[MUD-Dev] Picketing in Sims Online

[Koster]

Thought this was amusing.

http://www.shift.com/content/web/425/1.html

start quote--->
BIG MAC ATTACKED

When EA incorporated McDonald's kiosks in The Sims Online, they
opened the doors to a massively-multiplayer adbusting campaign. Tony
Walsh WANTS YOU to join the fight.

| Nov.7.2002 |

Remember when movie theatres only showed a few previews before a
film?  Remember when they added commercials to the mix? Videogames
were advertisement-free once, too. Long lusted after as a vehicle
for commercial messaging, games have finally joined the ranks of the
rest of the entertainment industry.

In the soon-to-be blockbuster The Sims Online
<http://www.ea.com/eagames/official/thesimsonline/home/index.jsp>,
players could find it difficult to avoid getting their fingers
soiled on virtual McDonald's hamburgers. A deal struck between Sims
publisher Electronic Arts and the fastfood mega-corporation allows
Sims players to open up their own McDonald's kiosk and improve their
game stats by consuming McD's greasy goodies. While news of this
groundbreaking sponsorship deal fades quickly from memory, failure
to address this latest barrage in the war on ad-free gaming could
result in a super-sized sandwich of misery. Based on the success of
previous Sims offerings, The Sims Online is an ideal high-profile
backdrop in the war against "advergaming." The McDonald's kiosks
that dot the imaginary battlefield are mere burger bunkers to be
ad-busted in an anti-advergaming mission that could go down in the
annals of gaming history.

The Sims Online website crows, "Let your imagination run
wild. Choose your online role and play your way in this
unpredictable, infinite, online world." Your online role, should you
choose to stand against advertising in games, is that of
Revolutionary.

Your motivation is simple. Product placement weakens the overall
aesthetic of a game in ways more insidious than movie- or
television-based placement -- moving from passive directly to
aggressive, from inactive to interactive.  It used to be enough for
advertisers that we merely observed their product.  Now, in an
increasing number of games, becoming immersed in a company's brand
is integral and inevitable. What benefit do we reap from this
immersion? Our gaming experience is cheapened, but game titles are
no less expensive. Publishers have already set the price of a
computer game two to three times that of a new DVD movie. Will games
with integrated advertising be any less expensive than games
without? Not bloody likely. Know this, future rebel:
Deeply-integrated marketing is a double-edged sword. Once the
strategic sponsorship deal was signed, both parties were locked into
a digital dungeon of their own devise. Shakes, fries, and
pimply-faced employees are irrevocably etched on to every CD of The
Sims Online.

In an online world with no way to address challenges to their brand,
we've got McDonald's right where we want them.

The ad-busting revolution needs clever soldiers, able to use their
Sims avatar and the entire world of The Sims Online to their
advantage. These anti-corporate activists must play within the rules
of The Sims Online, but push the boundaries to the breaking point in
order to get the attention of fellow citizens and the real world
media. It's been reported that eating virtual McDonald's hamburgers
will positively affect your "Fun" and "Hunger" game stats. But what
if you're a vegetarian? What if you're an eco-activist?  What if you
think it's more Fun dining at Biff's Family Restaurant? Although the
game hasn't hit the stores yet, the free public beta
<http://www.ea.com/eagames/official/thesimsonline/play/play_index.jsp>
is open. The time to act is now. Log in, Revolutionary, and fight
the good fight:

  - Picket the nearest McDonald's kiosk. Stand in front of the kiosk
  and tell visitors why you think McDonald's sucks. Be careful not
  to use foul language or hinder the movement of your fellow
  Simians. Polite protest can't result in your account getting
  suspended... can it?

  - Actually order and consume virtual McD's food, then use The Sims
  Online's "expressive gestures" in creative ways. Lie down and play
  dead.  Emote the vomiting, sickness, or fatigue that might
  overcome you after eating a real life McNugget.

  - Open your own McDonald's kiosk. Verbally abuse all customers in
  the name of McDonald's. Loudly proclaim how terrible your food is
  and how it's made from substandard ingredients (or whatever you
  think will turn people off). Make sure you preface each such
  statement with "In my opinion," to avoid libel charges. - Open an
  independent restaurant. Gain the confidence of your clientele, and
  then let them know your business is being hurt by ubiquitous
  McDonald's kiosks. Ask them to put pressure on other Simians to
  support small business people instead of cogs in a gigantic
  franchise-machine.  History has shown gamers that online protest
  can result in positive change, as exemplified in Ultima Online's
  1997 naked riot demanding bug fixes and server upgrades. Not only
  were some of the rioters' issues addressed by the game publisher
  following the incident, but the event was widely reported, and
  gamers worldwide have been inspired to acts of virtual civil
  disobedience ever since. Remember that your worst enemy, aside
  from integrated branding, is inaction. Electronic Arts clearly
  wants players of The Sims Online to be wildly imaginative, and has
  already recognized that the online world is unpredictable.

With EA touting such egalitarian rhetoric, it follows to reason that
freedom of speech is as alive in The Sims Online as it is in the
real world. Test this theory by standing up and shouting for what
you believe in, my Revolutionaries! If the thought of being
force-fed Big Macs makes you sick, you'd better start giving this
advertising model a serious case of indigestion.

----------------- 
Tony Walsh <mailto:ratboy at secretlair.com> resides in his secret lair
<http://www.secretlair.com/>. 
<---end quote

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