WB is using the death of an employe to make money

[Dansen]

A couple days ago WB released a video advertising DLC for a unique orc called Forthog Orc-Slayer. This Orc is based off of deceased producer Michael Forgey who died of cancer last year. $3.50 of every $5.00 sold of this DLC is going to the family of the deceased. Seems nice enough.


What they hide in small print is that only purchases made in the U.S. and even then certain states are excluded(including mine). That means that all purchases of this DLC outside of the U.S. and select states are going straight into the pocket of WB. They also don't talk about how they are probably looking to get a nice tax break from the U.S. purchases on top of the profits from out of the country.

This is fucking disgusting, WB is actually using a dead employe to grab at more cash on top of the micro transactions. I feel sorry for Monolith being shackled to the assholes at WB because it looks like the are trying to deliver a good sequel, but that is being overshadowed by the publisher's scumminess. I was probably going to buy the game day 1 and ignore the micro transactions depending on the reviews but now I am going to buy it used so that WB gets none of my money.

 

[SupahEwok]

Slow down there champ, it could be for legal reasons. Different states and different countries have different laws regarding charity and what you can do with money you get from selling stuff. There's no reason to cherry pick out Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and South Carolina otherwise. You see this all the time with promotions and sales, "offer void in X, Y, Z", etc.

 

[Erttheking]

Slow down there champ, it could be for legal reasons. Different states and different countries have different laws regarding charity and what you can do with money you get from selling stuff. There's no reason to cherry pick out Alabama, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, and South Carolina otherwise. You see this all the time with promotions and sales, "offer void in X, Y, Z", etc.

Yeah, I get that, but here's the thing. Disclosure is king. And if I had felt guilty for this guy's family and bought this DLC, I may have missed the micro text at the bottom at the screen that says, because I live in MA, my purchase doesn't count for anything. That is scummy. If they really cared about this guy's family, they would have made the text more noticeable, at least on par with the text saying his family gets 70% of the proceeds.

People want to be able to donate to charity without being concerned about the wool being pulled over their eyes, and WB is making it hard to do that.

Plus, you know, Shadow of War has already left a bad taste in people's mouths with all the slimy, greedy shit that has been pulled with it.

 

[CaitSeith]

You are still free to wire money to his family though. As it has already been said: different states/countries have different laws for charities. These are made so companies don't pull out con disguised as charity (isn't it ironic in some way?)

 

[SupahEwok]

Also, it just occurred to me that the Valve cut on Steam is 30%. The console stores are probably similar. 30% of $5 is actually $1.50, which means that WB is actually giving all of their profit from this thing to charity. In the territories where this offer is valid.

Yeah, I get that, but here's the thing. Disclosure is king. And if I had felt guilty for this guy's family and bought this DLC, I may have missed the micro text at the bottom at the screen that says, because I live in MA, my purchase doesn't count for anything. That is scummy. If they really cared about this guy's family, they would have made the text more noticeable, at least on par with the text saying his family gets 70% of the proceeds.

Niggle all you want, but these kind of legal disclosures are never expounded on up front by anybody. When you watch a commercial, and it's got that muted voice at the end that says that the offer isn't valid in Alaska, do they spend the next 3 minutes going over the intricacy of charity and business laws that preclude why the deal isn't open for Alaskans? Nope. It's a waste of most people's time and space for their commercial.

From what I gather, there's plenty else to ***** about this game, but you and OP are really forcing this one. They're giving all of the money they make from this thing to charity, except to certain states which they list in their disclosure agreement, which is completely standard over the entire service sector. That is significantly more charitable than the vast majority of publishers and DLC deals.

 

[Saelune]

...Its still more money than other games that have honored the dead.

Morrowind had what? 4 different items named after people who died during production. Like, you can find (and loot) urns with "their" ashes.

 

[Dansen]

Also, it just occurred to me that the Valve cut on Steam is 30%. The console stores are probably similar. 30% of $5 is actually $1.50, which means that WB is actually giving all of their profit from this thing to charity. In the territories where this offer is valid.

Yeah, I get that, but here's the thing. Disclosure is king. And if I had felt guilty for this guy's family and bought this DLC, I may have missed the micro text at the bottom at the screen that says, because I live in MA, my purchase doesn't count for anything. That is scummy. If they really cared about this guy's family, they would have made the text more noticeable, at least on par with the text saying his family gets 70% of the proceeds.

Niggle all you want, but these kind of legal disclosures are never expounded on up front by anybody. When you watch a commercial, and it's got that muted voice at the end that says that the offer isn't valid in Alaska, do they spend the next 3 minutes going over the intricacy of charity and business laws that preclude why the deal isn't open for Alaskans? Nope. It's a waste of most people's time and space for their commercial.

From what I gather, there's plenty else to ***** about this game, but you and OP are really forcing this one. They're giving all of the money they make from this thing to charity, except to certain states which they list in their disclosure agreement, which is completely standard over the entire service sector. That is significantly more charitable than the vast majority of publishers and DLC deals.

Niggle all you want they could put the disclaimer they had at the same sized font as the rest of the text.

Its an excuse to get tax breaks. This DLC wouldn't exist if Forgey died after development. WB isn't doing this out of the goodness of their hearts. If they were they wouldn't be pocketing the money from sales outside of the U.S.

I used to work in retail and during the summer we sold these fund raiser scratch tickets to customers for a dollar. They could win a small cash prize and product from the store. Nobody ever won cash, there was only like twenty of those prizes across our region. People did win the product prizes(glorified coupons) and they always had stipulations that you needed to spend a certain amount in order to redeem the ticket. They basically ensured that they were making back the sale value of the product with the purchases to negate loses. Factor in the fact that they were definitely getting a nice tax break off this and you have a company making money off of charity.

This DLC is more or less the same thing and it just bothers me a bit. Ultimately its not a huge problem or anything, the world will keep on spinning. I just though I would raise awareness about this for people to decide for themselves to support this or not.

 

[Deadguy2322]

How does an American not know to put the dollar sign BEFORE the amount? It is $5.00, $3.50 and $1.50.

 

[Lufia Erim]

You are making a moutain out of a molehill. Like ultimately what difference does it make.

 

[Dansen]

You are making a moutain out of a molehill. Like ultimately what difference does it make.

This DLC is more or less the same thing and it just bothers me a bit. Ultimately its not a huge problem or anything, the world will keep on spinning. I just though I would raise awareness about this for people to decide for themselves to support this or not.

I was a bit impassioned when I wrote the thread. Sleazy business practices set me off.

 

[Saelune]

How does an American not know to put the dollar sign BEFORE the amount? It is $5.00, $3.50 and $1.50.

I can only speak for myself, but when I put it at the end, its cause I type the number then remember Im typing cash, and add the $ after, and dont bother to move it.

ie, forgetfulness and laziness.

But thats me.

 

[Neverhoodian]

I'm torn. On the one hand, any type of charitable act like this is laudable on some level. As Saelune pointed out, it's better than nothing at all.

On the other hand, WB keeping part of the earnings (to say nothing of pocketing the purchases from certain states/foreign countries in their entirety) reeks of profiting off of the dead. Combine this with the laundry list of exploitative, anti-consumer practices WB plans to implement for the game and it's understandable that this latest development would set people off their rocker something fierce.

TotalBiscuit weighed in on this, [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVM5g4MFnzs] and I think he has probably the best solution to this: politely message WB asking them to match the money earned and donate it to a related charity of some sort. It would go a long way towards defusing this latest PR snafu.

Or, y'know, bypass WB entirely and donate directly to the family.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Slow down there champ, it could be for legal reasons.

No. Because if WB wanted to, they could choose to donate all the profit from the DLC to his family, or to donate the same amount of money that they make on the DLC to the family. There are ways to make this work, and they chose not to. But I don't think they did it because they're malicious. I think that they simply don't care.

 

[Jandau]

First of all, they could have made it free DLC. Yes, DLC can be free. Many companies do it and somehow manage to stay in business. And between the AAA price tag, the season pass, the microtransaction lootcrates and the sponsorship deals, MAYBE they could have eaten the "loss" and tossed this one piece of (fairly small) DLC out for free. God knows WB could use some good PR after the recent months/weeks...

Secondly, even if they can't donate the money for legal reasons, I honestly don't see what's stopping them from being more up front about the whole thing. I mean, they have no problems stating that proceeds from every purchase go to the family, why does the disclaimer have to be in small print? Well, we KNOW why that bit is in small print, but I'd like to hear the devil's advocates try to justify it.

Third, even if they can't donate the profits directly, they most likely can in some way pay out a proportional sum to the family. But they chose not to.

Basically, it's a shitty way to handle it, it's a ghoulish thing to do in general, and I don't really see how it's defensible...

 

[taltamir]

I am amazed people can defend this.

Also, the "legal reasons" argument is nonsense, doesn't explain the tiny print, doesn't explain why they are keeping 30%, and doesn't explain why they aren't donating the money in those excluded states and nations to charities. Because the notion that the 44 states in the USA are the only places where charity is allowed is utter freaking nonsense.