No more anonymous forum trolls?

[Tiforis]

And now I feel great about not freaking out.

Eh, I dunno. I think it was the people who "freaked out" that got this done. I know that a few thousand cancellations out of 11.5 million is a drop in the bucket, but think about it--people post stuff like "ZOMG BLIZZ IMMA CANCELLIN MAH ACCOUNT" all the time. This time, they did it. A couple thousand in the Megathread alone. Over 13,000 unique posters in that thread, running 95% against the change.

Think about the folks just here that were planning to do it. Shad, Mac, Buu, Gryph, Anna, more but let's just go with those five. Hordeside, we had one leave last night and three of our core Anvil raiders (including Skulley) had, or were going to, pull the trigger. Pill and Gharr cancelled second accounts. Pill and Bricu cancelled SC2 pre-orders. That's 11 accounts and 2 $50+ SC2 preorders, just from two extended raid groups/friend circles, on one of a few hundred servers. It adds up.

The combination of a massive outcry on the forums, bad press in the tech media, and actual tangible cancellations that would've dented their bottom line, IMO, is what pulled this off. Individually, each might not've been enough. Together, they've at least caused Blizzavision to back off a little. We've still got to watch them like a hawk, and nothing they said today will prevent them from pushing RealID on us in the future.

There's power in freaking out. In large groups and with a purpose, anyway.

I didn't speak out because It was so crazy of Blizzard to come out and do this to me. I could almost feel the guns pressed to the backs of blues as they were posting, so out of character it seemed for the company. I was just skeptical of the whole thing following the Activision-Infinity Ward fallout.

I'm not doubting the power of the outrage machine, but I'm the kind to bind my time and wait before I cast judgement, I'm not here to say HAHA YOU ALL FREAKED OUT FOR NOTHING.

[Galedorin]

Thus, it's a damn good thing that the angry forum mobs (aka the "vocal minority") pretty much banded together unanimously for this one.

And more importantly, acted. It's one thing to say something, one thousand to show a picture, but actually doing something? That's at least a magnitude or ten above it!

Getting a big ole company to back down on change isn't something new, though I don't think I've ever seen one this quick or the backlash this huge... At least for what it is.
Now if we could only harvest that energy and point it at some other problem things... Oil companies maybe...

And yeah Tif, Activision just seems to be a big ole' stinker right about now. Strange O.o

[Beltar]

I didn't speak out because It was so crazy of Blizzard to come out and do this to me. I could almost feel the guns pressed to the backs of blues as they were posting, so out of character it seemed for the company. I was just skeptical of the whole thing following the Activision-Infinity Ward fallout.

I'm not doubting the power of the outrage machine, but I'm the kind to bind my time and wait before I cast judgement, I'm not here to say HAHA YOU ALL FREAKED OUT FOR NOTHING.

Oh, I hear you. I know you're not. Problem was, as far as I could tell, we kinda had to go off half-cocked on this because (a) it was such an incredibly stupid idea, (b) it had serious RL implications for a fair bit of the playerbase, and (c) the consensus seems to be that Bobby Kotick is hellbent on dragging Blizzard properties toward the Facebook model at high speed. Mostly (b), I guess. Hence, NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED.

[Tiforis]

I didn't speak out because It was so crazy of Blizzard to come out and do this to me. I could almost feel the guns pressed to the backs of blues as they were posting, so out of character it seemed for the company. I was just skeptical of the whole thing following the Activision-Infinity Ward fallout.

I'm not doubting the power of the outrage machine, but I'm the kind to bind my time and wait before I cast judgement, I'm not here to say HAHA YOU ALL FREAKED OUT FOR NOTHING.

Oh, I hear you. I know you're not. Problem was, as far as I could tell, we kinda had to go off half-cocked on this because (a) it was such an incredibly stupid idea, (b) it had serious RL implications for a fair bit of the playerbase, and (c) the consensus seems to be that Bobby Kotick is hellbent on dragging Blizzard properties toward the Facebook model at high speed. Mostly (b), I guess. Hence, NUCLEAR LAUNCH DETECTED.

There were too many intangibles in the situation period.

Even if it went through, it wouldn't make me angry, the Canadian privacy board would have intervened like they did when Facebook got slammed for the same issues.

But we won, that's the important thing.

[Lansiron]

Activision...is a whole other mess. Used to be EA was the big corporate bad of the gaming industry, but they've made a lot of effort to win support back. Now last autumn, Bobby Kotick (Activision's CEO, but you knew that) decided to start talking. That was pretty much it--he opened his mouth, for the first time in like a decade or so of having run that company. He made some statements which, to be fair, were taken out of context, but it seems incredibly foolish nonetheless to think that what he said, however facetious, wouldn't draw the ire of the masses. Then the Infinity Ward debacle goes down, then for some unfathomable reason Kotick doesn't shut his mouth, then this thing hits, even though it's now passed it still raises all kinds of suspicions over just what the hell they're trying to do.

I guess I'm trying to be...tolerant, if that's the right word? Activision seems determined to ruin it's own image, and so far has done an awesome job of it--Bobby Kotick is probably the single most hated man in the industry right now. It's a wierd irony that they're now attached to Blizzard, who basically forever have been one of the tightest vessels on the scene.

I definitely expect more weirdness, I guess, though hopefully nothing so unpleasant as this was, thanks to Activision being Blizzard's partner.

[Bricu]

I definitely expect more weirdness, I guess, though hopefully nothing so unpleasant as this was, thanks to Activision being Blizzard's partner.

I totally agree Lans. It is going to get weirder. Activision made it very clear that they need to be watched and held accountable for their poor business moves. It's going to take a lot more actions--actions that just occurred I think--to keep them in line.

[Israia]

Well, the only quality developers Activision still hold is a single publishing deal with Bungie. Outside that, they have quality franchises with no skilled developers for them- puts them in a real real rough spot.

[Lansiron]

I dunno; their other developers aren't precisely incompetent, they're just unremarkable. The games Activision publishes certainly aren't bad ones, either (speaking at least of the recent ones Blur and Transformers: War for Cybertron), though it's all up in the air how the Call of Duty franchise will fare after the big fiasco. That's really the problem; they have nothing to call attention to that diverts it away from the "corporate scumbag" image. Except maybe, "Hey, we're with Blizzard (and Bungie) now!" Only that just makes everyone go "STOP CORRUPTING THEM YOU ASSHOLES" rather than anything positive.

[Israia]

I dunno; their other developers aren't precisely incompetent, they're just unremarkable. The games Activision publishes certainly aren't bad ones, either (speaking at least of the recent ones Blur and Transformers: War for Cybertron), though it's all up in the air how the Call of Duty franchise will fare after the big fiasco. That's really the problem; they have nothing to call attention to that diverts it away from the "corporate scumbag" image. Except maybe, "Hey, we're with Blizzard (and Bungie) now!" Only that just makes everyone go "STOP CORRUPTING THEM YOU ASSHOLES" rather than anything positive.

Those were decent games, but like you said, completely unremarkable. They have nothing standout, nothing that's going to be the huge seller they need to get anything done. On top of that, everyone who might have been willing to deal with them has run scared, especially to EA, who is making this EA partners thing work absolutely fantastically.

They can't really claim Bungie since it's only a one game deal while they're developing 3 games, and Blizzard, while strong, isn't gonna convince any other developers to come to them.

At this point, their entire measure of success rides on Blizzard. That's a good thing to ride on, mind you, but if they fuck it up even a little bit, you're gonna see their stock price get cut in half overnight.

[Chelody]

I'm so proud of the community. Everyone who got mad and made their voice heard helped to stop this bloody stupid mistake. I feel bad for the blues who had to stay stalwart during this public outcry, but it was needed, and managed to at least stay the giants hand. Our trolls did something constructive, and deserve a cookie.