Queso de Grande
Member
This is such a stupid, but ballsy move I can't even get upset. How could anyone not know this would be a bad idea. Lol
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THQ Nordic doing an AMA on 8chan now (26.02.19)
- Thread starter cormack12
- Start date
Kazza
Member
I couldn't resist browsing through the site for 5 minutes (it's super hard to navigate, like some 1995 era website - is that a deliberate style choice?). There were some weird Nazi/anime cartoons and 9/11 imagery, that was the worst I saw. I didn't see any interest info from THQN (but as I said, it's hard to navigate, so I might have missed something).
Well, let's see...
there was the photo of a man with down syndrome pooping. With the poop hanging between his legs.
Followed by drawings of robots with human vaginas.
Followed by sexually explicit cartoon characters (Poor Rescue Rangers...)
And naked cartoon kids.
All on the same forum thread... Beware /b/
I've never been to a chan sight before. My innocence just did with a sudden knife to the groin.
I'm no prude. I laugh at politically incorrect shit all the time. And I love me some boobies. But WTF did I just walk in to. Some things are better left undiscovered.
Curiosity... and robots... killed the cat.
Sounds like I got away lightly!
Umm you guys are overreacting. 4chan and 8chan are not that big a deal, and as is always the case, unless you look for crazy shit you aren't going to see it. This isn't TOR for fucks sake
Has social media sanitized the internet that people have forgotten what it is actually like?
Kazza
Member
Everyone makes mistakes and I generally hate when an online mob starts an harassment campaign to make someone lose their job, but surely a company is within its rights to fire someone when they make a huge mistake, right? I've been at companies where people have been fired for making one very big mistake (completely mishandling an important client etc). From what I've read here, doing an AMA with 8chan would count as a massive firing-worthy mistake.
Fbh
Member
The job of a PR person, among other things, isn't just about deciding "what" to say but also "where" to say it.
You can't blame the guy for not knowing the site but you can for not doing his job right. It would have taken him literally 2 minutes to google 8chan and find the Wikipedia page which would have given him all the info he needed to know this probably wasn't going to turn out well.
Still. How to respond to this is up to THQ Nordic to decide internally. People personally attacking him, asking for his firing and taking pleasure from ruining his career come across as sad and unstable individuals
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General Lee
Member
This is the PR department equivalent of giving full admin access to the company's only copy of their database to some junior tech and tell them to make some changes and see what happens. Personally it's rather amusing how much potential there is in someone so low on the totem pole to do so much damage to the company name. You'd think by now PR departments would've grown to be a bit more competent, but I guess that's too much to ask of gaming PR in general.
Mecha Meow
Member
I'm not a fan of 8chan but this shit is still pretty damn funny!
The hyper prudes at Retardera are watching this thread and making crosses across their chest btw.
The hyper prudes at Retardera are watching this thread and making crosses across their chest btw.
yongeandcollege
Member
What is the internet "actually like"?
rivv3r
Banned
And the responses in this thread are, pathetically, almost identical to the ones on that other site.
It's crazy shit on top of crazy shit on top of other crazy shit. Seeing something weird was well...common
Not filtered by a social media algorithm or customized by your friends list
ottlord_rex
Member
Are you guys 12 or something?
There are SFW boards/subreddits/forums and all three sites are full of questionable content. Straight up CP and other similiar stuff gets removed on all of them.
There are SFW boards/subreddits/forums and all three sites are full of questionable content. Straight up CP and other similiar stuff gets removed on all of them.
KonradLaw
Member
Stupid move on part of THQ, but the hysteria this caused is far sillier. I hope THQ won't do anything else. They issued apology and that should be enough. They need to ignore the "press" from now on, especially since it will be funny to watch them roll on the ground screaming like little kids 
KormaChameleon
Member
Wait? what? Of all places.... 8chan?
Orpheum
Member
out of ALL the places available...these mofos pick 8chan...holy shit how stupid are they????
imagine the outcasts of 4chan. it's a shithole beyond belief
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cormack12
Gold Member
I think people are missing this. It's the equivalent of branding the Ubisoft guys who did the R6 AMA on Reddit bigots and xenophobes because /r/The_Donald exists in the same CMS
NiiloPielinen
Member
I made the mistake of reading some comments about this, apparently being upset about them hosting AMA on site that was blacklisted by google for CP is being SJW.
GenericUser
Member
Lol, why are people so insecure about imageboards. Are they so fragile that they can't take a little porn or - god forbid- a dissenting opinion worded in a slightly offensive way. I actually chuckled a little, some people need to get a good dose of real life. Imageboards are one of the last bastions in the internet where you can have actual discussions with real people, not being afraid of being downvoted/banned/called out by the members of the hugbox.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
I don't get why people think this is ballsy. Promoting a cesspool of racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and even pedophilia and using it as a marketing tool is not ballsy. Its just stupid.
Its like if Nike collaborated with their local KKK chapter for their next marketing gig.
Sure, it gets people talking, but only from a naive "all publicity is good publicity" would this be a good thing.
People will get fired over this. And rightfully so, because if you are a PR guy and think its smart to associate your brand with child pornography you have no business in working in PR.
Its like if Nike collaborated with their local KKK chapter for their next marketing gig.
Sure, it gets people talking, but only from a naive "all publicity is good publicity" would this be a good thing.
People will get fired over this. And rightfully so, because if you are a PR guy and think its smart to associate your brand with child pornography you have no business in working in PR.
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JordanN
Banned
I'm curious how far does this train of thought of goes.
For example, you brought up Nike, whose own company ethics comes into question (i.e the use of child exploitation via sweatshops).
Or what if someone travels to China and do a collaboration with the locals? Wouldn't that be seen as promoting a country with poor human rights records?
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1.21Gigawatts
Banned
I don't see how globalized supply chains are in any way comparable to a marketing collaboration with a fringe forum for extremist, hateful and illegal content.
cormack12
Gold Member
I don't see how Nike (a fashion brand) using the KKK is comparable either. Your analogy is poor. And based on culpability and foreknowledge.
But to actually frame your analogy correctly, it's more like a PR manager at Nike being offered free advertising space in a publication. The PR manager does not check what the publication is or about, then due to public backlash realises what contentious content the publication is linked to. The PR manager then apologises. It's not as 'grabby' but it's more accurate.
Well, they didn't think it was smart did they. They made a fuck up and admitted it. You can take that at face value or conjure up conspiracy theories that align to your assumptions.
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JordanN
Banned
Because the global supply chain is directly funding or in support of exploitation in foreign countries?
Or like I said, what if any company did a promotion/marketing in China? Are those not all PR wins for the Chinese government who is notoriously extreme or hateful?
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Hypnosekroete
Member
The PR guy must be pretty stupid, but now move on and make games.
Denton
Member
Most people agree that it is stupid.
What is also stupid is the pearlclutching and the insinuation that THQ Nordic are "evil" or "support pedophilia/nazism/whatevism" because they did this stupid thing.
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captainraincoat
Banned
8chan is like the halfway hell between actual internet hell (4chan) and Lite Hell (Reddit)
H
hariseldon
Unconfirmed Member
I love how the SJW mob will hand-wave worker exploitation if the corporation says a few woke things - that's the giveaway that they're not actually left-wing.
Hudo
Gold Member
I would actually argue that behind all that shitposting, 4chan has far better discussions than Reddit. If anything, I would put 8chan as "actual internet hell". Not sure why 4chan gets all the hate.
But I can also see why they wouldn't do an AMA on Reddit. Reddit is straight up garbage.
Lupingosei
Banned
The most shocking thing is, that 8chan is still existing.
4chan is still pretty funny, the a-ok trolling was hilarious, but 8chan has been pretty much dead for 10 years.
4chan is still pretty funny, the a-ok trolling was hilarious, but 8chan has been pretty much dead for 10 years.
CatCouch
Member
Oh dang, you might be right, actually. I'm seeing some people talking about Twitter banning Japanese art/anime/manga with underage characters. I can't find a news story or any real evidence, though. I see one tweet claiming Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon art is banned now because Twitter is adopting the UN's new proposal to ban underage art for their rules. Huh.
Redneckerz
Banned
If that's the case then that's understandable. Whilst 4chan and moot are quite known names or terms in the news, 8chan is far more obscure.
You can't really expect a PR member to know right off the bat that 8chan is bad.
At the same time, some naivety has to be in play: Assuming one knows about 4chan, what do you think 8chan is?
Unless the PR member didn't know about 4chan either, in that case the PR member is ill-informed and should not have made this decision that lightly.
In either case it does not deserve the outrage it gets now (And even doxxing, really?)
But yeah, i can't expect known extremist sites to look at this situation from THQ's POV and just assume ill-intent, like always.
Imagine if this was done to them by everyone they knew. Then suddenly it would be a problem. But if its about people they never knew about before, its a-okay to do all of this.
What is there to yikes about when so far the intent seems to be that they didn't do this on purpose?
I for one would love to see John Linneman compare how this 720p porn clip looks compared to the 4K premium and how the framerate is.
All i know is that Xbox One S will have black crush and perform the worst.
That's like what, the second time they tried that? And they already made plans to punish Hashino at Atlas too.
ERA and Cerium in specific really have to set an acceptable standard here that such posts can even be made. On GAF, users know this is poor sports, but on ERA, its almost condoned.
JCK75
Member
I'm pretty sure they had no idea what 8Chan was so the outrage that's been thrown in their direction is uncalled for IMO. They answered questions, that's not condoning anything some of the worst users partake in. If a Neo-Nazi website wanted to interview me about something I was working on I'd do it, so long as they can handle my opinion that Nazi's suck and are insane.
ArnoldSewerby
Member
The gaming press reaction to this is straight up pathetic.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
"Gaming Press" sure loves the opportunity to tear down games or publishers/developers that are not their number one advertisers.
cormack12
Gold Member
Such bitter. Especially that Kotaku piece. Truly the Daily Mail of gaming.
hargwood
Banned
A really great PR move. Give the guy a freaking promotion. Forgot this studio existed but now I'm looking at this BioMutant thing.
I visit 8chan on occasion. I especially love their 8Chan Cup run on Pro Evolution Soccer with created teams for each board duking it out in simulated football matches. You can imagine what the /pol/ team looks like. I think there are still a few Youtube videos up of some of the matches.
The outrage mob hates that a few sites still allow absolute free speech. 8chan and 4chan being two of them. There are a lot of good folks posting on hobby and craft related boards that get forgotten as /pol/ and /b/ are the most prominent.
I visit 8chan on occasion. I especially love their 8Chan Cup run on Pro Evolution Soccer with created teams for each board duking it out in simulated football matches. You can imagine what the /pol/ team looks like. I think there are still a few Youtube videos up of some of the matches.
The outrage mob hates that a few sites still allow absolute free speech. 8chan and 4chan being two of them. There are a lot of good folks posting on hobby and craft related boards that get forgotten as /pol/ and /b/ are the most prominent.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
A brand associating itself with a toxic group. I just chose a random hate group. I could have used Neonazis, Salafists or WBC instead.
This is an oversight on part of the PR guy that would be comparable to not knowing what kind of group the KKK is.
But I am not giving the benefit of the doubt to the PR guy here. He and others from THQN management have clearly shown that they are familiar with 8chan in their posts.
This isn't just like any old mistake. The circumstances that lead to this mistake are the actual problem here.
You can't excuse aligning yourself with a toxic community like 8chan by pointing towards exploitative labor situations in China.
Even by the low standard of whataboutist arguments this is especially dumb.
Well, it certainly warrants a closer look at how this could happen and what kind of culture is being cultivated at THQN.
The video game industry is already struggling with toxic parts of the gaming community. We don't need that escalated further by developers and publishers.
I personally just think its extremely unlikely that PR and management signed off on this movement and no one actually knew what 8chan was and no one thought it was necessary to look into it before holding an AMA there. Thats just not how these things work.
So assuming they actually knew what 8chan was, I think its necessary for the gaming press and audience to draw a clear line here that signal boosting hate groups and criminals is not acceptable and the people who think thats a good idea or even just funny should be held accountable.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Stop crying, the entire RE forum is a toxic group as well, and nobody cries when developers post there. Oh wait that's right, because most of the fucking whining comes from Ree and their game publication friends.
KonradLaw
Member
The best part is "This prompted a titanic wave of backlash from THQ fans.". Yeah...right..because the ones complaining are THQ fans
I went to couple Steam forums for their recent games and the drama was either completely overlooked or barely raised any emotions.
Titanic wave of backlash from fans my ass
cormack12
Gold Member
Either, or. It's still inapt.
No it isn't. There are people in this thread that did not know what 8ch was. 8ch is a platform, not a website. I'd find it hard to find a member of the public that did not know what the KKK was. It's more like me asking you - do you what the 'rattle' is? Provide compelling evidence of the second part of your post please (bolded). The key part of this sentence is oranged - because you're basically admitting your reaction is based on a leap. Which is fine, but it is a leap and a massive one at that. The same kind of leap that distances Darwinism from creationism. All this retrospective reaction is based on 'furious googlers' who stitch the many articles strewn across the web into something that supports their stance, while having no real knowledge of the events or circumstances around them.
No. The 'fire them all' response and conspiracy theory crafting are the actual problem here. Let's review the facts.
THQNordic were approached to do an AMA on 8chan;
PR guy agreed after speaking to the inviter and without checking what 8ch was;
Social media blew up in response;
PR guy was told why this was a bad idea afterwards;
PR guy personally apologised and held his hands up saying he didn't do due diligence on the request source;
Slobbering masses shout for his head/job to feel powerful;
So let's go to the conspiracy theories about it being 'edgy'
THQNordic are currently riding a decent wave and are largely an acquisition publisher;
They have almost shed their bad reputation from a while back;
Any risk of being edgy would have direct financial costs to soon-to-release titles and future acquisitions;
The benefit of posting on 8chan will full knowledge of what sub communities exist would not be worth that risk;
So what you're suggesting is that they deliberately went out their way to destroy themselves.
Can you provide me a reason that covers commercial and reputational reasons why they would engineer an opportunity to do this please. Not a hypothesis or a 'maybe a, b, c', an actual reason based on their current standing and market value that makes sense.
1.21Gigawatts
Banned
You should stop thinking in these internet-playground categories.
Strict moderation isn't toxicity and posting on RE isn't even remotely comparable to performing a marketing stunt on a forum infamous for its community consisting mainly of racists, pedophiles, homophobes, transphobes and all other kinds of deplorable people. And this community obviously formed because of the specific tolerance of these groups on 8chan.
Why?
The popularity or name recognition really isn't the deciding factor here. If a company does marketing it carefully choses the channels it uses because that what marketing is all about.
So since THQN decided to specifically use 8 chan as a platform for their marketing they simply must have known what kind of audience they will find there. Otherwise they would have the most clueless marketing department to ever exist.
Knowing and carefully choosing your audience and communication channels is one of the core pillars of marketing. A marketing department not doing that is like a programming department refusing to use computers.
Stuff like that doesn't happen accidentally.
Who had the idea to sue 8chan? Who sign off on it? Who knew about it?
These are questions THQN should answer now, because this wasn't an innocent accident that can happen on occasion.
I don't know what the "rattle" is.
But if I were a marketing guy and would have to decide whether or not I want to associate my product or brand with the "rattle" or whether or not I can reach a valuable audience through the "rattle", I would be sure to look into it properly until I know the answers to these questions.
Because thats literally the job of a marketing department.
It's not a massive leap.
As I said, marketing departments are in the business of knowing what channels to use and which audience to cater to. They don't chose either one of those, channel/audience, by accident ever.
And secondly, the way they interacted with the 8chan community clearly showed that they knew about the form of discourse there:
A marketing department is responsible for the marketing campaigns it does. And it is not unreasonable to assume that a marketing department knows what kind of audiences it likes to reach with its marketing campaigns.
1. This was signed off by multiple people and multiple took part in the AMA from THQN's side.
2. I don't believe that a marketing department doesn't know the channel it uses nor the audience it targets through it.
3. The responses of THQN staff on 8chan clearly show an understanding of the "jargon" there.
I fully expect people who are dumb enough to view 8chan as a viable marketing channel and the resident audience as a desirable audience, to also be dumb enough to underestimate the implications and consequences of their actions.
DeepEnigma
Gold Member
Hahaha, ok. Whatever you say. "strict moderation". Ree is for the very same things that you mention. Especially the racists.
Oh my bad, it's the "right kind of racism, bigotry, doxxing, etc."
Fuck right off with that bullshit trying to candy coat them.
Anyways, this is the last thing I'll say about them on here since we have a thread for it, and we can go over there and dismantle the arguments time and time again.
Oh my bad, it's the "right kind of racism, bigotry, doxxing, etc."
Fuck right off with that bullshit trying to candy coat them.
Anyways, this is the last thing I'll say about them on here since we have a thread for it, and we can go over there and dismantle the arguments time and time again.
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