Microsoft’s MASSIVE INC Nominated “BS’r” of the Year!

Now we pride ourselves on our love for BS…and because of that, our noses are keenly attuned to that lovely smell, stink, stench, of…yes you guessed it! BS!

But today we’re amazed (well not really) that we’ve been shown the ropes by Microsoft’s wholly owned subsidiary, Massive Inc.

Massive Inc, is a company that basically offers in-game advertising models.  They, along with  Interpret LLC, released a research report that basically lauds how awesome in-game advertising is and that users basically ate it all up.  So you have a company who’s sole purpose and bottom line is to push in-game advertising release research that applauds and reinforces Massive’s mission.

WHAT A LOAD OF BS.  I mean talk about professional grade, A-level BS.  Look, no gamer in their right fucking mind likes in-game advertising.  NO ONE.  The differentiating factor here is two things:

1. Is the ad intrusive?
2. Does it fit within the environment of the game?

I can tell you no gamer wants a big pop up to appear in the middle of a game, whether they’re doing a raid, or about to unload a clip of 5.56mm NATO rounds into a Taliban raghead.  Gamers are adamant and passionate about this.  Companies need to be VERY VERY careful introducing any mechanism that will disrupt the gameplay…since many games already have delicate balances in gameplay that was developed through millions of R&D money, developers and publishers need to be wary.

The only really tolerable form of advertising in-game is one that mimics real life instances.  When you’re button mashing on FIFA 2008, and Ronaldhino is at the edge of the box about to unleash hell, yes it’s fine he’s wearing Nike’s…or that the boards behind him tout Adidas messaging, or Gatorade…it’s expected because that’s what’s at a real game.  Same with Nascar, etc.  But this model is fairly limited because you need to match up the advertisers and what they’re selling to genre of game being played.  I don’t think companies that want to go after a different demographic really are going to settle for only a few ad options…this is why i think this is a fucking horrible idea, a biased research paper, and that’s why Microsoft and Massive are nominated BS’r of the Year.  Congrats, you’re more full of shit than we are.

All Packets Are Not Created Equal?

So apparently AgencySpy isn’t the only ones having people grumble about Net Neutrality.  Ok maybe we exaggerate but this whole discussion about treating internet traffic the same regardless of what it is – is pretty hotly debated up on Capitol Hill.  The nay-sayers feel that if the big cable and communications companies can filter and know the “kinds” of traffic going on, they will use that information to give themselves a leg up.  Should internet traffic be treated equal and people’s concerns about staying anonymous on the Net be allowed?  What about kiddy-porn?  Where do we draw the line?

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