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Confessions from purported ex-EA Viral Marketer who knows their M&A strategy somehow
- Thread starter Dystify
- Start date
bigtroyjon
Member
"If it ends up lifetime at about 1.5 million subs, it produces a very nice premium to our cost of capital. So a nice positive NPV at a 10% to 11% discount rate."
What about the following two sentences is wrong?
Very nice premium = profit
positive NPV = profit
EA is the bestest company, please be buying more EA soft-works machine.
That's a poor assumption to make.
EA back where it was at 2007.
Seriously i would love to fund more kickstarts. And kick it forward idea by Fargo is great.
Publishers nowdays are just what's wrong with industry. Obsidian problem proved that this whole industry is getting nowhere with that kind of system. Zenimax capitalized whole cash for game and game sold really good. And that was because 1 fucking metacritic point to low. (yes metacritic includes blogs and no name sites.)
Kickstart is awasome idea. They will create game for money they don't need to cry to publishers and when their game hits market they will have money to make other games.
Publisher and retail stores should be where is their place, by only publishing and selling games, not fucking co-developing game.
Seriously i would love to fund more kickstarts. And kick it forward idea by Fargo is great.
Publishers nowdays are just what's wrong with industry. Obsidian problem proved that this whole industry is getting nowhere with that kind of system. Zenimax capitalized whole cash for game and game sold really good. And that was because 1 fucking metacritic point to low. (yes metacritic includes blogs and no name sites.)
Kickstart is awasome idea. They will create game for money they don't need to cry to publishers and when their game hits market they will have money to make other games.
Publisher and retail stores should be where is their place, by only publishing and selling games, not fucking co-developing game.
Foliorum Viridum
Banned
I find it interesting the people who think they're above this.
Maybe it's just because I'm a student with a fair amount of free time, but if I had a chance to work at home and make money shilling a game, I'd take that job. Hell, you could do it in the pub on your phone if you wanted.
It's no more questionable than most forms of advertising. I could bullshit why TOR is a great MMO and not a boring MMO across various forums. Cha ching.
Viral marketers and rabid fanboys are on the same level when it comes to providing unreliable views on a game, it's just that one gets paid!
Maybe it's just because I'm a student with a fair amount of free time, but if I had a chance to work at home and make money shilling a game, I'd take that job. Hell, you could do it in the pub on your phone if you wanted.
It's no more questionable than most forms of advertising. I could bullshit why TOR is a great MMO and not a boring MMO across various forums. Cha ching.
Viral marketers and rabid fanboys are on the same level when it comes to providing unreliable views on a game, it's just that one gets paid!
TaroYamada
Member
Agreed, also a College student, my current gig is pretty nice but if this paid in the neighborhood of it I would definitely be willing to go online and talk up some POS. Could be like you say, that we are students, and maybe more desperate than our fellow gaffers who may already have nice, cush, post-college careers. A at home job goes real nice with homework and studies and what not.
Also anybody who just takes the word of mouth from some stranger on the internet and then goes to buy a game solely based off that isn't the sharpest in my book. I ask friends, and found a couple of video game critics I trust for my purchases.
Does anyone have stats on the amount of unique users on /v/? Would it even be worth it to try and market your product there?
Because viral marketing over there would be amazingly simple. Create a general thread for game X and anonymously bump it until it starts rolling. Having 'free' daily exposure on the frontpage could possibly stir up hype in a lot of people there.
And, because rarely anyone exclusively browses /v/, they take that hype to different boards/websites, and it spreads from there. It makes sense.
Because viral marketing over there would be amazingly simple. Create a general thread for game X and anonymously bump it until it starts rolling. Having 'free' daily exposure on the frontpage could possibly stir up hype in a lot of people there.
And, because rarely anyone exclusively browses /v/, they take that hype to different boards/websites, and it spreads from there. It makes sense.
Phonomezer
Banned
Fixed for call centre accuracy.
I wish somebody paid me for liking this game. Unfortunately it's the other way round.
Yes, because that game was just terrible. Unplayable, am I right?
Combichristoffersen
Combovers don't work when there is no hair
So that's why they haven't been able to raise decent budgets for the Silent Hill series in years.. Goddammit.
Spotting a viral on /v/ is really all too easy these days.. or maybe I just browse that board too much.
astroturfing
Member
does the word "dishonesty" mean anything to you? how about "liar"? if you have a conscience and a capability for empathy, would you really be cool with getting paid to purposefully mislead others?
personally i'll rather stay unemployed than be a shill. at least i don't have to hate myself too much.
and to the bolded, yeah that's not a very good defense. A LOT of marketing is unethical. the "everyone else does it too!" defense is never very convincing...
But that isn't the way he described it. He said "there's about 560 full and part-time people that do my (old) job at EA". Then he said "I actually met with EA representatives at a career fair. It wasn't the job I was looking for, but it paid and seemed easy as hell." The kind of people you're talking about would never work for EA. They'd work for some marketing/PR company. And I have no doubt such people exist, by the way. I'm just saying this guy's story is bullshit.
it is dishonest....
its one thing an advertiser giving you an advertisement.
and another planting in online communities advertisers that show up as customers with no affiliation to the company.
Baron_Calamity
Member
I really doubt EA acquiring Obsidian or THQ would cause a huge uproar. Sure some fans will be upset but not the gaming community at large. Also both those companies if someone doesn't buy them or they have a monster surprise hit are likely to fold this year anyways. So EA wouldn't be the worst thing to happen to them. We would probably get one more decent game out of their IPs before the management starts fucking with them.
Even assuming the guy saying he is a viral marketer is a fake. I think EA is going to make another bid for Take Two. Things aren't the same as they were in 2008. Take Two hasn't done well since then and investors have been getting nervous with questionable cash flow accounting. Take Two's board of directors have been saying out loud they would welcome take over offers.
Even assuming the guy saying he is a viral marketer is a fake. I think EA is going to make another bid for Take Two. Things aren't the same as they were in 2008. Take Two hasn't done well since then and investors have been getting nervous with questionable cash flow accounting. Take Two's board of directors have been saying out loud they would welcome take over offers.
SpacePirate Ridley
Member
Reading this thread, it was not the best day to call dibs in making the new epic mickey games official thread :lol
eh, this is nothing new, and popular forums like GAF are a prime target for these astroturfers. But I don't automatically assume most GAFers are astroturfers, though. It's only after repeated, consistent behavior do I start thinking they are. Sadly, the majority of them seem to favor the same console (and its games) on GAF. Whether is posting that latest game's GIFs all over the place (not so bad anymore, however), or shitting on whatever the rival console is doing, it's a pretty clear pattern to me that indicates at least a few viral marketers among the ranks.
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