Night_Trekker
Member
You'd think so, but I've seen some really obvious viral marketers get called out on GAF, react by melting down, an then get perm banned.
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Confessions from purported ex-EA Viral Marketer who knows their M&A strategy somehow
- Thread starter Dystify
- Start date
You'd think so, but I've seen some really obvious viral marketers get called out on GAF, react by melting down, an then get perm banned.
Jive Turkey
Unconfirmed Member
That Nyko guy's meltdown was awesome.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=155581
There was also the Sony viral guy that used the proper registered symbol in the thread title.
Gamer @ Heart
Member
Thank you. Good stuff.
Also, i find it hard to believe the viral guys are on EA payroll. Arent there hundreds of companies that you hire to do this stuff for you? I'm surprised EA would ever do it themselves.
It's crazy. 3/4 years ago everyone was up in arms over Activision and were acting like EA was the greatest (they had just released Mirrors Edge and Dead Space along with some other new IPs I think)
Now, I barely see anyone saying negative stuff about Activision and everyone is hoping that EA has a monumental collapse and are no longer involved in gaming.
Now, I barely see anyone saying negative stuff about Activision and everyone is hoping that EA has a monumental collapse and are no longer involved in gaming.
Googling around trying to that PSP viral thread, I came across this: http://www.thekartel.com/video-games/14032288-theharrowingadventuresofgettingbannedfromneogaf.html
I remember his thread pretty well: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377334
I don't buy that he was falsely accused, but eh, acceptable loses.
I remember his thread pretty well: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=377334
I don't buy that he was falsely accused, but eh, acceptable loses.
Was he still with Hudson at the time? I always thought that was weird.
endresults
Member
EA has been shitting the bed every night for the past year or so with Project 10 Dollar, the (not true?) forum bans that render players unable to play their games, and their developed/published games getting slaughtered by GAF. How much of this hate is deserved and how much is due to DAII and ME3's negative feedback is anybody's guess.
To be fair, they set it up that way because people would accuse any thread about a game they didn't like of being viral marketing. It was incredibly annoying.
Haha, this cracks me up just because it's gotta suck to viral for something so impracticable. Why would I want to strap all that crap on to my console? The backlash is hilarious:
'"this thing is a sure fire way of killing your PS3. The system is one of the most thermally efficient pieces of consumer electronics around, ****ing up the meticulously designed air flow and interrupting you supply of power to the PSU is just a dumb-shit move that will lead to tears in the end."
OP: "are you crying?
anyway no i am not viral marketer or anything. i just like to keep my system cool.
i like my systems perfect and take good care of them."
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Its the cirrrrrrrcle of liiiiiiiiiife
Someone in one of those old threads said "this is worse than Nibris." God damn that whole Sadness thing was a long time ago. That fucking terrible trailer, man... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ7-LGVbMsA
Well, either EA has been lying to investors for a while, or an anonymous guy on 4chan was wrong.
So, I guess we'll find out based on if legal suits are filed in about five weeks.
One day I need to perform an experiment and make up a bunch of stuff on 4chan and see if it gets posted here.
Yoshi
Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
You're working for a one-time-payment of one dollar? Doesn't seem all too lucrative to me
.Make it about BioWare and I'd like your odds.
Perhaps Capcom or Square Enix.
Surely that could fall under "we always expect the highest of quality and always seek improvements" rather than "lying".
HP_Wuvcraft
Banned
The answer is obvious. We test everyone.
I should shoot you on principal.
Beyblade-guy? But it's hard to say if he was viral marketer, insane or just balant marketer.
They actually laid out their expectations prior to release:
And exceeded them:
Source: http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...-c8c9-45f2-ab77-463e59f00455/ERTS_Wedbush.pdf
I don't expect someone trolling on 4chan to actually read financial news and conferences though, but rather just ride the wave of BioWare hate, so...
legal suits on behalf of investors? I think most of them won't notice a thing. Also while these games may do well it may be not enough. it's never enough. NEVER. EVER.
See above.
*looks at the screens showing positive things about EA*
Nirolak, may be... you... I don't want to ask this...
/looks at Nirolak with utter horror of sudden realization.
When is it? I'm more interested in their TOR status update. The bigger question is did they experience further subscription growth or did their retention slide significantly?
It should be at the end of April/beginning of May.
They head to a lot of conferences though, so we might get another update sooner.
Here are their specific comments from that slide:
Source: http://files.shareholder.com/downlo...50c8d268/ERTS_Wedbush_03082012_Transcript.pdfTranscript said:
How did the hate for EA come back? Everyone though they were fricken awesome for awhile recently and that Activision was the evil spawn of satan. What happened to flip the two companies? Is it because Activision only makes Cod now so they can't really fuck much else up?
The old even bad publicity is good publicity angle?
Clearly you need to pick up your paycheck from HR more often.
The old even bad publicity is good publicity angle?
Clearly you need to pick up your paycheck from HR more often.
bigtroyjon
Member
I literally placed my bets and bought a chunk of call options expiring in May after earnings should come out.
No Whammys EA!
The hate never left, it just sat dormant in the pit of our souls waiting to erupt and I think that their big focus on Origin lately has triggered that explosion for a lot of people.
It's been back for years. It wasn't flipped though. No one thinks much of Activision.
Did you read the part where it says over 0.5 million subs is profitable, over 1 million is good, between 1.5 and 2 is great? That's pretty specific.
None of those is any sort of actual expectation or guidance.
He also says that even at 1 million subs they don't feel great about the investment, which means that while 0.5 million may be "profitable" on a continuing quarterly basis it almost certainly isn't profitable if you factor in the cost of the "historical investment."
Which is sort of like saying that my 2 million dollar lemonade stand is profitable because I make 5 cents on each cup of lemonade I sell.
At no point (to my knowledge) has EA given straightforward answers to questions like how many active subscribers do they expect to have, much net revenue do they expect SWTOR to bring in, and how long that will take to cover development costs and then be pure profit.
At one point they say that the NA market alone is at least 12 million, and that SWTOR appeals to the "majority" of that market. There is absolutely zero chance they will hit what those numbers imply.
Still not seeing any expectation there.
By the way, that part where it says ""yields a negative NPV"..."we don't lose money" essentially means they lose money.
1 million subs over 5 to 10 years (uh...which is it?) looks to be about the real break-even point. That's the point at which investing in SWTOR was a better decision than investing in the typical EA product. (And let's not forget that EA loses money!) They currently have 1.7 million "subs" where "subs" includes everyone who bought a box. That means if they maintain that number throughout this year (extremely unlikely) they need 300k subs a decade from now to average 1 million over ten years.
By the way, that part where it says ""yields a negative NPV"..."we don't lose money" essentially means they lose money.
1 million subs over 5 to 10 years (uh...which is it?) looks to be about the real break-even point. That's the point at which investing in SWTOR was a better decision than investing in the typical EA product. (And let's not forget that EA loses money!) They currently have 1.7 million "subs" where "subs" includes everyone who bought a box. That means if they maintain that number throughout this year (extremely unlikely) they need 300k subs a decade from now to average 1 million over ten years.
Scofield94941
Member
*looks at the screens showing positive things about EA*
Nirolak, may be... you... I don't want to ask this...
/looks at Nirolak with utter horror of sudden realization.
back off. way off.
this post basically shows why it is useless to argue with people on the internet and argue with them in general. Most of them are self-lobotomized.
bigtroyjon
Member
Their expectation is to make a profit on their huge investment, so go ahead and connect the dots
he doesn't even need to connect dots, he just needs to read the whole damn thing. apparently reading is hard for some people these days.
edit: love his stealth edit.
It's pretty clear from your two posts that you have absolutely no idea what any of that quoted CFO statement means.
How many times are you going to post what is essentially "hurr durr me am right" without saying anything substantive? Like...do you even know what any of those acronyms mean? Hint: none of them mean "profit."
By the way, if I'm wrong about not seeing any expectation, why don't you just point out where exactly in the above they provide that expectation? Seems like it would be pretty simple.
Edit: Here is an example of a subscriber expectation provided by Netflix:
http://allthingsd.com/20110915/netflix-cuts-its-guidance-by-1-million-subscribers/
As you can see it's a plain english thing, not a range of possibilities shrouded in financial jargon. "0.5 million is kinda sorta ok, 1 million is ok, and better than 1 million is starting to be pretty good" is not an expectation. That's just not what the word "expectation" means in any context financial or otherwise.
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