Ah, seriously though -
When this game started I was a big proponent - I would hazard to say "brand advocate."
Thing is, I've worked for digital agencies before, and so I know how this all went down. See, Hasbro's earnings are down, so they want people thinking "Monopoly" during the holiday season. See, people think "Monopoly" and then they think "Christmas" and the logical next step is to buy Monopoly for Christmas.
Now, many of you have suggested that Tribal DDB, the digital agency responsible for this mess, is somehow going to wind up looking bad in the end. Thing is, that's not how it works. See, Hasbro isn't really reading this blog - at least, not anyone with any power or significance. They have better things to do than read replies on a blog created by a team of developers working for their digital agency.
No, what's going to happen is that Tribal DDB is going to make a report to Hasbro that says "X million players logged on and played the game." And Hasbro is going to say "What a success!" Because in the end, all they care about is the numbers.
Now, any number of us griefers can say "My opinion of Hasbro has diminished because of the way that Monopoly City Streets fiasco was handled." And that's all very well and good, but the numbers are going to be what wins out in the end. Nobody's recording how many people say in a blog's comments that they're frustrated with Hasbro - instead, Tribal DDB is busy making reports and charts and graphs so that they can show Hasbro that their money was well spent.
Tribal DDB is a marketing agency, an offshot of DDB, whose reach and reputation is stellar. Spinning numbers is what they do. And they're going to spin these numbers.
Do yourselves a favor - drop the outrage. Go buy Sim City 4 and play a real city building game. Complaining on this blog isn't going to get anyone anywhere - it won't even get the game developers in trouble, as we hope it will.
At least, not until the media picks up on it. Anyone feel like shooting off an email to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch or the guys over at Mashable? One or two well-placed negative articles on those well-read websites would put a huge black eye on Tribal DDB (and a well-deserved one, let me just say).
In closing:
WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?!!
When this game started I was a big proponent - I would hazard to say "brand advocate."
Thing is, I've worked for digital agencies before, and so I know how this all went down. See, Hasbro's earnings are down, so they want people thinking "Monopoly" during the holiday season. See, people think "Monopoly" and then they think "Christmas" and the logical next step is to buy Monopoly for Christmas.
Now, many of you have suggested that Tribal DDB, the digital agency responsible for this mess, is somehow going to wind up looking bad in the end. Thing is, that's not how it works. See, Hasbro isn't really reading this blog - at least, not anyone with any power or significance. They have better things to do than read replies on a blog created by a team of developers working for their digital agency.
No, what's going to happen is that Tribal DDB is going to make a report to Hasbro that says "X million players logged on and played the game." And Hasbro is going to say "What a success!" Because in the end, all they care about is the numbers.
Now, any number of us griefers can say "My opinion of Hasbro has diminished because of the way that Monopoly City Streets fiasco was handled." And that's all very well and good, but the numbers are going to be what wins out in the end. Nobody's recording how many people say in a blog's comments that they're frustrated with Hasbro - instead, Tribal DDB is busy making reports and charts and graphs so that they can show Hasbro that their money was well spent.
Tribal DDB is a marketing agency, an offshot of DDB, whose reach and reputation is stellar. Spinning numbers is what they do. And they're going to spin these numbers.
Do yourselves a favor - drop the outrage. Go buy Sim City 4 and play a real city building game. Complaining on this blog isn't going to get anyone anywhere - it won't even get the game developers in trouble, as we hope it will.
At least, not until the media picks up on it. Anyone feel like shooting off an email to Michael Arrington at TechCrunch or the guys over at Mashable? One or two well-placed negative articles on those well-read websites would put a huge black eye on Tribal DDB (and a well-deserved one, let me just say).
In closing:
WHOSE RESPONSIBLE THIS?!!
Source: Monopoly City Streets Blog
I still haven't finished my turn from last night because I have been hesitant to focus on developing yet another game strategy for fear that my game play will be wiped out by another capricious rule change from the game developers.
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