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EA Mails Game Journalists 200 dollar checks
Bamelin
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Seriously
Apparently part of a promo for Dante Inferno.
(Kotaku burned the cheque)
Not sure if this amounts to the most direct bribery ever, or if it's the most genius marketing I've ever seen.
Apparently part of a promo for Dante Inferno.
Kotaku wrote:Not one to back away from controversy, Electronic Arts today mailed out real checks payable to game reviewers for $200.
Each check, mailed in wooden boxes decorated with twin skeletons and the words Dante's Inferno, was affixed to a velvet pillow inside a box. Inside the top of the box is a welcome to the fourth circle of hell which reads:
In Dante's Inferno, Greed is a two-headed beast. Hoarding wealth feeds on beast and squandering it satiates the other. By cashing this check you succumb to avarice by harding filthy lucre, but by not cashing it, you waste it, and thereby surrender to prodigality. Make your choice and suffer the consequence for your sin. And scoff not, for consequences are imminent.
Not wanting to give in to temptation by cashing the check or using it to market Kotaku, or waste the money, we came up with a different solution. Balls in your court EA.
(Kotaku burned the cheque)
Not sure if this amounts to the most direct bribery ever, or if it's the most genius marketing I've ever seen.
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*cough*
You can see the numbers in other pictures.
Edit: That being said, even if they're real, I doubt a bank would accept a check like that on first glance. Maybe with all the crazy designs nowadays they may. Can't wait for the first, "EA OVERDREW MY ACCOUNT WITH FEES BECAUSE BANK DID NOT ACCEPT CHECK"
You'd have to have no sense of humour whatsoever to condemn this. Good on em.
But the till punk would be all WTF about it, 'specially since it's fake, they'd probably call the police.
So you throw up the horns!
...and also undermine your credibility as a journalist.
Do... Re... Mi... So... Fa.... Do... Re.... Do...
Forget it...
Nah i'd just slam the game to keep up appearances. Also i'd take pictures of all the shit i bought with it and use them in the review instead of screenshots.
Also, why hasn't their marketing campaign been fired yet? Fake religious protest, molest booth girls for prises, and this? Seriously?
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
The first two were pretty lame but you're pretty much being a giant stick in the mud for bitching about this one.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Corruption is not one of the seven deadly sins. Corruption is a general state of amorality that can encapsulate one or more of the seven.
The seven deadly sins are the theme here.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Is corruption one of the seven deadlies? I honestly can't remember.
All I can remember for sure are sloth, avarice, lust, and pride.
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
The 7 "deadly sins" are...
Greed, Lust, Gluttony, Wrath, Sloth, Envy and Pride.
edit, beated!
Straight up monetary bribery? Maybe I'm in the minority here, but that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
// Switch: SW-5306-0651-6424 //
Not only is it a pretty cool marketing move, it makes fun of other companies that actually have to do shit like this to get good scores, and how terrible gaming journalism is in general
prodigality : sloth :: avarice : greed
Exactly. It's hilarious mockery of all the "they paid for that review score!" comments that come out every time a big game is reviewed well.
Not really. A games company is very directly paying reviewers. Oh gee, it's not like that, it's marketing.
So at what point does a payment start being marketing then? When you put it in a nice box and with a gimmick check? Surely if this is fine, then a tonne of other payments are just as viable as long as you call it advertising the game. Crap I can think of a dozen other games that could send joke checks to people and call it "promoting the product".
I mean if they wanted to make it a gimmick it could have just as easily been a check for a piffly amount like $1, or maybe even $5 or $10, then maybe I would've seen the joke. Maybe.
Guess I'm just another stick in the mud.
i can assure you that a publisher would need to pay a lot more than $200 to expect to butter up a hugely influencial media outlet
the amount of cash is tokenistic; it makes the point, but isn't enough to actually cross the line into a real offer
It is not really any different than reviewers getting free games. I would class this as marketing though because it is not _just_ a check from EA. It is a check from EA with skeletons and shit on it and a note that ties into the concepts explored in the game.
http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showpost.php?p=11529681&postcount=2201
This is just some brilliant marketing.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
No don't you see this is EA trying to fascist all over our faces oh nooooo
White FC: 0819 3350 1787
Actually, for drawing attention this campaign is nothing short of brilliant.
If it's a fake check then fine. I still don't get why so many people here think it would be totally OK for games companies to directly give money to reviewers. O_o
Like Coscous said that post, theyre essentially getting free publicity from these fake checks. Not to mention the fact that if you think about it, this is quite a jab at companies that do buy reviews. Or moreso, reviewers that let themselves be bought.
The Pipe Vault|Twitter|Steam|Backloggery|3DS:1332-7703-1083
If its kept in the dark, then yeah no thanks. But making it an obvious and fake "bribe" (it isnt really) is fine by me.
Because $200 is not a lot of money to people who do things for a living. If you're calling $200 a money hat then you are describing a very small hat.