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Lets break down this new Shadow of War Charity DLC...
- Thread starter AHA-Lambda
- Start date
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
I dunno. It looks to me like they're monitizing the death of one of their colleagues; they've turned his passing into a micro-transaction.
I'm sure the family are grateful for the donations and the team are happy to give their friend a unique epitaph of sorts, but when you consider the 44 states that they'll be donating the DLC cash from will likely be mitigated by sales from the other states as well as overseas sales, it does seem a little cynical at best.
They lose hardly anything money-wise and get to ride the 'good will/grief' PR they get off of it.
Shifty
Member
Not clicking is fine, but making assumptions about content you didn't watch for the sake of shitposting about it is not.
This discussion was bound to fall foul of TB Hate GAF one way or another, but there's no need to get involved if you have nothing of substance to say past "I don't like xyz he/shit/it is shitty". That sort of stuff belongs in the Gaming Community section.
100% of proceeds, meaning whatever is left over after everyone takes their cut
Shifty
Member
This right here is the best language to use when talking about a charitable business venture. Makes it clear from the get-go, like.
This is insane.
There's not some grand conspiracy why there are certain states and countries exempt from charitable giving. There are legal hoops required for both foreign donations and donations from those specific states. Complexities that the family just doesn't want to deal with right now.
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
I think it's pretty disgusting to assume that the people at Monolith are trying to use the death of a college to scam people for money.
Think about what you are accusing them of. Seriously, this is ludicrous.
Think about what you are accusing them of. Seriously, this is ludicrous.
And yet other companies have been managing to do this for years.
Note - I don't think anyone at Monolith is doing this. This is WB, the publisher, doing this.
I'm not sure why suddenly people are erecting the straw man that we think Monolith is behind this, when it's very clear from both the original video and every comment in this thread that's its WB who are to blame.
Bits N Pieces
Member
Yeah, the rush to condemn anything and everything associated with this game is getting tiresome but to question the developer like this and insinuate there are shady goings on is actually pretty disgusting.
The cynical response would be "It's not Monolith, it's WB!"
I guess it's more okay to blame WB because they're a bigger company? We just assume the head of WB is some motherfucker with slicked back hair in a finely pressed suit, chuckling to himself as he figures out how to profit from dead employees.
Threads like this are great examples of human's ability to go straight to the worst case scenario.
Literally no-one in this thread has said that. No-one.
yeah surely no one at monolith knew about this or worked on it
Really? Do you want me to go and pull quotes?
AHA-Lambda
Member
Healthy?? He has cancer
Fantastapotamus
Wrong about commas, wrong about everything
Oh, okay.
I guess it's fine to assume the people at WB are complete monsters, they are a publisher after all and we all know if you work for a publisher you have sold your soul.
Also, it's still implying that the folks at Monolith are okay with this. The made it after all.
Heathier than he once was, then. Still a bigot.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Let me stop you there, chief. I did not claim 'conspiracy', so you can keep that little number in your pants, okay?
All I claimed was that there is an aspect to this campaign that looks to me to be rather cynical. Now, if you think a large corporation like WB hadn't taken their profit margin/tax breaks into consideration when coming up with this campaign with their PR/Marketing division, you're being grossly naive.
I could be wrong, but I doubt they're involved with monitization or marketing.
AHA-Lambda
Member
Wow.
Because they literally are doing this? We're not making things up. The company is advertising a charity dlc to support a dead staff members family, and when you read the fine print it's only then you realise for the majority of people this is just more profit.
And for Warner Brothers? Yes, I absolutely think they'd do this - just look at the appalling shit in the main game already! Any artistic vision or license goes out of the window when you start selling loot boxes for gear in a single player game.
I don't think they set out to steal from people like they are doing - I think they intended o do this properly, discovered it would take more than a second of effort, and so have gone the easiest possible route of only allowing donations from 44 states,p. But they haven't corrected that issue, and are now in the position of advertising charity which is actually just for profit. And that's despicable.
It can be easily corrected though, which hopefully they will do shortly.
Neuromancer
Member
I think it's nice.
¯_(ツ
_/¯
¯_(ツ
_/¯Then it has done good. Period. The rest of the post is just needless cynicism and anxiety over the actual practicalities.
GavinUK86
Member
I think it's nice.
¯_(ツ
It is. That's all it is. People die everyday and don't get any money from anyone. This is just the dev team wanting to do something nice for their coworker and his family yet because WB and Shadow of War is everyone's whipping boy around here people feel the need to poke holes in it.
Yes, please do. Because I certainly haven't, nor can I see anyone else saying Monolith are behind this.
And re the comment about assuming Warner Brothers are evil profit making organization - yes? Jesus Christ, corporations are not your friend. This is a publisher that is pushing loot boxes for single player content, something I've never seen before in a full price game and certainly an pleasant way forward for the industry. Big corporations do crap like this *all the time*, and they pull back when consumers push back. They don't need people to protect them, and their feelings aren't hurt when they get called out in what they are doing.
Which in this case, is lying to the majority of their customers and falsley pretending to be collecting money to help a dead staff members family, when in fact it will just be boosting their bottom line.
RecRoulette
Member
I think it's nice.
¯_(ツ
That's how I feel. Better communication about the whole 44 states thing would be recommended though, just seems like an oversight and not anything malicious.
So scamming people and pretending something for charity is fine, as long as some part of that goes to charity. The fact that for many people it's just going to WBs bottom line is fine.
Where does this line lie exactly? If every purchase in Ohio goes to charity, but everywhere else in the world it goes to profit, is that still okay? Maybe just Nevada? Or Wyoming?
How many people are you exactly allowed to con in the name of charity before it becomes wrong?
Edit : let's use a hypothetical. Gaf runs a charity drive for a deceased member. Without fully explaining, it turns out that for a lot of people, the money wasn't going to charity, it was going to pay for Evillores new gold plated hot tub. If you read his twitter feed you might have spotted this being said, but otherwise you probably wouldn't notice as it's all in fine print on another forum thread.
Do you think people would be saying "oh, this is fine because some of it did go to charity?". Of course fucking not. Hell, Aneeta Sarkeesian got hauled over the coals for actually spending the money she was suppossed to spend on videos and staffing! There's be absolute outrage. So why the hell is it okay that Warner does this? Is our need to support a game we like so much that we chuck all rational standards out of the window?
oh right i bet the marketing team made that model and implemented it in game
Several people have inferred it.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
You misread my comment.
It's the not the practicalities that bother me as much as the hollowness of the grand gesture. Yeah, the family get money they wouldn't have, but so do WB, y'know?
Yeah this could have been handled better. If WB was serious about actually doing the right thing here then they wouldn't try to hide that only purchases from people in 44 US states will get donated. Even if there is legal issues and what not from other places it would not be hard to WB to make a equal donation to an organization dedicated to fighting cancer like TB suggests in his video.
and how did i misread your comment
sorry let me get myself worked up into a gamergate froth then
Yeah, being appalled at a company pretending to give charity for a dead colleague and instead using the money to boost their profits is exactly the same as what people did in gamergate. Nothing different there at all.
As I've aid, what WB are doing is actually illegal in the UK so hopefully they'll get pulled up on it here anyways. The ASA will step in if it's reported.
Edit: actually. What the hell do you mean with a gamergate froth? Are you saying that the people opposed to gamergate were working themselves up into an unreasonable frenzy?
uncledonnie
Banned
I mean, bottom line the family is going to get a good amount of money from this and they've immortalized him in a way that is meaningful and had to have had the family's approval. It's fine to nitpick and all but this still is very much a net positive thing.
Screaming Meat
Unconfirmed Member
Actually, I think I misread yours.
I'm pretty sure the developers didn't initially make a tribute to their friend with WBs specific monetisation scheme at the forefront of their minds.
Like, I'm cynical, but that's a whole other level.
funkystudent
Member
Maybe it should only be for sale in the regions the money goes to charity to avoid shamelessly profiteering off such a horrible tragedy?
WB only have themselves to blame here. Good idea but they fumbled the execution horribly.
WB only have themselves to blame here. Good idea but they fumbled the execution horribly.
The 30% cut is understandable and anyone jumping to calling that slimy is oversimplifying the realities of online marketplaces. However, the 44-states stipulation is pretty fucking slimy. WB is essentially getting a free publicity booster in the vast majority of the world off of the death of a former employee, and as far as I can tell, is barely if at all disclosing this information unless you go out of your way looking for it. Gross.
i'm saying that people thinking WB must only be in it for money and are trying to fuck everyone over for the dollar because there couldn't possibly be any other explanation is about as sensible as thinking that video game reviewers are all paid shills with no ethics because they're just getting handed money to give out high scores to games
Diprosalic
Banned
imagine that backlash if people couldn't buy it.
I'm judging them on their actions. Words are cheap, and companies have shown no remorse in saying whatever bullshit comes to mind to get out of stuff. Their actions are what counts, and their actions are incredibly shitty and possibly illegal.
ok and what do you have to say about the actions of the monolith staff members who worked on these assets and implemented them in game?
Prototype Viktor
Member
that may be but they could get around that by donating money from themselves instead. oh wait can't do that as that would cost them money instead of cost them potential money like it is now
Incredible reading comprehension.
I think it's nice. Those saying they should have given it away and just given a donation link, that would likely have generated far less for the family than providing an incentive for it.
It would be way smaller than what they have now.
FF Seraphim
Member
Clearly some people on here do not understand that tax laws vary from state to state. For WB to even say the DLC is going towards charity in SC they have to actually register with the SoS and give out an annual financial report for the 2 years this is being done for or be fined. I can see why they just said screw it.
Everyone screaming about a direct donation are free to donate here. (See how it hasn't reached it's goal btw? Direct donations like that rarely work as well as selling stuff.)
Oh but wait no, this isn't about the family not getting money, it's about WB/Monolith getting it. And they are eeeevil and should never get paid for anything!
Oh but wait no, this isn't about the family not getting money, it's about WB/Monolith getting it. And they are eeeevil and should never get paid for anything!
Yup. This so much.
It's kind of cool and all, but my main gripes with this kind of charaty are that some of those things allow companies to get tax cuts from money consumers put down (would be more fair to me if they accounted for the cut and put at least some of that money down themselves), and also that it's piggybacking off of people's desire to help by making consumerism an outlet for feeling good about making these kind of indirect donations.
Personally, if I wanted to help any given charity I'd rather donate the money directly than buy something that in turn donates to charity, as I consider such practices kind of undermine the concept of helping for its own sake.
I agree that it's mostly good PR for both WB and the charity, and I'd rather read "good" news rather than PR through bad practices and stuff, but I'm not really sold on the whole puchase-as-charity model as a whole.
Personally, if I wanted to help any given charity I'd rather donate the money directly than buy something that in turn donates to charity, as I consider such practices kind of undermine the concept of helping for its own sake.
I agree that it's mostly good PR for both WB and the charity, and I'd rather read "good" news rather than PR through bad practices and stuff, but I'm not really sold on the whole puchase-as-charity model as a whole.
WB and Monolith etc can certainly be faulted for the poor communication regarding the region thing however the fact that they're doing this at all somewhat negates that issue imo. By no means were they obligated to donate any money to the family so the fact that they are is great. It probably would have been far easier for them to release the content for free and just linked the direct donation page however that would have netted the family far, far less money.
I feel like some people are definitely going overboard with the outrage here.
I feel like some people are definitely going overboard with the outrage here.
The problem is that WB/Monolith will get money that people intended to go to charity.