Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1 Review

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Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 1

Review by SteerpikeJune 2008

Offended by Vulgarity? Stop Now

I know it’s in vogue to dislike Penny Arcade these days, but I just can’t toe that particular line. Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins—better known as their comic alter-egos Gabe and Tycho—have managed to coax plenty of laughs from me over the years. Penny Arcade is, to me, something that this industry needs: something as seriously important as it is absurdly amusing; video gaming’s satirical conscience. It is to games what Doonesbury is to politics. It proves something about games as a whole. Having a figurehead industry comic makes the medium more …  real, somehow. More focal, more imperative and undismissable.

And though it began as a humble webcomic, Penny Arcade has grown into a media empire. In 2007 alone, its Child’s Play charity drive raised over a million dollars in money and toys donated to children’s hospitals around the world, making those dreary places a little brighter, a little more hopeful. The annual Penny Arcade Expo—PAX to the cool kids—rivals the mighty E3 in attendance. And through it all, through all of the charity and event management, despite their many hundreds of thousands of dollars in branded marketing, contract work, and guest appearances, Holkins and Krahulik have churned out a new full color strip, like clockwork, every other weekday.

And every other weekday, the world of gaming includes that strip in its morning routine, alongside coffee and toothbrushing. People in the business listen to what Penny Arcade says. The comic’s legendary ability to ridicule has made it famous and, at times, feared. If there were Commandments in this industry, one of them would surely be Thou Shalt Not Get on Penny Arcade’s Bad Side, for Lo, They Shall Destroy Thee. Penny Arcade wields true power in the industry, though I’ve never gotten the sense that the company’s employees are drunk upon it. They’re still just shlubs who love games, who know the secret hearts of gamers, and who happen to be able to make a living telling jokes about them.

And they typically use their power for good. These guys know the games industry; heck, they influence it. Decisions and reversals alike have occurred due to Penny Arcade’s mockery. Still, when the company announced its intention to get into the game development business itself, there were some eyebrows raised. Not only was it a risky endeavor for a duo who’ve made their share of enemies amongst the enthusiast press, but for two guys who love playing games so much, suddenly making them seemed almost like changing sides.

But make one they have; On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is a planned four-episode series developed by Hothead Games, with original art from Krahulik and a script penned by Holkins. It is a straight-up turn-based adventure, not too dissimilar from an action-oriented JRPG, but with a distinct style and voice, plus a couple of very clever original ideas, all its own.

Still, both sides of the quality coin show their face here. Precipice is fun but also painfully linear, far too short, and lacking in any replay value. The real selling point is that it’s a Penny Arcade cartoon made interactive, from the trademark artistic style and four-letter humor straight through to the inside jokes. If you’re a fan, you’ll like Precipice for the same reason you like the comic. If you’re not a fan, steer clear; because only fans can overlook the game’s single, suffocating issue: it’s fun, but it ain’t $20 of fun. It’s about $13 of fun. For $12.95, this game would be a Gold Star, because at that price you overlook or forgive much that you wouldn’t in a premium-priced title. At twenty clams, the Get out of Jail Free card isn’t quite as potent.

Steerpike Uses the F Word

The year is 1922, and the pattering of raindrops from a late-autumn storm are the harbingers of doom in the burg of New Arcadia, a scum-rotten dive of a city infested with all manner of evil. Yeah, it’s the kind of place even the hooligans avoid, where the air is black with the fetid breath of forgotten gods and every doorway cries of despair. New Arcadia ain’t for the timid, that’s for sure—and powers are stirring that have long slumbered beneath its foundations. That’s where the Startling Developments Detective Agency earns its bread and butter: founders John Gabriel and Tycho Brahe fight toe-to-toe with evil so wretched it’d curl the devil’s toenails. These are your go-to guys for supernatural investigation and elimination. Gabe’s flying fists of fury can bloody the nose of whatever Lovecraftian dreckbeast your unholy spells can conjure up; Tycho’s as mean with a tommy gun as he is with a textbook.

And they’re gonna need everything in the arsenal, because today something big—something really big, we’re talking something that makes the Stay Puft Marshmallow man feel inferior—has turned its lambent red eyes and stainless steel juicing apparatus toward the huddling city. Penny Arcade fans know the vicious machine monster to which I refer. Everyone else: I refer to … ah … ahem.  Oh, screw it: I speak of the Fruit Fucker™ Brand Home Juicing System, a minor if recurring character in the comic, and one of the key villains in Precipice.

Actually, one of the greatest things about this game is the fact that it allows Penny Arcade fans to place themselves inside the duo’s big adventure, with all of the little secondary characters and fan-service asides.  Those who read the comic know its little world very well: Gabe and Tycho’s apartment is full of home appliances with consciousness and personality; and their neighbors, relations, and enemies play no small role in this game. It’s fun to go through the character creation system, which (despite sharply limited options, especially for female characters) allows you to create a reasonable facsimile of yourself in Krahulik-ified cartoon form. You’re an average sort, living an average life, out peacefully raking leaves one average afternoon … when your house gets crushed under the galvanized metal foot of Fruit Fucker Prime, the Juicer to Rule Them All, as it strolls through New Arcadia, carving a swath of destruction—and leaving behind hundreds of tiny, deadly juicing minions—in its wake.

Tycho and Gabe are already hot on the beast’s stainless heels, and thus is your lot thrown in with theirs. All of this happens within the first ten minutes of play, which serve also as a convenient tutorial. But chthonic juicing mechanisms are just the beginning—evil mimes, the homeless, and Tycho’s niece also figure prominently. So does urine.

Interestingly, little actual plot is revealed in this, the first of Precipice’s four episodes. Basically, the mimes are trying to resurrect an ancient Mime God, as mimes are wont to do; and the juicers are running amok through the city, but beyond that there’s not too much really meaty here, story-wise. It has all of the trademark goofiness and scatological largesse of a Penny Arcade cartoon, and there’s just something about finding yourself living one that makes it really delightful.

Yardwork Leads to Mayhem Every Time

Adventure fans such as those who compose a large portion of the FFC readership will find themselves right at home in Precipice’s left-mouse-button-and-spacebar world. The game, which is also available over Xbox Live, is pretty simple, focusing largely on exploration, box smashing, and turn-based combat.

That latter is spiced up by the inclusion of some mechanics that add to the depth of strategy in combat, should you choose to take advantage of them. The entire system is basically a rock-paper-scissors stats setup in which your trio’s speed, attack, and defense attributes are compared against those of the various enemies you encounter. When one of your characters is attacked, however, you have a split-second opportunity to mash the spacebar and perform a block, reducing damage or—in some cases—allowing for a devastating counterattack. It’s a very simple mechanism that nonetheless puts you in a position where you have to pay attention throughout every encounter, because the difficulty ratchets up in the middle and stays that way until you max out your characters about an hour before the game wraps up. Indeed, timing is everything in all walks of Precipice’s combat system; not only must you time your blocks, but all actions are managed through an ever-ticking pool of action points allotted to each character. Different actions take different amounts of points, calculated in real time, so there is a good deal of strategy in determining when to hold back from attacking to score special hits, deciding when it’s wise to spend time using items from your inventory, and so forth. The result is a combat system that merges turn-based with real-time in such a way as to keep you heavily engaged without becoming so reflex-intensive that slow or arthritic gamers will be put off.

Hothead was wise to invest so much development effort into the combat, because Precipice has a lot of it. The minigames tied to each of the three protagonists’ special attacks are also well-implemented, neither annoyingly simple nor frustratingly intricate.  Similarly, boss encounters show a marked but not excessive increase in challenge over regular foes and are spaced nicely through the game’s approximately four-hour runtime. All in all, Precipice is a game that uses time well, from the micromanagement of your characters in combat to its overall pacing.

This is, unfortunately, also the only serious flaw. I don’t mind that it’s short; Portal was shorter and is the best game of the past five years. I do mind that it feels short, not only in a chronological sense but in terms of progress and setting. The game feels squashed, constricted, with the general air of having been dehydrated and squeezed into an uncomfortably narrow experience. There are only four major locations—of which only two contain significant play elements; only four or five different types of enemy, only five or six major characters, and very little challenge to your progression. Precipice is very much a Point A to Point B to Point C kind of game, and you’re never going to be unsure where to go or what to do next.

Is this a problem? Not exactly, and certainly not in the sense that bad combat or controls would be. Overall, it feels like Precipice wanted to be a bigger game but just … isn’t. You reach a point when walking the same streets and smashing the same crates for the same powerups used when fighting the same enemies against the same backdrops with the same attacks to achieve the same goals becomes kind of same-y. The interesting thing is that the game ended exactly as that sensation began to grate on me, so, despite the cramped conditions, I never quite got to the point of being irritated by it.

Juicing for Fun and Profit

And that’s why it’s a perfect game for fans of Penny Arcade.  The hilarious animated Flash cutscenes and droll, italic- and big-word-intensive narration show that Krahulik and Holkins, even after all these years together, still don’t miss a trick. If you find the comic funny, you will laugh out loud at Precipice’s dialogue and cutscenes, because despite its faults, there are some things about it that are just so … so perfectly, classically Penny Arcade. And it was with that perspective that its creators approached the development of world and characters.

There is, for example, no voice acting in Precipice, aside from a narrator at the beginning. This was a very conscious and wise decision. Penny Arcade fans have got their own mental voices for Gabe and Tycho, so hiring actors to play them, no matter how good the talent was, would have been simply disorienting. Plus, since the whole point of Precipice is to make you feel like you’re playing a cartoon, the speech bubbles and block narration just fit in.

The world of New Arcadia is similarly well-conceived. This is a silly city, part Dashiell Hammett hard-boiled and part theatrical meloabsurdity. Precipice never deviates from its flight plan of being a shamelessly goofy romp—it never tries to be anything but what it is, and the result is an experience that, despite the brevity, feels extremely well–put together and polished. Krahulik’s art style has in my mind become so irretrievably associated with Penny Arcade that I really have difficulty looking at his work in any other setting. Perhaps sensing that, the developers didn’t try to challenge the boundaries of what we’d likely expect the adventure world to be. Rather than constraining the possible experience, it was the smartest thing they could have done. I expected—wanted—a constrained experience, and I got one.

Hothead Games is a pretty new player on the scene. As far as I can tell, the Vancouver-based company exists astride the fuzzy barrier between casual game developer (PopCap) and episodic game developer (TellTale).  All in all, they’re kind of an interesting choice to develop Precipice, because the company doesn’t have a long list of credits and isn’t really well known. While On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness isn’t going to win any awards, its triumph is really its ability to effectively engage us in the dark silliness of the strange world Krahulik and Holkins have built over the years. For those who delightedly visit that world every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there are worse ways to spend your money. For those strapped for cash or ambivalent about the comic, though … wait for the inevitable boxed compilation. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Hothead Games Publisher: Hothead Games Release Date: May 2008

Available for: Windows Xbox Linux Xbox 360

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System Requirements

Windows Windows 2000/XP/Vista Pentium III, AMDAthlon 1.0 GHz 64 MB video memory (shared or dedicated) with OpenGL support 512 MB RAM Keyboard and mouse Sound card 350 MB free hard drive space One-time Internet connection required to activate

Mac Mac OS X 10.4/10.5 with latest updates PowerPC G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac 1.0 GHz 64 MB video memory 512 MB RAM Keyboard and mouse Sound card 350 MB free hard drive space One-time Internet connection required to activate

Linux Linux 32-bit x86 Pentium III, AMDAthlon 1.0 GHz 64 MB video memory (shared or dedicated) with OpenGL support 512 MB RAM Keyboard and mouse Sound card 350 MB free hard drive space One-time Internet connection required to activate

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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