detolicious

If it was anyone else in the gaming industry I would have said we have been blessed listening to but when Bobby Kotick opens his mouth I can think of a variety of things I’d rather do or have… Diarrhea, gastric ulcer, ague, fever, … the list may be extended.

Earlier we mentioned that he wants to increase prices for the PC and the reasoning was a weak dollar – as if it has anything to do with it. Good game Bobby, thats another great way to increase piracy. But why will piracy increase? Sure you gladly pay 10 bucks more if you get a kickass game, right? True, but with his latest statement he surpassed his arrogance again and makes me weep for the videogame industry and the Activision employees.

To cut down to what stirred up lots of gamers around the globe is the following statements:

“the goal that I had [at Activision]…about 10 years ago was to take all the fun out of making video games.”

and

“skepticism, pessimism, and fear” are used to keep employees “focused on the deep depression.”

This is the worst statement I’ve heard from any CEO so far. Blizzard can be happy that they are relatively independent. Such behaviour actually BROUGHT this current economic crisis down on us. Mr. Kotick gets a nice paycheck every year so if he falls, he falls quite soft. But the guy that works for minimum wage and codes games for all of us goes to work and is afraid to lose it every day, resulting in a higher mistake output, overall unhappyness – now you don’t need to be a Yale graduate to realise that unhappyness pretty much kills enthusiasm about what you do at work and when we’re in the game industry it will ultimtely result in bad games. No more details, no more innovation, we just ride the hype wave and do whats currently cool among the society.

He talks about implementing Facebook for his Guitar Hero now… Hello can you hear me all the way back there? If Activisions tactic is to be one step behind all the time, the company will sooner or later feel the implications of what Bobby says and does.

In a state of depression you need to energize your workforce by creating diversity and make them enjoy work. If you love what you do, then you won’t mind to work more and harder. You get up every morning eager to reach work and put all your energy into what you’re creating. When you appreciate your work and feel a mutual respect and trust between you and your superiors you rise above yourself and drive innovation and good results.

When the next economic crisis comes crushing down on us, people like Bobby will be responsible for it. It is sad that they’re not realising it even though we could learn so much from the mistakes we’re making now.

This is the reason why he will never be mentioned as a leader that brought difference and will never be appreciated cross-company wise.