CoH2, learn from the mistakes of others

The events around the release of another cranberry based on the Great Patriotic War took an unexpected turn. So unexpected that it hurt even apolitical Habr. Consider the consequences of this event for domestic and foreign gamedev, and also try to draw several conclusions.
I also recommend that you familiarize yourself with the Kanobu Special Investigation.

Prehistory

For a start, a little background. The release of Relic has disappointed many domestic fans of this series with a tendentious presentation of the plot, which has a whole set of cold war stamps, such as evil NKVD, detachments with machine guns, one rifle for three, GULAG and the main character - a dissident of undetermined nationality. In this game pretends to historical accuracy. In general, “all according to secret documents”. Especially, this view contrasts with the original game of the paladins of the West without fear and reproach, liberating the French land.
One of the dissatisfied was the popular critic BadComedian, who previously specialized in films. A review of this game scored almost half a million views on Karambe, after which, at the request of the public, the American version was assembled, which has now collected almost a quarter of a million views on YouTube.
Further, other people have already created two petitions in 1C and Steam with a request to stop the sale of this game in the CIS. Gaining 20 thousand signatures, one of them forced 1C to stop selling this game. Few expected this turn, but it happened.

In connection with the appeals of users who consider a number of episodes of the game unacceptable, 1C-SoftClub decided to stop selling the computer game Company of Heroes 2 (developed by Relic Entertainment, publisher-SEGA) on the territory of the Russian Federation and the CIS on July 26, 2013. . At the moment, we are analyzing the situation and informed the developer and publisher of Company of Heroes 2 about it.

Relic look

Relic, who tried to ignore the public’s reaction at first, then ridiculed her, was eventually forced to go into a dull defense, bathing the disgruntled and separating the Russian players from the Western ones. Judging by the fact that the community was recently dismissed by the manager responsible for communication with the Russian-speaking community, some will be responsible for this “success”. Although, whether this is connected with the events being described, or if his contract really ended is not known for certain, but the fact is that he no longer works there.
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In the process of communicating with Relic, a lot of interesting things turned out. Below you can read the opinion of Relic, the most prominent pieces are in bold:

I do not think that any of us expected such a level or amount of negative reaction. The number of vague death threats that I received today from Russia is quite surprising.

Let me be clear. We had a large Russian player base in the original Company of Heroes, which grew to the third largest after the USA and Germany. Russians are valuable members of our community, and we hope to serve them better in the future.

Most Russians who played this game gave fantastic reviews. Some of them even sent touching stories about how nice it is to see Western companies that show war on their part, and not just make another game about Normandy. Some of them mention their grandfathers, or now great-grandfathers, and where they served or may have died.

Most of the negative reviews come from people who have not played this game. Just as people who have not read the Harry Potter books, but who want to ban them, or people who have not heard the Beatles songs, but who wanted to burn their music, this wave of angry reviews is aroused by people who took fragments from our campaign, pulled out them out of context and then made people angry about this. But, of course, it is partly an honor to get the same reaction as the Beatles / Harry Potter, if you think about it.

Those who actually went through the campaign should have seen that we celebrate the bravery of a simple Russian soldier, and like in any other army, this is not about fighting for a flag or government, but about a person next to you who did not retreat because he your brother and comrade. There are scenes where a soldier does not obey orders in order to save the life of another soldier, for which he is subsequently punished.

In the end, the Soviet Union was a cruel dictatorship as ruthless as Nazi Germany. That is why our game is not about Stalin, because he was not a hero. Neither was Hitler. The game, and it was always so, about the heroes on the front line, who had little to do with politics, and who were surrounded by war.

Many soldiers fought from all sides with courage and honor. We do not deny it, and we wanted to glorify it in the game.

However, we also show some of the problematic aspects of life under dictatorship. It was a difficult time, and the fact that Stalin’s tactics led to victory was a moot point. This, however, does not mean that these things did not happen, no matter how much we would like to remember our history.

I firmly believe that any country should look back on its past, even if it was dark. This teaches us how to make the future better.

This Russian problem is no more than burning the records of the Beatles or trying to ban the Harry Potter problem of the Americans. This is a small group of people who put their country in a bad light, because someone told them on YouTube something that has nothing to do with them.

Now go out and buy more copies of the game, then we can sell as much as the Beatles and Harry Potter.

The most interesting thing you can learn from this is that Russia turns out to be ranked 3rd among RTS fans. And the third largest market is not something that can be simply neglected.

Public reaction

Most user reviews ranged from sharply to moderately negative. One of the reviews posted on the Metacritic website says: “Thank you. Hitler would play this game with pleasure. ”
At the end of June, people who were not associated with the gaming industry also joined the evaluation of the game: for example, participants in the events described in “Company of Heroes-2” were among those dissatisfied with the game’s plot, besides bloggers and gamers. Ivan Karnaukhov, a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, a participant in the Battle of Moscow and the Kursk-Oryol Battle, declared:

We didn’t run from any machine guns that allegedly beat us in the backs. We fought for the Motherland [...] Of course, cowards existed at all times and were in all armies. But this does not mean that we should treat our country as offensively as the developers of such games do. We can not shame so

Samara writer Vasily Semenov expressed his opinion about the game as follows:

The developers of this strategy are either sick on the head or deliberately distort our history, leveling the great victory of the Red Army. Lies about the evil patrols just annoying

The reaction of Habr was less unambiguous. Although this is connected more with the rejection of any censorship in principle and the elevation of freedom of expression to the absolute, in which the author can express any point of view.

Results:

What happened is quite natural. Similar situations were around the films US2 and “4 days in May.” The uniqueness of this situation is only in the fact that the object of discontent in this case was a game, not a movie.

The fate of Relic is surprisingly similar to the fate of the author Burnt by the Sun 2. They are undoubtedly talented, and have outstanding works in the past, but having tried to bring the people the TRUTH (!!!), consisting of Dr. Goebbels’s agitation, slightly more than completely suffered a loud fiasco, after which they said that the “plot of bloggers” was to blame for everything, and the film / game itself is good. The problem of Relic, is that they have not studied the market being the 3rd largest, otherwise they would know that our people are already fed up with mud at the Great Patriotic War and have not voted for them with ruble for a long time and the public’s reaction would not have caught them by surprise. They decided that their stereotypes about the USSR is the ultimate truth, which is beyond doubt, for which, in fact, paid. There is an opinion that bad advertising is still advertising, but for some reason it seems to me that, in Relic itself, the current situation is clearly not thrilled. Yes, most of the profits they have already received, but it is unclear how this will affect the sales of their next games.
It would seem that it prevented them from taking a few award sheets, since there are thousands of them, and based on them to write a script about real heroes, and not about a fictional war? Would sales in the USA and Germany have fallen because of this? But no, they decided to expose totalitarianism. Well, maybe their competitors will be wiser.

Is 1C right? From the point of view of 1C themselves, probably optimally. They have already sold the game, have already received most of the profits, now it is possible to stop selling. If they refused, the losses would be much higher, both image and financial. Perhaps most of the signatories of the petition didn’t really play the game, and they would never have bought it, but if they don’t meet their requirements, then they can stop buying anything from 1C on principle. Moreover, downloading a pirate has long been no problem.

Findings:

First, no matter how well-known company you are and no matter how confident you are in your knowledge, but do not be too lazy to explore your audience and the market as a whole. Otherwise, a single spark will suffice, in which a substantial part of your profit will burn, and access to the market as a whole may be closed.

And secondly, it turns out that not only in the cinema, but also in some game genres, the domestic audience has already reached the weight at which you can set your own requirements for developers.

UPDATE. I can not add and conclusions from the Special Investigation Kanobu

Hence the conclusion number one: If in your game some kind of "bjaka" is sewn up, then the real period on which you can stretch out without scandal - on the strength of a month.

Conclusion number two will be painfully classic: In the game support service you should always watch your tongue and do not flog crap.

Conclusion number three: you need to clearly understand that any creative work based on real historical events will always face the battle between fiction and truth. And each interpreter will have his own truth.

Conclusion number four: If the event has jumped out of the industry, it is necessary to clearly indicate its position in this matter.

Conclusion number five: If a snowball has rolled from the mountain, then it will surely turn into an avalanche.