[cod] punkbuster boycott / protest

[Mark J. DeFilippis]

Having worked on Wall Street 20+ years now I can tell you it is all
about expected earnings.  ACTV is turning a deaf ear because this
is already money in the bank.  NEXT...

As much as I wish a server shutdown would help, it won't. With 3200
servers out there, I suspect it will make a small dent.

The saying goes "You need to hit them in the pocketbook", that is what
hurts.  There are a few ways to do this.

1. I belong to an investment club.  We hold ACTV stock.  I can say
we have had a good ride, but it is clear this ride is not likely to continue
based on this attitude change from ACTV.  It is time to sell.  Investment
clubs watch other investment clubs, not just companies.

2. While I am at work this week it is time to pay a visit to my friends that
have been very helpful for so many years.  As equity analysts specializing
in various industries, I will put my two cents in about ACTV to these
friends.  Since I am expensive, I do not work for any one brokerage, I
have 4 brokerage clients however, and they have been so wonderful
to me in the past, it is time to repay based on where I think ACTV is
heading financially. Reality is they are moving more to consoles.
A crowded market that will become more crowded. I
have my business reasons why I don't think ACTV will do well there.
(Perhaps History will repeat itself. Consoles is where ACTV started
and I recall the time when they were on the brink of bankruptcy).

3. To hit them in the pocketbook, you need exposure, and to try
to dissuade people from buying their products.  As a buggy PC game
developer, they are entering a market where "they don't send out updates"
for console systems.  One way is to start a web site that states the
situation, poor support, etc, and massively link that site to push it's
Google rating up.

We should also see about recouping some of our money.  I pre-purchased
COD2 with the understanding that COD2 was a sequel in the series
and COD2 would have basic A/C as it's original COD did.  I am not an
attorney, but this is what I believe is class actionable. I want the money
back for my three copies of COD2 as ACTV did it on the cheap and
did not add A/C.  It can clearly be shown this is a financial decision.

Know an attorney that is in the business, or is among us?  We should
take this off-line and consider this.

On the exposure:

I will donate "Activisionsucks.com", and the webspace and bandwidth,
and we need as many sites to link to it as possible. Once in place
I will submit to all the webcrawler bots.

The goal: Boycott all Activation products and get the word out about their
lack of support.  We owe it to other consumers out there as this is IMHO
large scale fraud. I certainly feel defrauded. Had I known there was not going
to be basic A/C, I would never have purchased the game. I believe the bulk of
people that pre-ordered the game that are unhappy are in the same position.
This is the group I believe is class actionable.  We need an attorney amongst
us.

Once it is up, we will let all the rags know about it. They won't turn away
ACTV's money, but if we do it right, it is news, and any press is good press
as any business man knows.  Of course I mention the site to my equity research
friends..., and if you know any, so should you.

There is no liable or slander. These have several legal requirements. One 
is that
the statements made are not fact.  That is not going to be the case. We
tell it like it is... The facts are what they are.

Mark



At 12:25 AM 11/27/2005, you wrote:
>FYI, in case you didn't see it...
>
>
>
>http://www.iwnation.com/Forums/index.php?showtopic=17450
>
> > There comes a time when a little revolution can do an awful lot more 
> good than meekly submitting to the will of others, especially if you feel 
> you have a genuine greivance.
> >
> > That time is NOW my friends.
> > What do i mean?
> >
> > I propose that if you are happy with following Statement you post your 
> acceptance in this thread and get as many others as possible to sign up 
> including League/Ladder players & admins, Clan members, server 
> admins/providers and just about every COD/UO/COD2 player you can ask.
> >
> > "We request here and now that either Activision or Infinty Ward make an 
> offcial announcement regarding their future support for the Call of Duty 
> series of games on or before 16th December 2005.
> >
> > The statement should include the following:
> >
> > 1. When will you include an Anti-Cheat system for COD2?
> > 2. When you you release your 1st patch for COD2?
> > 3. What will it include?
> > 4. What other plans have you for the support of the Call of Duty Games?
> > 5. What will you do to ensure this situation does not arise again?
> >
> > Failure to comply with this very simple request will result in the 
> following action:
> >
> > We will actively encourage ALL
> > Clans, Leagues, Ladders, Players, Admins and server providers to 
> enforce a series of 24hr mass server shutdowns of all Call of duty games 
> at a time of our choosing.
> >
> > Don't take this lightly, word spreads, people won't buy a broken toy.
> > This has never been done before and do you really want to go down as 
> the first and only companies to have it's client/fan base take such 
> drastic measures in order to simply be given some regular information 
> about a product, the choice is yours alone.
> >
> > WE WILL NOT BE IGNORED ANY LONGER.
> >
> > TALK TO US AND HELP US, TO HELP YOU MAKE THE CALL OF DUTY SERIES BETTER 
> ONLINE GAMES.
> >
> > DESPERATE TIMES CALL FOR DESPERATE MEASURES, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
> >
> > To my knowledge, should this action take place it will be the first and 
> only time such drastic measures have been taken by any gaming community 
> anywhere in the world.
> > I don't want us to make history but it may come done to it.
> >
> > SHAME ON YOU AV AND IW FOR LETTING IT GET THIS FAR....
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mark J. DeFilippis, Ph. D EE          defilm at acm.org
                                       defilm at ieee.org


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