EA is run by evil geniuses

I don't need that article to know that EA is evil. I realized that after playing Spore for 15 minutes.

Evil: yes. Lucky: yes. Genius: absolutely not. Looks like a classic situation where everything plays into their hands, then they take the credit.

Well, EA: no, but the marketing guy who came up with it at the ad company was a genius.

Haha, I can't wait to see how those protesters react when they hear about Diablo 3.

why? honestly, i dont think they are getting a lot of coverage from this. ive been following e3 and i didnt hear about protest, i heard about the game though

There is a saying attributed to the NASCAR racer Dale Earnhardt. "It doesn't matter whether the fans are cheering or booing as long as they are making noise."

Because more people know about it than you think. I saw a post on it in the Amazon.com forums of all places. There were a bunch of people saying that they were going to buy this game, just to piss off the protestors. There were some people who hadn't even heard of the game before this, and wanted to get it now. I'd call that a successful marketing campaign.

Really, though. Viral marketing is absolutely genius.
It's a horrible play on human emotions, social interaction and a subversion of trust in society.

But it's still bloody genius.

This is the kind of stunt you only get in LA, cuz no matter how you perceive EA and anybody else in the gaming industry... they'll always be a budget to stir people's attention on whatever claims to be innovative; first lesson in marketing - stoop with competition and dump the crap talk.

Chaos consuming can only afford so much in terms of quality and once rumors start to spread around E3 (consecutive years, i might add) there is but one result, junk food for the fools.

Trust corporate freaks to fill your plates with root kits & privacy invasion tricks worth yet another show and its circus of lies for your cash.

What they (as in promotional gimmicks) still don't get is that respect is a two way street and that THEIR fancy traps can only catch a net of elitists which define entertainment as a choice given and eventually, paid for. Sure, they also aim to grab a share. Sure, they'd even create products beyond specific needs. Sure, they gather up like wolves to hunt down hard core gamers in a virtual newscast stadium of bunched up interests underneath brand names or flashy Logos.

But, tell me -- when was the last time you saw a crowd waiting in line to be teased and served by a sales speech?

Fly in & fly out to pay for your pubs if you sooooooo wish... i'll remain right here and watch you all flunk the cost of production simply by staring at the price on your boxes and taking my own decision based on a very simple fact; markup.

What they (as in developpers & distributors) still spend on promotional activities has to be translated in financial terms. Their choices, not mine.

Huh?

It's just that it brings back memories of weird technological "gatherings" of the late 80's & the only rational activity i witnessed in these was commercial pressure tactics that didn't help me get a real job.

E3 is promotional enough to draw attention to the gang already firmly in grasp of consumers; a big show of force where there's no room for Independants.

Would you invest in a boot? Say, 500,000$ per week?

To promote Quake'sque or Doom'esque stuff inspired by an allegoric vision of a 14th century Poet?

Moral values aside, EA is risking a big helluva of a bash by religious fanatics with this gamble -- proving once more even pub stunts won't clear up their reputation for controversial designs.

Read an history book on church inquisitions process, maybe you'll find Copernic along with Angels & Demons all too willing to burn Joan of Arc for witching.

The dark ages are over and violence by perpetual propaganda won't save your souls.

Ranting and sarcasm won't help *some* either.

Huh, back at you boy.

There's nothing political or fundamental about Third person shooters and yet, the bloody wreck can screw your schyzophrenic mental illnesses to sociopathic behaviors. Transformed into a deviant addiction, serial killers are chased until locked up for good.

Sure, it's only a game. Sure, it's what parents buy for their kids.

Sure, the civilized world can blow up in smoke.

I'll tell you what's even more fun -- watching corporate greed spend their minds on filt cuz they ran out of options too busy that they are piling up cash they have yet to touch.

Huh, too?

Staging a fake protest, well cannot say I saw that coming, but am suprised and somewhat put off at a company doing that. I guess this will not be the last thing wierd done like that by a big corporation, hell look at the whole automotive executives flying to washington in private jets only to get mocked and come back in hybrids. I guess it must be nice living up in the clouds with so much money reality is meaningless.

I've actually been gaining respect for EA of lates (only a little, mainly because they are treating some companios like Bioware and Mythic with respect).

They must be filling the void being left by nintendo  *drumb and cymbol*

No, I'd say a lawful evil.  They have gotten the way they are by writting up fine contracts.  They do it for profit in the most evil of ways, but the contracts are what holds them to their words and keeps companies like DoubleFine and Mythic in control of their own stuff.

What bothers me is that people act like this sort of thing is new. You want an evil genius read this 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays 

That aside, the fake protest has clearly done it's job, whether you heard about the game from the protest itself, the announcement that it was fake, or threads like this, the games exposure has just skyrocketed

Wheras they before seemed to antagonize everyone just for kicks.

Seems to be some new kind of marketing fashion those staged scandals/protests these days.

Remember Sacha Cohen (aka Brüno) landing his arse in Shady's face, and his(Shady's) subsequent oh so furious walk away from the awards last week?

I for one didn't know about that specific game either, but now my interest is kindled. Not due to the protests though, but because I like that particular story.

And as for the Dale Earnhardt quote: Right he is. In marketing there isa similar saying. "No matter whether people love or hate a commercial, all that counts is that they remember-, and tell others about it."

edit:

Interest in the game was extinguished when I read that it won't be published for PC (only XBOX and PS3).

Ok, I think I know what you are saying (I'm not sure if its b/c you don't speak English very well, but your posts are sometimes a bit hard to understand). However, I strongly disagree with your video games + mental instability = serial killer position: people kill for politics, for religion, for fun, and for money, but I challange you to find one case a serial killer went off the deep end because of TV (excluding political shows), movies, or games.

Barely escaping the wrath of market driven loopholes where potential still is a matter of proper respect towards consumers.

Too bad, i'll have to "mention" extremely tough event(s) - and i'm sorry for reminding it to the people who HAD suffered through any; Columbine, before & after.

Social misfits are dime a dozen and some video games can and do trigger reactive behaviors which in turn are drugged to sustain or boost into action. Don't start me on the sexual pervets.

Call it the 2nd amendment of gaming where virtual meets its match for all to rationalize or misinterpret.

Sadly, instinct is pre-supposed to be a survival skill not a murder - Dante's poem is by far one of the most respected work in Catholic religion, exploiting it for gameplay reasons is beyond premise. We're not evolving "fun" or personal leisure, we're opening (yet, again) the gates of mental wreck or anarchy.

Now, i won't get into ratings or availability -- but, since you mention TV or Movies, i'll offer this; does it pay off, at least? The circus of clowns bare arms while we simply vanish (death after all is a consequence of time) in self-defense of a right to live in peace. Lucky or not, we hit the boardwalks in fear of freaks whose brains are in shambles.

Otherwise known as urban legends, well hidden in ghost towns where the plan is isolation, exclusion & poverty. Destroy or build, the trend is clear - society extrudes from history what it must at the risk of losing collective control over stability & moral principles.

Yep, i'm sooooooo hard to understand - it's even Englishly poetic enough to scare the deaf & language perfectionists. But, that has to do with perception or the usual insults of the academically fit, right?

Go ahead, speak to me. Use metaphors, slam 500,000 words more than a dictionary contains - heck, devise your own ghetto chatting noise... but learn this;

I'm listening.

Or, as Chef Duff said, "They may say, 'Wow, that sucks' - but at least they'll say 'Wow.'"