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ESPN Football's Bizarre Viral Marketing?

Posted by simoniker on from the videos-actually-kinda-hilarious dept.

LilSerf writes "Four days before Sega debuted their new 'first-person football' feature for ESPN Football 2K4, a mysterious personality called Beta-7 premiered a site detailing the injuries he suffered as a beta-tester for the game. The site is a blog going back to March 21, 2003, the day he first claims to have tested the game and blacked out as a result. The story includes mysterious packages from other injured testers, surveillance footage of his 'episodes', and bootleg video of the 'secret' game features - suspiciously not posted until after the official announcement by Sega. Consensus in the boards on his site seems to be that this is a hoax by Sega - what do Slashdot readers think?"

3 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Well... by Gunsmithy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I bet Acclaim is going to sue. They have the patent on marketing gone horribly wrong.

    --
    Kids these days. They don't know the difference between classic, and just plain old.
  2. What I think. by whee · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was also a beta tester of this game. Personally, I think it's all a hoax. There no way a game could have a permanent physical effect on someTHIRTY-FOUR! FIFTY-TWO! DOWN! SET! HUT!bfhgda;lbkaj;

  3. Not as good as... by dackroyd · · Score: 3, Funny

    the spoof Seaman website http://www.yoot.com/.

    For y'all that don't know, Seaman was a bizarre virtual creature game for the Sega Dreamcast where you had to talk to a man/fish creature and help him grow up. He'd understand what you said to him and respond intelligently eg:

    Seaman: Do you have a job ?
    You: Yes.
    Seaman: What do you do ?
    You: I'm a programmer.
    Seaman: That sounds like you're quite boring.

    I'm still not sure what the 'aim' of the game was.

    --
    "Free software as in beer, copy protection as in racket" - Telsa Gwynne