Mountain Dew Game Fuel site launches for reals
by Alex Ziebart 
May 15th 2009 at 5:45PM
Update: This promotion seems to be US only. Sorry, rest of the world. Hopefully you guys will get something like this soon as well. China had a Coke promo, so maybe the EU/Oceania will get a turn sooner or later.
The Mountain Dew Game Fuel site is officially live, and we're all free to earn lots and lots of tokens. You'll need to register first, so be prepared to hand over a fair amount of personal information. They want the usual things, like your name and birthdate and home address. If I had to guess, I would say they need all of that for contest reasons. You always need to ask those things so you don't run into any regional legal issues.
Now, tokens. How do you get tokens? There's a full list of ways to earn them on the official site (that you need to be logged in to see,) but I can tell you this: Almost all of them involve clicking on some random links scattered around the internet. Watching videos on their site, clicking banners on Facebook, going to their Twitter page, all of that sort of thing. Time to start setting up a Mountain Dew bookmarks folder, folks.
There's also an FAQ that confirms one of our suspicions: Yes, a WoW vanity pet is one of the potential prizes you can win. It doesn't state what it is, but we can all safely assume it's the battlebots we posted about previously. Among the potential prizes is a trip to BlizzCon as well, so if you can't afford the trip yourself, you ought to start hoarding tokens.
The Mountain Dew Game Fuel site is officially live, and we're all free to earn lots and lots of tokens. You'll need to register first, so be prepared to hand over a fair amount of personal information. They want the usual things, like your name and birthdate and home address. If I had to guess, I would say they need all of that for contest reasons. You always need to ask those things so you don't run into any regional legal issues.
Now, tokens. How do you get tokens? There's a full list of ways to earn them on the official site (that you need to be logged in to see,) but I can tell you this: Almost all of them involve clicking on some random links scattered around the internet. Watching videos on their site, clicking banners on Facebook, going to their Twitter page, all of that sort of thing. Time to start setting up a Mountain Dew bookmarks folder, folks.
There's also an FAQ that confirms one of our suspicions: Yes, a WoW vanity pet is one of the potential prizes you can win. It doesn't state what it is, but we can all safely assume it's the battlebots we posted about previously. Among the potential prizes is a trip to BlizzCon as well, so if you can't afford the trip yourself, you ought to start hoarding tokens.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Contests
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
Bubsa May 15th 2009 5:49PM
That's a lot of personal info.
But let's be honest. Even if they asked if I lotioned myself with my mother's fake tan, I'd still disclose it.
AlexW573 May 15th 2009 5:57PM
I bet even that is on the internet somewhere, whether or not you've told anyone :)
Quinion May 15th 2009 6:16PM
why not do a guide for all the points wowinsider? with nice links and such for ez point gaining :)
Alex Ziebart May 15th 2009 6:17PM
Working on it. ;)
artifex May 15th 2009 11:31PM
Alex: invoking rule 34? ☺
Zaniac May 16th 2009 1:04AM
A lot of personal information, indeed.
Including the country you live in.
And guess what?
They let you provide that information.
Why? - If they contest is only open to US residents, why even have a selection for your country of residence? Why not simply say up front that it's for US residents only?
I even spent some time hunting for that important detial before the contest opened, but no mention of it on the site.
When did they inform you that it was for US residents only?
AFTER you'd provided all of your personal details.
Mountain Dew, and it's parent company, Pepsi, leaves me with a very bad taste in my mouth.
jaenicoll May 16th 2009 3:35AM
Wait, what? Never mind the personal information, have you guys thought about what this could mean?
It seems that Blizzard have decided that there is a financial advantage to promoting a third party product. Check. And thru the promotion they are giving real in game benefits to a player that endorses/uses said promoted product. Check. So what right?
Well, right now the only in game advantage seems to be a vanity pet, BUT anyone fancy betting if this experiment proves to be successful whether future alliances might potentially have more significant advantages (unique mounts, unique glyphs ...) Is that what we want?
What about the regionalisation issue? How would you feel if EU got an EXCLUSIVE unique mount from some European alliance with a pizza vendor or China got an EXCLUSIVE and unique vanity pet/tabard or glyph from a soft drinks vendor? What about if future offers were somehow limited to certain demographics, age groups or wealth groups only?
IMO, this is the entirely the wrong direction the players want this to go and I am definitely concerned by how far wide this door might be wedged open in the future.
Blizzard already know how to motivate/Manipulate us into doing things (the odious side of the achievement system). Mix that knowledge with out of game marketing and suddenly Azeroth's greatest enemy ceases to be the Burning Legion or the Scourge, but Blizzard's desire to jump the fourth wall and compromise long time player loyalty with short term ad revenue.
I'm not saying ... but I am saying
Yeng May 16th 2009 10:55AM
@jaenicoll - I doubt that your scenario would ever become true. This isn't the first time that Blizzard has had 3rd party promotions allow you to get something in the game. But all those items have been pure vanity (non-combat pets, mounts, toys, etc.). Most noted example would be the TCG. But none of these things give those that receive them any more advantage/benefit in the game. I am quite sure it will continue to be that way.
Draenors May 16th 2009 5:42PM
Yeng is of course correct that all of the in-game items from the TCG, this promotional site or similar things are all vanity-stuff and doesn't give you any real advantages in the game. I doubt we will soon/ever see each Ensidia member buying Mountain Dew so they can get special glyphs.
Nevertheless, I can still understand Jaenicoll's concerns. In general, I am tired of all the advertisement and marketing stuffgoing on in the Western world. There's nothing as irritating as seeing a musician or actor abusing and selling his/her own name and art by advertising for some company - especially if she claims to do it for Pepsi because she think it's a good company, even though she did the same for Coke previously.
I guess the same is true for Blizzard. They're also making art/entertainment, and while they sure want to earn tons of money, they also have people working to creatively make new game-content as well books about the lore. I don't want to see that get destroyed.
Rawtashk May 15th 2009 5:53PM
I like that the picture favors joining the alliance. FOR THE ALLIANCE!
lownwolf May 15th 2009 5:54PM
where do you define whether you'll be horde or alliance? i registered but never saw the screen above.
Hoaxs May 15th 2009 5:55PM
Log in to the site and you are asked to choose.
mike May 15th 2009 5:57PM
i did log in, i've clicked around everywhere i can find... for some reason it's not working for me here, guess i'll try another computer, thanks anyway
Jenny May 15th 2009 6:29PM
@mike: It might be your browser. I registered using Google Chrome, but then when I tried to log in, the enter button didn't seem to work. Tried it in IE and was able to log in and choose Horde.
Rob May 16th 2009 3:42AM
I registered, it told me I had an account already. I rest my password 3 times now and it still won't let me on! :P
Yeng May 15th 2009 5:56PM
I wonder what the choice is for. If it makes any determination on anything (like the color of your vanity pet).
Braundo May 15th 2009 5:59PM
That would be my guess.
artifex May 16th 2009 12:06AM
I don't know if it actually does. If you select the product facts link, from the tokens page, you can look at either one. I'm guessing they're just going to say yay, one side at the end has more total tokens than the other, and maybe they all get a coupon for free product.
Jamus May 15th 2009 6:01PM
Oh god, not another token grind...
I guess at least I can do this at work...
*grind* watch video dailies *grind*
Phantom1219 May 15th 2009 7:23PM
I was able to click on the video link then close it and it still gave me credit for watching it. Hurray for loopholes!