So apparently I was right, and Disney had a very very angry phone call with EA. No less than BOB IGER HIMSELF calling EA and shitting down their throat over the micro-transactions.
But what’s weird about this that I don’t think reddit did it.
I don’t think the attention to it from gaming websites like kotaku and co did it either, tbh.
I think what did it was the small trickle of mainstream media reporting did it, combined with the “I Would Like To Speak To Your Manager” Soccer Mom Disney crowd cause someone spread an infographic about the shit and how long it would take to unlock stuff or how much it would cost to buy Han, Luke, Vader, etc…..through the soccer mom kinda circuit with shit like “SHARE if you’re ASHAMED that a STAR WARS GAME has GAMBLING”
and there’s no way that an actual Facebook Mom made that infographic cause it don’t look like some shit someone’s hobbyist mom made.
I think some very clever person, disgruntled at this shit, or maybe even several clever people, managed to figure out just the right demographic to target to get results from Disney putting pressure on EA because Disney owns the Star Wars license and they’re two things that were precision engineered to get results:
Very heavily marketed towards kids and parents that buy shit for their children
Disney being very VERY notoriously protective of their properties
somebody knew just what buttons to push to get (probably temporary) decisive results
this is really weird because it feels like some early cyperpunk proxy information war. like, you had a lot of the gaming press and EA themselves starting to rev up the “HARASSMENT YOU CAN’T CRITICIZE US BECAUSE HARASSMENT” publicity thing that they were obviously starting up before Disney told EA to stop the microtransactions Or Else.
you’ve got one side/end that was benefiting from that fake EA employee that claimed he was getting death threats and personal attacks from it. this from someone on twitter who was being followed by numerous game journalists, industry insiders, and even actual EA employees. pointedly, EA never actually denied that this was an employee but they obviously didn’t confirm it either, and so they exploited useful idiots like Patrick Kleppek and the others trying to argue harassment, if they aren’t using them directly.
and then this other end that seems to have made Disney and the soccer moms into a cat’s paw to get what they want (the microtransactions to go away)
like, any time in a “nerd interest” if you complain directly to artists, writers, the management line, the game developers, what you’d usually get would be a snarky response from someone with bright pink hair, a shitty beard, or both, and you’d end up on some kind of block list. I think whoever did this KNOWS this and decided to attack the money with a pressure point that they specifically went after through a cat’s paw.
disney doesn’t really care about FPS players or Star Wars fan boys being Mad As Hell about this, but I think they did care about the negative mainstream attention on it from actual gambling commissions in european countries looking into this and angry moms.
this is teaching a pretty interesting lesson to people that don’t like corporate interests that control their comics, their nerd shit, whatever.
if you’re a Geek ™ type, no matter if you play video games or read comics, and you complain directly to people then you’ll be basically told “oh suck it up fanboy” with the unsaid part of this statement being “we know you’ll keep buying this no matter how shit it gets because you’re dumb collectors and slaves to this brand no matter what”
but if you use a mainstream proxy that is a demographic that makes the rights holders or controlling company a ton of money?
they might just do what they want as long as you frame it right.
For those of you wondering, THIS is the infographic in question
Going after the ‘easily offended moms’ group was a stroke of absolute diabolical genius
Go ahead and downvote EA to oblivion and rail them until the cows come home, they’re USED to it! They’ve been consistently voted the worst company in America! This is nothing new to them!
But go after Disney and succeed in making them look bad when their whole empire is built on it’s public image…
Oh, let’s not forget the delicious cherry on top when one of the head honchos in Hawaii compared ‘Disney selling gambling to children’ to Joe Camel selling cigarettes to children
The guile and trickery involved in getting results out of this is something to be admired. This is hands down one of my favorite ‘internet’ moments of all time
Honestly that Facebook Mom™ infographic counts as a full blown legit PSYOP
theclumsiestninja 