Master Balls

I am not sure I altogether get the idea of the Master Ball in Pokemon. I mean you get it from someone else. It isn’t like you find it in some ancient ruins, long forgotten. You get it from a guy, who could have just as easily used the damn thing himself. Professor Elm could have went and caught that damn Ho-oh all on his own, with no fear of failure. Boom, his, done, now it’s Elm! The fucking Poke’master. This, in game to real-life terms, is the same as giving a 10 year old (I presume he’s 10, like how the cartoon started) the activation codes to a nuclear arsenal. Legendary Pokemon are quite literally the most powerful beings in existence in this world, despite their usual proclivity to staying on a tower, or in a cave, or running around a map like a frenetic psychopath. I mean I remember in Pearl trapping the keeper of time or some shit, in a fucking ball, made of plastic, a fraction of its size. This does not seem practical or even remotely safe, kind of like keeping an un-pinned live grenade as a doorstop. That’s really it for that topic I guess, I mean what else can you say about the practice of giving these things out? Unsafe? Ill-advised at the very least.

So I am not a Modern Warfare player. Never have been, I think of buying it, if nothing else to have something to get heavy use out of Xbox Live. But that isn’t the point here. From what I read, there is some trouble in Activision Paradise. It seems that we have found out exactly how much blood Activision can get from a stone, with the firings of the two Modern Warfare creators, Jason West and Vince Zampella. Since they have been fired, a whole slew of department heads have left IW, shrinking the (As Activision called it) “deep bench of talent”. Respawn entertainment, the new company formed in the wake of this implosion, is already affiliated with EA, with more and more Infinity Ward people coming to the fold it seems each day. I remember an article, recently on Kotaku, in which there was a report detailing Activision’s reliance on Modern Warfare, World of Warcraft and Guitar Hero for revenue, and that the company would face some trouble if one brand were to ever not do well. It seems we’re gonna find out what happens when Modern Warfare implodes really soon.