RoXer
06-01-2010, 09:38 PM
I just got done playing Halo 3 with Scott Weiland (lead singer of Stone Temple Pilots) and the whole Game With Fame promotion seems...misguided.
I guess I'll summarize the games first. I joined in a lobby and everyone was there and they were all talking over each other trying to get a word in and it was pretty funny at first. Everyone's mic logo was flashing and poor Scott's was silent, not doing anything just rying to grab a hold of the situation. So after a minute we somehow set up teams and start playing and what have you. I killed him a lot. I was going to make a "try shooting him in the arms, he's used to it" comment in the lobby but the guy is one of my favorite musicians so I kept my mouth shut for most of the time. Except when this kid asked when they're making a new album and everyone got on him because the new album was out last week. So he tried to cover it up by saying "I meant after that" where I said "He's an artist. Not a workhorse." And this one guy would not shut the fuck up. He was from somewhere in the south which made it even more annoying with the fucking accent. Scott politely answered his questions but you could tell he was getting peeved. Anyway, he stayed on for an hour, played 3 games and took off. I have some pretty good killcams if other Halo nerds are interested (only Kalyx).
Right so, then I got to thinking... this is a bunch of bullshit. His event was promoted like a week earlier. Out of the millions of XBL users, only 100 get to add him as a friend. And that's only if you were there the second the promotion went up. So it's the first 100 users to see it on the dashboard. They don't even have to be fans really. (Actually 2 of them weren't. Didn't even know who he was.)
And so out of those 100 lucky winners, depending on the game played, only a handful get to play. We lucked out because it was Halo which supports 16 players. But, for example, I remember there was a GWF with Ray Lewis playing Madden (wanted to get on there and tell him he's a murderer). They set aside 2 hours for a celebrity to play. Out of the millions then into lucky 100 people that get chosen only 3 MAYBE 4 get to play a full game of madden against him.
It's just one big crap shoot. I wasn't even on his friends list. I kept looking at his profile and when it went "join in progress", that's what I did. Who knows how many people did it like that. So the lucky 100 may not even be that lucky.
When playing, I noticed he had a guest on. I'm not sure of the actual production of these events (I THINK they do it at a microsoft office and have someone help him) but it needs to run a little more smoothly. He (the guy helping Scott) should have set up private matches and made them short so things ran quicker. Otherwise you get assholes who join after every game (like me. But it wasn't just me. like 8 other did it too.)
All of this big promotion for a quick meet and greet with 16 people? Can someone explain that to me? What is either side getting out of this?
Some tips to make it run better:
- Make sessions longer and games shorter. Have someone helping the celeb actually know what to do. Occasionally, go public in these sessions. How weird would it be to see "StoneTemple GwF" pop up in COD playlist or in RDR or something. They had 2 hours netting slim results.
- Show the games. Youtube, dashboard, twitter, xbox . com. Put videos of their gameplay and maybe some interviews up. Maybe even post their scores and see who can beat it. Like everyone who beats Scott's score in Geometry Wars 2 gets entered into a drawing for a CD or something.
It's a bummer that GWF is useless when it could really be something.
I guess I'll summarize the games first. I joined in a lobby and everyone was there and they were all talking over each other trying to get a word in and it was pretty funny at first. Everyone's mic logo was flashing and poor Scott's was silent, not doing anything just rying to grab a hold of the situation. So after a minute we somehow set up teams and start playing and what have you. I killed him a lot. I was going to make a "try shooting him in the arms, he's used to it" comment in the lobby but the guy is one of my favorite musicians so I kept my mouth shut for most of the time. Except when this kid asked when they're making a new album and everyone got on him because the new album was out last week. So he tried to cover it up by saying "I meant after that" where I said "He's an artist. Not a workhorse." And this one guy would not shut the fuck up. He was from somewhere in the south which made it even more annoying with the fucking accent. Scott politely answered his questions but you could tell he was getting peeved. Anyway, he stayed on for an hour, played 3 games and took off. I have some pretty good killcams if other Halo nerds are interested (only Kalyx).
Right so, then I got to thinking... this is a bunch of bullshit. His event was promoted like a week earlier. Out of the millions of XBL users, only 100 get to add him as a friend. And that's only if you were there the second the promotion went up. So it's the first 100 users to see it on the dashboard. They don't even have to be fans really. (Actually 2 of them weren't. Didn't even know who he was.)
And so out of those 100 lucky winners, depending on the game played, only a handful get to play. We lucked out because it was Halo which supports 16 players. But, for example, I remember there was a GWF with Ray Lewis playing Madden (wanted to get on there and tell him he's a murderer). They set aside 2 hours for a celebrity to play. Out of the millions then into lucky 100 people that get chosen only 3 MAYBE 4 get to play a full game of madden against him.
It's just one big crap shoot. I wasn't even on his friends list. I kept looking at his profile and when it went "join in progress", that's what I did. Who knows how many people did it like that. So the lucky 100 may not even be that lucky.
When playing, I noticed he had a guest on. I'm not sure of the actual production of these events (I THINK they do it at a microsoft office and have someone help him) but it needs to run a little more smoothly. He (the guy helping Scott) should have set up private matches and made them short so things ran quicker. Otherwise you get assholes who join after every game (like me. But it wasn't just me. like 8 other did it too.)
All of this big promotion for a quick meet and greet with 16 people? Can someone explain that to me? What is either side getting out of this?
Some tips to make it run better:
- Make sessions longer and games shorter. Have someone helping the celeb actually know what to do. Occasionally, go public in these sessions. How weird would it be to see "StoneTemple GwF" pop up in COD playlist or in RDR or something. They had 2 hours netting slim results.
- Show the games. Youtube, dashboard, twitter, xbox . com. Put videos of their gameplay and maybe some interviews up. Maybe even post their scores and see who can beat it. Like everyone who beats Scott's score in Geometry Wars 2 gets entered into a drawing for a CD or something.
It's a bummer that GWF is useless when it could really be something.