Why do you think Activision owes them $1 billion? Given the numbers in this article, that's 50 times their projected bonuses/salary for 2010 had they not been fired.

Damages are a bitch when you illegally try to screw someone over. I doubr they will get a billion, but better to aim high and let the judge sort it out.

You know the salaries of the Activision Blizzard board are available in the financials as a publicly traded company.

What I was getting at is, how much did their pay increase in comparison to the employees they were complaining about paying too much?

What I was getting at is that you can just check their financial statements and know exactly how much. o.O

http://investor.activision.com/index.cfm

It's probably under SEC filings if I had to guess?

Jeffery, instead of bitching about it, why don't you go start your OWN video game development/publishing company and show all of us just how to "properly" run it?

I'm tired of whiny people that point to a few bad individuals in an industry and cry "revolution!" while at the same time bashing capitalism. If capitalism is so bad, what's a better system in your eyes?

John, I don't agree with Jeffrey, but the answer to your question is, sufficiently regulated capitalism.

Personal rant: Too often consumer tax money ends up paying for damages that corporations failed to pay from their competitive prices. Capitalism encourages companies to cut corners, worse, to game the system. Capitalism encourages monopoly, which concentrates power, which is therefore used to corrupt the system.

Keith, can you define "sufficiently regulated" for me?

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..."Capitalism encourages companies to cut corners, worse, to game the system."

Please name for me a better, more successful business model that doesn't "encourage companies to cut corners, worse, to game the system"?

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..."Capitalism encourages monopoly, which concentrates power, which is therefore used to corrupt the system."

Again, please name for me a better, more successful business model that doesn't "encourage monopoly, which concentrates power, which is therefore used to corrupt the system"?

he just did: 'sufficiently regulated capitalism'

To be fair Keith, your personal rant is on regulated capitalism, not on capitalism. In non regulated capitalism failing companies fail, they aren't bailed out.

Investors and stakeholders are brutally punished for ignorance/poor choices, which is the major fault with capitalism, and is why it's regulated that way at present. I don't want to get into my opinion on it, I just don't like when people mislabel faults of government regulations on capitalism as a fault of capitalism.

@Jeff It really isn't that simple; especially in a publicly traded company. They are an employer, and a big part of that is exactly deciding when the 'working class' (read: studio heads making millions of dollars in bonuses every year) is over-paid.

No Dave. Keith didn't define what "sufficiently regulated" means. Neither did you.

But let's go with your "sufficiently regulated capitalism". Fine. Now, can you define what THAT means exactly?

Do we just start with "plain 'ol" capitalism and then continually throw regulation after regulation on top until no one's happy?

How much "sufficiently regulated capitalism" will it take to prevent "fat pigs at the top" from "cutting corners", "gaming the system", and "corrupting the system"?

Are you able to, here and now, write down the laws you think are necessary to create this "sufficiently regulated capitalism" we apparently need so desperately?

are you serious? i think i have better things to do than taking the time to write a detailed manifesto on a gaming site to show you why simplistic pure socialism/capitalism beliefs are moronic. the answers are not so simple that they can be explained in simple soundbites or puritanical political philosophies.

"In non regulated capitalism failing companies fail, they aren't bailed out."

they cant fail, as they would be monopolies who could insure no competition exists to fail to.

@Dave: That just ain't true. It's Microeconomics 101.

"Jeffery"

It's Jeffrey, thanks.

"Jeffery, instead of bitching about it, why don't you go start your OWN video game development/publishing company and show all of us just how to "properly" run it?"

I am in the process of doing that. I am working with friends on an entity to develop games, and if that somehow gains traction then I fully intend to support other developers in ways that does not tie them to me as my eternal bitches. I am also communicating with like-minded developers to discuss ways to remove the plague of suits that profit off our work. I am also working on a development environment/distribution system set up to reward developers with no intention of becoming a for profit middle man myself, merely as a way of giving developers options other than the standard 30% cut that corporations feel they deserve because that's what they can get away with. I am also studying the history of capitalism and communism because, though I think those words are empty and divisive, they seem to crop up a lot. I find it interesting though that you think the only thing I am doing to fix the problem is the one thing you happen to see me doing right now, as if I stop existing when I'm not communicating to you. But communicating, conglomerating, er... "bitching", if you will... is very important too. Very few hard problems can be solved by an individual, and if people are really blind to the trends of oppression in our current society then they will be blind-sided by those trends when it is too late to reverse them. If it is not too late already, then I am going to do whatever I can to reverse them -- and I don't give a god DAMN if you're "tired" of that. Don't get on the internet anymore than. Honestly though, why can't one bitch about a problem while fixing it :)? It's cathartic to say the least, I've been driven to suicidal levels of depression over this mess our species has gotten itself into so I don't feel guilty for channels of catharsis from time to time.

"I'm tired of whiny people that point to a few bad individuals in an industry and cry "revolution!" while at the same time bashing capitalism. If capitalism is so bad, what's a better system in your eyes?"

Perfectionism, an economic system where everyone does the perfect thing at the perfect time. It is better than Capitalism by definition.

No, I am mostly kidding, just illustrating why I don't like "ism"s that much. But instead of mentioning a better system by name (because the "next" system we end up evolving into probably hasn't been named yet), let me just say that a better system than capitalism (or perhaps a better "version" of capitalism) would be one in which the road to success is not guarded by the already successful. In other words, you don't get to earn your success (I will admit this is the case for many of the rich), then dangle money over my head that you can just as easily give to my competitor and force me (yes force) to sign up with you out of fear of you siding with my competitor instead. That is what the mafia does, that is what publishers do, that is what capitalism _encourages_ if not _mandates_. A better system than capitalism? How about a system where those who create are given proportional wealth for their work instead of merely those who set themselves up as the gate keepers. Anyway, it's more than a few bad individuals in one industry, the rich are getting richer at a nearly unprecedented rate. Did you not see the graph I linked to? Did you not understand it? Did you not agree with its accuracy or message? Do you think that the middle class suddenly got lazy when unemployment skyrocketed, or that the top 1% have somehow worked three times as hard over the last thirty years?

"John, I don't agree with Jeffrey,"

I find that interesting, because I agree with your points here :).

Anyway, the mistake that we are all making, and why I always find the "name a better system than capitalism" argument a bit misdirected (though I admit I asked for it), is trying to find a system that works for us instead of adhering to standards of ethics and taking responsibility ourselves for what is right or what is wrong. There is no free market, no magical or mathematical construct optimizing things behind the scenes, and while you and many believe there is a code of honor to let things "just happen" in the global market while focusing on your "local" market (what job am I going to take, if I go to that store I can get this for a little cheaper) there are a ruling elite gaming the system, putting puppet politicians in place, outsourcing your jobs not so they can give wealth to poorer countries (which I would be for in a heart beat EVEN IF it meant I lose wealth) but so they can get away with dirt-cheap wages and become even more entrenched as the rulers of this world.

And you ask me what system should replace Capitalism? What white knight set of rules will create equality and harmony among men that can't be abused? None. There is no system waiting to save us. There is no magical algorithm. There is only causality affected by rational agents. We can't just write a dictation to counter unethical behavior because a perfectly unethical person can always take said dictation and find a loophole in it. Why do you wait for a better system, or adhere to a broken one? Why do you think an "ism" will save us? Volitional cooperation and respect for the well-being of others as much as yourself is ALL that will save us from destroying ourselves, not finding the perfect set of rules that makes it hardest for the slimiest randroids to enslave us. The Capitalism vs Communism false dichotomy is just a distraction tactic built from years of dick-bragging propaganda between two world powers.

And yet I explicitly attack Capitalism don't I? I am probably a hypocrite, but the concoction of manifest destiny, rugged individualism, and objectivism mixed with an intelligent minority bent on running the lives of the ignorant majority that still thinks there is a slice of American Dream waiting for them is the agent of greatest evil in my country. And my country happens to have the biggest dick right now, which means it is the greatest evil in the world, if you draw things out to their logical winner-takes-all conclusion. If you can't envision this, then play a game of Monopoly and replace fake money with real, rent-paying, food-buying (and now vote-buying) wealth and you will understand.

When you do this, I am curious to see if you're not bitching about your destiny too, or merely bitching about the bitching of others :).

Oh, John, here's a good write-up of some problems with capitalism: http://listverse.com/2012/01/16/top-10-disadvantages-to-capitalism/. I want to highlight #7, "Under a capitalist system, the profit motive is far greater than altruism. If people are worried about what’s in their own pocket, they will avoid helping their fellow human beings because they’re concentrating on looking after themselves. People feel the need to put themselves first because they think no-one will be there to help them if they lose all their money." I think this is very important because I've felt this fear, this -- "If it's dog-eat-dog and people are plotting to take all the wealth for themselves, I don't have time to help the poor", and it feels rotten. I'm as self-centered as anyone, but I just can't live in a world where those in misery are systematically doomed to continue said misery, so I will never be happy in Capitalism. And yes, the profit-motive is so key to Capitalism by any definition I know that I don't think this is a mere side-effect we can polish out; it is built in, as soon as we get to a system that rewards and encourages empathy for others instead of hoping it happens as a side effect of "rational self-interest" or the "free market" (whatever that means, assuming happenstance can guide us better than we can guide ourselves), I think it will be sufficiently different from Capitalism that we can't call it Capitalism. So that is why I explicitly rail against "Capitalism" while simultaneously saying it is silly to focus on "isms". I'm sure I'm still a hypocrite, but I'm struggling through all of this too :). Maybe on the other end I will have more clarity and less hatred for those I view as oppressors; until then, I am more concerned with global happiness and freedom than protected the status quo or not offending people with my "bitching".

Jeffrey (A thousand pardons for misspelling your name),

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..."I am in the process of doing that."

That answers my first question to you. I'm happy to read that you've decided to participate in Capitalism! Do you have a web site for your new company yet?

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..."And you ask me what system should replace Capitalism? What white knight set of rules will create equality and harmony among men that can't be abused? None."

And that answers my second question to you.

Thank you, and good luck with the new company!

"Jeffrey (A thousand pardons for misspelling your name)"

I will only accept a thousand and twenty, at the very least. ;]

"That answers my first question to you. I'm happy to read that you've decided to participate in Capitalism!"

Where did I say I was participating in Capitalism or deciding to?

"Thank you, and good luck with the new company!"

What _company_? John, I was giving you a hard time about misspelling my name but that was in jest (a lot of people spell it "Jeffery" anyway, no big deal). But now you are seeing words that I did not type. Are you properly hydrated?

That paying employees is a cost instead of an honor implies competition and selfishness.

If we are going to live in a selfish and competitive society then there is no need to give respect or props to our enemies.

Either you treat your employees with respect or you deserve none of mine even if what you are doing is "economically intelligent".

I am working on brevity :]