EA Comes Under Fire for Shady PR Stunts

EA has come under heavy fire lately for some deliberately shady PR techniques. You can't argue with the result, however, that has pretty much everyone (including us) talking about it. The question is: will extensive discussion, and the resulting widespread anger that seems to accompany it, actually help their game sales? Stunts have ranged from their "win a date with a booth babe" contest to paying game site editors a faux "bribe" to fit with their sin motif. "Outraged Christian bloggers, complaining female and LGBT gamers, editors being sent checks made out directly to them — all of this makes for delicious copy, and much of the gnashing of teeth seems to be centered on the fact that the gaming press continues to fall for the contrived controversy to give the company exactly what it wants: coverage. The campaign has been childish, daring, and borderline tasteless. Writing checks directly to game writers is cheaper than advertising on a site, with a much better result."

Comments

"Outraged Christian bloggers" ?

[grub]

"Outraged Christian bloggers"?

Boy, remind me not to get on their bad side! They may pray me to death with their eerie powers...

Re:"Outraged Christian bloggers" ?

[Red Flayer]

The pen may be mightier than the sword, but the keyboard is as dull as a blunt pocket knife.

An ICBM is duller than a blunt pocket knife. That doesn't make it less mighty.

It's kind of scary how much impact the blogosphere can have... a bunch of bloggers get upset... their blog posts are picked up by some intern or volunteer at the Church of the Evangelical Scoundrel, who passes it on to his superior... the head of the Church of the Evangelical Scoundrel gets the ear of his local and state politicians... and the next thing you know, Jack Thompson uses his eye tooth to hatch from an egg, and all video game players are forced to confess their sins before a Grand Theft Auto De Fe.

Don't underestimate the powers of Christian bloggers.

Re:"Outraged Christian bloggers" ?

[h4rr4r]

Yet, if I hit you in the head with my trusty IBM type-M you will probably die.

Something must be done...

[RemoWilliams84]

this is outrageous. Please, don't fall victim to this EA marketing ploy. It is unethical and EA should be shunned for this.

Please, as a show of unity against this marketing scheme, please send me all of the $200 checks. Once I have received a substantial amount of them I will take these checks and show EA where to shove them. It's the only way we can get our point across.

If you didn't get a check and would like to make a donation to the cause, please feel free to send that to me as well.

GAMERS UNITE!

My lustfull acts w booth babes a waste of time?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just found out it was nothing but a PR stunt. I was hoping for the free dinner in Vegas. Sadly, now all I have is the memory of having lustfully slept with dozens of beautiful women who work for EA. Rats.

Re:I guess it was money well spent

[Ironica]

It's kind of like getting a check from Knuth.

...In the way that meeting the guy who sings for the band playing at the mall on Labor Day is like meeting Bono.

Re:I guess it was money well spent

[ScuttleMonkey]

assuming ScuttleMonkey wasn't a recipient of one of the $200 checks.

I certainly plan on lodging a formal complaint. Where is my $200 EA?

Re:How is this news?

[MrKaos]

Now you've got an image of what kind of company EA is. Microsoft's ethics are a freakin' joke, compared to EA's.

So you're saying they're Evil Assholes.

Actually, come to think of it, I emailed them about getting a game working under wine on linux and they emailed back "go to hell nerd". After I stopped crying I got the game working just fine under wine.

You're right!!!!! They are Evil Assholes!