Forever Worlds: A Review and a Fool´s Errands

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Forever Worlds: A Review and a Fool’s Errands

By MrLipidApril 2004

A Bit of Background …

The first time I ran into the puzzle design of Courtland Shakespeare, it was 1995 and I was playing the three-puzzle demo of Jewels of the Oracle. And I loved it. The look, the sound, the physicality of the interaction with the puzzle pieces. As soon as I could, I picked up the full version and happily twiddled away many an hour, collecting a jewel for every correctly solved puzzle and delivering it to the Oracle. It was hugely satisfying to watch the jewels slowly fill the ring above the Oracle’s altar.

What Jewels lacked in compelling narrative it more than made up for in quality of puzzles and the race to fill the ring.  One more puzzle, one more jewel, and then, maybe, to bed. Or not.  Wonder how tough it would be to get this scarab to clear all the balls out of this maze? Hmm.

The publishers of Jewels went bankrupt. Two years after the release of Jewels, Shakespeare was back with another puzzle collection, Gems of Darkness, featuring veteran character actor Henry Ramer in the role of an archeologist directing the excavation of an ancient multi-leveled, multi-roomed site. Once again, every correctly solved puzzle yielded a reward: this time, a gem. As the puzzles were solved, a chest filled with gems, leading to the game’s final stumper. Gems, while more lushly produced, was in many ways a remake of Jewels. Not that I minded. I enjoyed Shakespeare’s puzzle sense and found the familiarity and continuity of the challenges comforting rather than repetitive. The publisher of Gems also went bankrupt, and Shakespeare was quoted as saying that he was done with the business of developing games. The rights to both Jewels and Gems were acquired by DreamCatcher, becoming part of the product line that financed what is now the Adventure Company.

Great Expectations …

Imagine my surprise and delight when, in the summer of 2003, I read that Shakespeare was again developing a game. And, rather than having it published by yet another company that was likely to go broke, he was working directly with the Adventure Company. The press releases and interviews hinted at something very different from the engaging twiddle puzzles found in Jewels and Gems.  Forever Worlds would be more than just puzzles. There were rumors of a story and other characters, both human and not, with whom players would interact. The game trailer, which is also the introductory cutscene of the game, revealed a retro hip graphic style and a cheeky affection for the conventions of pulp fantasy and science fiction.

Having only a vague idea what to expect, I remained hopeful, even as Forever Worlds missed its initial ship date, that it would be the game that would finally, if perhaps not completely, compensate Shakespeare for his previous good work while delivering another great gaming experience.

Though I know nothing about Shakespeare’s compensation, I’ve played his latest game, and this is the only sentence I will ever write that will contain the phrases “great gaming experience” and Forever Worlds.

A Detour of a Thousand Miles Starts on the Wrong Foot …

The sheer technical challenge of getting Forever Worlds to run on Win98SE and ME can be found here and the complete and utter lack of assistance from TAC in meeting that challenge can be found here.

The Only Thing Worse than Failure …

Perhaps the seemingly interminable—as in, say, forever?—effort of getting the game on its feet has colored my opinion of it. Perhaps.  All, or at least most, was forgiven the first time the game actually predictably loaded following a reboot. That honeymoon started to fade when I tried looking around. And it was a distant memory once I attempted to move. While the scrolling speed for looking around can be adjusted, it tends to be choppy and clumsy. I suspect few players will find it possible to smoothly glance around the landscapes and interiors of Forever Worlds. And though the cursor is smart and will indicate a puzzle, a path, an informational popup or a potential inventory item, the cursor is only smart once it stops scrolling. This produces a game rhythm of stop, scan, stop, scan. The lushness of the background fades as attention shifts to what the change in the cursor is indicating.

Of course, one can’t just look around. One has to be able to move.  And while movement is certainly possible in Forever Worlds, it is often a puzzle in itself. This has less to do with the Virtools game engine than it does with how the game engine was utilized.  The game engine, also used in Post Mortem and Syberia, is a series of linked spheres or nodes. One pops from the center of one node to the center of the next. Once inside a node, it is possible to look in all directions as well as zoom in or out on the image covering the node’s interior.

Nodes, of course, have been around for quite some time in adventure games. Usually nodes are linked to cutscene paths. “We’re moving via cutscene and now we’re looking around in the node and now we’re moving again via cutscene.” While there are a few cutscene transitions in Forever Worlds, most of the transitions are handled as jump cuts. “We’re looking around here in a node and, click, now we’re looking around there in a node.”

This can work if it is obvious where “there” is in relation to “here.” In Forever Worlds, it often isn’t. Because there is no standard distance between node centers, a substantial amount of mental energy needs to be invested in figuring out just where one is. And it doesn’t stop there. In more than a few instances, it doesn’t matter from which direction one enters a node: once inside, one always winds up facing the same way. Enter a node from the east and, as would be expected, one winds up facing west. Enter that same node from the north and, surprise! one winds up facing not south, but … west. Huh? There are several places in Forever Worlds where one simply has to ignore the screen and just remember where things are.

A good example of this can be found in a puzzle involving a wedged-open door. In node A, the door, which is on the other side of the room, appears wedged open. In the adjacent node, node B, the door always appears closed. Once the door is wedged open in node A, the only hint in node B that the door is open is the change in the cursor from neutral to navigation. And once the cursor is clicked on the still apparently locked door in node B, the player, upon entering node A, is turned around and tossed all the way across the room, winding up looking, from a distance, at the still wedged-open door.

From First to Third and Back Again …

As disorienting as the travel from node to node can be, the cutscenes that link some nodes can be even more confusing. One moment one is in the middle of a first-person node and the next moment one is watching oneself in a third-person cutscene. And then back into a first-person node. While I wouldn’t necessarily ask for Syberia-length cutscenes where the protagonist walks all the way from Point A to Point D, having the cutscene end at Point B and the first-person node pop in at Point D is a bit unsettling.

And then there is the matter of who appears in the cutscenes. No sooner has our hero started on his quest than he has his body snatched.  His now-possessed body, which obviously looks like him, takes off to be with the hero’s girlfriend. The hero, stuck in a different body, begins his quest. That’s okay, except for the fact that the body that shows up in the hero’s quest cutscenes isn’t the body our hero now inhabits. It’s our hero’s original body! So what are we actually watching in the cutscenes? Are the cutscenes our hero imagining himself in the third person on this quest? Could be. Who knows?

Point and Click and Click and Click …

Interacting with the game environment has it own special set of challenges. Suppose you have an item in inventory and you know you need to use it on a specific screen. First you must click when the cursor turns into a triangle. This indicates an action is possible, and clicking sets the game to puzzle mode. Then you must click to open your inventory, click to move the needed item to the select item area, click on the item, click to leave the inventory area and then see where the item will be accepted, through clicking, by the puzzle screen. Once you pull something out of inventory, there is no scrolling to another portion of the node; the background screen is frozen. You must scroll first, look for the action cursor, set the screen to puzzle mode and then go through the item selection process. If you are in the right place and fail to set the screen to puzzle mode, you can wave the inventory item around all you want.  It won’t matter.

The Nightmare Begins …

Forever Worlds gets off on the wrong foot with its very first puzzle. The story logic is this: once the hero has entered a particular place, he cannot get out until he has fulfilled all of the tasks of his quest. The catch is that the player does not know this at the time. The inability to leave the area feels like a bug rather than a necessary step in the narrative. Click on the first puzzle and the error is compounded. One cannot save in the middle of a puzzle in a puzzle’s node. One must leave a puzzle’s node in order to save. Since the first puzzle location in the game is a single node, the player is literally trapped. There are only two ways out: solve the puzzle or hit Ctrl-Alt-Del. Not exactly elegant.

The fragile wagon that is the core story of Forever Worlds is slowly crushed under the burden of an overstuffed narrative that offers logorrhea in place of wit, whimsy or dramatic momentum. Our hero is soon stuck with a speed-talking lizard who, while beautifully realized, functions primarily as an expository fire hose, filling our ears with chatter that is supposed to make up for the failure of Forever Worlds to show rather than tell its tale.

And under the best of circumstances it would have been a challenging tale to tell. The fellow our hero is on a quest to save is Doc Maitland.  Doc has been tossed into the Forever Worlds and split into a number of different identities. The goal is to find him in each of the Forever Worlds and get him back in one piece. Our hero is motivated to do this because not only is the doc’s daughter the love of the hero’s life, the hero has had his own body snatched and has to rescue the doc in order to rescue himself. And, to add one more twist, once our hero is on the move in the Forever Worlds, he finds that he himself can possess its inhabitants, a ghostly race known as Fillers.

Read All About It!

I suspect that one of the reasons Forever Worlds was shipped with its Solution Guide was that the guide was the only way players were going to be able to make sense of the game’s story. It’s also one of the few ways players can tell if they are making any progress.  Unlike Jewels or Gems, there is no clear sense of accomplishment in Forever Worlds. Ol’ Doc Maitland could have been split into three, four, five or fifty different identities and it would not have affected the narrative in any way.

Combine the obscurity of an inert story with the labored whimsy of the game world (chocolate is the most valuable thing in the universe, giant imprisoned butterflies provide most of the world’s power) and about the only thing players can be grateful for is the game’s modest length. Put another way, while it may not do what it does very well, it doesn’t do it very long, either.

Of all the games I’ve ever played, the game Forever Worlds most closely resembles is another DreamCatcher interdimensional time travel steamer: Beyond Time. (You can find my full review of Beyond Time here.) That project also suffered from a story that was told rather than shown while players solved unrelated puzzles in a variety of colorful, if seemingly randomly selected, venues. Ironically, for all its other faults, there was a clear mission in Beyond Time: to collect crystals.

Make it Stop!

What draws me to a game is its ability to immerse me in its world.  If it pulls me in and keeps me playing, I am willing to make all sorts of allowances. And, out of genuine affection for Shakespeare’s two previous games, I was prepared to give Forever Worlds every opportunity to engage me. And yet, from the first screen, the game, sometimes by accident, sometimes by design, pushed me out of its world and held me at arm’s length. It started with the focus on the cursor. When I stopped playing the game and just looked at the scenery, it was stunning. Not at all interactive, but still stunning.  Start playing again and focus shifts back to the cursor.

Getting to the first interactive location in the game put a bit more distance between me and the experience. Nothing quite like learning that what one sees and how one gets there have nothing to do with each other.

The first in-game cutscene animation, like all of the game’s animation, was very slick. Using that animation in support of a snippet of shtick from Wayne’s World was at best unimaginative and at worst lazy. Gazing at the cursor, overcoming the navigation, enduring the dialogue. What next?

Of course, what was next was what may become known as the Solve or Reboot puzzle, followed in short order by the appearance of the bloviating reptile, the oddly truncated third-person cutscenes, the first exposure to the convoluted inventory interface and the even more convoluted inventory puzzles.

And so on and so on, with no sense of how much remained to be done, all the way to the end. As the last string of disjointed cutscenes played out, I could only shake my head in baffled indifference.  It was like watching a film that, had everything gone okay, would have been just okay. Except everything didn’t go okay. It was as if every third reel had been stolen, half the effects shots had been lost in the lab and there was never time to do a full readthrough of the script.

Though the game world visuals are sumptuous and the animation in the cutscenes first-rate, the dialogue doesn’t play and the puzzles have none of the physical intelligence of the developer’s earlier work. The only thing Forever Worlds has in common with what Shakespeare has done before is the burst of stars that signals the passage from one world to another. Forever Worlds is a huge, huge disappointment.

Close Only Counts In …

Even the technical specs listed for the game on TAC’s website are wrong. It can’t be completed on 98 First Edition, it needs DirectX 9.0b, it only takes up about 800 MB on the hard drive and the CD speed is only an issue upon install (the game plays completely from the hard drive; no copy protection). Also, those playing Forever Worlds on 98SE or ME must have Windows Media Player Series 9 installed.

* * * * *

A Fool’s Errands: TAC Technical Support and Forever Worlds

On April 11, 2004, one day after receiving my copy of Forever Worlds, I posted the following comment on the Adventure Company’s technical support forum:

After the first install (which the installation log said completed normally), the game failed to load. The TAC and Hexagon Entertainment logos would appear and then the game would lock the system up tight with a black screen.

Uninstalled and installed again. Removed other programs that can be used to open .Avi files and associated all .Avi files with DivX. Same problem. TAC, Hexagon, black screen.

Uninstalled and reinstalled and uninstalled and reinstalled and…No change. The game always locks up after the Hexagon logo.

Not happy.

Athlon XP 3000+ 512MB GeForce 5200 FX SB Live! Value Win98SE

Under normal circumstances, reliving the unbending of an adventure game load failure would not appear to be all that useful. The odds that the solution to one game’s failure can be extrapolated to others, given the unique characteristics of individual games and systems, are small. Still, this is not a tale about actually getting a game to run. That story does not involve the technical support staff of TAC. This is, rather, an examination of the assumptions inherent in the suggestions offered by TAC and how those assumptions rendered TAC incapable of providing any useful advice.

The fundamental assumption was that Forever Worlds was thoroughly tested and would perform as promised on every Windows OS from 98 and ME through 2000 and XP. Starting from this premise, any operational problem suffered by a customer must reflect a problem on the customer’s system. Therefore, any technical advice would focus on diagnosing the customer’s system.

In short order, everyone who was having no luck getting Forever Worlds to load in 98, 98SE or ME was told to update his or her video drivers, make sure the CD was in the drive and not worry about virtual CD drives or CD burners. And if none of that helped, just submit an online technical support form.

The first clue that TAC really wasn’t offering game-specific advice is the bit about making sure the CD is in the drive. Forever Worlds installs completely to the hard drive and, since it is not copy protected, does not require a CD in the drive. I did submit an online technical support form. And, days later, got back the same sort of generic advice posted on the forum: update video drivers, etc.

The next burst of advice indicated that while Forever Worlds did need an MP3 player for its audio portions, it didn’t matter which player was installed. An uninstall and reinstall of the DivX codec and DivX player (needed for running the game’s cutscenes) might be in order, on the chance that the initial install was somehow faulty. And, just to put everyone’s mind to rest, the loading problems did not relate to Win98.

While this appears more specific, it’s really not. Forever Worlds, on the platforms upon which it fails to load, requires Windows Media Player Series 9 as its MP3 player. Nothing else will work.  On the other hand, Forever Worlds does not require the DivX player, just the DivX codec. And though it is possible to load Forever Worlds on Win98, the game can only be completed on Win98SE or higher.

When none of these suggestions produced results, additional generic advice was offered. Try the game on another computer to determine if the disks are defective. Run the DirectX diagnostic tool to see which version of DirectX is present and if there is a problem. Set the CD drive to no read ahead and to use Ctrl-Alt-Del to close all programs other than Explorer and Systray and then reinstall the game.

Since the game’s installation routine was incapable of setting the game up properly on a Win98SE or ME system, trying the game on a different system would yield nothing more than another failure.  Since the game won’t allow itself to be installed without DirectX 9.0b present, Dxdiag reveals that the version of DirectX installed is, indeed, 9.0b. And it’s just fine. As for a no read ahead install with nothing running other than Explorer or Systray, I’d already done that. CD Copier, my virtual CD drive, requires that the real CD drive be set to no read ahead. And, as mentioned in the original post, the game installation log revealed no problems. Nor did it indicate any problems on any of the subsequent reinstalls.

With no one reporting success yet, the torrent of generic advice continued. Download the DivX codec directly from DivX. Check which version of Windows Media Player is currently installed. And, again, assurances that Forever Worlds had been tested on Win98 systems and no problems of the sort I or others had encountered had been found.

Turns out the downloaded version of the DivX codec was no different than the version that shipped on the Forever Worlds CD. While checking the version of the Windows Media Player was not a bad idea, there was no suggestion that a particular version might be needed.  And the assurance that game ran on Win98, minus any idea how that Win98 system had been set up, rang hollow.

By this time, April 14th, I was beginning to run out of patience.  I suggested that it might be an idea to contact the lead programmer of Forever Worlds and see what he might have to offer regarding the load failures. As far as I know, TAC never acted on this suggestion.  Five days later, I would, but more on that later.

More generic advice. Install the latest version of Windows Media Player. Submit another online technical support form. Run msinfo32 and submit its report to TAC Tech Support.

While the installation of the latest version of the Windows Media Player was a not a bad idea, there was no hint that it was offered as anything other than yet another “just try this.” Since the first online technical support form had yielded no useful advice, it seemed pointless to submit another. Msinfo32 generated a 1.3 MB report that, once submitted to TAC, disappeared without comment or response.

The next few posts from TAC technical support confirmed the suspicion that TAC really didn’t know the specs of the Win98 system upon which Forever Worlds had been tested. However, a TAC technical support person took a copy of Forever Worlds home with her and found that it ran without a problem on her home system. And, since it was not possible to replicate the error, there was little more that could be done. The last bit of advice from TAC technical support was that those having problems download a registry cleaner.

And that was pretty much all TAC technical support had to say.  As of April 16th, there were no further official responses. The implicit message was clear: Those who bought Forever Worlds in hopes that it would run as claimed on 98 and ME were just going to have to solve the problem themselves.

On April 19th, I sent the following note to Michael Adams, the head of Quality Assurance, and then forwarded the note to Richard Wah Kan, the President of TAC.

Mr. Kan,

Below is a message I recently sent to Michael Adams:

Mr. Adams,

Anyone putting any effort into figuring out why Forever Worlds doesn’t run predictably on 98 or ME? When it does run, it runs beautifully. Unfortunately, it doesn’t load very often. And when it tips over, it freezes the system completely, sometimes to the point of requiring the reinstallation of video drivers.

Looking forward to hearing of any progress on this front.

Here’s the April 20th response from DreamCatcher, sent by Joel Dreschler of Technical Support:

Hello Bradford,

Thank you for your email

Here at Dreamcatcher Games Interactive we take all problems very seriously when they surface with our products. We are currently working on a fix for the problem that some of our users have been experiencing with Forever Worlds on Windows 98/ME.

Thank you for your efforts in our forums for this!

Neither Adams nor Kan ever responded to my note.

The same day Joel Dreschler e-mailed me, he posted the following on the Tech Support Forum.

Hello all,

If you are having problems running Forever Worlds on a 98/ME machine please take the following steps:

Check that you have the requirements:

Please verify that you have a video card with at least 32 MB and a processor of at least 400 MHz. To do this you can from the main desktop press on the start button in the bottom left hand corner of the screen. From there chose run and in the dialog box type dxdiag

In the first screen or tab you will be given system information including the Processor, Memory and version of DirectX. If the version of DirectX is older that 9.0b it is out of date and can be updated at www.Microsoft.Com/directx

On the third tab, display you can view your video card information.  The Device area has Name which will have the video card. If the name is sis, s3, trident or intel these are on board graphics cards and not a separate video card. For this game you must have at least a 32meg card. Also ensure that the date of the driver in the top right hand corner is <3 months. Please do not do this through windows update, but through your computer manufacturer or better yet, through the manufacturer of your video card.

Some general steps:

– Please ensure all other programs are closed prior to running the game. This includes any anti-virus software you may have installed on your system. A way to check that all other programs are closed, perform the following while on your windows desktop:

1) Using your keyboard, press the CTRL, ALT and DEL key simultaneously and a “Close Program” window will appear.

2) Within this window it will display what programs are currently running. To reduce Windows to its basic functionality, the only two programs that absolutely need to be running are “Explorer” and “Systray.” Any other programs that are listed can be selected, then press on “End Task” to close the program.

3) Perform steps 1 and 2 again until only “Explorer” and “Systray” remain.

4) When this is completed, attempt to play the game.

NOTE: All the programs that you have closed will restart the next time Windows starts.

– Uninstall and reinstall the game as it may have not installed correctly.

– If possible please try the game on another machine as it maybe a defective disk. If you are unable to do so please exchange the game for another copy.

If you are still having problems please email us at techsupport@dreamcatchergames.com with the following attachment so that we may better troubleshoot your problem, please provide us with your system’s information.  To do this, please follow these steps:

1) From your desktop, click on the Start button, click Run, then type “msinfo32” without the quotes.

2) From the System Information window, click on the File menu, then click Save (save itas text file).

3) Save this file to a known location such as My Documents.

4) Attach this file to your next email and send it back to us.

——————– Happy gaming!

Joel Drechsler Technical Support

This post, prominently displayed on the TAC Technical Forum and locked to prevent any response, continues the tradition of assuming that all game problems originate in the player’s system and not in the actual game or, as in the case of Forever Worlds, the game’s installation routine.

Early in the evening of the previous day, Monday, April 19th, I finally did what I had suggested TAC do five days earlier: locate the e-mail address of the lead programmer on Forever Worlds and ask for help. He responded quite promptly, providing both clear instructions on how to setup a Win98SE and ME system for Forever Worlds and a concise explanation for why such a setup was necessary.  The entire time elapsed between deciding to find him and implementing his recipe for success was roughly five hours.

On April 20, I posted, on the TAC Technical Forum and elsewhere, his setup routine for running Forever Worlds on Win98SE and ME.

Looking back, it is now apparent that the TAC Technical Support person who took Forever Worlds home and had no trouble running it had, without realizing it, followed the recipe for setting up a Win98SE system: Install DirectX 9.0b, Windows Media Player Series 9, the proper video drivers and the DivX codec. Given the assumption that the game should run and that any problems could be attributed to an individual player’s system, the successful loading of Forever Worlds on a tech’s home system served as little more than confirmation of that assumption. The posting of a meaningless string of fool’s errands on the TAC technical support forum under the title Forever Worlds on 98/ME problems suggests that TAC Technical Support has chosen to learn nothing from any of this. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Hexagon Entertainment Publisher: The Adventure Company Release Date: April 2004

Available for: Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

Click to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlargeClick to enlarge Click to enlarge

System Requirements

Win 98/ME/2000/XP Pentium II 400 MHz (700 MHz recommended) 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) DirectX 8 compatible sound card 1.2 GB free hard disk space 16X CD-ROM (24X recommended) 32 MB Direct3D compatible video card (64 MB recommended) 16-bit color (24-bit recommended) DirectSound compatible sound card Mouse, keyboard, amd speakers

(There are at least two errors in the Solution Guide. On page 38, there is a reference to clicking on the red button. This is not necessary. On page 41, clicking on the meter (Fig. 78) does nothing.  One needs to click on the bee poster to the right of the machine in Fig. 79. Also, there are references to touching Doc Maitland at the end of each episode. This is not possible since the transitions back to the Departure Booth occur automatically.)

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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