Activision exploits Modern Warfare 3 by featuring Pepsi sponsorship

Activision exploits Modern Warfare 3 by featuring Pepsi sponsorship, eat Dorito's and drink Mountain Dew to receive Double XP

I don't understand the point of this, and it crosses some very questionable lines for Activision, but to steal Battlefield 3's thunder; it requires thinking outside the square. Activision have teamed up with Pepsi and have announced a promotion called "Rank Up XP". What Rank Up XP offers is, whatever Pepsi products you buy, Mountain Dew and Doritos, players can redeem codes found in the packaging for Double XP time in Modern Warfare 3. A 20 oz gets you 15 minutes whilst a 12 pack gets you 45, and so on.

No, I'm not kidding around. The problem with this is, the XP in Call of Duty is a form of currency. Currency in the game buys you weapons, perks, attackments, killstreaks and so on. For a game that is already over-priced, a re-hash of the older titles, no new graphics engine or technologies built in, charging for the "Elite" service, on top of your monthly Xbox Live membership (PSN is free), this is just a step in the direction of overboard.

Activision are willing to exploit fans even [more] through this promotion. Considering that Activision sold $360,000,000 worth of copies in 24 hours of the last COD title… do they really need to cash in with this type of exploitation? What do you think?

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This doens't really affect me, or too many here on RPGwatch(guessing)... But this kind of behavior can't be good for sales, can it?

it's the total selling out and more of the gaming experience. Not only will they milk you dry, buy buy Pepsi for a time-based cheat code as well.

The Gamestop Germany newsletter I received says that preorderers of this game receive "double XP2 simply when they preorder the game. Or something like that.
The "double XP" is gained through all online matches that are played within "the first 4 hours netto playing time".
Furthermore, the newsletter says that this is only on consoles. Not for the PC platform.

No surprise. Of course ActiBlizz will do stuff like this if it earns them money or helps reach strategic goals.

Not to be outdone in the stupidity department, there is some BF3 news from DICE…

Origin Account Bans Threatened for Playing on Modded Battlefield 3 Beta Servers

Pretty much anything involving the word "Origin" and "ban" has PC gamers on a hair-trigger, and news yesterday from Battlefield 3 developer DICE certainly won't lower anyone's blood pressure.

The server files for the game have leaked out. So now, during the game's open beta, some servers have appeared with alterations to the game. That includes, as VE3D points out, hosting more than 100 players on Operation Metro, which is capped at 32.

So in response, DICE put up this notice (screencap via Reddit; the forum itself is visible only to beta participants). Basically, participating on these servers could result in a series of unfortunate events that get you banned from Origin. Banned from Origin = lose access to all your games on Origin…

More or less they want to scare people the hell away from these servers without committing to any specific action, which will probably be reserved for those they identify as responsible. They're in the process of doing that.

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Oh well, I haven't been big into FPS since I last played the original CS and UT GOTY…

Somewhat related to the aforementioned topic, you guys catch which companies have tried to ban class action lawsuits via EULA? I think it was Sony and then EA(maybe more have followed, not entirely sure).

"Any dispute resolution proceedings, whether in arbitration or in court, will be conducted only on an individual basis and not in a class or representative action or as a named or unnamed member in a class consolidated, representative or private attorney general action, unless both you and the Sony entity which you have a dispute specifically agree to do so in writing following initiation of the arbitration. This provision does not preclude your participation as a member in a class action filed on or before August 20, 2011."

"YOU AND EA AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN YOUR OR ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS OR REPRESENTATIVE PROCEEDING."

That's right, now I remember why I dislike digital distribution, "always online" and the cloud… The industry has our collective balls in the palm of their hand. Is it any wonder strictly SP offline (AAA)games are falling out of favor? Too little control over the SP experience… It might not be much of a stretch to see AAA SP titles requiring "always online" to play in the not so distant future.

/end rant

Putting a commercial in during a load time is one thing, but this is quite another.

I am really happy they give so many reasons not to spend my time on their crap.

IIRC Activision had some not bad and free MMO back then… Seven dragons I believe was the name.
In the game while running between places, a popup would open and show you a commercial - but there wasn't any since it was beta and to be honest it wasn't a bad idea since while running you couldn't do much else and the part of the screen planned for commercials wasn't some huge distraction.
Dunno what happened with the game later, I quit because of a few critical bugs that blocked your char and to unblock it you needed to mail the support. But unlike Diablo that got speed cheat because of probably too slow movement like in other MMOs, this activision game didn't milk players' money by asking them to buy horses, cars, brooms or whatever other MMOs do. You had a fast running in the game there - for free. The only tradeoff was a splashscreen with sponsor messages.

Now, why Activision turned into something else for ModernWarfare is beyond my understanding. But to be honest, I really don't care what happens in MMOs as long as it's not the WorldOfWarcraft moneymilking scheme.
The whole Activision business here will affect XP race in a MMO? Ppl, please, we're not talking about some essential stuff to keep someone alive, we're talking about a game. You really think someone cares if you'll reach #1 XP spot in - a game?
So I'm not going to bash Activision here, sorry. Noone is forced to buy Pepsi products, but if you're Pepsi consumer, getting a bonus from it in some MMO you also like is a nice thing. Instead of XP it would be nicer to get some merchandise like a t-shirt or whatnot, but, well… Their choice.

re: Origin account bans for playing modded Battlefield.

Although there is very little chance I will ever be playing the Battfield games, it sets a dangerous precedent and I don't like it.

Years ago I did play on some unofficial hacked Ultima Online servers. The reasons were nothing all nefarious. It was simply that some people were tired of all the annoying kids and griefers and wanted to play in a more role playing oriented environment so they created a private server. I still paid for the game and paid my monthly fees too.

This sort of punishment is far too severe. EA is a very large and far reaching company. Being banned from their site is almost like being banned from all Microsoft products.

It's different than being banned from Steam too because you can always get your games elsewhere in that case, but with Origin we already are starting to see games that require it and I am certain we will see more and more of it in the future.

Essentially, banning you from Origin will likely mean banning you from most future EA products.

skavenhorde said:

Putting a commercial in during a load time is one thing, but this is quite another.

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First they added ads to loading screens and I said nothing .

Motoki said:

It was simply that some people were tired of all the annoying kids and griefers and wanted to play in a more role playing oriented environment so they created a private server.

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Yes but it's a bad PR. If they do nothing about it, they practically admit their MMO is filled with... I lack of the propor word here.
Thus the bans. Either you suffer what the community brings on their servers and pay for it (as they all believe gamers are actually masochists) or don't play at all.

joxer said:

Yes but it's a bad PR. If they do nothing about it, they practically admit their MMO is filled with… I lack of the propor word here.
Thus the bans. Either you suffer what the community brings on their servers and pay for it (as they all believe gamers are actually masochists) or don't play at all.

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But it's one thing to ban someone from a single game and quite another to basically ban someone from all of EA.

The problem for me is not so much game bannings, that's a risk you take, but Origin bannings the effects of which can be wide and far reaching.

joxer said:

Noone is forced to buy Pepsi products,

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When I was younger, let's say about 10 years ago or so, I was actually collecting "advertisement gamnes". I really liked to play them - not planning to buy any of their products at all.

I think I would do so even today, because there's a difference : It 's like you KNOW this FULL game is meant to be advertising - and advertisement meant to be trickled upon the player in an non-advertisement game.

From a marketing point of view, advertisement in such a game like Battle…something is ideal. It combines emotions, a high reputation for that game, adrenaline rush, lots and lots and lots and lots of players … In marketing, the "emotional bonding" is I think the most important thing. It connects a positive experience - not, not even that, it's rather positive emotions ! - with the in-game advertised product.

And since emotions can't be "rationalized" and thus be "thrown out" of the person's mind etc. , it just stays there. Just like … take phantom pain, for example. Or … drugs wrapped in "eye-candy", literally, so to say. It reminds me of how alcohol addiction is developed (apart from any physical addiction) : The mind (and perhaps the unconscious part as well) remembers how the alcohol lets the sorrows sweep away … Again and again … again and again and again … Plus, the alcohol makes one feel less depressed, more "open", more brave etc. … In the end, one drinks because of the positive emotions, and tends to suppress the bitter reality - that of too much alcohol damaging the liver, for example.

This stuff is always operating via emotions. For marketing, exploiting emotions is almost normal. And the more unconscious (read : the deeper) the bonding is, the less one can get rid of it again. Because gaining access to our unconsciousness is really difficult.

And the worst thing is, imho, that these games like Battlesomething are played by so many rather young people ... It's like imprinting them in a rather fragile state (let's say they were teenagers for a part, and teenagers just don't have everything "fixed"; they're rather in an fluid, unstable state of still forming and being formed) for the rest of their lives.

And this is the point which gives me the shivers. They're making clones with this technique. Sublimial messages - type hing.

This imprinting of young people should be forbidden by law, imho. And banned, too.