Why They Don’t Take Boycotts Seriously…

Just as a FYI. (Click for the full thing)

(Picked up from the PCG forum via Poisoned Sponge)

215 Comments

  1. 12/11/2009 at 17:30 Ed says:

    Yuck, I don’t know what to say.
    Weak willed fools!

  2. 12/11/2009 at 17:31 Nick says:

    Heh.. yeah, I’ll bet the l4d2 boycott group would have looked much the same on release too.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:45 Droniac says:

      L4D2 will probably be much worse, considering the fact that its leaders became L4D2 promoters several months ago. And of course the demo proved that it definitely does go to new places and seems worth the pre-order. Although I have to say I still don’t much care for the daytime gameplay, nor the new cast of characters.

  3. 12/11/2009 at 17:32 Ratty says:

    Bloody Splitters !!

  4. 12/11/2009 at 17:33 mrpier says:

    LOL (no really :)

  5. 12/11/2009 at 17:33 morte says:

    lol why am I not surprised?

  6. 12/11/2009 at 17:36 pkt-zer0 says:

    833 members? A bit far from the 200K signatures on the petition. Not sure the Steam group’s entirely representative.

  7. 12/11/2009 at 17:37 Alaric says:

    Hey Kieron, why not contact one of these people (since we know their names and all) and interview them? I’d love to hear what they have to say about both their hypocrisy and their being publically flogged like this.

  8. 12/11/2009 at 17:37 Ian says:

    I lol’d.

  9. 12/11/2009 at 17:37 Alex McLarty says:

    The best thing ever!

    Many of the people I know who took part in the L4D2 boycott group bought the game as soon as it was available for pre-order.

  10. 12/11/2009 at 17:38 Heliocentric says:

    I’m not boycotting mw2. I just aint buying it because its not something i want because of a lack of mod support and no dedicated servers, thus no sense of community. That said, i bloody love mw1.

    I have no interest in dealing with those limitations. Not when other games exist.

    • 12/11/2009 at 17:42 frymaster says:

      ditto

      i’ll probably pick it up at some point for the single player, when it’s reduced in price, but I ain’t paying the price it is, for the single-player length all reviewers say it is

    • 12/11/2009 at 17:57 Nathan says:

      Ditto too.
      I don’t think that my decision not to buy a game because it doesn’t include the features I’m looking for at a particular price point constitutes a boycott, merely an informed decision, especially whilst I’m so busy with Dragon Age.

      That said, I have no doubt that it’s a fantastic game (MW1’s SP campaign was one of my favourite ever gaming experiences) and exactly the sort of game that would make a good christmas figure.

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:46 Po0py says:

      Ditto three.

      I’m not paying that price for a damn console game. I may grab it if I find a sale. But given that the first COD4MW1 sale I’ve ever seen was only last week I’m not too optimistic.

      All my friends have pirated MW2. ALL OF THEM. Which is unheard of. I think they all found the perfect excuse. Many of the serious boycotters are actually pirating the game in this particular case.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:36 Wulf says:

      Ditto four.

      I don’t enjoy games that have no charm and can’t get even the merest of emotional reactions out of me, barring anger at least. I doubt it’d make me laugh, or cry, I doubt there’s anything there that’s stimulating for the old grey matter, I doubt there are any characters I’d become attached to, and the only things I’d probably feel is boredom, frustration, and anger. Those games… ehhhh.

      It’s a game for the culturally, emotionally, and mentally landlocked if you ask me, something that many of these games are. ArmA II wasn’t my kind of game either, but at least that game encouraged some thought as to gameplay mechanics and tactics on part of the player, this is a good thing.

      Plus, the £40 pricetag has “Buy this game to be KEWL!” written all over it, it seems to be more of a fashion thing and a status symbol amongst mainstream gamers than an actual game. It reminds me of those cans Coca-Cola tried to sell, you know the ones, the ones that were thin, tall, had less pop inside of them, but costed three times as much.

      Same is true here. Not much of a game, loads of marketing, huge pricetag…

      These days, I think it’s cooler to be uncool. Thanks but no thanks, Infinity Ward.

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:57 Vandelay says:

      Err… Wulf, the people you are agreeing with are saying that they like the look of the game but won’t spend the asking price for it, not that they think the game is for the “culturally, emotionally, and mentally landlocked.” So, I’ll be the real ditto four. (edit: actually, now that I read it back the original comment didn't show any real interest in the game, so I take that back.)
      MW1 had some really clever touches in its single player component and had moments that actually did have power to them (you may disagree, Wulf, but many others found that some of it, particularly the ending and the nuke sequence, to be very powerful. If you watched Charlie Brooker’s Gameswipe, you’ll see that even the writer Graham Lineham agrees.) It was probably the best single player linear (not an insult) shooter since Half Life 2. The multiplayer was fairly enjoyable to dip into once in a while but wouldn’t be something I would buy the game for, so I would only be buying it for the single player. The asking price of £39.99 is just not going to entice me, particularly as the single player is meant to only last a few hours. I think the price is going to have to drop to at least £15 before I really consider it.

  11. 12/11/2009 at 17:39 plugmonkey says:

    Ha ha! That’s brilliant.

    Power to the people!

  12. 12/11/2009 at 17:47 piecoughed says:

    Ouch.

    I’ll report my personal MW2 boycott is still going strong! Of course by “boycott” I mean I’ve never played a Call of Duty game in my life and I’m having a good old time as a mage-tank in Dragon Age and pouring colors into random body sacs in The Void.

    Here’s to different tastes!

    • 12/11/2009 at 17:55 sfury says:

      Same here, but a rogue. And looking forward to the Void. :)

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:46 Wulf says:

      Heh, same here. I really didn’t want to like Dragon Age, and there’s still a lot about it that really annoys me (like the ‘OMG LOOK BLUD EVREEWARE, MUST BE MANESTREEM LULZ!!!11’ nonsense, part of which I’ve removed with mods, but I’m still looking forward to a ‘Clean Journal Texture’ mod), and most of the characters irritate the snot out of me, but… it’s not bad as a World goes, it’s not Obsidian, it’s not even Spiderweb, but it’s not bad. And then there’s bloody Shale, whom I’m still bitter at for being so entertaining he’s actually making the game playable for me.

      So I’m on the border of feeling both right and wrong about Dragon Age, it’s hardly epic, in fact it’s frequently dull, but it’s not a bad game. I just wish the script had been written by Obsidian, the characters wouldn’t have all been so flat then. As personable as Alistair is, he’s as flat as a pancake. Sigh.

      Still… toolset tinkering made my character into a werewolf, I like Shale… and I quietly hope that Bioware will hand Dragon Age 2 over to Obsidian like they have with their other games. Dragon Age is definitely something with potential, something that can be built on, it just needs better writers.

      At the moment though, I’m still not sure if I can recommend it, but I feel I’ll be more inclined to as the mods start rolling in. More anti-mainstream mods would be good, and some content mods with better writing. A good game can be made of Dragon Age, and it is borderline enjoyable.

      I’ll stop rambling now.

  13. 12/11/2009 at 17:49 LionsPhil says:

    lol, intarnet petitions

    This is quite a hilariously zingworthy capture. Nicely spotted, hivemind.

  14. 12/11/2009 at 17:51 Aphotique says:

    The one person playing DA:O in that image seems strangely out of place…

  15. 12/11/2009 at 17:52 futage says:

    Now that’s comedy in games.

  16. 12/11/2009 at 17:57 Diogo Ribeiro says:

    I only have one thing to say, but I’ll say it three times.

    HA HA HA!

  17. 12/11/2009 at 17:58 mandrill says:

    I second Alaric’s proposal! DO EEEEEET =D

    Would be too funny for words.

  18. 12/11/2009 at 17:59 Pantsman says:

    Oh my, that is a thing of beauty.

  19. 12/11/2009 at 18:01 Nootrishus says:

    I loled

  20. 12/11/2009 at 18:03 Shadrach says:

    Couldn’t give a rat’s ass about that game anyway, like Alec said “shooting virtual men of assorted ethnic origins” just does not do it for me. But LOL indeed. Also Minion’s got *good* taste!

    • 12/11/2009 at 21:07 Vandelay says:

      You prefer games where you only shoot people of a single ethnic origin?

  21. 12/11/2009 at 18:07 Taillefer says:

    Tehe. Politics.

  22. 12/11/2009 at 18:07 PeteIRL says:

    I have to agree. If I was given a free copy of MW2, I’d install it and play. I just don’t want Infinity Ward to get any of my money down to their cynical and frankly insulting way they conducted themselves in the run up to the game. And the lack of deicated servers, lean, blah blah blah blah. You get the picture.

  23. 12/11/2009 at 18:08 Whiskey Jak says:

    So predictable, as all of those petitions and boycott groups are. At the very least, the “founder” of the group isn’t listing MW2 in his games, that would’ve been the funniest shit.

    Can’t wait to read the PC reviews and their takes on the server/matchmaking thing.

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:23 Whiskey Jak says:

      Also, according to this : link to news.vgchartz.com PC sales of MW2 at retail are already close to 1 million. Now, I’m not sure how reliable these guys are but if they are even close, with sales like this after 1 single day, I think this dedicated server “scandal” will die pretty fast.

  24. 12/11/2009 at 18:10 Tei says:

    Sad.
    Also, somewhat related, this dude avatar.
    link to steamcommunity.com

    Sould ginger people be on concentration camps^H^Hre-education camps?

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:57 Ging says:

      Er, Tei… what the fuck?

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:26 Stupoider says:

      I’ve seen that picture on the website that must not be named. Frequently. Think nothing of it.

    • 13/11/2009 at 15:59 Ging says:

      It wasn’t the picture I was “what the fucking”, more his statement that ginger people should be put in concentration camps…

      I sort of find that offensive.

  25. 12/11/2009 at 18:10 Matzerath says:

    The true boycott is by people like me who don’t know what the hell this game is in the first place.

  26. 12/11/2009 at 18:18 linfosoma says:

    Im saving that picture, it will be useful in the future.

    • 05/04/2013 at 08:54 El_Emmental says:

      Very useful to show how game journalists never do proper research, yeah.

      • 05/04/2013 at 08:56 Llewyn says:

        El_Emmental, why are you bothering to reply to comments from 2009?

        • 05/04/2013 at 09:03 El_Emmental says:

          Because such old articles are now listed on “More from RPS”, and leaving an article with misinformed and biased information is wrong.

          I tried to post more informations on that, but the spam filter blocks it – I have it in a .txt file, I just can’t post it.

          I’ve been in several “boycott” movements (even ones I didn’t cared about), talked to a lot of people there, and a lot of things here are very wrongly reported. Since RPS isn’t going to edit that article ever, I hope at least the comments warn people of how misleading that article is.

          • 05/04/2013 at 09:34 Llewyn says:

            “That article” consists of an image taken from a Steam group. There aren’t “a lot of things” reported here, let along wrongly reported.

            Put the contents of your text file in a Google doc and link to that, spam filter shouldn’t object then.

  27. 12/11/2009 at 18:21 Dante says:

    Kudos to the one man who has stuck to his guns and masochistically played FM10 instead.

    Now that’s some hardcore boycotting.

  28. 12/11/2009 at 18:26 Gorgeras says:

    If on November 18th the Left4Dead 2 Boycott member list fails to show the same picture except on the few inevitable cherry-picked pages, will RPS point it out too?

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:37 PeopleLikeFrank says:

      I hope so!

      Though maybe worth pointing out – that screenshot is taken from the first page of the member list, so it’s hardly ‘cherry picked’.

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:58 Gorgeras says:

      Actually, it is. I took a more careful look at the list and wrote up on it on the PCG Forum: link to computerandvideogames.com

      I’m a bit annoyed that Kieron posted this tosh, I always thought of him as one of the more critically-minded writers at PCG and RPS.

      Dead men tell no tales: those that didn’t buy Modern Warfare 2 come up on the radar less than those who did buy it, which is why taking the sample on the day of the Steam release is such an obvious and cynical misrepresentation.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:03 invisiblejesus says:

      Actually, I just read Gorgeras’ writeup and he has a point, though “cherry-picked” is probably a poor choice of words. That screenie shows members in game, and it shows them on the day of the game’s release. Obviously that’s going to overrepresent the twats who went out and bought the game anyway without leaving the boycott group. The information presented isn’t exactly false, and personally I think the point is still well taken to some extent, but it’s not the whole picture.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:47 Taillefer says:

      Writers are allowed to have a sense of humour.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:56 Gorgeras says:

      I once stood on a box dressed as a chicken and proclaimed to all the people “Beware the lies that are not false!”. The King rebutted me “The lies that are nay false? What is the meaning of this?”. So I took off my dolphin suit and placed it in the box of hungry nations, begging me to get the UN to send food or if not, send them a UN so they can make the food themselves. They would only waste it on Ben & Jerry’s.

      I took out the little piece of card, a bird on one side and bird in a bird-cage on the other, with twisted string tied at the edges. I closed the chest and left the hungry people to rot, the wretches. Royalty only understood magic and sometimes they even understood it wasn’t real and they were the most stupid royals of all. In a world where magic is real; the rational atheist and deluded mystic change places.

      “I know this trick!” exclaimed the King, with an exclamation mark. “I won’t stand for this faggotry boy!!” he exclaimed with two. I didn’t betray my ignorance by asking how he managed to pronounce punctuation. I just showed him the trick; the one every child has seen: you twirl the string held out at both ends and the card spins: a bird on one side, a cage on another. A caged bird. The King was furious “you show me nothing” he insisted “but that trick which is known to me”. “It’s not what I’m showing, but what I’m hiding” I said. “What?? What are you hiding? You don’t have hungry nations stashed somewhere or anything?” which I thought a tad too interrogative, I might have to steal his kingdom, put it in a box and let it go hungry. “No your majesty” I said “Just my velociraptor costume in my chest and what I hold in my hands”. The King demanded I spin it faster as he looked closer and closer at the flickering bird and it’s cage.

      “I see the bird” he said “yes” I replied”. “I see the cage” he said “yes” I replied. “But do you see the bird in the cage?” “Yes I see the feckin’ bird in the feckin cage!” he squealed. “Which one?”

      “….”

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:09 TeeJay says:

      I just went and checked and there are currently 40-odd people in that group playing MW2, out of:

      871 Members | 90 In-Game | 324 Online | 0 in Chat

      Compare that with 46 in the RPS group, out of:

      3,477 Members | 261 In-Game | 1,124 Online | 6 in Chat

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:50 Gorgeras says:

      Number 1: you don’t join a Boycott unless you seriously intended to buy the game in the first place. A boycott is meaningless if you never intended to get the game anyway. Hence, a boycott will be made up primarily of fans of the game. Comparing a group explicitly about the game to a group not about the game isn’t a fairer measure than before.

      Number 2: *It’s the release day*.

  29. 12/11/2009 at 18:28 trillex says:

    I bought MW2 despite not liking the direction they went figuring that you’d have to try it out before saying it’s shit.

    So I did. It’s fun but laggy and I miss a community. :(

  30. 12/11/2009 at 18:29 Ralph says:

    Online is really great the most online shooter fun I have had since the glorys days of old school CS. The Matchmaking systems is really good and nothing to worry about, It feels like a huge step up on cod4 and the people not playing just because of no dedicated severs are missing out and still playing a inferior game.

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:37 goodgimp says:

      Don’t make me cram a 360 up your analogical HDMI port, Ralph. ;)

  31. 12/11/2009 at 18:35 goodgimp says:

    Thank you for summing up my thoughts of online boycotts / petitions in one succinct screenshot (and I’m *not* buying MW2 for the well known reasons).

  32. 12/11/2009 at 18:36 Mitthrawn says:

    Remember too though that anyone can sign up for these groups. What probably happened is that a couple dozen tossers were invited into the group, joined, and then grabbed the game anyway. Steam groups mean very little, even less, I daresay, than internet petitions.

  33. 12/11/2009 at 18:37 Tiktaalik says:

    I’m also very confused by how this is THE BIGGEST GAMING EVENT OF THE YEAR EVAR and I haven’t even heard of the game til last week. Clearly I’m not down with the kidz.

  34. 12/11/2009 at 18:45 IvanHoeHo says:

    We are the crack whores that keep on giving.

  35. 12/11/2009 at 18:48 RC-1290'Dreadnought' says:

    I’m boycotting this game untill it’s less than €20,-. It might take a year or two until they listen, but you will see they will go with my demands.

  36. 12/11/2009 at 18:49 suibhne says:

    This is why we can’t have nice things.

  37. 12/11/2009 at 18:49 Psychopomp says:

    Why do gamers have no fucking willpower?

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:00 Gorgeras says:

      Because those that do have it are treated like shit by those that don’t. The only choice then is to give in and go with the flow or become like me.

      Like me!

    • 13/11/2009 at 10:38 whalleywhat says:

      Because our entire lifestyle is based on instant gratification and anything that defers pleasure for a greater purpose sounds good in theory but ultimately falls apart in practice.

  38. 12/11/2009 at 18:49 nihlus says:

    That’s why I never sign online petitions cause I know 90 % of those that sign it are either fake or buying the product anyway.

    I’m sure its a good game but it could be a lot better with dedicated servers.

  39. 12/11/2009 at 18:50 Tei says:

    This will not invalidate the claim, or the petition. Sure there are some idiots out here, or people that may ask for support of feature Y, and buy the game anyway withouth feature Y. But It don’t make the claim false.
    Is ridiculous and a /facepalm, but not much else.
    The lack of dedicated servers is a buttet shot to the foot, and this will show on medium, long term. Some game are on a “new game” syndrome, and other are playing from USA where matchmarking probably almost work. On the long term a P2P MP game will show his ugly face. The BulletFoot effect will show in a fast decay, the dead of the MP part of the game, since withouth community, mods, or other motions, It will fall dead like a rock. Is not console games only played a few months/years, then most of then forget?

    The evil side, the side of greed, corporativism, locked down interfaces and consoles, will never win the fight aganst the side of goodness, share stuff, open platforms, modding, communities and good pizzas.

    • 12/11/2009 at 18:58 invisiblejesus says:

      Well said, especially the bit about good pizza. :D

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:25 Andrew F says:

      Console games may only be played for a couple of months/years – I’m not sure why the developers should care, as long as the money is paid.

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:20 TeeJay says:

      *Some* developers actually want to make the best games possible (alongside making a decent amount of money). Not *every* developer simply reduces things down to “units shifted” regardless of how good or bad a game is.

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:25 mandrill says:

      Hear Hear Tei.

  40. 12/11/2009 at 19:00 MyLilPwny says:

    Take a good hard look boys and girls…. remember these names, because if IW, Activision, or modding-coders give us dedicated servers.. this is your instant-ban list all nice and neatly packaged for you.

    What a bunch of Uncle Tom’s crying about IW but doing it WHILE playing.

  41. 12/11/2009 at 19:03 Javier-de-Ass says:

    yeah, I’m not boycotting it either. just don’t have any interest in it what so ever. bought mw1 and didn’t play it. hehe.

    but yeah, this is absolutely pathetic.

  42. 12/11/2009 at 19:04 Chobes says:

    You can always count on (CEKTA)MaDFun to keep fighting the good fight.

  43. 12/11/2009 at 19:09 Darth Nader says:

    Really, what did you expect?

  44. 12/11/2009 at 19:11 Gpig says:

    I’m curious as to how many of those people pirated it. I remember for CoD4 a lot of the people on my list playing it had pirated it.

    • 12/11/2009 at 19:25 Paco says:

      none is pirated, since it says “In-game” and if it was pirated it would say “In non-steam game”

    • 12/11/2009 at 20:27 mandrill says:

      Erm, yeah. That list is from Steam, which is probably the nicest anti-piracy measure out there. So what Pacos said.

  45. 12/11/2009 at 19:22 Paco says:

    That’s sad and very funny at same time

    I’m boycotting MW2 but not L4D2 and let me tell you why, and I’m making my best effort with my english…

    – Valve is not a greedy company like Activision is, actually I bought L4D2 at 35 bucks and not 60!!
    – Valve’s most important executives are not assholes like Bobby Kotick is, let’s say Gabe Newell, Doug L. etc.
    – I was on the group boycoting L4d2 but the main idea were achieved and valve gave us a new DLC (a poor one I know, but better than nothing)
    – Activision killed community with MW2.

    Cheers!

  46. 12/11/2009 at 19:23 Hug_dealer says:

    thats just sad :(.

    This is exactly why it happen in the first place, IW knew that they could get away with turning the pc game into a port and peopl would still gobble up the horribly flawed multiplayer anyway.

  47. 12/11/2009 at 19:30 Redwinters says:

    after checking for myself, almost all of these say “non steam game” thus are pirated copies.

  48. 12/11/2009 at 19:30 Fragman says:

    Ditto (four?)

    Also, I’m not buying it as I’m terrified of how the p2p system will work with my crappy Irish internet. Oh, and the price

  49. 12/11/2009 at 19:32 Krikey! says:

    Fail on a bajillion levels.

  50. 12/11/2009 at 19:32 Feanor says:

    I’m not buying MW2 because all the fun I had in CoD 4 multiplayer involved large scale games on lag-free servers.