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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?"

5 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. I'll tell you what I think... by TxdoHawk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think these people got hit in the head a few too many times with the ol' pigskin.

  2. Yes it is, but that's ok by Felonius+Thunk · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The video, in particular, screams marketing schmo with theatrical aspirations. This kinf of viral marketing (hate the term, sounds vomit inducing) isn't a bad thing at all, though. It forces the marketers to be interesting enough to keep your attention, rather than try to give you their spiel when you can't walk away.

  3. Great. by Chemical+Serenity · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Assuming this is a hoax, you've just bought into the whole thing and become a tool to propogate it... to us.

    Thanks, typhoid Lilserf. :-P

    --
    "People will pay big bucks for the luxury of ignorance."
  4. I think this Slashdot article is an ad too by Kris_J · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not going to follow links because this Slashdot thread itself appears astroturfed, or whatever the latest buzz-word is to denote Internet content seeded by paid advertisers.

  5. I don't care by vuud · · Score: 2, Insightful


    Its a friggin fake... "Uhhh it messed up my brain, and I am going to figure out how sega did this and make them take responsibility. I am going to do this by playing this game more and more - hey look at what these super cool commands do! Hey at least it cured my crack habit."

    What a moron. If it is a true thing then I say poor moron.