CoD: MW dev asks angry fans to "remember there's a team of human beings at Infinity Ward"

In a Reddit post, studio art director Joel Emslie appealed for fans to use calmer language on the subreddit. While Emslie feels players should continue to voice their opinions, he asked fans to "keep it clean and maybe even a little creative".

"Get it out of your system but remember there's a team of human beings here at IW and we have crappy days just like you."

[TheGamez100]

We dont blame you the devs, we all know its activision at play here of course.

[porkChop]

Yeah, but there are some people blaming IW and hounding the devs on Twitter. Unfortunately not everyone has common sense.

[xTonyMontana]

To be fair, I bet Kotick gets far more hate than IW developers put together. One of those potentially sad situations though, these devs pour their hearts and souls into these projects for 2-3 years and all that hard work can potentially come undone in many people's eyes because of the greedy people upstairs.

[rainslacker]

Want to remind activision that there are people behind those screen names and wallets

[DynamicEffect]

Remember, stupid idiots, humans make video games.

Thanks uncle Joel. Remember that the humans behind your video games are the ones that keep getting this backlash because your publisher is anally intruding on the humans who buy the video games humans make.

[XiNatsuDragnel]

We hate Activision not you guys

[TheOptimist]

Devs are not solely to blame (Tsk tsk Activision), but the customers are also humans.

[rainslacker]

IW reps arent exactly great with how they handle the public either. Activision tends to just ignore public outrage.

Otherwise, people should just call out the issue, not the devs as a whole, and certainly shouldn't be abusive. People have a choice to not buy a game, at which point there is nothing to be upset about. Devs don't really have a choice when they have to listen to people attacking them, and no one likes being called names or threatened regardless of the reasons

[criticalkare]

Its suck that they are stuck with activision....

[King_Noctis]

Activision is mostly to blame for this, but we are also forgetting the elephant in the room.

[Kribwalker]

you’re not talking about Tembo the badass elephant are you?

[neutralgamer1992]

Hahhahhha

[Neonridr]

lol, think of the human beings..

[franwex]

Holding off content for a whole year from 2 platforms, yet it’s still the same price?

Was that a human thing to do?

Treat your customers right and they will actually praise you.

[Redemption-64]

Seems you don't know how this business works. Might do you some good to learn that

[TheOptimist]

Yeah, business works by mostly stepping on people's happiness or satisfaction.

The bigger picture here is that all of this dilemma for a mediocre piece of entertainment.

[franwex]

I run my own investment practice and have been very, very successful. I got there from now screwing my clients over.

[Corbz]

If they would of lowered the price for Xbox and pc than people wouldn't be complaining. But you are paying the same price for less content that's exclusive for a year to ps (which a new cod will be out by then)

[Redemption-64]

It's nice to see you display such level of stupidity so openly. You really really don't know how this business works and the fact that you are proud to display such ignorance deserves an award in it self. But don't worry, am here to educate you. My hope is that, you learn something new today. Class is in session;

Do you know the difference between a Publisher and a developer? You obviously don't so let me tell you.
The core difference between video game developers and publishers is that developers are responsible for creating the video game while publishers are responsible for marketing, sales, PR and majority of the time, FUNDING the game, sometimes the publisher owns the game the developers make.

Activision is the publisher and the parent company of Infinity Ward, who is the developer. So in baby language. Activision, pays the bills and tells IW what to do.

You own your business, not by a multi billion dollar company that owns you and tell you what to do, with the power to put you out of business if you don't meet their expectations.

Fans are obviously not happy, but anyone with a single working brain cell knows it's the publisher or parent company Activision that is the one cutting the check and making the deals. If Sony or MS wants to make a deal for the new COD, please take a wild guess who they will be talking to. Here is a hint, not the developer.

My office hours are; M-F, 8-5, please feel to leave message, professor will get back to you

[rainslacker]

Sony is subsidizing the cost to get that extra dlc time. Someone is paying for it.

Still a crappy thing to do, and I will support those that are upset about it, but I won't support people being complete dicks to the dev or the publisher. Voicing concern, criticizing, and voting with ones wallet is different than threats or name calling.

They havent sold a product yet, and not buying the game is still a viable option for anyone. Not buying the game means more chance that the current models will die, which is good for everyone. Means you may miss out on a game here or there, but there are lots of gaming options out there

[franwex]

Triggered much? A few sentences made you go into a rage and write an essay? It’s kinda flattering that you went through all that trouble for a 15 second reply that I made.

[Npugz7]

Best thing bungie ever did was leave that shit hole company activision.

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Drop the price by say $10 for the PC and Xbox versions then. Do the right thing. I NEVER liked these practices no matter who’s doing it.

[Juusterey]

10$ ?
For one part of one mode?

[SPEAKxTHExTRUTH]

Yep. You got a better idea?

[Hungryalpaca]

If it’s anything to go by eith MW3 then it’s a lot of content.

[rainslacker]

Then what would be the point in Sony spending all that money to get that content early?

[Mylove1516]

$10 for 1% of a game mode?

I'll bet that $10 that 99.9% of players will spend 99.9% of the time playing other modes.

[Silver_ShadoWolf]

You guys didn’t even understand what they mean... People’s backlash because of micro transactions is ridiculous. How else are they suppose to pay people who keeps a game running? You think $60 is worth thousands of hours of fun and content? Naw. If you want a company that runs on a small team and small budget then you can play small games. If you want a Massive experience then you better be ready to pay.

[Shane Kim]

Yeah but the sell at least 10 million copies at 60 bucks YEARLY.

[knickstr]

When you pay microtransactions you're not giving the devs money. You're paying for the CEO's and executives of activision multi million dollar bonuses.

[Imalwaysright]

Spare me from the bullshit. This is a CoD game, one of the biggest IPs in gaming and Activision wants MTs in it to maximize profits, not to break even. Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice was PROFITABLE selling at half the price and looked like this https://www.youtube.com/wat... wich tells me that either there is some serious mismanagement happening in the AAA industry or publishers/devs are full of crap with their sob stories about having to feed their families.

[neutralgamer1992]

So much wrong In one comment

[Juusterey]

Plenty of companies do it
Stop defending shitty practices

[rainslacker]

A cod game will likely pull in 400 million in net revenue for the publisher in the first month from game sales alone. Marketing deals with console makers means the publisher isn't paying 40-100 million in marketing costs, and the cost to develop a cod game is probably in the 40-60 million range.

In no way are MT required to make money off the game, nor even support it with additional content for a couple years after release. Most of the time, the post game support is already factored into the original production costs for these games.

[Artemidorus]

You played that card time and time again, you are legal crooks

[Imalwaysright]

"Be nice so that I can control what you say".

[Artemidorus]

Correct

[FPS_D3TH]

We do remember. The blame is on Activision. That doesn’t mean we can’t or shouldn’t criticize a game for poor practices and that we blindly support games all because developers have feelings.

[dekke]

when such a thing was a RedBox exclusive there was no hate at all...in the end its just an another CoD :P

[Father__Merrin]

Activision has published some of the most loved titles ever. Some of thier practices are not good but they are a business at the end of the day

[WickedLester]

My suggestion to Infinity Ward is, stop paying attention to the loud vocal minority of social media. It does NOT represent the vast VAST majority of gamers!

[neutralgamer1992]

Exactly otherwise we were told borderlands 3 would be boycotted and won't sell on epic game store yet it broke records

Vocal minority

[Juusterey]

Yeah
They should make games worse
Which apparently you want for some reason

[WickedLester]

Its not "worse."

[Juusterey]

Holding off content for a year and microtransactions aren't worse?

[WickedLester]

Not for PlayStation owners. :-P

Dude, its business. Sony was the highest bidder. MS did similar business tactics last gen. You either deal with it and wait or go buy a PS4. Or dont play at all. Business and fairness do not often coincide. But it has absolutely nothing to do with the "quality" of the game.

[Juusterey]

Even if I agree
Which I don't
It doesn't change the while microtransactions part of it

[WickedLester]

Where have you been the last 7 years? Microtransactions have been part of gaming since the start of this generation. It's nothing new. Besides, no one is forcing you to buy anything. I have bought very little in the way of microtransactions this generation, yet I haven't really felt as if I've missed out on anything.

[Hungryalpaca]

Thank you so much oh white knight of bad business.

[zodiac909]

Too bad the people running Activision are mindless, soul-less demons.

[deafdani]

Soul-less yes, mindless nope. They know what they're doing.

[P_Bomb]

The anonymity of the internet brings out the worst in people.

[Tedakin]

It's a shame Activision and EA keep ruining people's efforts. SW Battlefront 2 was stellar and ruined by EA greed.

[ElementX]

Why do people stick up for IW saying business is business, etc and in other threads people rip COD for being the same every year? How many 100s of comments scorn everything COD but then people seem ok that features are exclusive to PS for a year? You can't have it both ways. I'm talking in general here, I know there are people who love COD and there are those that hate it but it's strange that people will stand up for devs one day and in a different article people rip them apart.

[Lividgravy]

Hitler was a human being to what is your point. You choose to be developer's for a bunch of scumbags that take advantage of consumers. Now your upset because the internet fury your feelings? Grow up or grow a pair for chistsakes no one cares about your petty problems

[deafdani]

Comparing them to Hitler... yeah ok.

[Soulrakk]

Totally understandable, it's a shame the parent/publishing company giving directions ironically doesn't treat us like humans at all.

[Kaedro]

And do they remember that gamers are also human beings?

[Juusterey]

Human beings buying your games too
Seem to have no problem treating them like shit

[Edgelordsupreme]

Then dont buy the game if you're unhappy with what's being offered. Be angry with Activision/Sony for engaging in these kinds of deals. Don't try rationalizing having a tantrum over a very bare bones and simple survival mode.

[chrono1205]

Customers want to remind the publisher "remember there's a team of human beings behind the money."

[Jrios355]

Yeah Activision and EA has those too. But that doesn't stop these "teams of human beings" from being greedy assholes.

[akbennyewu]

Refer all complaints to activision, provide activisions customer service contact info, and explain to their bosses at IW and Activision that this is not sustainable, both for business and employee - customer relations.

Tell all of us that this is a publisher / owner decision and that they would need to address the reasoning behind doing so.

Stop blaming the customer though for causes on the development side of things.

[Sophisticated_Chap]

Yeah and??? There is a team of human beings in the Chinese Communist Party and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard too, so what's your point?

[AllMightyFox]

Yes the people at Infinity Ward are humans … so were the Nazi's what's the point ???

Members of the Klan are people, even the greedy CEO's that salivate over MT's, Loot boxes, cosmetic sales are partially human ….

My point is every person is a human being, that doesn't make them good people !!!

nor does their being human mean we need to like, buy, support, etc. their game ….

they want people to keep it clean and constructive .. ditch the practices the gamers hate .. (there I said it)

guess what though … they aren't going to listen .. it's a joke, they want to act like scum and have people pat their backs

[yoshatabi]

Yeah and there's also a team of fans that have feelings. The feeling is mutual

[Kostche]

maybe them same people should stand up for gamers, while they support shoving shitty MTs and other cancerous mechanics down gamers throats...

victim playing.. what a joke

[william_cade]

If the devs support shady schemes, they are at fault. If they are just mindless cattle being rustled up for the slaughter house to make Mr. Ranch owner some money, they are not at fault.

What I am trying to say is none of us really know, but being human and having bad days doesn't excuse shitty actions on either side.

[FallenAngel1984]

Whoa human beings developed this game? I had no idea. You learn something new everyday.

[AK91]

It's not about the devs it's about the publishers and investors.

[trouble_bubble]

Toxic internet is toxic?

[ShockUltraslash]

And?
When we ask for good games you call us freeloading asshats?

[Tross]

And I'm terribly sorry that they have to work for Activision. It's bad enough they have to sometimes put long hours in to get their games out, but now the company is using them to try to make us feel bad for any criticism we level their way.

[doritos]

We are going to crap on you humans but don't you dare crap on us because we are just a bunch of humans too.

[TheCaptainKuchiki]

Gamers can be childish.

[NeoGamer232]

I ask the Publishers and Development Studios to remember there are gamers (mostly not billionaires) buying their games and that some of the monetization models they use are absolutely predatory and wrong.

[Dabigsiebowski]

Yeah show respect towards people who lie about the microtransactions. How about you show some respect for the gaming industry and your fan base before you start pointing the finger at gamers as if they don't have the right to feel ripped off. CoD needs to die already.

[FlorinEmil321]

And the fans asks activision and Infinity Ward to "remember that we are human beings not ATM`s"