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[umiman]

So today, Warner Bros has officially created microtransactions for someone's death.

$3.50 from every purchase of your own collectible ossuary will go to the family. Provided you live in the US. If you don't it just goes to Warner Bros. Oh, and the remainder of the cost of the tasteful reminder of the demise of not only this dude, but gaming itself, will go to WB too.

It's kinda funny how they did this. Normally when people feel sad about someone dying, they might send some of their own money over to the grieving widow or orphans or what have you.

In WB's case, they send some of YOUR money over to the grieving widow or orphans or what have you. And they keep some of it. Hurr.

[nenjin]

Jesus.

A touching memorial that has to be shit on by the need to make even more fucking money. Why not just, I dunno, give all the money to their widow?

Or better yet just put him in the game and have it have zero to do with fucking money what so ever.

[Levi]

Yeah, that is pretty messed up.

[scriver]

Yeah, I felt it was completely beyond the pale at first there, but once I saw that it was for one of their own employees... I dunno, it feels different to me. I don't really mind a company holding a fundraiser for their own who's passed, with or without an ingame-incentive.

Warner Bros taking a cut still sits very wrong, though.

[Chiefwaffles]

This is why I hate charity bake sales.

I mean, selling things for charity? How grossly unethical. If money is going through charity which has been obtained through methods that aren't pure donation, I'll call ACLU every time.

(/s)

[umiman]

This is why I hate charity bake sales.

I mean, selling things for charity? How grossly unethical. If money is going through charity which has been obtained through methods that aren't pure donation, I'll call ACLU every time.

(/s)

Go make a charity bake sale where each cookie is the face of the dead person you're raising money for and tell me how it goes. Oh, and make sure to keep any money that isn't from your street for yourself. And keep a portion of the proceeds for yourself anyway.

Oh, and use it to market your latest hot product SCAM-ME-8000.

[nenjin]

It's exploitation of a dead man for the sake of sales.

Especially for what they're telling non-US residents. "Help "spread the word" by buying the DLC." I.e, "help American consumers consider buying the DLC by buying it yourself and giving 100% of your proceeds directly to WB."

Any philathropic claims WB makes goes out the window, especially when they're actively marketing it that way to non-US buyers (unless they happened to read the fine print on the bottom of the video and know their purchase does fuck all to help the widow and family.) Wanna guess by the end of 2019 when they will no longer give her proceeds from sales, where the bulk of the purchases worldwide will have been made?

There is no way this is not morally and ethically bankrupt on WB's part. They've deliberately concealed their profit angle on a dead man's memorial. They're using its "charitable" nature as a selling point to people who can't actually help the family!

I remember when a good online friend of mine, who a was big personality in the City of Heroes MMO, killed himself. What did the company do? Created an NPC and put him in the game. They didn't try to make money off his memory.

This might be the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I've wanted to get this game badly despite all the nonsense publisher interference but I don't know if I can buy in even partially good conscious now.

[Teneb]

I think WB just reached a new level of scum.

Konami, EA, Ubisoft. None of their bullshit is even close to this.

[Dunamisdeos]

Yeah a bake sale is people spending their own money to buy materials that can be sold for more money than they put into it, all of which is then put towards the charity in question. Effectively they are multiplying their own donation.

The main thing that makes this different is the people at the bake sale aren't keeping part of the cash to recoup their "losses". A bake sale is  a donation through and through.

The only argument I can think of in WB favor is that they are selling ossuaries not cupcakes, which have a much higher cost to make and therefore a higher end donation, thereby justifying the taking of money by WB to cover the cost of the ossuary production. In order for this to be an effective argument they would have to carefully only take back the money that it cost to make the things, and I feel like that is probably not happening.

EA and Ubisoft, in my mind, simply haven't had the opportunity.

[Chiefwaffles]

The guy's family will be getting money from this. I couldn't care less if WB happens to be making money too.

Because ultimately, that's what matters. The family definitely wouldn't be helped nearly as much if WB just put the guy's name at the forefront of the credits or made a somber announcement about it. While I definitely think that ideally all of the money should go to the family (and I assume the location restrictions are at least partially legally-based, with the exclusion of random states), what matters to me is that a substantial portion of profits will go to the family.

[Dunamisdeos]

Yeah, you're right, it is important to make note that it is primarily helping the family. At least I hope that's the way the ratio swings. I admit to being notably (...over?) cynical when it comes to any action taken by any corporation.

[umiman]

No, no he's not.

Just being charitable doesn't excuse massive greed. Sure, it would be fine if a majority of the profits went to the family. But this is a fucking tax write off + game promotion using someone's corpse to exploit people.

You want to know why they don't allow those states and the rest of the fucking world "aka, where practically every single living human that isn't American lives, which is hard to understand for the average American" isn't included in this? Because fucking WB can't write it off as a tax benefit to help themselves. That's fucking why they don't donate the profits from those sales and keep it for themselves. And they don't even tell you this. They only mention those states. The rest of the world? Nah, check our twitter bro.

Why the hell do they take such a massive cut from the sales of this? THIRTY PERCENT! THIRTY!!!! And that's not even including the rest of the entire fucking world, which, as I mentioned before, repeatedly, THEY TAKE EVERYTHING.

They are deliberately using a dead man to profit themselves through a tax writeoff, to promote a shitfest of an anti-consumer game which has gone out of its way to try and trump Evolve in the most exploitative game in the world, and to profit themselves through sheer greed.

Sure, the family gets some money out of this and that's nice, but the fuckfest they're doing to give them that money is pure trash.

Do you know what the legal term for this is? It's fraud and tax avoidance (which, by the way, is not illegal). Just because you mask it in a charitable act doesn't make it good. If it did, we should probably just forgive all those mob bosses, fraudsters, and other shitholes who put a little bit of their money to help out charitable organizations to improve their image. Except here they're not putting their own money are they? WB is guilting YOU into donating for them while they rake in the money.

This is pure scum.

---------

Actually. Fuck this. I'm not even done. I'm pissed the fuck off. Every single day these shitstain devs find more ways to ruin my hobby.

Why in the bloody fuck is everybody celebrating giving charity to this guy's family to begin with?

Let me point out several things.

1. He was the executive producer at one of the largest entertainment companies in the world. Under no circumstances was he not well off.
2. WB has excellent healthcare benefits.

What the fuck? Why does he need donations?! All the medical bills would have been covered! He would have life insurance! Executive producer!!!!!!!

Are we going to donate to Kanye West when he dies?

Give the money to actual cancer research or something. Hell, give it to Toady One. He helped the world so much more than this executive producer of microtransactions has ever done.

[Aklyon]

If you're going to make a charitable thing, don't leave holes in it big enough to drive through like 'charity only applicable to US purchases'

Then you just look like an ass who expects people to not look too closely at it.

[Dunamisdeos]

Yeah, if all of that is true then it is 100% a level of horrible scum that is rarely reached.

U got some links to those facts umiman? I am interested in additional details.

[umiman]

Yeah, if all of that is true then it is 100% a level of horrible scum that is rarely reached.

U got some links to those facts umiman? I am interested in additional details.

What would you like to know more about? I kinda put a lot of stuff in there.