The Journey to the Wild Divine Review

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            MrLipid’s Closet of the Odd The Journey to Wild Divine

Review by MrLipidMarch 2007

Dedication

On November 22, 2003, Jen posted the following message:

“I know not everybody celebrates Christmas, so I will make this a generic ‘what game do you really wish someone would give you out of the blue’ thread.

“Me? Journey to the Wild Divine. For the sole reason that it’s too much dineros for a pig in a poke.”

Jen, this one’s for you.

Intro

I have long maintained that interactive electronic entertainment, whatever the platform, functions, regardless of the intention of those building the software, as a teaching machine. Players supply an input; the game universe responds. Players supply another input; it doesn’t respond. We, as players, are taught, input by input, how the universe before us works. It doesn’t feel like being taught because we feel we’re in charge and we get a happy jolt whenever what we predicted would happen, based on past inputs and responses, happens. We live for that jolt: that moment when the pieces fall into place, when the dots connect, when the universe we’ve been providing with inputs responds in a way we’ve been quietly taught to expect.

Viewed as teaching machines that provide responses to inputs, both installments of The Journey to Wild Divine (The Passage and Wisdom Quest) look and sound, at first glance, pretty much like every other adventure set in some vaguely Mystoid world. Navigation, as in most such games, is handled with the mouse.  As for everything else, well, that’s what makes the Wild Divine offerings unique. Instead of using a keyboard or a Wiimote or a gamepad or a touchscreen to accept player input, Wild Divine I and II use fingertip sensors on the index, middle, and ring fingers to monitor skin conductivity and heart rhythm variability.  The hand with the sensors remains still while the physical state of the player drives events on the screen. Thus, unlike any other adventure game, The Passage and Wisdom Quest consist of challenges that can only be overcome by the conscious manipulation by the player of his or her physical state. This is the skill these teaching machines teach. The oddest quality about learning this skill—controlling items on the screen without moving—is that it doesn’t seem odd at all.

In a November 2003 article in Wired, Brian Lam described the uniqueness of The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage by asking readers to meditate on this: You are the controller. After experiencing both The Passage and Wisdom Quest, I think it would be more accurate to say: You are the puzzle. Solving the challenges in The Passage and Wisdom Quest would be trivial with a mouse because they are not about what needs to be done but whether the player has sufficient focus to do what needs to be done. Success requires players to develop an understanding of the variability of their energy levels and a grasp of techniques to regulate those levels. Players are solving themselves. The modest puzzles on the screen are just there to provide a measure of how the solution is going.

Qualms

As someone who grew up among pragmatic farm folk on the prairies of the midwestern United States, I found myself wincing, flinching, and cringing at the look and tone of the Wild Divine website, the Wild Divine packaging, and the Wild Divine products themselves.  Everything about all of it felt way too much like a flashback to the heyday of headshops, Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical, renaissance fairs, the Age of Aquarius, crystals, dreamcatchers, and whatever the New Age was supposed to be. At the same time, as an amateur medical historian, I found the idea of bringing the technology of biofeedback to a general audience by wrapping it in the trappings of an adventure game appealing. The first step in my journey was clear: I had to allow my curiosity to override my impulse to recoil if I hoped to experience the effects of guided biofeedback. Giving in to my curiosity turned out to be the biggest step of the journey.

What’s in the Box?

I don’t usually do commentary on how products are packaged, but The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage is not a usual product.

The packaging of The Passage does everything it can to assure buyers that the $159.95 MSRP is appropriate. The box is covered with lush images of game scenes, endorsements from Deepak Chopra, M.D., and a promise that you, as a buyer, can expect to “Discover the power of your inner magic with easy-to-use biofeedback technology.”

Lift the lid and you’ll find … another lid, also covered with imagery and copy, promising a “truly inner active experience” courtesy of biofeedback sensors. Open the inner lid (which is unaccountably blank on its backside) and you’ll find a vacuum-formed clear plastic cover that fits snugly over a vacuum-formed black plastic tray covered with faux black velvet. The faux velvet tray securely holds the biofeedback unit, PC and Mac game CDs, a Soul Flight music CD from the Wild Divine Band, a bonus CD featuring an interview with Deepak Chopra, M.D., a user’s manual, and a spiral-bound Companion Guide for The Passage.

Turn the box over—the clear plastic cover, not to mention the inner and outer lids, will keep everything from falling out—and you’ll find even more imagery and copy, including an explanation for how biofeedback works. Promised biofeedback benefits include reduced stress and anxiety, increased relaxation and energy, enhanced creativity and focus, restored balance of mind and body, and improved mental and physical performance. All this for a mere $159.95. While that’s steep by game standards, it’s not at all unusual for biofeedback gear. And it’s cheap when compared to the cost of most console and launch title bundles, especially when players of The Passage will likely revisit particular challenges over and over to refine their breathing and meditation techniques.

Yesterday’s QuickTime Blues

The Passage and Wisdom Quest are, like all games that rely on QuickTime and Macromedia, hostage to the vintage of the technology with which they were built. The system requirements on the box state The Passage works with QuickTime 6 (or higher).  The website says QuickTime 6.3 or higher. If you’re running Windows, you’ll find that higher means 6.5 and not a point release more.  Fortunately, 6.5 happens to be the version of QuickTime that ships on the installation disks for The Passage. Seems there is a fundamental problem with how Macromedia Projector 9.0 interacts with QuickTime 7.x; a problem that makes the audio in the QuickTime movies unintelligible. Hard for mentors to guide seekers if the seekers can’t understand where they are being directed to go.

Though the installation procedure checks for the presence of QuickTime, it appears to assume that everything is fine if the version of QuickTime present is 6.5 or higher. The first clue that things are not fine comes when Sophia, the guide in the tutorial for The Passage, opens her mouth and gives the impression of lip-syncing to an AM radio broadcast riddled with heavy static.

For those running Windows who have QuickTime 7.x installed, there is only one fix for the audio problem in The Passage and Wisdom Quest: drop back to QuickTime 6.5. Of course, dropping back to 6.5 means giving up, temporarily, all of Apple’s iTunes goodies. It seems a transcendent irony that one’s journey to serenity through technology begins with the installation of an older version of QuickTime.

Vista?

Anyone running 2000 or XP should have no trouble running both The Passage and Wisdom Quest. While The Passage will run on 98SE and ME, Wisdom Quest won’t. As for Vista, well, that’s not clear yet. Folks at the Wild Divine Project claim to have had success running both on Vista, but there have been hints of some problems. Proceed with caution.

Finally Underway …

So what happens once you’ve installed The Passage’s two disks full of data, made sure you’re running QuickTime 6.5, hooked up the “LightStone” interface to your PC or Mac, plugged the three “Magic Ring” sensors into the “LightStone,” put the “Magic Rings” on the index, middle, and ring fingers of your left hand (assuming you are going to be using your right hand to control the mouse), and clicked on the desktop icon to start your journey?

First, you’ll have to register your copy of The Passage. It’s a painless process that can either be done through the Wild Divine website or with a call to technical support. The registration process generates a number that links the serial number of your LightStone to the serial number of your software. Enter your activation code and you’re golden. And put your CDs away. They are no longer needed (yay!) once The Passage is installed.

The Passage begins with a movie about creation and your place in it. Seems you’re a gardener. When the movie ends, you’ll be dropped off at the main menu. The main menu is worth a closer look.

Along with the usual New Game, Load Game, Save Game, Return to Game, About, and Quit buttons, there are also How to Play, System, and FAQ buttons. (There is no Options button because The Passage only plays at 800×600. The only audio control is the one on your speakers. Nor is there a your-name-here blank because The Passage doesn’t keep track of who’s playing. Finally, there is no difficulty adjustment. One either overcomes a challenge or one doesn’t.)

The How to Play button takes the mystery out of the interface.  Good thing, because the interface is, at first glance, pretty mysterious.  The System button shows the player what the Magic Ring sensors are picking up in terms of heart rhythm and skin conductivity. The FAQ, which shows up in the Readme.txt in most games, allows players with questions to find answers without leaving the game. As for quitting the game, be advised that the game will allow you to quit without saving. There is no warning that you are about to lose all of your progress. Then again, progress is such a Western idea.

Still Alive? Just Checking

Before starting any session, it’s a good idea to click on System to see if your skin conductivity and heart rhythm are being successfully monitored. The warmer and sweatier your fingertips, the better your chances. Or you could use an electrode gel, conductive paste, or just some hand lotion on your index and ring fingers to improve the connection. Keep your middle finger clean because the heart monitor is optical, not conductive.

The Sun Realm: New, Yet So Familiar

Once you’re connected, click on New Game and get your first look at the Sun Realm. The Sun Realm, wherein both The Passage and Wisdom Quest transpire, is a lovingly realized imagining of a bright, verdant, nontechnological paradise. Lots of stairs and columns and arches and potted plants and misty valleys and quiet pools and hanging banners and soaring birds and fluffy clouds. It’s a close cousin to the worlds Maxfield Parrish created in oils back in the 1920s and George Lucas subsequently recreated in pixels.  Put another way, we’ve been here, or someplace a lot like it, before.

Moved by Stillness

Upon arrival, you’ll get a tutorial from a kindly older woman named Sophia. The tutorial will give you your first opportunities to try out your biofeedback chops. You’ll move a pinwheel, juggle three colored balls, levitate a sphere, and start a fire, all without lifting a finger. Once the Lady in the Woods has given you your Magic Bag, you’re good to go. Helping guide you through the Sun Realm is Sophia’s faithful dog, Flash, who has probably guided many a noob to enlightenment. Flash quickly manifests himself in his graphic swoosh form and maintains that form for the duration.

There are other sources of assistance throughout the game. A visit to the Temple of Awareness will earn you the advice of former Buddhist monk and famed Tibetan flutist Nawang Khechog. Whenever you encounter a new challenge, he’ll appear and, if you ask, fill you in on what you need to do. A visit to the Double Durga (they’re dancers to the Mother Goddess Durga) earns you a pair of eyes that will offer a hint of where your energy needs to be to meet a challenge and an energy meter that will give you real time feedback on where your energy level is.

Special Events

Movement in the Sun Realm, like movement in Dog Day, involves triggering QuickTime movies that create the illusion of gently gliding from one point to another in a three-dimensional world. Once one stops, one may be offered choices of where to go next or a guide may appear with advice on how to approach a particular biofeedback event. (An “event” is how challenges are referred to in the Sun Realm.) The cursor takes the form of a golden wand, and when the wand begins giving off a soft purple haze (peace, Jimi!), clicking the cursor will activate an event. Upon completion of an event, it’s time to jump back on the QuickTime express and see what shows up in the next movie.

While there are few areas in the Sun Realm that are closed at the beginning of the quest, there is an order in which some events need to be experienced. Remember, no matter how twee this place looks, there is a teaching machine lurking behind the sunny scenes that won’t let you go places you are not trained to handle. It may take you to them, but it will not let you enter.

Round, Round, Get Around, I Get Around

Perhaps the biggest issue with The Passage is navigation.  Simply getting from one event to the next can take a while. Make a wrong turn, and it can take quite a while. With all movement handled by QuickTime movies, an errant click can turn into a tour of areas you may have no interest in visiting. Nor does it help that the navigation is not consistent. Sometimes, clicking to the left or right will take you left or right. Sometimes, it will trigger a panning move. Other times, it will turn you completely around. Nor can one skip a transitional movie. Once it begins, there is no choice but to sit through the whole thing.

There is a map, but it’s isometric and it’s inert. No zip mode here. The best that players can do is find a landmark and then try to orienteer from that. There is a teleport mode, but it is limited to moving you back and forth between places you’ve already visited and bookmarked. And the teleport mode only works with two places at a time. Add a third and you give up one of your previous bookmarks.

The challenge of simply getting around is compounded by the fact that there is a sequence to some, though not all, events. Miss picking up your Magic Bag in the beginning and you’ll soon find yourself stalled. Fail to solve the riddle of the Rainbow Rocks and you’ll never meet the Lady of Compassion. And she’s a very important lady.  Click on some doors and you’ll find yourself being transported to places you are not ready to visit; places where, once there, you’ll be told you can go no further. Fortunately, you’ll most likely be tossed back to the point just before you selected the Gate of Overeagerness or the Portal of Prematurity … or whatever a door that gets you someplace too soon should be called.

What’s That Sound?

Let me pose a rhetorical question.

When a game is released with a CD of music from a band that takes its name from the company responsible for the game and that features the company’s founder as lead singer, how likely is it that the music on that CD is going to memorably shed new light and give new voice to humanity’s longing for the divine?

The Passage answers that question by making sparing use of the Wild Divine Band, relying instead on a peculiar mixture of orchestra, wordless choirs, incidental guitar riffs, and techno ambient of the sort heard in the original 1996 version of Safecracker.  The soundtrack of The Passage needs, as one of the guides might suggest, some controlled breathing to help it align its discordant rhythms and bring harmony out of its dissonance.

Playing Through the Passage

The big question, of course, and the only question that matters is: Once the software’s set up properly and the Magic Ring sensors are working and you’ve managed to find your way to an event, how does it feel to play a game by manipulating your skin conductance level and heart rate?

Great. That’s how it feels. Just great. Where it really counts, The Passage really delivers. The core experience of biofeedback-based gaming, as realized by the Wild Divine project, is wonderful. No other game I’ve ever played has required such an intense level of concentration and stillness and produced such a feeling of calm and satisfaction. It is tremendously illuminating to learn how controlling one’s breathing can affect one’s overall sense of being. And it’s hugely gratifying to watch, and feel, one’s energy level change in response to what one has been taught. And because The Passage and Wisdom Quest really are teaching machines disguised as adventures, what one has learned is very portable. It’s easy to take the techniques into new situations and enjoy the benefits without the assistance of the Magic Rings and LightStone training wheels.

What About Wisdom Quest?

Wisdom Quest’s packaging, because it contains nothing more than the PC and Mac installation disks, the User’s Manual, and the Training Manual, is considerably less grand than that for its predecessor.  It’s just a box. After installing Wisdom Quest’s four CDs for Windows, applying the patch (available here for Windows and here for Mac), and registering online, I was eager to see what had changed.  Short answer: Just about everything.

If one views The Passage as proof of concept, then Wisdom Quest is the concept both refined and, perhaps inevitably, exploited.

The refinement is immediately obvious. Everything looks better, from the sharply chiseled Main Menu to the QuickTime VR nodes that allow one to take in the full beauty of the imagined surroundings.  Wisdom Quest features images and sequences that are truly inspired. There is a flight in a magical boat through a snow storm that is exquisitely realized. And in keeping with a more polished look, everything sounds better, too, thanks to a more unified soundtrack.

Players can choose from five difficulty levels and select screen resolutions ranging from 800×600 all the way to 1150×768.  If a QuickTime movie is losing your attention, click and, in most cases, it disappears. Nor is navigation as trying as it was in The Passage. It is now possible to navigate using the map. One can return to anyplace one has visited with a click. In addition to the return of the “Purple Haze” to alert players of events with endings, there is now the “Orange Mist” signaling events that are just for practice.

Also immediately obvious is the perhaps inevitable exploitation of the franchise. While it’s good to see Nawang Khechog again, this time he is joined by two new wise guides, both sporting M.D.s and publishing ventures: omtrepreneur Deepak Chopra shows up as Rama and diet guru Dean Ornish weighs in as the Wisdom Keeper. Ornish, in his brown robes, looks like Harry Shearer doing Merlin in a road company production of Camelot. Whether you view them as pedagogues or peddlers depends on how much value you place on what they have to offer. Nor do the offers stop with the cameos of these wellness stars.

Wisdom Quest also features product placement of Chopra’s New York Times bestseller, The Book of Secrets. An extended animation sequence centering on a rendered version of Secrets left me wondering if his books are imported into the Sun Realm or if a resident pixie had picked up the local publishing rights.  Fortunately, as with the transition movies, a single click can make all of the advice and the ad go away.

After the Fall

Where The Passage was built around the idea of the individual player doing a Joseph Campbell-style hero(ine) journey, Wisdom Quest is built, in the mold of Jewels of the Oracle, around the idea of recovering seven jewels that were lost when an enchanted being of being—as opposed to a being of doing—augered herself into an enchanted sea. Recover the jewels and restore balance and harmony to the Sun Realm. Under New Game Options, you can choose whether or not you want to be joined in your mission by a green-winged pixie girl who’ll pop up at the end of each event. Only in the world of computers can one select “pixie girl” as an option.

Harder than it Looks

The events of Wisdom Quest are frequently more complex than those in The Passage. It is no longer enough to raise or lower one’s energy level to pass an event. One may have to raise and lower it repeatedly within an event, a fitting requirement for advanced training. There’s a glass tubing maze wherein a player must alternate high energy with low to navigate a complex path that is designed with dead ends that demand additional shifts in energy to escape. And then there is the sacred serpent event. A massive cobra guards one of the seven jewels. The jewel itself sits within a cage. Calming oneself causes the cobra to withdraw into its basket.  But to retrieve the jewel, one must use the mouse to lift the cage.  Since any movement, any change of focus, can affect one’s energy level, it’s an impressive feat to sustain the calm necessary to keep the cobra in its basket while lifting the cage and taking the jewel. Think Thief with mandated yogic breathing. While it is possible to get through each of Wisdom Quest’s events once and consider the challenges fulfilled, the variability of one’s energy level provides ample replay opportunities and acknowledges the title’s true identity as a teaching machine rather than as a diversion.

Tours Now Departing

For those who just want to jump in and test their self-control at a specific challenge, Wisdom Quest offers a Guided Mode that allows direct access to 20 of its events. The Passage also offers direct access, either through completing all of its events or by downloading the appropriate patch (here).

Orphans of the Store

As much as marketers like to be able to say “There’s nothing else like it!” they know that uniqueness can also be a curse.  The folks at Wild Divine have created a two-SKU market segment and watched while only a few other brave souls have coughed up the hefty fee for the SDK and developed titles that make use of the LightStone and Magic Ring hardware. While the uniqueness of the experience helps keep the price up, every day that passes renders the software just a bit more out of date. Assuming the Wild Diviners want to keep their investment alive, they might consider what it would take to offer, as did Got Game with Bad Mojo, Redux versions of The Passage and Wisdom Quest. Then again, the market for this type of product may already be saturated. It may be that pretty much everyone who was interested in taking The Journey to Wild Divine has already taken it.

Verdict

The reason The Passage and Wisdom Quest are being placed in the Closet of the Odd is that neither one of them is actually a game. They are, instead, multimedia experiments in biofeedback-based instruction (and shameless cross-marketing) masquerading as games.  I’m giving the pair of them a Thumb Up because they demonstrate just how much potential biofeedback has as a game interface. Of course, until the Wild Divine Project releases the last installment of the trilogy or someone else comes up with an alternative system, the potential will remain just that.

Let’s Go Shopping!

The Journey to Wild Divine: The Passage originally sold for $159.95. It still does. The Journey to Wild Divine: Wisdom Quest originally sold for $59.95. It still does. The bundle price of the two, from Wild Divine, is $199.95. Frugal shoppers can find both titles for less. I got both for 20% off retail. Had I looked longer, I could have gotten 20% off the bundle price. Of course, I didn’t know at the time that I wanted both. Still, every penny saved is a penny toward the next game. The End

The Verdict

The Lowdown

Developer: Wild Divine Project Publisher: Wild Divine Project Release Date: December 2003 (The Passage); September 2005 (Wisdom Quest)

Available for: Macintosh Windows

Four Fat Chicks Links

Player Feedback

Screenshots

The Passage

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Wisdom Quest

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System Requirements

The Passage 1.5 GB free disk space 256 MB free available system RAM 800×600, 24-bit color display CD-ROM drive QuickTime 6.3 or higher PIII 800 MHz (PC); G3/G4/G5 500 MHz (Mac) Windows 98SE,/ME/2000/XP (PC); OSX v10.2 or later (Mac) 16 MB video card (PC)

Wisdom Quest 2.4 GB free disk space 256 MB free available system RAM 800×600, 24-bit color display CD-ROM or DVD drive QuickTime 6.5 PIII 800 MHz (1.25 GHz recommended) (PC); G4 or higher (Mac) Windows 2000/XP (PC); OSX v10.2.6 or later (Mac) 16 MB video card (PC)

Where to Find It

Wild Divine Project

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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