endorsements
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'Overwatch' update rewards you for commending fellow players
Blizzard is continuing its quest to create a positive Overwatch community and fight toxicity. After a round of testing, the developer has released an update to its class-based shooter that introduces an Endorsements system. Think of it as a rough parallel to League of Legends' Honor: you'll get bonus XP if you endorse a player for outstanding teamwork, and you'll advance in Endorsement levels (up to 5) that you can use to claim rewards. Are you a Mercy main who rarely achieves glory? You may finally get credit where credit's due.
Machinima settles FTC charges over paid Xbox One 'reviews'
Ever watch a YouTube review of a game or console and worry that the reviewer was a little too enthusiastic? You're not alone. Machinima has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it mislead gamers by failing to disclose that Xbox One reviews from YouTube "influencers" (read: popular channels) were really paid promos. Under the terms of the deal, Machinima has to make sure that any promos are clearly disclosed, refuse to pay for those that aren't, and check in on campaigns to make sure that the disclosures haven't vanished. And in case you're wondering: while the FTC has determined that Microsoft and its ad agency were partly responsible, it believes these promos were "isolated incidents" that didn't reflect those two companies' policies.
WIREDoo search engine gets running man stamp of approval (video)
MC Hammer already proved that you only need one hit record. But can you get by with just one search engine? Not if you believe his pitch to the Web 2.0 Summit this week, which promoted a "deep search" technology called WIREDoo. The rapper-approved tool emphasizes relationships rather than keywords, which yields very different results to Google's. Type in 90210, for instance, and instead of pages of links about the TV show, the pre-beta WIREDoo brings up stuff about the neighborhood -- schools, homes, the crime rate and other supposedly useful information. You'll find the full presentation after the break, but don't expect any nostalgic dance moves -- Hammer is serious about this, just like he was about those revolutionary tablets.
Zynga crowns Lady Gaga as FarmVille's newest cash cow
What better way to market a game that isn't really a game than with an artist who isn't really an artist? Such was the rationale, apparently, behind Zynga's recent decision to partner with Lady Gaga, the freshly anointed face of FarmVille. As of May 17th, FarmVille users will be able to take a much-needed break from wasting their lives and visit GagaVille -- a neighboring but equally fake farm full of unicorns, crystals and terrible life decisions. There, visitors will be able to listen to unreleased tracks from Gaga's forthcoming album, Born This Way, which they can also download for "free," once they've dropped $25 of their parents' hard-earned cash on a Zynga gift card. The campaign will mercifully come to an end on May 26th, but not before Diet Madonna extends her corporate leviathan to every corner of Zynga's gaming universe, including Words With Friends, Mafia Wars and anything else your pre-teen cousin spends far too much time playing. Gaga will win. Zynga will win. The human race, on balance, will lose. If you haven't slit your wrists yet, the PR after the break should do the trick.
Symantec mobilizes Snoop Dogg's cybercrime unit
You know what? Snoop has really done more than any technology company has to bring products to new audiences. Back in fifth grade we had no idea what indo was or why anyone would ever want to combine gin and juice; 3 weeks after "Doggystyle" came out we were hooked on both. At the beginning of last year we couldn't fathom our Grandpas asking Snoop for directions in the Caddy...but it happened. So why not make the leap to, you know, hawking desktop and internet security to urban markets? Symantec's Hack is Wack campaign aims to "bring the attention level up...just try to make people aware that these [cyber] crimes are happening." Snoop invites you to "raise awareness by making a rap song about cyber crimes" and uploading a video for judgment on "originality, creativity and message." The winner gets a pair of tickets to see Snoop, a chance to meet his "mgmt/agent" and a Toshiba laptop. It's been a while since we hit the mic or had any antivirus software installed, but he's got us thinking pretty hard about throwing down some rhymes and our credit cards for a copy of Norton 360 v4.0.
Big corporation ruins double rainbow guy for us
We know we're not alone when we say that Paul "Bear" Vasquez made us turn all different colors of happy when we checked out his double rainbow video a few months back. That was awesome. You know what's not awesome? How a team from Microsoft took us "behind the lens" to show how Bear could have used Windows Live to stitch his still photos together to make a panoramic shot of said rainbow. We guess this campaign achieved at least two goals: increased our awareness of Windows Live (now we know that it stitches photos, but not much else) and got Mr. Vasquez a certain (hopefully ridiculous) amount of cash. But to be honest, we didn't really need to see this hawking of a product by someone who had pretty obviously never used it before a team from Redmond knocked on his YouTube account. Awkward, very tightly-edited video after the break. Update: another spot -- where they made him do it again -- also after the break.
