Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Paying for Positive Xbox One Coverage on YouTube

Posted by Unknown on from the smell-of-fresh-cut-astroturf dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft, partnered with Machinima, has put forth a promotion for YouTube personalities: make a video about the Xbox One and get money for it. Problematically, they also require the reviewer not to disclose that they're getting paid (or mention anything negative), which breaks FTC disclosure rules (PDF). Microsoft has a well-known history of astroturfing, but is this the first proof of them doing it illegally?"

75 of 128 comments (clear)

  1. And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And this type of action is new or newsworthy how?

    I certainly hope this type of act is reported for each and every company that ever does it. Maybe we can dedicate a whole website to the 1,000s of companies that do this type of thing. We'll call it NothingNewHereAtAll.wtf and it won't have the horendous /. beta format.

    1. Re:And? by dingen · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The astroturfing itself isn't that newsworthy, but if it could be proved MS is doing something illegal here, it might blow up and become quite something.

      --
      Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
    2. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Oh come on! Micrsoft has been busted for astroturfing hundreds of times and nobody gives a toss. Do you really think all those "fans" here really believe Win 8.1 is a great OS?

      Get a clue sunsine, there's not much else to that company APART from astroturf.

    3. Re:And? by jones_supa · · Score: 4, Informative

      Maybe we can dedicate a whole website to the 1,000s of companies that do this type of thing.

      Don't know about a website, but at Wikipedia people have collected a list of astroturfing cases.

    4. Re:And? by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      There is a line when marketing crosses into consumer fraud.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    5. Re:And? by Sockatume · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's not a fine line at all in many jurisdictions, where any paid promotion must be explicitly disclosed. The agreement quoted here includes a gagging clause that's in direct conflict with that.

      --
      No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
    6. Re:And? by Talderas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There's nothing that indicates any wrongdoing on Microsoft's part. The agreement linked to in the article is between Machinima and the video creator and not the agreement between Microsoft and Machinima. There's no way to tell if the "positive endorsement" was required by Microsoft or if that's just something Machinima tagged on to the agreement, but hey it's Microsoft so lets bash them anyway and not let facts stand in the way.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    7. Re:And? by Talderas · · Score: 2

      And Machinima is in violation for making such an agreement. This is hardly surprising, they greatly exploit their content producers because a large segment of them are kids coming out of high school that want to play video games for a living and really have no idea about the value of their work.

      --
      "Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
    8. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I'm NOT shocked at all that MS has to pay for positive reviews and comments about its products.

    9. Re:And? by Wraithlyn · · Score: 2, Interesting

      You're right that the headline overstates things, but on the flip side, this isn't a court of law. We are entitled to educated guesses as to where such a "positive endorsement clause" most likely originated from.

      If YOUR guess is, "I bet Machinima did that by themselves", my opinion is that you're fucking naive. I could be wrong of course.

      Have a nice day.

      --
      "Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
    10. Re:And? by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      but if it could be proved MS is doing something illegal here

      Umm, what exactly is in any way illegal here?

      (Now, if you said "slimy"....)

    11. Re:And? by sd4f · · Score: 1

      I wouldn't exclude the possibility of microsoft having no direct involvement. The games reviews industry is in broad terms, quite happy to constantly give good reviews. Just look at all the 7/10's they like to give to awful games. The problem is, a lot of reviewers are reliant on publishers for their games to review. If they don't get them, then they have nothing to review, or worse, they have to pay for them. This is why they don't want to give bad reviews to bad games, it even happened with duke nukem forever, where some guy got blasted for putting on twitter that they would be punishing bad reviewers by withholding things.

      ars technica wrote an article on how the games industry also loves to wine and dine reviewers, giving an example for one of the modern warfare games, where the reviewers got helicopter joyrides and a stay in a resort. So they don't have to say anything to the reviewers, anyone is smart enough to realise that if they give bad reviews, they can say buh-bye to their perks.

      It was gamespot who sacked a reviewer, names Jeff Gerstmann who gave a (justified) bad review of kane & lynch after the website was plastered in advertising for it.

      So did machinima do it by themselves, it's probable, as I doubt any of these companies would formally organise something illegal, but there is certainly an incentive for them to do so, an unspoken incentive which they know they will lose if they change their tune. There are so many examples of this, that I think it's the norm or method of operation of the reviews industry.

    12. Re:And? by cayenne8 · · Score: 1

      ...because a large segment of them are kids coming out of high school that want to play video games for a living...

      Seriously?

      How does a kid make an adult living sitting and playing video games?

      --
      Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
    13. Re:And? by DarwinSurvivor · · Score: 2

      It's called game testing, and it barely makes minimum wage. Unfortunately many high-school kids don't realize how little those jobs pay and actually make them "career goals".

    14. Re:And? by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      And I'm NOT shocked at all that apparently you can't read.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
  2. all astroturfing is immoral by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    its legality is irrelevant

    1. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by TWiTfan · · Score: 2

      The problem is that it's hard to tell the difference between a fanboy and an astroturfer. And is a fanboy immoral for taking money for something he/she was going to post anyway?

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    2. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Alomex · · Score: 1

      is a fanboy immoral for taking money for something he/she was going to post anyway?

      That's the key difference. If the person believes it anyway it is ok. Most of the pro-microsoft posters here seem to land on that pattern. Only recently have I run into pro-Windows 8 posters that seem to have no convictions or beliefs of their own. They simply seemed to have been paid to post empty pro-Windows 8 content.

    3. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      post empty pro-Windows 8 content.

      Isn't all pro W8 content empty?

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    4. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by fictionpuss · · Score: 2

      A fan who receives gifts or money in exchange for positive public relations work, and doesn't disclose this, is a shill.

      So no, it's really easy to tell the difference - unless there is intent to deceive.

      I have a hard time calling it "immoral" though, in the sense that we're talking about the Free Market, where such fancy ideas such as morality evidently bear no relevance. Put it in the big pile of "badwrong" by the door.

    5. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Yaotzin · · Score: 1

      Actually, thanks to the tag #XB1M13, you can easily separate the shills from the fanboys. The trouble is avoiding the fanboy stamp.

      --
      Error: No error occurred
    6. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by VortexCortex · · Score: 2

      its legality is irrelevant

      Existence is futile. Your non-features will enhance our own. You will be illegitimated.

    7. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by jellomizer · · Score: 1

      I think you are also letting your Anti-Microsoft bias get in the way too.
      Some people do like Microsoft products, or do not find as many faults in them as Slashdotters make us believe.

      MS does do a lot of things right with their products, and there are also a lot of things that can be improved, sometimes I feel the made the wrong tradeoffs in their design.

      I am OK with windows 8, but it isn't want I really would want in a Desktop OS, It seems to try to mix Tablet and OS together making something not so good at both. That said, it was a really good attempt at doing such. I am not getting paid, by MS to promote their stuff, it is my honest opinion about it.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    8. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Alomex · · Score: 1

      Some people do like Microsoft products,

      which is exactly what I said in the OP. So what's your point?

    9. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      No. For example, I kinda like it. Well, once I installed Start8 and set it to boot into desktop mode, anyway. Task Manager alone is droolworthy compared to its predecessor.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    10. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by mjwx · · Score: 1

      A fan who receives gifts or money in exchange for positive public relations work, and doesn't disclose this, is a shill.

      So no, it's really easy to tell the difference - unless there is intent to deceive.

      I have a hard time calling it "immoral" though, in the sense that we're talking about the Free Market, where such fancy ideas such as morality evidently bear no relevance. Put it in the big pile of "badwrong" by the door.

      I dont.

      Accepting money for comments and not disclosing it is deceiving an audience. It doesn't matter if it's JoHam on Slashdot taking money from Apple or British Prime Minister David Cameron taking money from the EDL in exchange for favorable comments (not that I'm accusing anyone of astroturfing or shilling, these are examples only). By not disclosing the financial interest behind the comments, its deliberately and knowingly deceiving an audience.

      So it's completely immoral and for a broadcaster or notable person it's completely illegal in my country (Australia) and David Cameron's. See the "cash for comments" scandal in Australia for more details.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    11. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by TWiTfan · · Score: 1

      Wow, you must be REALLY new here.

      --
      The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    12. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by Gr8Apes · · Score: 1

      The original task manager showed memory and cpu usage, along with a few other details and allowed you to kill processes. What more do you need in a task manager? Adding full monitoring eats up more resources, has more areas for things to go wrong, and may prevent you from loading that crucial app when things do go wrong. In previous windows versions prior to Vista at least, Task Manager was a relatively stable rock steady app that would work and could be accessed even if the rest of the system was largely unresponsive. This is hypothetical of course, as I doubt I'll see a W8+ system personally in my future. Everything around me is either locked into W7 or before, or has migrated to Linux or Macs. There is no interest in W8+ anywhere in the circle of people I know, with several having reverted back to W7 when they did get W8+.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    13. Re:all astroturfing is immoral by captainlavender · · Score: 1

      It's relevant to the extend that it can help us stop the practice.

  3. Standard operating procedure for Microsoft. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fake reviews, Fake adverts, Fake court presentations...

    1. Re:Standard operating procedure for Microsoft. by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fake reviews, Fake adverts, Fake court presentations...

      And they complain if we use a fake copy of Windows!

    2. Re:Standard operating procedure for Microsoft. by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 3, Funny

      That just sounds like they are complaining. Actually they are faking it :)

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

    3. Re:Standard operating procedure for Microsoft. by TrancePhreak · · Score: 1

      Better than the fake encryption Sony uses on your CC details. People are oblivious to what gaming "reviews" have been for the past decade.

      --

      -]Phreak Out[-
  4. Surprise is not what we're feeling. by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    Sad that this is commonplace to those playing at attention.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

  5. Re:Well by ledow · · Score: 2

    SteamBox for you, then?

  6. Piled up on shelves by TWiTfan · · Score: 2

    I was wondering how they were getting all this great coverage when the PS4 is in such high demand that you still can't find it anywhere and there Xbox Ones are stacked up like cordword in every Best Buy I've been to in the last few weeks.

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
    1. Re:Piled up on shelves by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Just because a product isn't selling well, doesn't mean it's not actually a superior product. I've heard people say that the GameCube actually had comparable if not better graphics compared to XBox, but most people just dismissed it outright, assuming that it couldn't possibly be any good, given it's appearance. Technically, all the numbers on the GameCube were lower, but it was capable of producing graphics that were just as good, because of a completely different architecture. Another example The iPad sells better than any other tablet out there, but it has some serious pitfalls, such as not being able to expand the storage, and not being able to hook up standard USB devices. Compare that to this year's Surface 2, which the only flaws seem to be the small app selection, and some people not liking the UI (which is pretty subjective), yet the Surface 2 isn't something most people consider. They want the iPad because everyone else has an iPad. As far as I see, the iPad is only the best in 1 respect, and that's that it has the most apps. That's a pretty important marketing point, but not the only thing to look at.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    2. Re:Piled up on shelves by DrXym · · Score: 2

      Except in this instance, the PS4 and XB1 are so similar in function, hardware and the software they run (mostly games) that it is reasonable to draw comparisons. Sales are just part of that of course and sometimes the better product loses out. But in this case I doubt anybody could seriously claim that the XB1 is the better product and people just don't realise it. Neither the PS4 or XB1 can claim to be perfect so far and much could change over the course of a few years, but so far the PS4 is leading for a reason - it's cheaper, it's slightly faster (more games in 1080p), it's nicer looking and the marketing has been better.

    3. Re:Piled up on shelves by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You make it sound like "small app selection" and "not liking the UI" are MINOR ISSUES.. Obviously many people consider them major issues.

      Also, obviously, many people don't consider the lack of USB a reason not to buy an iPad.

    4. Re:Piled up on shelves by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      Actually, I stated that the iPad having a the biggest app selection is actually "a pretty important marketing point". However, it's worth mentioning that on the Surface, there's a lot of apps you just don't need, because they are built into the OS. You don't need a file manager,or special applications to access shared folders on other machines. The built in video player works well for most people, so you'll see fewer of those around. The browser is quite capable so a lot of those website replacement apps that you see just really aren't necessary. It comes with MS Office, so there's not going to be too many companies developing an office suite for it.

      As far as the UI goes, on a tablet, Windows 8 is actually a really nice interface. I much prefer it to iOS. it's much easier to switch back and forth between two apps, and you can even display two apps onscreen at the same time. Frequently used apps can be pinned to the home screen in various sizes so you can get to the apps you use most quite fast, while apps you use infrequently don't clutter up your main start screen. The only thing I have against the UI is when you end up on the desktop. On a tablet the desktop is quite cumbersome to use, and I kind of wish they made an effort to provide a metro interface for Office, or other system utilities like the Control Panel.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  7. Re:Well by TWiTfan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Thanks for keeping us posted on how the PC gaming community doesn't like consoles. Without your post, I would never have guessed.

    --
    The cow says "Moo." The dog says "Woof." The Timothy says "Thanks, valued customer. We appreciate your input."
  8. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Yup. I won't buy Sony (seriously, rootkits?) and MS's behaviour around the XBone has written that off, so when my 360 dies (it's actually been a great wee machine) I'll be getting a SteamBox.

  9. Common in Youtube land by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Companies, not just Microsoft, pay Youtubers to mention their product in their videos. People make a living posting videos to Youtube and some Youtubers have sponsors pay them for mentioning products in their videos without disclosing that they are being paid to do so. If this controversy with Microsoft becomes a thing, there may be collateral impact on Youtube land beyond Microsoft.

  10. are they doing the same for windows 8? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    as they can account for the people out their who say it's good and you need to learn to get use to the start screen.

  11. Except its all unclear still by adycarter · · Score: 2

    https://twitter.com/KyleOrl/st...

    Its still not really apparent what, if any, involvement MS actually had in this.

    The authors of the articles freely admit its an assumption

    --
    Witty Comment Here
  12. Some details by eatvegetables · · Score: 3, Informative
    From contract.

    '''

    You agree to keep confidential at all times all matters relating to this Agreement, including, without limitation, the Promotional Requirements, and the CPM Compensation, listed above. You understand that You may not post a copy of this Agreement or any terms thereof online or share them with any third party (other than a legal or financial representative). You agree that You have read the Nondisclosure Agreement (attached hereto and marked as Exhibit “A”) and You understand and agree to all of terms of the Nondisclosure Agreement, which is incorporated as part of this Agreement.

    '''

    The sketchy bit for me is that Machinima bills itself as "Machinima is the dominant video entertainment network for young males around the world. " Doesn't seem to clearly state that it is, perhaps, a promotional entity as well.

    1. Re:Some details by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

      Out of curiousity:

      If somebody sends me such a contract/NDA as the above (particularly one that says "don't tell anyone about this agreement") and I do /not/ sign it, am I still obligated to follow its strictures? I would guess not but I am no lawyer.

    2. Re:Some details by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

      The only reason I would think that you wouldn't be able to would be copyright laws. Copyright laws might possibly be construed in such a way that you wouldn't be allowed to post actual text from the letter itself. It wouldn't stop you from paraphrasing what the letter said, but using exact words from the contract could be argued to be copyright infringement. I would assume that this would fall within fair use, but if musicians can be charged royalties for using just a few notes from another song in their own recordings, then anything is possible. You may not lose a court case, but you may need to spend money on a lawyer.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    3. Re:Some details by Kalriath · · Score: 2

      According to this one article from the New York Law Journal, contracts are entitled to copyright protection, therefore you could potentially be hit with copyright infringement charges for posting one without permission.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
  13. All is clear. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Machinima is getting ad buy from MS. They're not promoting the XBone out of the kindness of their hearts. They got money from Microsoft, they take a cut, the pass on a pittance to the "influencers". If you honestly think MS is not connected you are deluded. The whole idea that this is some sort of rogue operation is ridiculous.

    Besides, this was not even the first campaign. It happened around the release also (at $1 CMR). But I guess Microsoft just didn't notice that one and Machinima snuck another one past them?

    "Sure this doctor is saying smoking Camel isn't bad for you, but where's the evidence? Don't leap to conclusions about who's paying him!". Please.

  14. Machinima sucks by sproketboy · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Machinima sucks anyway. Please avoid. You're much better off with the independent reviewers like Angry Joe and TotalBiscuit.

    1. Re:Machinima sucks by silviuc · · Score: 2

      Two things:

      1) TotalBiscuit is part of the Polaris MCN. He's also a partnered channel... thus he did not face recent wave of bullshit from Youtube and the music industry. AngryJoe is also part of Polaris IIRC but only an affiliate so the BS wave hit him as hard as it did the others. He is slowly recovering

      2) Sleazy Youtube MCN + sleazy software and hardware company == love. MS and Machinima sitting in the money tree....

  15. Re:lol... by robsku · · Score: 1

    Oh, it must be ok then, sorry :)

    --
    In capitalist USA corporations control the government.
  16. Re:Well by dskzero · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I've been at that point for the last ten years. Once I grew out of Pokémon and Zelda I haven't had any reason to play a console game.

    --
    Oblivion Awaits
  17. Re:Payola on the radio too by crashcy · · Score: 1

    It's likely where you live. Where I live, I tend to hear the songs on the radio first, and later see them get on MS commercials about the time the rest of the country is picking up the songs. If you live in a smaller radio market, you'll get those same songs after the commercials hit.

  18. This is Machinima deal, not Microsoft by nomaddamon · · Score: 3, Informative

    Full contract at http://pastebin.com/vec6vjv5/

    Machinima lives of these kind of promotions (all Machinima affiliates get multiple offers per month)

    The total cost for this promotion for Machinima is 3750$ (promotion ends when this CPM target is met)

    It is likely Microsoft entered into a deal with Machinima to increase it's visibility and Machinima did the promotion on it's own (like it has done with a lot of brands before)

  19. Re:Well by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    your PC already is a steambox..

  20. Re:Well by Sechr+Nibw · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Well, I never did play Pokémon, but I have to ask: does one ever really outgrow Zelda? Maybe the new games don't do it for you, but don't you ever find yourself wanting to play Ocarina again?

  21. Re:M$ is the king of astroturfing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    My god, it's twitter!

    I thought you'd been driven off this site because you're a ridiculous pantomime of an open-source advocate?

  22. Re:Well by dskzero · · Score: 1

    I thought it would be the case: I would come back to OoT but I just couldn't get into it. I've been trying to play Majora's Mask for years and I just can't find the inspiration. I certainly believe those to be great games, I just can't play them anymore.

    --
    Oblivion Awaits
  23. Re:Well by jellomizer · · Score: 1

    Clap, Clap, Clap.

    Good for you. Guess what, some people do.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  24. Re:Well by Sechr+Nibw · · Score: 1

    Obviously those are great classics, too. But the post I replied to specifically mentioned Pokémon and Zelda. As I said, I've never played Pokémon. I've not been much of a fan of that style of game, including the FF series.

  25. The rules don't apply. by jdi_knght · · Score: 3, Informative

    That whole FTC ruling was directed primary at bloggers (people who use affiliate programs were hooked in there too). Remember, the initial ruling came back in 2009 when searching for some sort of product review usually brought up a bunch of blogs. If you look at http://www.business.ftc.gov/do... , over half of the document references bloggers.

    That particular problem doesn't really exist anymore for a number of products/services, because Google's Penguin/Panda updates have shoved most independent "blog" type reviews down a few pages in favour of Amazon (for products), ResellerRatings/RipOffReport (for retailers), and similar sites. Those are way easier to astroturf, so companies just hire "marketing agencies" to take care of those now instead of wasting time chasing after individual unpredictable bloggers who might have their sense of morality kick in at any time.

    Aside: Microsoft's a little behind the times, as usual. The "new" way to do things would be to hire a company to make a few YouTube "reviews" and then use their multiple accounts to like them all, while searching for negative ones and disliking them. It's cheaper and easier.

    Anyway, technically they could get a warning/fine from the FTC (or those who make the videos could) for what's being done here, but it's pretty unlikely. The video rules to qualify for the CPM bump are a little convoluted, and if the FTC actually pushed for fines, in court MS could make the case that paying out a higher CPM for Xbox videos has a similar outcome to bidding more for specific search terms on AdWords with "-sucks -awful -terrible" as negative keywords and then publicly stating that they bit more for ad clicks from non-negative reviews.

    By the way, who *doesn't* assume that there could be some bias in videos from Machinima/partners and similar outlets? Surely I'm not the only one who sees them in the same light as gaming publications where if they say something too negative they suddenly stop getting free/early access to future products or have advertising revenue cut back. It's one thing when you see "Gus's XBOX 1 review" where he's taken video with a handheld camcorder from 2005 and you kind of assume he spent his own money and just wanted to talk about it and you maybe even take what he says at face value. The clean-cut commercialized stuff, you always take with a grain of salt.

    Ignoring all that, even if Microsoft were to somehow eat a fine, I doubt they'd care. They sold the original Xbox at a loss for years, and FTC fines at most are a slap on the wrist for the big players. If you're a large corporation, you can usually find a way to make breaking the law profitable even when you're caught.

  26. People watch Machinima?! by Kimomaru · · Score: 2

    Personally, Machinima content is so appallingly bad that this story is not surprising at all. Machinima needs a serious upgrade.

  27. Re:Well by gameboyhippo · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's interesting. Most people I know grew out of playing Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto and start playing grownup games like Pokémon instead.

  28. This is news because it is illegal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    There's a reason infomercials have to tell you "this is a paid advertisement by the following"

    Heads will roll and possible litigation in the future for Microsoft's shady actions.

    1. Re:This is news because it is illegal by mattack2 · · Score: 1

      [citation needed]

  29. Re:Well by Nyder · · Score: 1, Funny

    Well, I never did play Pokémon, but I have to ask: does one ever really outgrow Zelda? Maybe the new games don't do it for you, but don't you ever find yourself wanting to play Ocarina again?

    I outgrew the Zelda games when I had to wave the stupid wiimote around like i was on crack.

    --
    Be seeing you...
  30. Re:Well by Sechr+Nibw · · Score: 2

    That killed any and all nostalgia value that Ocarina of Time had? "I hate Windows 8/8.1 so completely, that I'm going to uninstall Windows 7 and switch to Fedora or Ubuntu."

  31. Plugola by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

    Gotta do something when it ain't selling. A guy I know working at GameStop has told me they can't keep the play station 4s on the shelf and can't get the Xbones out the door.

    --
    Chewbacon
    The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
  32. Re:Well by Master+Moose · · Score: 1

    I am praying for the day my son out grown Pokemon. Please let me know who long I should expect to wait?

    --
    . . .gone when the morning comes
  33. Re:Well by pepty · · Score: 1

    If the question was "are rootkits exclusive to Sony or have other consumer product manufacturers/distributors been caught using them?" then I'm curious too.

  34. Re:Well by Cochonou · · Score: 1

    I'd be curious to know what games you currently play. I've gotten the other way around, where most of the games that actually interest me are not available on PC, unless they are small independent titles.

  35. Re:Well by dskzero · · Score: 1

    I play a lot of different games, though most of them are towards the surreal or horror setting. Currently I am playing Cry of Fear, Left 4 Dead 2 and DOTA2, plus a few games I play to kill time, those being The Binding of Isaac and Prisoner of Ice. I also play whatever indie release sounds like fun, the last ones I played were Papers, Please, Sword and Sworcery and Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs.

    --
    Oblivion Awaits
  36. Re:M$ is the king of astroturfing by lwriemen · · Score: 1

    Stating truth isn't trolling, and this site should have an inherent anti-Microsoft bias. Microsoft deserves what it gets from past and present actions. /. Is heading the way of comp.os.os2.advocacy; being taken over by pro-Microsoft trolls.