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BASH Episode 38 Glasses Half Empty was the first roundtable discussion we had ever attempted here on BASH.
It featured a powerhouse lineup of CoD Community allstars:
Tally from Rise of the Resistance and CoD Hall of Famer, Matt Pruitt of planetcallofduty.com and CoD Nominee, and the irrepressable BritishBulldog1 of HeatofBattle.net
. We were also going to have {PST}*Joker on the program but the time
zone logistics proved too tough. As well, we had invited Community
Manager for Infinity Ward, Fourzerotwo, on the program but we had not
heard back from him prior to the airing of the program.
The name of the webcast - Glasses Half Empty -
alluded to the pessimistic tone of the interview, which was recorded on
the eve of the release of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Single
Player Demo for PC.
We were thinking of a few other potential names for the program: CoD of Worms, eProtestant, "Please sir, can I have some CoD?"...the list is as endless as it is obscure in its references.
What was supposed to be a program filled with
rejoicing and praise for all those who had worked on CoD4 turned out to
be anything but.
Earlier in the week, Tally, who was still basking in
the afterglow of being annointed as de-facto CoD community leader last
week with his induction into the CoD Hall of Fame (Builder category),
dejectectedly made the following proclamation on the infinityward.com
forums:
Well, I love COD, but I cant continue
to support a game developer whose so-called "Community Relations
Manager" ignores PMs and emails from its fan-base after having
initially invited them away for a fun trip, and then simply ignoring
them as if they didnt exist. Its just insulting.
At first I
thought it was just me, that maybe I had done something, or said
something which had upset someone. But, apparently, its others as well.
Several members of the PC community, who were out in LA in June, have
had similar stories, with no responses to their emails asking what was
going on.
Oh, and we still havent recieved our COD4 T shirts. Utter insult, that one.
I
said from the get-go that this was/is IW's last chance with me, to keep
me in the community, working for the fan-base, and producing custom
content and being a general cheer-leader for them. I said that if they
get it wrong this time out, Im gone. I really, really cant sit around
forums for another year listening to all the upset fans (or, should
that be "former fans"?).
They started out great, with invites
and personal chats to key members of the community. Then, we got news
of the Beta, and the PC community - of which I consider myself a part
of - kicked off because it looked like the 360 was being "favoured"
again, just like they were with COD2. We were assured by 402 that this
wasnt the case. PC would get its fair share of exciting things.
Bullcrap!
Its the old IW shuffle, blowing smoke up our asses to keep us placated.
We still dont know the answers to the nagging questions about COD4 MP,
and its only 30 days to shipping.
Are we worried? You betcha.
What were we to make of these protestations? Why was Tally so dejected?
The "old-timers" in the forums all around CallofDutyville had begun to
complain that the short summer love affair that Infinity Ward (IW) had
with its PC community was now over. We had been dumped by someone
younger, sexier and wealthier...the console gamers.
Perhaps the reality of the situation was that it was never really a love affair! Perhaps, it was more like a one night stand?
The IW - console gamers relationship ...well that's
the real thing it appears. After all, the consolers bring in ten times
the money than we PC'ers will ever pony up into IW's coffers. Why would
the PC community, left at the altar numerous times, think that this
time the love was real? Was it misdirection from IW or was it wishful
thinking by our community?
The reality of the relationship seems to have finally sunk in with
Tally and he vented his disappointment all over the IW forums. Well, it
is one thing to read vitriol and something else to hear it...so we
asked Tally to come on the program and explain his position.
In this episode we discussed the relationships between IW and the PC community.
We dealt with the checkered history between these
two entities: the server strike...the comments made by IW personnel to
the PC community and the promises made at IW's Encino community
gathering during the summer and the current state of affairs.
We also compared the facts on the ground with the
following post from CoD community manager Robert Bowling, Fourzerotwo
on Gameriot:
Gameriot:
A lot of people have criticized Infinity Ward in the past for not
listening to the community and not supporting their games very much
after the release, usually only releasing a patch or two. Already you
have shown great strides in taking a ton of community input; however,
will we see an increased developer support with CoD4 after its launch?
Robert: Yes. Period. There’s no straighter way to put it. I feel past
criticism of Infinity Ward is unjust, as these guys we’re just busting
their balls to put out amazing games and never had someone such as
myself who was focused solely on Community Development, Expansion, and
Relations. My main goal in my role at Infinity Ward is to ensure that
community not only has a major role in the development of the game, but
has the proper channels of communications and inside contact to ensure
that post-launch this game has the proper support it requires to be the
game we all (community + IW) knows it can be and become THE game to be
playing.
Assuming IW truly is not listening to the PC community any more, how
does that affect you the average PC CoD gamer? Well we try to answer that question in the program.
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