Respawn Studios - Respawning My Dreams

Who didn't (and doesn't) love Call of Duty 4? I mean, really, that game was so full of win that I practically lost my virginity to it. I don't know how that is biologically possible, or even how that statements creates logical concord, but there you have it.

Point is, CoD4 was an awesome game, in the truest, most pure sense of the word - which is why the announcement that Modern Warfare 2 would feature no LAN play or dedicated servers and run through steam probably caused more than a few adolescent suicides. The game wasn't really a bad game... it just didn't deliver like everyone had hoped. I don't think it was because fans had unrealistic expectations, but rather because veterans of the series (and people who pretend to be, like me) felt betrayed by their most loved developers - the Inifinity Ward crew, headed up by Jason West and Vince Zampella.

As anyone who can use a forum will know, many rages and rants did ensue (admittedly, more than a few were my own) and Infinity Ward was generally hated upon.

But wait, there's more! For it was then that the whole legal debacle began, with allegations being thrown around left right and center - pretty soon it became clear that Zampella and West had been plotting and scheming with EA, but using Activision's boardroom or something to do it, because Activision found out and got pretty jealous. And when Activision get's jealous, their lawyers get itchy. And when lawyers get itchy, people get sued. People like Jason West and Vince Zampella.

Amidst the poop-flinging, pretty much everyone who was anyone at Infinity Ward decided to up and quit, leaving the coffee boys and interns to hold their own back at the shell of Infinity Ward. Anyways, those who quit Infinity Ward headed over to join West and Zampella at Infinity Ward 2.0 Respawn Studios, now under the wing of EA.

At first I was skeptical of these relative newcomers, assosciating them with what was, in my perception, the blasphemous bastardisation of my most loved and cherished franchise. Eventually, however, I was persuaded by a combination of boredom, curiosity and a need to procrastinate to visit the Respawn Studios website... contrary to my expectations, I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm not entirely sure what I expected to see - probably something along the lines of a frontpage welcoming you to the site by explaining Respawn's lawful-evil moral code (with bureaucratic tendencies) and a background of mutilated corpses of labrador puppies. What I found instead was a lively blog post detailing the journey the team had been through in the renovation of their office. While it may have been exactly as boring as it sounded, there was certainly no evil afoot there, and I really did try to read between the lines.

What shocked me even more than that, though, was the company section of the site. Upon scrolling down, one is greeted with a small bio of each employee - what really scared me was that upon reading them it seemed as if these people actually enjoyed their jobs and moreover, had a passion for what they do. After a stiff cup of rooibos tea to settle my nerves, I realised that the only logical conclusion was that these people really do love their jobs, and really are excited about making a game which they hope the community will enjoy.

That is a prospect which really inspires the optimist inside of me. We will probably never know exactly what the hell went down with the whole Infinity Ward vs Activision thing, but I'm okay with that. It means that I can blame everything I didn't like about Modern Warfare 2, like the lack of LAN support, lack of dedicated servers, lack of modding tools support, Steam and the lack of a freaking lean function (in all honesty, that's about everything I didn't like about Modern Warfare 2), on Activison. Whether it is true or not, I couldn't care less - it makes me happy.

What also makes me happy is the hope of a game devoid of all of the nonsense us gamers have had to face lately; one that let's me pew pew more and QQ less. Perhaps this is a hope born 90% of the simple fact that I am in love with the people who brought me the game that got me hooked on gaming and 10% the implication made by Jason West's bio (you'll have to go the site to see it, unfortunately, but it'll be worth your while), and perhaps I still have some pent-up fanboy rage issues to deal with, but this is all said in the hope that maybe, just maybe I'll be able to say "Told you so!" when Respawn's new game finally is released.

Post ends here. If you enjoyed it, please feel free to subscribe via either RSS or email, or follow with your google account - and recommend it to your friends, of course. Commentary is always welcome, and I've fixed the comments so that you don't need an account to post. If you didn't enjoy it, please don't hesitate to criticise - but please try and keep it constructive.

This is an article contributing to a daily feature call 'Reader's Digress' at eGamer.co.za. It should be going live with the other submissions tomorrow.

Duncan
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