A couple of bloggers wouldn't have that much influence on the community as a whole. But it is a low risk way of dipping their toe into another advertising medium.
In any event, it would seem like any savvy marketer would prefer to leak "news" of astroturfing so that a big discussion is kicked off. And seeing all the coverage (including here) that came of it, it has worked.
Oh - I read about this yesterday and happened across them at 7-11 today. I bought the Pina Colada Chaos. It tastes like watered down milk with some sweetener. Nothing I care for, but maybe the under 20 crowd wants watery sweet milk.
So for those who are losers in real life and can't role play well enough to be liked online they have a trademan class.
So people will pay $20/month (or whatever it'll be) to work in a virtual McDonalds serving orc burgers, shoveling dragon dung at the Everquest zoo, or picking up half eaten turkey legs off the streets near the fountain.
We all slam M$'s licensing tactics and then something even more extreme like this comes out.
IANAL, but I can't help but think that this will continue until these shrinkwrap licenses are challenged in court. In fact, I find it hard to believe that after all of these years a significant challenge has not occurred - or have challenges occurrred that are settled out of court so these ghestapo agreements can continue.
It's the small guy that is the foundation of our great country (US), and that same small guy will justifyably cower in the face of big corporate lawyers.
Stop the insanity, support the EFF, and hopefully these tactics of corporate America will eventually have some limits.
I can't help but think that they are really oblivious to the revolution going on around them. Unlike the VHS time-shifting evolution, going digital with music (and shortly after video) is a revolution.
Most people out there wouldn't mind paying for quality music. But when you combine the watered down crap put out by the majors with the clearly adversarial attitude of the RIAA towards us music buying folks I can't help but think that they are getting what they deserve.
Long live the free market. The genie is clearly out of the bottle.
We don't typically watch much broadcast TV, but two of the shows are Survivor and Friends which show in the same time slot. It's great not to have to fight to decide which to watch (after the kids go to bed).
Heck, even after just setting up my wish lists I found that it was recording 2 shows that it recommended at the same time.
Oops.. 9 track. I thought it was 8 track!
I was worried about what I was going to do with my great 70's classic rock. The 8 track still works great in my Pinto with a speaker in front and a speaker in back.
Don't scare us like that next time!
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A couple of bloggers wouldn't have that much influence on the community as a whole. But it is a low risk way of dipping their toe into another advertising medium.
In any event, it would seem like any savvy marketer would prefer to leak "news" of astroturfing so that a big discussion is kicked off. And seeing all the coverage (including here) that came of it, it has worked.
Oh - I read about this yesterday and happened across them at 7-11 today. I bought the Pina Colada Chaos. It tastes like watered down milk with some sweetener. Nothing I care for, but maybe the under 20 crowd wants watery sweet milk.
So people will pay $20/month (or whatever it'll be) to work in a virtual McDonalds serving orc burgers, shoveling dragon dung at the Everquest zoo, or picking up half eaten turkey legs off the streets near the fountain.
Fascinating!
IANAL, but I can't help but think that this will continue until these shrinkwrap licenses are challenged in court. In fact, I find it hard to believe that after all of these years a significant challenge has not occurred - or have challenges occurrred that are settled out of court so these ghestapo agreements can continue.
It's the small guy that is the foundation of our great country (US), and that same small guy will justifyably cower in the face of big corporate lawyers.
Stop the insanity, support the EFF, and hopefully these tactics of corporate America will eventually have some limits.
Most people out there wouldn't mind paying for quality music. But when you combine the watered down crap put out by the majors with the clearly adversarial attitude of the RIAA towards us music buying folks I can't help but think that they are getting what they deserve.
Long live the free market. The genie is clearly out of the bottle.
And it keeps coming out with sequels every year or two for those who are die hard fans!
We don't typically watch much broadcast TV, but two of the shows are Survivor and Friends which show in the same time slot. It's great not to have to fight to decide which to watch (after the kids go to bed).
Heck, even after just setting up my wish lists I found that it was recording 2 shows that it recommended at the same time.
It's a great feature!
Oops.. 9 track. I thought it was 8 track! I was worried about what I was going to do with my great 70's classic rock. The 8 track still works great in my Pinto with a speaker in front and a speaker in back. Don't scare us like that next time!