据silicon valley网站的报道，上周旧金山的官员们对Mafia wars的小广告行为穷追不舍。该市律师办公室谴责Zynga公司在城市人行道上张贴满了虚假的2万5000美钞（这是Zynga的新游戏Mafia Wars Las Vegas推广战略中的一部分）。而这周，Zynga似乎已经脱离苦海——代之受到批判的是设计这场“游击营销”的广告公司Davis Elen。旧金山政府要求其赔偿清洗及其他各方面费用。据SF Weekly报导，该广告公司将为这场混乱“承担全部责任”。

Medal-of-Honor

然而，zynga营销广告战并没有因为这场争辩而减缓脚步。在周三，这家炙手可热的社交游戏开发公司聘请说唱歌手Snoop Dogg做了一件“下流勾当”——作为上述游戏的宣传特技，他在内华达州的沙漠上引爆了一辆装甲车。

这一事件的实况转播吸引了Ustream上的200多万观众。

若谈到视频游戏及其争议，美国艺电（EA）也正面临这类似的状况。据报导，一位英国官员要求零售商禁止存放游戏《荣誉勋章Medal of Honor》，反对玩家在该游戏中扮演塔利班成员的角色。《荣誉勋章》是EA公司将在10月发售的一款游戏，游戏中，玩家将在阿富汗地区进行各种特殊人物。

“居然有人愿意重复塔利班组织的行为，这真是令人震惊！”英国国防部长Liam Fox说（EA则表示在即将发售的游戏中并没有涉及英国军队的描述）。

作为对该抗议的回应，EA游戏的董事长Frank Gibeau引用了游戏博客Develop中的一句话“我们坚决地认为EA游戏是一种艺术，我不明白为什么其他关于阿富汗类似描述的电影或者小说并没有受到抨击，唯独游戏形式遭受了批判。”

此外，这家总部在加利福尼亚州红杉城的一位公司代表称：“玩家可以在游戏中分别扮演两种对立角色。当我们还是小孩子时便经常做类似事情：一些人扮警察，而另一些人则扮强盗。”

For Zynga and EA, it’s not all fun and games

? San Francisco officials went after the Mafia last week, sort of. The district attorney’s office blasted Zynga over fake $25,000 bills plastered on city sidewalks that were part of the company’s promotion for Mafia Wars Las Vegas, a new game. This week, Zynga appears to be out of hot water — S.F. is instead going after Davis Elen, the advertising company behind the “guerrilla marketing,” to recoup cleanup costs, among other things. Davis Elen is taking “full responsibility” for the mess, according to SF Weekly.

But the controversy hasn’t slowed down the marketing blitz. Thursday, the hot social-games maker got rapper Snoop Dogg to do its dirty work — he blew up an armored truck in the Nevada desert as a promotional stunt for the aforementioned game. The event apparently drew more than 2 million live views on Ustream.

? Speaking of video games and controversy, Electronic Arts is dealing with one of its own. A British official has reportedly urged retailers not to stock Medal of Honor, an EA game scheduled to be released in October, objecting to players’ ability to assume the role of the Taliban. This time, the multiplayer game franchise’s action takes place in Afghanistan.

“It’s shocking that someone would think it acceptable to recreate the acts of the Taliban,” said Liam Fox, the British defense secretary. (EA says no British soldiers are depicted in the upcoming game.)

In response to the outcry, EA Games President Frank Gibeau was quoted in Develop, a gaming blog: “At EA we passionately believe games are an artform, and I don’t know why films and books set in Afghanistan don’t get flak, yet [games] do.”

In addition, a representative for the Redwood City-based company said: “We give gamers the opportunity to play both sides. Most of us have been doing this since we were seven: someone plays the cop, someone must be robber.”(source:siliconvalley)