I disagree
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Itās weird how some people fall for the āamicable monsterā thing. Like, a lot of dictators and awful people know how to be polite and even ālikableā all whole making choices that ruin thousands of lives for their own personal gain.
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People are free to dislike Bobby all they want (and they are justified in doing so), but no one can say he hasnāt been successful.
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Gee, itās almost like there are systemic problems in the gaming industry that need to be addressed, and fans moving to new darling companies doesnāt fix those culturally ingrained problemsā¦
Isnāt that the American dreamā¦become rich enough for everyone to hate you?
As someone who grew up in that Era, your statement makes zero sense.
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That he made a solid investment? Thereās a certain ability one needs to have to judge what is a good investment or not, and he hit on a good one. But did he create WoW? CoD? SC2? Diablo2? Any of the franchises that are why Activision-Blizzard are what they are now? I mean seriously I donāt know what hand he had in any of those. Did he actually DO anything, or just buy the company and hire talented people to work for him?
If you look at a Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc., did he create anything or just invest in things?
Even then, the type of person he has been since erases any admiration or respect I might have had.
Yeah but I also think an issue is automatically believing everyone on the lower end of the totem pole is a āgood personā who just wants to make an honest living and all billionaires are evil. Thatās too black and white. Weāve become highly obsessed with placing all the blame on people at the top when there is likely corruption even from the lower end people not doing their jobs correctly or taking advantage of legitimate situations. I just think we focus too much on the top people, and are likely being manipulated to do so. I know itās not everyone, but Iāve met a lot of scummy people who also arenāt billionaires who are corrupted within the company, they just suck at their jobs and are looking for someone to blame.
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Depends on how you define success. If you only look at money as a factor, sure. But what about friendships, family, health, spirituality? You have no idea if this dude sikd his soul to his work for decades to make a bunch of dollars that will mean nothing when heās dead.
He did effectively bring hardship on all those he fired for short term profits. He has become hated by many who have worked for him or with him.
I wouldnāt call him a resounding success.
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Heās been known about for quite a long time and was one of the main reasons so many were speaking out against the merger with Activision back in the mid 2000ās.
Hereās a Eurogamer article from 2010 where Tim Schafer had some not so nice things to say about the guy
https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/schafer-calls-bobby-kotick-a-total-prick
Edit: Thanks Luup for letting me know about the links
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This entire post is Yikesā¢
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Mind breaking down how so? Iām curious.
You can post unbroken links by putting the ` symbol on both sides. Turns it into a quote.
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Yeah as said I donāt really believe Kotick is a āgood personā just that heās the main focus on laying the blame, sort of the fall guy so to speak for all this drama. But I definitely donāt think heās a good guy. But I do not believe Microsoft merger and him gone will necessarily fix the corruption in the company.
Itās hard to feel bad for a rich dude getting hate when he quite literally said he wants to take the fun out of making games and owned that statement. Thatās the same as saying you want to take the fun out of making art and want everything to be a soulless machine but just with extra steps.
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Steve Jobs loaned Bobby money to get things rolling.
Steve Jobs also encouraged Bobby to drop out of college to pursue making a game company.
Heās literally the CEO of the company. He is the guy in charge and has executive decision making from the top down. He us literally responsible for the companyās major successes and failures, what are you smoking?
Do you not remember when the sexual harassers were going to be fired and Bobby literally intervened to keep them on staff? That makes him responsible and a target for blame.
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All Iām saying is youāre hyper fixated on one man. It also took lower end workers to take advantage of the cube crawling situation, spread nudes that lead to a girlās suicide around the company, and it took the individual actions of those people to help strengthen that frat boy culture. Bobby may have glossed over it and didnāt fix it when he needed to (aka I donāt think heās a good man) but to pretend that all the lower end people are saints and the corruption will disappear once Bobby is gone imo is being quite obtuse.
That is not my experience.
The only twenty-somethings I know that could be classified as foolish are the ones who are in their early twenties and still in school and living at home.
The majority of the ones out in the real world, regardless of age, who are paying their own way with their own money earned by their own contribution, have shed their naivety, and, while certainly not perfect, tend towards responsible and astute.
Activision was essentially dead as a company before Bobby took over in 1991. (I hate that, being someone who has fond memories of the original incarnation of Activision with games like Pitfall, River Raid, etc). Over time, he built it up to something that, even with itās struggles recently, was valued at $68 BILLION dollars by Microsoft. Yeah, he did some pretty scummy stuff along the way. But at the end of the day, thatās unarguable success.
No one is saying Bobby was a saint. But to say he wasnāt successful is just incorrect.
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