Death threats are obviously inexcusable. This shouldn't even have to be said.
But this is a classic PR strategy. When you do something that makes many people very angry, all you have to do is wait for someone to say something incivil. Then make headlines with whatever it is they said.
Then the message shifts to how you've been wronged. And any time anyone complains or argues against what you did, associate the critic with the death threats and demand that they distance themselves from them. At this point there is no way for the critic to be heard again, and the line of inquiry is broken. Either they halt their criticism and turn to apologizing for something they didn't have anything to do with, exactly as if they were responsible - or they can be effectively smeared as supporting or even responsible for death threats. If not that individual, then whatever group they are part of can be effectively stereotyped as vicious animals who make death threats.
For example, this is what the Adria Richards people did when it became apparent that their case was controversial and Richards' actions were subject to criticism: they changed the subject to death threats, and the conversation of the original event never really resumed.
Actually, nobody really even has to say anything incivil in reality. It only has to be plausible that SOMEONE might send a death threat. (This is ALWAYS plausible; there are so many crazy people out there.) Then it's easy to claim or fake the evidence.
I agree with you that it looks like a legitimate PR strategy, but in this case I don't buy that.
Look at the context of how this info was delivered. This wasn't some response to a journalist or a press release, it was a reply to a reddit thread that Palmer has frequently chatted on. At around about the same time that evening he also went in to if Star Wars lore about the Expanded Universe was being killed by Disney or not, or if Yuuzhan Vong was a force power in the balance prophecy. It seems unlikely this was a centrally masterminded PR strategy but just someone saying what was on their mind at the time. He may have good PR instincts, although even thinking that seems cynical to me, and it seems random enough to be an honest comment.
Yep. If they're really receiving death threats, that's something they take up with the authorities. Articles like this are just a transparent attempt at getting brand sympathy. They do nothing else.
Unfortunately death threats are a very real and toxic problem in the gaming community. I'd say not only is it believable, but both Oculus and Facebook were somewhat naïve for not expecting them. Or perhaps they weren't expecting the stalking and harassment to be serious.
Either way, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because it does commonly happen and they have every right to be annoyed about it.
I am a person. I have never had a death threat. If I get a death threat, I would probably be rather upset, and inclined to say something about it. I don't think there is too much else going on here.
It's pretty embarrassing for them that their response is incredulousness. Facebook is largely regarded as a necessary evil by many people, especially technical folks, and yet these guys are surprised that people might worry that you'll need a Facebook account in order to use it? Or that Facebook will insert some microcode or firmware doing satan-knows-what and requiring authorization for any usage? That's not paranoia or irrational hand wringing; it's exactly the kind of thing these folks are up to because their business model isn't charging for a service, it's selling people's information to other businesses.
But death threats are not acceptable. I just wanted to respond to my shock at learning the Oculus guys were so surprised. Clearly they do not understand how Facebook is regarded outside of some wine parties in the Valley.
Jesus Christ. Death threats? Harassing phone calls to their families?
I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from.
But death threats? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??
There are hundreds of thousands if not millions of people responding to this news - why wouldn't some of them just be crazy?
There's no reason to think that this is widespread or representative of the general response. However, they're expecting that people like you will distract the conversation from their terrible business move by worriedly talking about how a small portion of the response is from crazy people, and surely we must do something about it!
In the 80's when source code for programming books was distributed on floppies I had irate people track me down and spew vitriol at me because they thought my examples didn't compile. Of course it was because they were too cheap to buy the diskette and they had typos. So, yeah, I expect somebody made threats. Whenever you do something in public some people are going to say intemperate things. As others here have pointed out, making yourself out to be a martyr because of that is a ploy to get sympathy.
This is very common in the game industry, unfortunately, and Oculus so far has only sold and marketed their product to early adopters, many of which are hardcore gamers. It happens to both AAA and indie game developers(http://www.polygon.com/2013/8/15/4622252/plague-of-game-dev-...) regularly. Attacks like this are inexcusible, but in no way surprise me. In fact I'd be surprised if Palmer didn't get any death threats, considering the internet reaction to the FB acquisition.
I'm not surprised. I quit playing multi-player online games (Starcraft) because of excessive violence threats and verbal abuse. It's an unfortunate side effect of the gaming community, and I feel the Oculus appealed to that community.
Actually my first thought was also, "well, it is targeted toward gamers". But Starcraft? Was your handle "uglyblacklesbianexxonexecutive"? I play starcraft II almost every day and I find the community very polite. The worst I ever see is occasional gloating after a victory or accusations of cheating in defeat. Most matches the only chat is "glhf" and "gg".
Oculus VR was in trouble soon as Sony and Microsoft started to develop very quickly their own VR headsets. There was just very little market let for Oculus VR that mattered. I think they basically took advantage of Facebook with some grand and likely unrealistic vision.
I would be surprised if Oculus VR ever lives up to its vision. Rather we will be using Sony and Microsoft VR headsets in the next decade if VR does in fact go mainstream for gamers -- which is still up in the air I think.
How can you make such predictive statements when not one of the companies you've mentioned has actually released their consumer product? There was no market grab by Sony or Microsoft because there is no market currently operating.
Another widespread phenomenon the internet and after it social media facilitated, the ability to send death threats to people "hiding" being a computer (or a fake identity). Much easier than doing it in person. It is unfortunate that for every good discovery or invention, there is always a way to exploit it for less compassionate means, like greed, bullying (death threats included), criminal activities.. True that if we stopped in our innovation tracks just because of possible negative effects, we'd still be using sticks and stones, but it seems that as much as technology as a whole has greatly evolved, common sense and compassion is still not something that comes instinctively to a lot of people in this world.
[+] [-] pekk|12 years ago|reply
But this is a classic PR strategy. When you do something that makes many people very angry, all you have to do is wait for someone to say something incivil. Then make headlines with whatever it is they said.
Then the message shifts to how you've been wronged. And any time anyone complains or argues against what you did, associate the critic with the death threats and demand that they distance themselves from them. At this point there is no way for the critic to be heard again, and the line of inquiry is broken. Either they halt their criticism and turn to apologizing for something they didn't have anything to do with, exactly as if they were responsible - or they can be effectively smeared as supporting or even responsible for death threats. If not that individual, then whatever group they are part of can be effectively stereotyped as vicious animals who make death threats.
For example, this is what the Adria Richards people did when it became apparent that their case was controversial and Richards' actions were subject to criticism: they changed the subject to death threats, and the conversation of the original event never really resumed.
Actually, nobody really even has to say anything incivil in reality. It only has to be plausible that SOMEONE might send a death threat. (This is ALWAYS plausible; there are so many crazy people out there.) Then it's easy to claim or fake the evidence.
[+] [-] daviding|12 years ago|reply
Look at the context of how this info was delivered. This wasn't some response to a journalist or a press release, it was a reply to a reddit thread that Palmer has frequently chatted on. At around about the same time that evening he also went in to if Star Wars lore about the Expanded Universe was being killed by Disney or not, or if Yuuzhan Vong was a force power in the balance prophecy. It seems unlikely this was a centrally masterminded PR strategy but just someone saying what was on their mind at the time. He may have good PR instincts, although even thinking that seems cynical to me, and it seems random enough to be an honest comment.
[+] [-] daenz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] teamonkey|12 years ago|reply
Either way, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt because it does commonly happen and they have every right to be annoyed about it.
[+] [-] Gatsky|12 years ago|reply
I am a person. I have never had a death threat. If I get a death threat, I would probably be rather upset, and inclined to say something about it. I don't think there is too much else going on here.
[+] [-] baby|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] ElDiablo666|12 years ago|reply
But death threats are not acceptable. I just wanted to respond to my shock at learning the Oculus guys were so surprised. Clearly they do not understand how Facebook is regarded outside of some wine parties in the Valley.
[+] [-] LandonAB|12 years ago|reply
Death threats are obviously unacceptable regardless.
[+] [-] crazygringo|12 years ago|reply
I mean, I understand that a lot of the community supporting them has a visceral hatred towards Facebook. I don't share the negative response towards Facebook's purchase of Oculus, but I certainly understand where it's coming from.
But death threats? That's insane. What is wrong with these people??
[+] [-] DerpDerpDerp|12 years ago|reply
There's no reason to think that this is widespread or representative of the general response. However, they're expecting that people like you will distract the conversation from their terrible business move by worriedly talking about how a small portion of the response is from crazy people, and surely we must do something about it!
[+] [-] Zigurd|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Impossible|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] whatusername|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adamredwoods|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] JohnnyBrown|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bhouston|12 years ago|reply
I would be surprised if Oculus VR ever lives up to its vision. Rather we will be using Sony and Microsoft VR headsets in the next decade if VR does in fact go mainstream for gamers -- which is still up in the air I think.
[+] [-] timdorr|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stephenaturner|12 years ago|reply
That said, they could be a little more honest about recognising why people don't like this deal...
[+] [-] yuhong|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] benched|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DerpDerpDerp|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waterlesscloud|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] clef|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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