What is martianbuddy.com

[Technician]

After seeing it in Doom 3's PDA's emails, I thought it was a joke and it went all together with the game. But there is a martianbuddy.com and it relates to Doom 3. So? whats it all about.

[Linguica]

Note the code on martianbuddy.com...

[Technician]

Ah so if I reach a cabinet or some thing and the code for it happens to be the same one on the site, I could win some thing. I wasn't sure if id has just made this up, or they could be exploiting another company.

[highlander]

*shakes head* Ummm..think about it. It was deisgned because of Doom3 by Id for the game to be more interactive. It's part of the joke about the email spam that they've gotten on their PDAs.

Lol! it's not about Id exploiting another company. It's their webpage.

H

[gatewatcher]

It's got free porn.

[phatbin]

Where's the cabinet that uses that key, btw just to add my 10 cents...this is really cheesy.

[Relica Religia]

Then why are you asking about it? :P

Just look for the lockers that have the MartianBuddy alien head on the display.

[Revenant100]

gatewatcher said:

It's got free porn.

I have yet to see any clone porn as advertised.

[Scabbed Angel]

Speaking of which, why did my post about this get helled?

[S1lent]

No clue Scabbed.

Martian Buddy is an attempt to make the game more interactive. It's a joke. If you go on the website you'll notice a code which you can use to open up cabinets\lockers with the Martian Buddy logo (an alien face with headphones) on the interface\keypad. Usually they contain weapons which you wouldn't get normally until later in the game or ammo and armor.

But, even though Martian Buddy can help you a lot, they do like to send spam to UAC employee's PDAs. Most of these spam e-mails ironically have something to do with whatever issues the employee is facing.

[Goliath]

Scabbed Angel said:

Speaking of which, why did my post about this get helled?

Doomworld hates you.....sorry ;)

[Caco-Puff]

Haha,thats hilarious.

[Scabbed Angel]

Caco-Puff said:

Haha,thats hilarious.

And yet PC Gamer docks D3 6 points for "stabs at humor that fall short". I'd say it's amusing, but moreorless contributes to a realer environment.

[AXE]

It is a good way for Idsoftware to see how many copies of Doom3 are out there. Think about it for a second. Those that have the game via other means will be able to go to that website, which logs "hits" and maybe IP addresses.

IdSoftware now have a rough Idea compared to actual sales of DOOM3

Regards

AXE

[gatewatcher]

That wouldn't work.

[SYS]

Yeah but anybody can visit the site over and over again. They probably just wanna earn extra money generating web traffic through some pyramid scheme. Or maybe it's just an abstract representation of your mom, only time will tell. I suppose they could generate ar ough figure of how many copies they sold, but never the less, if your copy is pirated that would make the results inconclusive as well.

[AXE]

POTGIESSER said:

I suppose they could generate ar ough figure of how many copies they sold, but never the less, if your copy is pirated that would make the results inconclusive as well.

Yeah, that is kinda my point. How else would Idsoftware get an idea of how many actual copies of the game are out there ( warez or legit ) . By making a website that the game tells you to go to too get a code which most people will only ever go to once gives IDsoftware a rough, but approximate number.

Regards

AXE

[gatewatcher]

No, it still doesn't work.

[SYS]

AXE said:

a rough, but approximate number.

That's quite the oxymoron you have got there. How can it be a rough number yet be aproximate?

[AXE]

POTGIESSER said:

That's quite the oxymoron you have got there. How can it be a rough number yet be aproximate?

Yeah ok. Righty ohhh!! :\

[Sephiroth]

they can only know how many vist the site at most. i highly dout they would be able to tell if the game is installed or not, that would involve spyware. to me i just dont see Id resorting to spyware to see if their game is being pirated.

they just made it as a small joke, more or less. it has no more meaning than STTP3. think the seagoat site for unreal II ( seagoat.org )

[BuzWeaver]

gatewatcher said:

It's got free porn.

Booty Magazine.

[AXE]

Sephiroth said:

they can only know how many vist the site at most. i highly dout they would be able to tell if the game is installed or not, that would involve spyware. to me i just dont see Id resorting to spyware to see if their game is being pirated.

I didn't mean that they will install spyware. I didn't mean it would be an exsact number, and sure people might visit multiple times, but IMHO :) I think it would give Idsoftware an idea on the numbers of copies that are out there, against the numbers of copies they actually sell.

It was just a thought. :D

Thanx

[gatewatcher]

Er, what idea will it give them, that 297,363 people have visited martianbuddy.com? That's all it really does, it doesn't do anything else. If they wanted to use it in the manner you suggested, well then they don't even need a public counter in the first place. It's just a fun little thing, it's not spying on you.

[HeXploiT]

There's no way they could get even close to an accurate count that way. a: At least 25%(my estimate) of people on the web don't have static ip adresses b: many who have the game will visit the site multiple times(even though it's only one page and c: vast numbers of people will take a look at it even though they don't own the game. It might seem like a reasonable idea to most people but realistically your best estimates could be anywhere between 200-500%(or more) off.

[S1lent]

I wish you could do stuff on Martian Buddy. I don't really know what, but it would be cool.

[HeXploiT]

S1lent said:

I wish you could do stuff on Martian Buddy. I don't really know what, but it would be cool.

Sick...you're just sick...

[kiwidoom]

by hitting the site, you hand them your IP address, this relates you back to your location = country + city, and your internet provider. This is generaly useful for their marketing and to track their game coverage. It is generally useless for piracy hunting, unless they do have spyware, which as another poster noted is unlikely plus would backlash against them when found out, as someone always will. But main point would be a) Fun, and b) marketing info capture.