f13.net

For anyone who gives a toss. 

http://feeds.feedburner.com/stationblog

It's a scarier place than I thought...

now *that's* manipulation.  Or attempted manipulation.

Amazing that blogs have become such a marketing/PR tool so fast.

No worries. Smed only post when he has to prop up a board meeting or two.  Frankly, I preferred when he never said anything, though.  At least then we could imagine that SOE had management.

No applaud necessary.  It's very likely that SOE put pressure on them to not print ads for IGE, due to being unwanted competition - and competition that can get users in trouble (banned).  Wouldn't be anything unusual or especially sinister about it if it did happen, since that sort of arm twisting is common in mags.

I would not be suprised if someone at SOE called someone at PCGamer and told them they'd be "disappointed" if there were IGE ads. I'm sure everyone knew what "disappointment" meant without anyone having to clarify. That's if something like this happened which I'm sure it could have.

Kneecapping?  Like the mafia?  I didn't know game company men were so hard. 

I'm very excited.

You obviously never saw "The Wizard".

Heh, let's face it: having full groups with names like "asdfjgojt"  controlled by one person does happen.   

In SW:G that's a standard crafter.

Diana Ross was great in that!

Is this the tinfoil hat thread?

If not, where do I put the actual blog link (http://blog.station.sony.com/)?

Does it matter? Sticking to the subject was never our strength.

I fortell a sales spike for Battlefield 2 as all those violently disgruntled SWG fans try to take a shot at him.

Holy Smokes. (http://bf2s.com/player/Smedly/)  I wonder if that's actually his toon.  Eh, probably just someone who made the character after reading that blog.

I'm pretty certain he knows how to spell his own last name.

Well, it IS Smed we're talking about here...

"Ok character name...John Smedley.  No wait!  Must remain anonymous.  Need pseudonym...AHA!  S.m.e.d.l.y...Smedly!  Now they'll never know"

Epilogue: in retrospect, this seemed like a heavy handed corny joke.  It was.  Would I do things differently, given the chance to do it over?  Who knows.  But I can say that ever since then, the comedy writing jobs seemed to stop coming.

Lum what the hell is that epilepsy-inducing shit you have as sig?  my eyes hurt.

I think it's Yogurt!

Does anyone really think PC Gamer is going to have a hard time finding someone else to buy that space?

I saw their move as little more than a cheap attempt at some street cred in a genre they exhibit almost no understanding of at all. They're getting better, but I doubt this move against IGE was about "sticking it to the man" or any of that anti-establishment nonsense people still think Blizzard does too. Like that Verizon commercial, PC Gamer is published by The Man.

They did it because it was safe to do. Like passing anti-cellphone-while-driving laws. That's easier to do than address real problems. Banning IGE is easier than trying to drive up readership to lower the number of pages you need to sell for advertising.

It is.  And if you thing his avatar is bad, you should see the whole video!

Alkiera

This a huge supposition.  For the former: What are the real problems?  For he later: I see this as a move to garner brownie points by cutting off a minor revenue stream. Especially, they are scoring  brownie points with other advertisers (many of which are antagonistic to places like IGE).

I don't see how either example can be called a whitewash of "real" problems.

Hehe, you think?! ;)

We talk about what the "real problems" all the time. No need to retread ground there.

Otherwise, we mostly agree. They did it to enhance their rep. The only thing I don't agree with is the part about "cutting off a minor revenue stream." They probably replaced the ad space leaser the moment they dropped IGE, which had to happen a month or two before the issue hit the stands anyway. They're fairly popular, so I don't imagine it's impossible to get new ads.

Not when there are reviews to be sold!

Also, this is a great way to cause problems for SOE's competition in at least one aspect, since SOE does offer a competing service.