If we take that to its logical conclusion, we could say that if you piss off enough people eventually they will act.That is certainly true. Every material has a breaking point.
Vandalising speed enforcement cameras is a matter of obeying or disobeying the law. It's not quite the same as boycotting a game and / or games developer.
I think some games are being boycotted "naturaly" without the process being named as such. Just a matter of choice. Competition between developers. And that's where it gets complicated. On one hand games are getting more complex, take longer to make, are more likely to contain bugs and of course the cost is spiraling = someone has to front the cash --> publisher. On the other hand the number of publishers whose pockets are deep enough to pay for projects like HL 2 (i'm aware that HL 2 is self funded by Valve) is decreasing. That shifts developers focus from creating the product they envision, asuring the quality they're happy with and maintaining decency in marketing ("telling it like it is" - good relations with gamer-customer community) to getting the best possible deal with the publisher. And here's the problem - publishers want best possible return on their investment - game has to be on the shelves when its likely to sell most units (before Christmas), game has to be "what sells or is predicted to sell" great (similar to games that sell big). We all know the end result - rushed games that are patched over and over, games that could have been so much more with a bit more innovation (often what the developer originaly intended), games that slip by their official release dates or are simply canned (damage limitation for publisher).
All of the above is why i believe that the underlying idea behind Steam is a solution (at least a temporary one, but that's a different matter - more consolidation and less competition yet again). It allows developers to circumvent the publishers once they've made a name for themselves.
Anyways, that's my take on things.
BTW. why did you put CoD in there? After all its out on time, so far seems to be what was promised and there's no information of any issues with it (at least yet). This one will most likely be rewarded by selling lots
. I'm definately buying one the moment its available here.
Mike