March Mayhem: Turbine, Zynga, and Valve; and an ethical question.

[JC175]

Before I begin here, let me preface by saying that this is not a criticism of Zynga or Turbine and the tactics they have used in this year and last year's March Mayhem tournaments.

I could go on for ages about this, but I want to keep the discussion simple. In last year's March Mayhem Turbine was able to take out the top spot primarily due to the fact that they directly contacted the users of its games and asked them to vote in the competition. Other nominated studios did not do this; or at least did not do this to the same extent, and the fact that Turbine arguably used this method to win was a sore point among many within the community.

This year it seems that Zynga is heading for similar territory with their recent victory over Infinity Ward and their use of similar tactics.

The question that I pose to you then is this. Let's take a look at Valve, a developer for whom there is much love within the Escapist community. If Valve decided to send a message to every Steam user on login reqesting that they vote for Valve in the respective March Mayhem match up, would your response be the same as it currently is towards Zynga and/or Turbine?

Basically what I'm trying to gauge here is what people have the most problem with - the fan base of the developers, or the developers themselves. Share your thoughts, but be rational. No flaming, please.

 

[Shockolate]

March Madness is just a big popularity contest that anyone and everyone can vote for. As long as it isn't Cheating, they can do whatever they want.

 

[Zannah]

If valve did this, nobody cared, because unlike Zynga, valve makes good games (they do make "games" to begin with). The big, big problem I have with the way Zynga is winning, is that their votes come (almost) exclusively from people who never encountered videogames beyond facebook-timesink, and are in for the offered benefits - if two "proper" developers, like say capcom and bethesda, would both rally everyone, and offer a little dlc-something to all their players if they won - I assume we would all be okay with it, because both companies have done something beyond scamming, that puts them in the position of earning a possible win.
(That's just my impression - "rallying the troops" is part of the fun, problem is Zynga isn't so much a game developer as it is impersonated evil. Imagine theres a proper writers contest, and than stephenie meyer, who can't write to save her life, shows up and ruins it for everybody, by flooding the contest with her twelve year old fanbase, who wouldn't know proper literature from toilet paper)
So no, sending in the fanbase is not ethically questionable - being in a contest where you shouldn't have been in to begin with, than sending in everything that can still walk, might however be "questionable".

 

[drisky]

I think they get the same hate as anyone who dose not what them to win, because they feel they don't have a chance. But Zynga a different story because a lot of them dont game out side facebook, not even nintendo. I saw a few post that they didn't even know what they were voting for. Because of things like that Zynga has angered like 95% of the escapist commuinity, Valve would piss off about 50%, which now that I think of it, would do a lot more damage to the community.

 

[Anticitizen_Two]

If Valve did that, nobody would complain for a second.

And if we had rep, you'd be getting some for a very good question.

 

[azncutthroat]

Why shouldn't developers be able to advertise to their players?

That's like saying politicians using political advertisements would be cheating as well.

 

[lacktheknack]

Absolutely. I'd drop my vote on them right then and there.

I know it's technically allowed, but I don't think it is conductive of a popularity contest.

 

[DethPenguin]

They did this for Gordon Freeman in the Gamespot Hero of the Year thing. Except they sent the ad in Steam Advertisements only when Gordon made it to the finals against Mario. Personally, I couldn't care less, especially since Valve deserves the votes more than anyone.

 

[aPod]

I said it before and i'll say it again,

Zynga, Turbine, create more buzz for the competition this way and more traffic for the Escapist i am all for it, does it really matter? Some of my favorite studios are already out of the competition and im not complaining. Firaxis

Is it cheating? Thats up to the people who created the competition and from what i understand its prefectly fine to advertise the competition. Admit it, whats really pissing everyone off is casual gamers stomping all over hardcore gamers.

Just saying, its all in good fun and bigger profit margins for the escapist = even better shows, maybe even something on Tuesday!!! ZOMGoSH.

 

[Dexiro]

I think it should be more about the skill of the developers and not the size of their fanbase.

It's probably not entirely a good thing just to ignore Zygna bribing players to vote either.
Sure the world isn't gonna end if they get close to winning, but each time they do win a round it's basically giving the developer and all of it's fans an ego boost.

The last thing i want to see is an influx of Farmville fans trying to give dedicated gamers lectures on "what a good game is".

 

[khaimera]

I really couldn't care less, just as long as when this whole thing is over, there's no fallout from it.

Why no, I don't like March Mayhem, how did you guess?

In answer to your question though, I would be annoyed, yes. Especially since it is just a silly competition. I respect the developers who let their legitimate users decide on their own volition rather than nudging them.

I agree with all of this. I really can't understand why anybody on here cares about this contest. Its like the lame character battle on gamefaqs and every other video game website.

 

[TimeLord]

I was unaware of any of this before reading this thread and all I have to say is....

"Zynga recent victory over Infinity Ward"

How did that happen? I'm confused and terrified

 

[tomservo4prezident]

Zynga's army of casual gamers are coming for the Escapist! RUN!

 

[PeterDawson]

Campaigning has been the bane of award shows/contests for decades. Ever wondered why Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan for best picture? Same reason why The Reader got a best picture nomination, Hurt Locker beat Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Up and District 9 this year and why Turbine is so surprisingly popular: the producers know how to campaign.

 

[Davrel]

I simply don't care about March Madness at all. I have no vested interest in the outcome of the contest and thus no reason to engage with it.

In fact I'm not entirely sure what the point of it is...other than a lame attempt to drag people to a website to defend their fan-boy crush and possibly click on the advertising.

 

[Flamestorm06]

Competitions like these have always been, and always will be popularity contests. I figure Zynga advertising for itself is the same as putting up flyers around your school for someone running for student council.

 

[Terry576]

Valve probably wouldn't. Hell, Valve, Bioware, and Turbine are probably getting emails spammed about Zynga.

The main reason for why we all loathe it so much, is that Zynga is offering rewards. Sure, that's cool if it's a REAL company. But Zynga just draws crappily, or rips the image of a gun off google, BOOM new content. It takes MONTHS for places like Valve to give new content.

 

[Meggiepants]

Although I am voting in the MM, I can't really get worked up about it too much if my choices don't win. It's more of a vote of support for my favorite companies than anything else. Though, for some reason Zynga winning anything is a little annoying, kind of like a pebble in your shoe level of annoying.

But then I think of the number of games I have purchased from Zynga (zero). And I think of the number of games I have purchased from many of the other companies who have already lost their bracket (too many to count). Then I think of how many games Zynga is likely going to be able to sell me if they win MM.(zero)

Then I feel a little better.

Edit:I don't know that what they are doing could be called cheating, but it does ring as a little desperate.

 

[spinFX]

I doubt any sound minded person would agree Zynga is as good as Valve/Bioware/Blizzard.

You see the problem is these casual gamers have never played any of these games. And even i f they did and they didn't like them then surely they'd notice the effort put into them.

Argh MM is worse this year than last year/ At least Turbine will get some of it's own medicine when it faces Zynga.