do at work simply boggle the mind.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    It is awfully shocking that Infinity Ward, of all studios, would be made an example of with goons and firings. They’re kind of a golden-egg-laying goose.

    Unless of course West and Zampella were actually doing something wrong/unethical/illegal, in which case I’d have to side with Activision. But if some of the tweets are true, and A/B is just trying to bring a rogue studio to heel, there are gentler ways to do it.

  • Meho

    The plot, apparently thickens:

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/activision-holding-back-mw2-royalties

    “Website BingeGamer (via VG247) was told by a collection of unnamed sources that not a single penny of the $1bn generated by MW2 has been seen by Infinity Ward. ”

    This is still filed strictly under rumours and speculation but, if it’s true, then it’s fucking bizarre. I mean, I know IW are part of Activision, yet you’d expect their contracts to involve some bonuses on top of the salary should their games do well..

    “The report also states that the “insubordination” IW bosses Jason West and Frank Zampella appear to have been sacked for was caused by secret discussions with rival publishers.”

    Because in corporate America the only secret discussions allowed are those between the senior staff at your company.

    OK, some more linkage:

    http://www.bingegamer.net/2010/infinity-ward-has-not-received-royalties-for-modern-warfare-2/

    Also, just for completion’s sake, a now legendary tweet by Tim Schafer regarding this situation:

    “Getting mad at Activision for this kind of thing is like getting mad at an ape for throwing feces. It’s just how the beast communicates.”

  • Meho

    So, what do we know after one day?

    Activision has indeed sacked West and Zampella. Infinity Ward is supposed to be working on DLC for Modern Warfare 2 as we speak. There will be a Call of Duty title in 2010, made by Treyarch. There will be another Call of Duty title in 2011 although it is not yet clear who is going to be the developer. Infinity Ward is now temporarily headed by Activision’s employees Steve Pearce and Steve Ackrich but Activision also announced that a newly formed studio, Sledgehammer Games will be handling future Call of Duty games and will be “extend(ing) the franchise into the action-adventure genre”. Sledgehammer is headed by former Visceral Games executives Glen A. Schofield and Michael Condrey, which, upon playing Dante’s Inferno, I am not sure is the greatest idea ever…

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    1UP says: “In addition, they have formed a new business unit dedicated to publishing an annual Call of Duty game.”

    Isn’t that just so Activision?

  • Andrew

    Oh! Oh! I can name them! Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: 2010 and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: 2011! 😀

    Oooh, wait, but we need other genres, wow! so much chance to have the “Call of Duty: ” namers busy for ages 😀

    Sigh.

  • Mat

    That’s abit unfair, Andrew.

    Aren’t you forgetting “Call of Duty: Modern MMO” and “Call of Duty: Panzer Tankz Mini Kartz Racer!”?

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Kotaku’s really trying to help Activision out: new titles and box art.

  • Toger

    I’d play the Wolveriiiiiiiiines version! 😀

  • Mike "Scout" Gust

    Hey, the Keeping The Peace version has my childhood neighbors on the cover!

  • Meho

    Modern Gwarfare has practically infinite potential for cross marketing!!!

  • lakerz1

    Call of Duty: Corporate Clusterfuck

    LOL

  • Mat

    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/infinity-ward-bosses-suing-activision

    This isn’t looking like a story that will go away anytime soon.

  • Meho

    No, it won’t. More info:

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1074524p1.html

    and

    http://pc.ign.com/articles/107/1074657p1.html

    Choice quotes:

    “The lawsuit states that in the wake of Modern Warfare 2’s success, Activision refused to honor the MOU or the Emplyoment Agreement with West and Zampella, and instead launched a “pre-textual investigation against West and Zampella to create a basis to fire the two co-heads of Infinity Ward before the first Modern Warfare 2 royalty payment.”

    “”West and Zampella were interrogated for over six hours in a windowless conference room; Activision investigators brought other Infinity Ward employees to tears in their questioning and accusations and threatened West and Zampella with ‘insubordination’ if they attempted to console them.”
    ”

    Anyway, after reading the court document, I’d say it’s ironic that West and Zampella are fighting to retain control over Modern Warfare brand even though I imagine they are sick to death of it by now…

  • ajax19

    It’s not so much ironic that they are fighting to retain control over Modern Warfare brand even though they are likely sick to death of it by now, but rather very tactical.

    According to the court papers and West and Zampella’s side of the story, this MOU gives them control over “Modern Wafare” and rights to certain royalties that were due in the next few weeks based on the sales of MW2.  Control over MW is their biggest bargaining chip here.  They file a law suit asking for that and the money and then when it comes to time for settlement talks they use their (alleged) leverage over one leg of Activision’s admitted three-legged stool as a way to get more money from them. 

    They are suing for $36 million worth of damages, if they “agree” to give unfettered control of the MW series to Activision, they stand a better chance to see more of that $36 million.

    Complains in law suits are often like this.  They ask very everything and anything, because it’s much easier to amend and pare things down than to amend and try to add things be it damages or additional claims.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    I honestly wouldn’t have expected THIS level of greed, even from Activision. I mean seriously, the game made TWO BILLION DOLLARS, people. There’s enough to go around.

    Infinity Ward is wholly owned by Activision, but I imagine all of its employees will probably quit in the next several months. I also wouldn’t be surprised if West and Zampella start a new studio and hire them all back. Doubtless all employees are bound by non-competes, but those are notoriously difficult to enforce, especially in the games industry.

  • Mat

    The overriding feeling I get from this is is that, not for the first time, Activision are just swinging around their weight like some 500lb Gorilla, and whoever gets caught out by it.. well, tough luck.

    This whole situation just smacks of arrogance. Arrogance that they’ve become no strangers to in recent times.. such as slapping a £55 RRP on Modern Warfare 2 in the UK (that thankfully few if any retailers actually stuck with).

    With all this re-structuring (read: milking) I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s afew concerned faces at Treyarch, too.

  • Bowbe

    Ok…aside from all the nerd rage that the “awesome” management of Infinity Ward got fired by their owner corporation lets analyze a few facts.

    Infinity Ward was successful at creating a pretty good fairly engaging and scary single player game. That grossed an estimated 1.5-2.0 billion dollars in the first two months of release. About the third month we realize that the monolithic statue that is Infinity Ward has feet made of clay (about January 2010) when their various patches for the multi player FAIL to stop all sorts of hacks/cracks/cheats that absolutely ruined the game.

    In November 2009 the entire games industry is hailing them as the 2nd coming (again). Their reviews are 9.5+ on every site.

    Now its March 2010 and metacritic fan ratings push the game to a 5.5.

    This same management everyone has hailed were also grossly negligent in releasing multiplayer that was hacked/cracked/and full of about as many horrible cheats as I have ever seen in more than a decade of online gaming. The managment that allowed their code to be accessed by hackers to “look for bugs”. The same hackers who have destroyed the multiplayer experience. I’d fire them too. They really aint worth that much $ in the grand scheme of things and if they broke contract or NDA with another company/entities they DESERVE what they get.

    As for that billion plus it is just a gross. As someone who works in games publishing let me clarify how this works. 60msrp. Retailer keeps $30.00 of that to keep the lights on in their store. Microsoft and Sony have licensing agreements for their perspective consoles that pay them around 1/3rd of the profit up till a game makes “platinum” status then the rate goes down. Its like a movie studio. So of the $30.00 left over after Walmart, Microsoft/Sony get $10.00. Uncle Sam/the Queen/your National Tax Collector gets $10.00 in varied corporate tax, leaving Activision/Blizzard $10 to divvy up as they chose to the creative studio (Infinity Ward). So a big chunk of change but not a Billion dollars. More like $167 million. A very decent chunk of change for sure. But when you consider blizzard/activision gets to keep about $32 million a MONTH from World of Warcraft, its not that impressive.

  • Bowbe

    Likewise since West and Zampella were dumb enough to allow their code to be distributed onthe net I wouldn’t trust them to put out another game that wouldnt be just as messed up as this one was. There were high school kids playing MW2 two weeks before it came out for peets sake. Whent hey logged in after “buying a copy” all their perks were still there. All their points were still there. Now invariably when you play you will see hundreds of players with prestige 10, earned through boosting. The boosting service is SOLD FREELY for about 2000 microsoft points or 3 months live subscriptions.
    My point is, Activision’s strongest case is that someone willingly let a flagship game of their Christmas lineup be hacked and passed about for free diminishing its value and that its value continues to diminish. Someone has to staunch the gouts of blood because quite honestly, folks who prefer a clean multiplayer game will never trust Infinity Ward again. If West and Zampella couldnt or wouldnt find the person(S) responsible for all that out and destruction of their lucrative multiplayer IP then Activision has every right to punish them financially and legally for ruining their good name. You notice the hacking and cracking is very difficult on WOW, it is strictly enforced and checks and balances are put in place to protect the fans. Infinity ward didnt do this or has thus far failed in its obligation ot the fans. Someone has to pay. Simple as that.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    We’ve all seen that pie chart, Bowbe, but I doubt the studio leadership was fired for shipping an exploitable game.

    Are you actually suggesting that Activision fired senior management because of problems with free DLC? Or that Activision cares that there is cheating in the game? Activision sees no revenue from online play. They could care less whether or not it works.

    You’re free to be an apologist for Activision if you like, but your analysis of WHY Zampelli and West were fired doesn’t seem very plausible.

  • Bowbe

    What isn’t plausible about shopping your parent companies Itellectual Property to hacker sites to look for bugs? Thats pretty cut and dried and thats what they did. That would be me posting up chapters of a book for WOTC/Hasbro on a torrent account while also submitting it for publication. You do that in any job you get fired. I’m not apologizing for Activision, I’m pointing out issues of corporate and leadership related negligence that will get you fired.

    Gay bashing. Infinity Ward had two instances of that with this game, once with the youtube vid, 2nd with the in game “joke” about don’t ask don’t tell. Did I think they were funny? Sure because I have a sense of humor. If you work for a big ass company (Bank of America being one) and make a similar joke even on your facebook page outside of work guess what? Fired. Thats corporate culture now like it or not. Unless your a rapper that is.

    Activision may not “make” the dough off the online play as you say but lets call an apple an apple shall we. How many people actually bought the game PURELY to play the 10 hour single player game? 1/10th of the sales maybe? You buy COD games for the online experience. Their negligence ruined the online experience and tell me it hasn’t been ruined after you’ve been buried in three dozen care package strikes. COD MW1 didnt have those issues. This one is rife with them. If your sitting with friends and 8 out of 10 of them agree the online blows and you were on the fence about buying it for yourself are you still going to buy it for full price? No, you’ll pick it up used and Activision certainly doesnt get any $$ off a resale. Check your worship of Zampelli and West at the door please.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Please. I didn’t know Zampelli and West existed until last week. As for the grammatical wasteland that are your comments, if you worked in game publishing then you would know that once a game is bought it’s bought, that its tail is going to be about six weeks, shorter for a game like this because door busters see around 85% of the profit on Day Zero and Day One. You’d also know that as consumers, gamers are mind-bogglingly stupid, and will cheerfully buy games despite warnings of issues just because they’d always planned to.

    Given that Zampelli and West are now suing, insisting that Modern Warfare is their IP, I’m guessing that they probably didn’t knowingly damage it. But who knows? Maybe Activision, a company that has spent the last five years exploiting franchises, closing studios, firing people without reason, arbitrarily raising prices, making stated company policy that an atmosphere of skepticism, pessimism, and fear was desirable at their wholly owned subsidiaries really is the affronted party here. Time will tell.

  • ajax19

    I don’t think anything is “cut and dry” here.  I don’t think anyone is worshipping either of these guys either.

    The only thing we’ve seen to date are Zampelli and West’s allegations set forth in their complaint and the brief, vague comments by Activision about “insubordination”.  That term is incredibly vague and can mean just about anything in the corporate/HR world. 

    Given that this is now in litigation, rumor and speculation is all you’re going to get until more papers are filed.

    As for their claim for damages, the $36 million they allege includes far, far more than just the royalties they think they are owned.  It’s a combination of things.

    As for the value of MW2 and the money Activision made off it, Activision has already announced that the game was incredibly successful and one of the main reasons behind its success last year.  Regardless of the exact total revenue Activision saw as a result of sales (I’m sure it’s easily found in their public filings) it was a significant portion of their overall revenues.

  • Bowbe

    Haha Steerspike. The only point I was trying to make is that if a parent company wanted to axe these guys they have ample reasons to use as their excuses for termination, most of which would stick.

    Thats ALL I pointed out.

    Leaked versions of the game two weeks before release showing you have no control over your own in studio employees or you willingly leaked the game (Check).

    Inability to control the rampant cheating on multiplayer with 2 patches that did not work resulting in dillution of your IP(Check).

    Use of illigitimate 3rd party hacker sites as “sub contractors” to your IP (Check).

    If this was done without the knowledge of the parent company that (Also) could result in a clause for breach of contract.

    Negotiation in private with a rival entity (Allegedly in this case EA?) for re-entry into the EA fold? Didn’t these bozos pull a similar stunt with EA to break from EA and go to Activision in the first place? Thats the big stinker here according to a lot of other sites that are just as informed as the rest of us.

    The rest of us meaning… people who were not in the meeting. I cherish every time someone allegedly or directly affiliated with the “fired side” tries to win the court of public opinion with their lame twitter and facebook updates.

    Is Activision trying to get out of paying their 10% to Infinity Ward? Probably. In this economy anything is possible, especially where stock splits and shareholders are concerned. Certainly not painting them as good guys here, just pointing out several “grounds for termination”.

    You say cool stuff like “Do you honestly believe Activision cares about cheating” Maybe “Activision” doesn’t but the Blizzard wing sure seems to when it comes to cheating in their flagship product.

    You also swing around big numbers like 2 billion dollars and then when I point out the number they recieve is much smaller you go in with the “We’ve all seen that pie chart…” and “Doorbuster specials”. So which is it? They made 2 billion or they suddenly lost their ass on the first two days of sales while Walmart and Uncle Sam reap the reward of Infinity Ward’s valliant effort? Maybe everyone hasn’t seen that pie chart.

    Sorry dude but I’m not trying to sell a bunch of conflicting stories to win an internet argument with you. Note that when combing through my “gramatical wasteland” I again only point out reasons Activision could use to get rid of anyone affiliated with Infinity Ward that they wanted to, and all would be good and legitimate reasons in my book.

    Infinity Ward started with great IP and the potential of a great product with this one. Single player was amazing, but I buy COD games for the online play. So do a lot of other people. I ain’t the greatest at the game but I finish in the top 5 on most rounds and thats good enough for me. CODMW (the first) played for about 6 months solid, had few errors, but bad lag during certain times of the day. There were almost no cheats except for a few wierd places on a couple maps where you could walk the sky and the game was frequently patched and regulated. That was in the day of “good Infinity Ward” They were unshackled by those evil opressive bastards at EA and they were out to make a good name for themselves right?

    This new game was a mess from the get-go that benefitted from lots of hype, fat reviewer scores and millions of dollars in advertising. My friends and I played for about two months almost nightly till all the care package nonsense and the modded guns started showing up everywhere.

    Even in the beginning there were the “turn invisible cheat” in the Afgan map and “unlimited ammo cheats” and “hide down the smokestack and rack up a million kills cheats to get all your nuke patches and what not. Allowing prestige points in private matches? Wow, a booster’s paradise. Thats horrible game design right there. All that is on Infinity Ward and not Activision. They are the studio they designed it, put it out flaws and all as a finished product.

    Too cheap for dedicated servers with that “2 billion dollars” your talking about? Way to piss off the PC gamers and console gamers alike. I should have known something was up when the “online agreement” page flashes by faster than a booster on crack with all run/sprint/knife/akimbo shotgun choices selected. Is that crap Activisions fault or Infinity Wards? Probably a combo of blame in that reguard.

    We waited and checked status of updates/patches and all that came up was “oh we’re working on it,” all the hack tools were available for it before it even launched. Youtube has had daily exploits posted up. People send you messages to you in game wanting 2000 microsoft points or 3 months subscription to LIVE in exchange for 10th prestige.

    All the bells and whistles that should have made the game great are meaningless now thanks to the cheating. All that stuff you strive for as a gamer went up in smoke almost overnight once the non-stop care package exploits were in full swing. I don’t blame Activision for that. I blame Infinity Ward for allowing that to happen on ALL platforms of the game and will likely never buy a game from them or another entity run by Zampelli and West again. IW ruined its reputation with this gamer for sure. I can buy $60 worth of real bullets and have an awesome afternoon at my local gun club instead.

    You are right about one thing though. Gamers are dumb and will knowingly buy a game that is going to break their heart because they “hope” that all the bs will be fixed the next time they play, or when the next version comes out but just like Madden, it never is.

  • Matt "Steerpike" Sakey

    Now THAT’S a good response, Bowbe! I don’t agree, but I respect the use of logic and the lack of bile.

    Allow me to rebut…

    Blizzard can care about cheating until the universe dries up; the position on one game (where cheating might impact PAYING customers) doesn’t dictate company policy. I didn’t intend to imply that Activision doesn’t care about cheating regardless of game, only that they don’t care when it comes to MW2.

    Never argued that Activision couldn’t produce reasons to fire West and Zampelli. Particularly if they were talking to other publishers – which wouldn’t surprise me. Total breach of contract. I never said Activision was acting illegally. The only point I wanted to make was that if I were Activision, and I was faced with losing a studio that just made me *coughcoughcough*illion dollars (no need to incite you further), I might have approached with a different tone…

    along the lines of…

    “Hey, guys, I know you’re looking and I don’t want you to leave us.  How can we work this out?”

    Instead of sending thugs to the office and firing the leads.

    As for the litany of exploits you list, yeah, it’s a broken game. Most games that ship are broken. But the industry doesn’t care about quality – on account of the gamers are stupid thing. All they care about is dollars, and MW2 made a zillion of them. They’re not selling Toyotas, you know. No one dies if a game is shitty.

  • Mat

    The bug issue with MW2 is an interesting one for sure, particularly when you consider what the reaction to so many glitches and cheats would have been if this was Treyarch’s year on the job. I was late onto the World at War scene so barely experienced much of the multiplayer myself, but I noticed the game received one hell of a tough ride from the community about the bugs in the multiplayer. I can’t recall many if any of them being as high profile or consistent as some of the floods of MW2 glitches that have appeared.

    Infinity Ward didn’t come up with anything like Nazi zombies either, and if COD4 is any indication, are nowhere near as supportive of their products with DLC either as Treyarch.

    Still, I don’t really think this is about calling Infinity Ward “awesome” or siding with them against Activision for the sake of it.. or “nerd rage”. IW might have published a buggy as hell game (serves them right for being arrogant over not releasing a beta) but this is just one in an increasingly large number of PR balls up’s by Activision. As Steerpike says, there are surely other ways of dealing with stuff like this other than sending the heavies in and coming out with comments about “subordination” and the like. This is video games development, not an episode of 24.

    Just as an aside, I’ve pretty much called time on Modern Warfare 2 myself now, although that is less to do with the games bugs than it is to do with the simply awful “community” that follows that game around..

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