The video game didn't sell nearly as well among PC users as it did with users of game consoles, and there was a lot of chatter on 4chan about the game sucking. Because most of 4chan's users are nerds with PCs, it seems Activision, the creators of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, thought it prudent to ask them why they disliked the game, and what better place to do so than the modern equivalent of the comment card: 4chan. What the geniuses in their market research department forgot was that nerds on 4chan don't give a shit, in addition to the fact that the level of mockery on the site is astronomical in scale. When a representative of Activision went onto /v/, 4chan's video game board and, in hilariously square corporate speak, asked users why they didn't go for the game, all she got was a collective rant about its lack of dinosaurs.
Of course, from Activision's perspective, this wasn't a bad idea. Connect with the users, take market research into the trenches of the internetz, find out what PC users really want from a strategic, realistic warfare game. They could be the company that has its fingers on the pulse of its consumers' desires. But what they failed to understand is 4chan is anonymous, and with anonymity comes great power to say whatever you want and be totally, insanely immature. Also, to directly mock a company whose game you thought sucked.In response to Activision, the first anonymous post states simply: "there were no dinosaurs." Immediately, the 4chan meme-machine started pumping, and every post after that focused entirely on dinosaurs and the game's dearth thereof. The game lacked dinosaurs, and therefore sucked, was the general consensus. The best part is, the sales rep actually takes seriously the ludicrous complaints of a lack of dinosaurs in a realistic, modern warfare game and addresses the issue saying, "While this is true that there were no dinosaurs in Modern Warfare 2, allow me to take this chance to tell you about one of our games that came out earlier this month, Jurassic: The Hunted."
No one on /v/ cared about Jurassic: The Hunted. They wanted dinosaurs in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, dammit. Don't you get it, Activision? Give the nerds what they want. Dinosaurs are awesome, and people want them in every game there is. And can you blame them? Seriously, how awesome would that be? You're running around on a covert mission, when all of a sudden, out behind a building stalks T-Rex, and he's pissed, and all you have is one grenade left and you throw it between his feet and dino explodes all over the place. Awesome.
