Shadow of Mordor's promotion methods come under fire

The marketing company behind the promotion of Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor has come under fire for placing heavy restrictions on YouTube commentators looking to stream and share the game.

As detailed by Jim Sterling in the latest Jimquisition, Warner Bros' marketing partner Plaid Social has demonstrated some rather alarming practices, such as requesting that commentators requiring pre-release code would provide sponsored content for the game — all positive content, no less.

It was YouTube streamer TotalBiscuit who brought this to light according to Jim Sterling, who refused to play ball with the contract that accompanied an early code. Other outlets were simply unable to obtain a code for review.

Some of the more unsavory pieces of the contract, as Sterling points out, are Plaid Social calling for reviewers to "persuade viewers to purchase the game." Those who did agree to these terms were given requirements for coverage that included one livestream, one YouTube video, and one Facebook post as well as a Twitter post, all including positive sentiments about the games.

Strangely enough, the caveat that players mention the game’s narrative, but not mention the Lord of the Rings or Hobbit movies, characters, or books is puzzling. In addition, the marketing company has final approval on video content before it ever goes live.

Plaid Social seems to be behind all this, with a penchant for pulling similar stunts in the past, according to TotalBiscuit, who Sterling quoted as having sworn off working with them in the future.

Thanks to The Escapist.