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Organizing Sim Protests
Shadow Wrought writes "Alternet has an article about how to go about protesting McDonald's in the Sims Online universe. According to the story "A deal struck between Sims publisher Electronic Arts and the fastfood mega-corporation allows Sims players to open up their own McDonald's kiosk and improve their game stats by consuming McD's greasy goodies." This then tells how to vent any rage that such may conjure. Mayhaps a venue to protest other issues as well?"
Let your voice be heard from the comfort of your home. Send a Sim to a major city to protest (War on Iraq, IMF policies, or a hundred other causes), and watch your Sim be peppersprayed and arrested by well-armed SimCops.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
A pox on Ronald MacDonald!!
Actually, my kids have been boycotting MacDonald's since they were in elementary school (they are in high school now). A few years back, MacDonald's bought the failing Hardee's chain in the Washington, DC area. Hardee's also owned the Roy Rogers chain, about the finest fastfood burger joint in town (I fondly remember their "Fixin's Bar" and their fried chicken). MacDonald's then closed both Roy Rogers in our town and would not negotiate with other fastfood franchise for their old buildings. Boston Market tried and failed. Both buildings finally went to sit-down places.
Anyway, for closing Roys and for denying Boston Market, my kids decided--quite on their own--that they prefered Wendy's and Burger King. We haven't been in a MacDonald's since. This nonesense with Sims tells me that we're not ready to go back.
Maybe we should add Electronic Arts to our boycott as well!
"Love is a familiar; Love is a devil: there is no evil angel but Love." --William Shakespeare ('Love's Labors Lost')
This brings up an issue I have with simulation games such as The Sims. It does, of course, apply to other games as well, and to many other situations where the viewer or player must distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Nevertheless: simulation games convey a certain impression of verisimilitude. As you play them, you cannot avoid gaining skill in dealing with the simulated universe, and learning "lessons."
To the extent that the player preceives the game as authentically realistic, these "lessons" may sneak in past the barriers we've built against other forms of propaganda
Some are of these lessons are semi-political. And some, it seems, may be product placements.
For example, in SimCity, as I recall, the citizens clamor for a sports stadium and it is very important to the success of your city that you build one (at the right time, of course).
Did the creators of the game base this on actual data about the economic effects of sports stadiums on cities? (Unlikely). Or were they just building in a plausible and entertaining set of game rules? (Probably). Or... were they carrying water for some group that was trying to get a stadium built? (No, I don't really think so--but the possibility exists). Similarly, is the behavior of SimCity residents with respect to tax rates an authentic simulation, artistic guesswork--or a political agenda?
Of course these problems exist with all games, and to some extent it's an issue of developing antibodies against the newer games. There's no real danger that I will speculate in Atlantic City properties just Monopoly has given me the illusion that I understand how to do it.
Still...
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I've seen a lot of /.ers already talking about not buying the game, not playing the game, etc. The problem I have with this philosophy is that it's like wrapping your face in a towel, figuring that if the problem sees that you can't see it, it won't be able to see you, and will therefore go away. THIS DOESN'T WORK.
The problem is not the people worried about advertising in games. The problem is that this could open up a Pandora's Box of other companies buying advertising time inside games.
"You have cleard the 13th level of monsters, through this door is the Ultimate Evil, all you must do is cross this threshold and defeat him... But first, here's a word from our sponsors..."
I already do everything in my power to eliminate my exposure to mind numbing advertising. If it starts getting put into video games, I won't be able to go for popcorn until the previews start, or to go grab a snack until my show comes back on.
Of course, it's just my opinion.
The chains are broken
Loki is free
Ragnarok is at hand...
you've obviously never been slashdotted... the person that pays the bandwidth bills is the one that notices when people congregate online.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
I dont' think slashdotting really counts as a form of protest. In fact, if we slashdot with the intention of protesting, that might be considered a DoS attack.
Besides, even slashdotting doesn't get noticed by anyone other than slashdotters and the victim... So it really isn't nearly as noticeable as a physical crowd (even when the number of peope involved is fairly significant).
---
Open Source Shirts
Remember "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game" for Nintendo? That game had Pizza Hut signs plastered *everywhere*. As a child, I was pissed off that my game had been cheapened by them.
Now, years later, I just wouldn't buy such a game.
> One of the things that makes a physical protest
> effective is that, well, it's physical. If you fill up
> downtown Washington with people, somebody's
> bound to notice (even politicians).
Even a physical protest can be ignored if there's no press. For example, families of the victims of the September 11 attack got together for a protest in D.C. earlier this year, but the march was virtually ignored because Ashcroft chose the exact same time to report on the alleged 'dirty bomb" suspect al Muhajir that they had arrested a month before.
Or more recently, it's been estimated that close to 100,000 people attended rallies around the country to protest the proposed Iraq Resolution. However, no one in the mainstream media except USA Today (IIRC) bothered to cover it.
Protests are generally only effective if they get the attention of everyone else via the mainstream press. The on-line protest of McDonalds might get some press once simply because of the novelty of it. But after that, it won't be very effective.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
Definetly. McDonald's whole strategy, which I do consider very ethical questionable, is to target children so that they'll be more likely to remain customer's as adults and bring their children in. This is the (sick) genius behind the Happy Meal and their plethora cartoonish mascots.
Children are, generally, more sucseptiple (sp?) to such tactics.
Not only didn't EA have to pay for all the publicity that they're getting from this, but McDonald's actually paid them a million dollars! They win both ways.
Complain all you want, you're just playing into their corporate hands.
Why aren't you people more concerned about the erosion of free speech, the rise of corporate corruption, and the US unilaterally picking a war on Iraq? How many of you McDonalds protesters didn't bother to vote?
Sims protests against imaginary McDonalds kiosks? I have to run up the B.S. flag over this one! Why not put your energies into protesting real injustice in the real world. If you have a problem with McDonalds, don't eat there, and encourage your friends not to, either. Here are some sites.
a tion/mcdonalds/t ivism/Anti-Corporation/McDonalds/
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/McCracker/
http://www.openhere.com/life/activism/anti-corpor
http://www.communityfood.com/dir-cache/Society/Ac
The Uncoveror: It's the real news.
I wonder how many people would have complained if they had chosen Hooters with their busty waitresses over McD's?
In some games, product placement provides added realism. I think McD's and Sims is a good mix. If it were McD's and Star Wars Galaxies I could see a reason to complain.
'Same speed C but faster'
Not that this issue is important in any way - but given the nature of how Sims Online is going to be structured, online protests aren't going to matter.
Each user will control their own area. If you're annoying them or their guests they'll kick you and possibly ban you.
There is no account banning as I understand it - you'll just keep getting banned by various people if you're annoying enough...I suppose in theory eventually you'll have no where to go but your own area.
But really the only story here is that there are people out there that find this something worth getting upset over...
The problem with 'virtual protests' is that you are 'living' in the world of its creators. Meaning, the people who brought you the virtual stuff can take down/modify/etc. content, so that it doesn't harm the company in the end.
Case in point: game forums. Lot's of people bitch and complain, flame and curse the games they love and hate. It is a protest in that sometimes your voice gets heard(i.e. 3dfx bowed to pressure that Voodoo Rushes were falsly advertised to be as fast as Voodoo Graphics video cards, and many wanted their money back. 3dfx instead replaced their cards and gave 'em Voodoo Graphics).
But remember this: a company owns the forums and can moderate or completely shut down forums to protect its image. This is what sort of happened with Origin's single-player Ultima game. There were just so many bugs and false promises about this game, that people were literally fscking hounding the game and giving it a very,very bad image(game developers fault btw).
Before Origin released the game in the UK, it shutdown all forums so that the people overseas don't know how bad the game really was, proving that virtual protests will not work when your enemy is providing the means of the protests.
I had this idea, too. Role playing in a modern world, with a sci-fi twist. Make money selling billboard space in-game with links to the web. Have clothes and accessories from major labels. Let people buy real world items in game, make the manufacturers pay for the privelege. Best thing is, you won't need to hire as many artists: the manufacturers would have to create their own graphics, then pay you to put them in the game!
I talked with some of my friends in the gaming business. This is a common train of thought these days.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton