[360] Help Bungie help Haiti~

I noticed a similar thing with Modern Warfare 2 over christmas. A company decides to take advantage of the tax breaks associated with charitable donations but rather than just give the money straight to charity, they dress it up in some stupid pay-per-play thing, thereby turning the worthy act of charitable giving into a semi-decent advertising scheme. I think it's fucking cynical and pretty low to be honest, even for ad-men.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Encephalon

I think the idea of raising awareness of something to people who would otherwise not care through an otherwise unconventional medium is rather good. But I don't know, I'm just a dick like that.

Raise awareness sure but don't pretend like any of the kids who'll be picking up Halo 3 for a few games this weekend instead of glitching their way through a few MW2 matches are going to donate any money as a result and frankly, with the news coverage the earthquake is getting you'd pretty much have to be living in a box not to know about it and then how would you know about Bungie's "Charitable event".

This really is the lowest form of advertising in my opinion and it's not just Bungie who do it. Tesco do it all the time and I can think of at least three products you can buy at the moment that'll give a couple of pence to charity if you do.

$70,000 or whatever they say the maximum they'll give out is is pretty much peanuts to Bungie and is tax deductible so will only cost them half that in real terms. I'm sure the revenue from people buying the latest map packs to play Halo 3 online over the weekend will more than cover that, which of course is why they did it, along with getting a few more Halo 3 players to buy ODST.

If you really want to help earthquake victims, be a hero and give money to Oxfam.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Fine, whatever. It's a time honoured marketing ploy, used repeatedly by large corporations the world over but don't let that influence you. I'm not saying don't play Halo, I'm just saying don't make out like Bungie are doing something worthy here purely out of the goodness of their own hearts and I'll say again, if you really want to do something to help the earthquake victims, send some money to a charity. Why not send the $60 you were going to spend on Halo Reach for example?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I just think it's abig wrong of companies to use human suffering as an advertising ploy is all.

Fair enough, they're not overly publicising this like happened with MW2 (TV ads for a couple of weeks) but it's definitly a publicity stunt. That they're donating the money at all is of course a good thing but personally, I'd see it as a more charitable thing if they didn't dress it up in this whole play our game and we'll donate thing. That this nicely bridges the publicity gap between ODST coming out and Reach coming out in a few months is convenient for them as they can get more people playing Halo and in the mood for the next game.

And yes, Tails is right, unbridled cynicism is a national passtime here. Omagnus seems to have picked up on your American seeing only the good in people gene but the rest of us are more or less like me.

And you know all this talk of playing Halo has made me really tempted to buy ODST...

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Cadillacs

WHAT.

It was a polite way of saying "Childlike naivity".

I was speaking idiomatically.

Ok, ok, I'm sorry for coming across as a dick. It's a personal bug bear of mine and Daravon does have a point.

At the risk of sounding like the biggest hypocrite of all time, playing Halo with a bunch of people again would be fun, with or without the allusions of charity.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Of course, if I have to buy any map-packs to make my game current I reserve the right for at least a quiet "I told you so".

ODST is available new from Amazon for £20 at the moment if anyone (In the UK) is like me tempted to pick it up. I can't see it getting much cheaper than that and GAME's second hand copies cost more than that at the moment.

Edit: Or £15 on Ebay, score! I did use Paypal's donate button to send a fiver to the Earthquake appeal while I was there though. I figured after this thread it was the least I could do.

FELIPE NO

I was bang up for playing last night, got ODST and everything, then our router decided to shit it's pants and I was offline till I went to bed at three in the morning. Still, I finished off about three Fallout achievement quests so the night wasn't a complete loss...

I might be online later tonight if the router plays ball, although I am heavily pissed/stoned/high so won't be capable of playing straight.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I kno wyou want my cock, buddy, but like I said before, don't touch what you can't afford.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

We need to set up a free for all match on Heretic, pistols only, no shields, King of the Hill 3 minutes or so. Sounds simple but with 10 or more people in the room it takes literally hours but is awesome fun.

How ya doing, buddy?

Yep. One hit, spray and pray kills appeal to me right now.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.