Paraphrased of course. :)


Activision (Source):
Game publishers really shouldn't throw insults around at their competitors. Whoever does this is mean and unprofessional. Looking at you EA.


Earlier..


Activision (Source):
I've only seen Battlefied 3 on a PC. It's just a PC title, a very small audience, and not on console where most business is.




Activision (Source):
There’s not a studio at this company that will tell you: 'Activision is forcing us to get the game out.' Our people have personalities, are autonomous, responsible, creative, serious, and they want to make great games. EA is the exact opposite.



Activision (Source):
Indie developers suck ass. Bungie is "probably the last remaining high quality independent developer. It's very hard to... that has sort of has institutional skills and capabilities. And they're a real company."


Sad to see Destructoid defending Activision (first link) and calling EA's responses "petty antics." Both of these companies have been firing shots at each other for years, and no one should be taking any sides in the matter. This is just what competitors have been doing for thousands of years, and they both put themselves on high pedestals (which is also tiring and cliche). War never changes.

I'm starting to notice many highs and lows of information, so there might be periods where I'll take long breaks from writing. Sometimes though, there are a lot of little things going on that I just can't put into one post.. so, I was thinking of making some of the more "weaker" posts into a smorgasbord of unrelated quick posts. I might have to make it a tradition too depending on my available time.

* I just feel really bored today and I don't really feel like researching anything at the moment. Maybe later this week.. I was thinking about reviewing Diablo 3 alternatives like Path of Exile, Grim Dawn, or Torchlight 2. Grim Dawn looks very awesome.

* TV shows are starting to dry up. The final season of Breaking Bad is apparently closer than I thought, so I'm sad to see that the series will be gone in 1-2 years. Walt's hubris keeps making more appearances.. I think everyone's anticipating a pride before the fall type situation in the final season. :)

* True Blood 4x08 happened exactly as I thought it would. :) The show routine is getting a little annoying, writers are getting lazy, and there are more plot holes developing (like a werewolf with heightened senses not knowing he's being followed by someone 30 feet behind them). Looks like it might have been the ghost after all that wrote that message on the wall.. I have no idea how, though, considering that they need a medium to be able to interact with the real world (like picking up a marker) as explained by the show. I hope it was her other son though.. it's the only way to explain the scene. Writers change the laws of physics too often.

* I was also thinking about creating a list of things that cause virtual economy imbalances or disruptions. They're very delicate and fragile after all, and small things can completely change the value of gold and items in Diablo 3. But, it's all pretty common sense; exploits cause hyperinflation, new items in expansion packs, hotfixes and even patches can cause major changes in gold value. I'm still thinking about this one.

* I might have made a mistake in that 11.1 million subscriber clarification post. I'm waiting for more details, and if I'm wrong I'll make a correction to it.

* Daeity wasn't kidding when he said that the blog gets a lot of visits from Blizzard offices. There's been a lot of activity the past couple weeks. Most recently, a Blizzard visitor (216.148.0.72) came from the Somethingawful.com forums, meaning that he has a personally paid registered account or Blizzard pays for accounts so that they can monitor communications about their company. They were really interested in the Daeity's old post about "Subs in Trouble". The other one that Blizzard employees are very interested are the articles about RMT where Blizzard had stated in the past that they consider RMT illegal. Like this one. The link is still working as of today even though it was edited by Nephadne on 03/06/11 from an original posting date of Dec 2010. All of the focus has been on subscribers and contradictions about RMT.. hardly anything else is being read.

* Apparently Square Enix might be creating a "Square Games" division to re-brand themselves. To do this right, their first game better be a proper sequel to Chrono Trigger.

* Finally, that thing I was mulling over.. I might post about it in the next couple of days or so.

The other grumbling is about the new cash auction house. As a "simple solution" to this problem, gamers are being encouraged to "just go Hardcore". Some jokingly, some serious.

Hardcore players will have access to a separate gold-based auction house for HC players only and they will not have a currency-based auction house.

Everyone seems to think that this is the only option available for players who don't want a currency based auction house. But Blizzard is very good at providing options, because options can come with price tags.

Blizzard already has a method in place to restrict groups of users to certain Auction Houses so it's very easy to create AH options for different player needs. Once they have enough players, I think you'll start to see new servers being created to accommodate new demands.

It's a good excuse to show that they're listening to the players, while also making a profit. Paid services are a big money maker, so you know that different options for server transfers will be available eventually (even though they have only announced regional based servers.) I wonder if these servers will be available by launch, or if they'll come out a couple months after? If they come out a month or two after, for example, all of the people who joined the server they didn't like can pay for a transfer to the gold-only AH server.

What would be really interesting is a cash-only server.. maybe that will be implemented in Diablo X1. :D

The new paid services should be interesting, especially with the implementation of the CAH and B.NET/PayPal cash system. There will be server transfers, paid name changes, paid class changes, pets, appearance changes.. I wonder what else? Probably an option to convert a Hardcore character to normal (they lose some titles of course). They certainly wouldn't allow a normal player to be converted into Hardcore of course.. it's not like Blizzard would ever allow PVE players to pay for a PVP conversion. :)