Michael Jackson’s Thriller video free for today on Live [Update]

Both Xbox.com and the 360 marketplace list it as 160 points for me. =[

Wow, yeah. It’s 160 Points again.

Nathan and I both check the Xbox.com link and it was free at the time of writing.

Strange.

Updated.

Age-old cheap, exploititative marketing trick. Announce something is free for a limited time then whack the price right back up as soon as people start attempting to take advantage of the ‘offer’. Hey presto, you sell a load at the original, full price and get a huge amount of free PR too!

Distasteful.

horrible, just horrible

Oh dear. Free (and not just for five minutes) on PS3 VidZone, along with dozens of other MJ tracks.

Oh dear free on youtube :S

^^ Some of us prefer a sound and visual quality better than like you’d find on one of those miniature handheld TVs.

I don’t know what you watch. It isn’t difficult to find high quality videos on YouTube these days.

Yeah, YouTube has really decent quality videos now.

i think you guys are kinda missing the point

Volunteers needed for a survey about Michael Jackson

Researchers from the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo, Canada are looking for volunteers to take part in a survey about people’s circumstances (e.g., what they were doing, where they were) when they learned about Michael Jackson’s death.

To participate, you must be at least 18 years of age, and be willing to participate in a short online survey at this time, and be willing to take part in a short follow-up survey on the same topic within the next 12 months and to provide contact information for this purpose.

This survey will take less than 10 minutes to complete. The survey will include questions that ask for specific details about your situation (e.g. what you were doing, where you were) at the time you heard about the death of Michael Jackson.

To complete this survey, please copy and paste the following link into your web browser:
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~mprofile/mnptc/

Anyone find anything a bit weird about watching MJ as a zombie just days after he died? No? Just me? Ah well…

Currently, the way this news is presented, VG247 makes it sound as though this sort of material is only available for a price and only available for one platform.

That’s evidently not the case though. Is VG247 seeking to imply that paid content is better than free content? Did they simply not do some balanced research? And why update the piece with *some* information (#2)and not others (#6)? Looking at the author of the piece, however, it’s no surprise that the research behind the article is lacking, the information inaccurate and the focus on promotion of one platform over another. These are pretty consistent traits and continually damaging to the author’s credibility and, by extension, the site’s too.

Comments 4 and 6 hold considerable merit and the apparent lack of interest shown in them by this site is quite telling. Chalk it up alongside the reluctance to report the cars-for-votes thing a few weeks back.

Such a selective practice of delivering information isn’t serving your industry or your readership. Information please, not misinformation.

For fuck’s sake, Shatner.

Played about on Vidzone for the first time last night and it’s a really nice service – particularly the playlist implementation and size/variety of the selection available.

There is a big MJ playlist ready to go on the front page which, given the service is free, deserves more coverage than a cheap marketing ploy which now has a misleading headline.

Yeah. Sorry Blerk! Let’s just have a news source that’s blatantly selective with how they deliver news and then, when their lack of professionalism gets pointed out by multiple members, we’ll just bury our heads in the sand because we prefer shoddy reporting to properly balanced and researched stuff.

You go ahead and do that Blerk, I won’t stop you. I’d just ask that whilst you’re busy ignoring such behaviour you don’t go out of your way to discredit those that choose not to ignore it. Looks like you’d better make a dismissive remark to Cort and Dr. Damn too, now Blerk, otherwise it might look like you’re just one of those people that likes to have a go at one person for the comments that multiple people have made.

Anyway, what’s so offensive to you about a request for balanced information, Blerk?

You don’t actually think that’s going to work now, Blerk, do you?

So, what? It’s a gaming news site and reports on something which is happening on a gaming platform. But wait – you can actually get this video on a bazillion other sites or buy it from a shop or watch it on the telly so perhaps we should include links to all of those as well despite it not making a fuck of difference to the actual story.

Sounds ideal.

@Blerk
Vidzone is an application you download from the PSN Store for free for the PS3. We aren’t talking about going to a website.

“So, what? It’s a gaming news site and reports on something which is happening on a gaming platform. ”

Well, if that’s the case, why shouldn’t it report something that is happening on more than just ONE gaming platform?

So your point about if not making any difference about all those other sources is completely irrelevant. If the site is reporting on games platforms it has failed report in a balanced and comprehensive manner. It has even had relevent information about content available on ‘a gaming platform’ that it has, so far, chosen to ignore in spite of already updating the article for other information.

The result is a site that actually ISN’T reporting “on something which is happening on a gaming platform”. It’s just choosing to be selective with what it reports and choosing to ignore information that would make its reporting seem far more balanced. And, who knows, it may now have cost readers money by directing them to something they have paid for when they might just as easily got it for free.

So, following your last comment, Blerk, I’d argue that, no, it’s not ideal in the slightest.

And perhaps when Sony get off their arses and send out a press release to that effect there will be such a story?

You seem to be somehow at odds with the ‘press release –> report’ aspect of news. Not everything is a five hour piece of investigative journalism. Just occasionally it’s a throw-away tip for something that you might be interested in. Or in this case, something that you’re not interested in but which provides a reasonable excuse to don tin-foil hat and wear out another keyboard.

The other thing of course is that it suggests that the people who run this site give an inch of a toss what Shatner thinks when in common with most of us, they most likely ignore the latest “essay”.

“And perhaps when Sony get off their arses and send out a press release to that effect there will be such a story?”

What a great point. Why bother to research anything. Let’s have a news source that’s entirely based off events described from promotions and press releases!

Not saying that more than half the news on the internet is sourced in precisely that way but you’re still arguing in favour of lazy, unresearched, unbalanced and inaccurate (did the press release also cover the “it’s not free any more” aspect? If not then, by your standards, there’s no point updating the article to reflect it, is there?) over something that would take less than 5 minutes to research properly.

That’s minutes, not hours – stop trying to over-exaggerate fictitious details for your flawed argument.

And, even 5 minutes is more than enough time. All VG247 has to do – as my original post was questioning – was to reflect the information PROVIDED (not researched by VG247) by its readers. Yet it has chosen not to.

So, besides your finger waving, exaggeration and apparent lack of understanding of the point being made, Blerk, yoru responses are just ridiculous.

As I said – if you want to bury your head in the sand and gulp down selective information and half-stories then you be my guest. Don’t try and shit on the people that don’t favour ignorance over information.

And try to get a grip on what’s being said before you leap in and try to imply people they’re wrong. Every one of your posts has shown a lack of understanding at what’s been discussed but you’re still wading in with your dumb points and showing that you’re too keen to make a smartass comment than pay attention to what you’re commenting to.

#23 I don’t care what people think of what I say. It wasn’t me that showed them the additional information in the first place.

But whilst they make a habit of promoting one platform over another and refusing to publish crticial information of one platform whilst salaciously covering any bad news that comes their way on the other – well that sort of behaviour paints an image, doesn’t it?

People on more than one occaision have reported newsworthy information that has been entirely snubbed. In spite of the games or material being heavily covered by the site elsewhere.

If you’re ‘selecting’ what news to present to your readership then, logically, you’re being selective. Why is it so offensive to people that someone should ask why such selective behaviour goes on and what’s so wrong with some balanced reporting?

Seems like a lot of people are too busy rushing to attack the guy asking the question than they are about the question (or the reasons for it) at all.

But, please, continue to ignore my questions, misread what I’ve said and attack me and then tell me that you’re doing none of that. It’s funny watching insular people act like they can hear any voice but their own.

I do apologise Shat, but I really can’t be arsed to read any of that.

It basically demonstrated how wrong and irrelevent each of your counterpoints were and that you don’t read comments before you make a smartass reply to them.

Still, I think your own comments have already demonstrated that quite clearly already.

I agree that the headline should be updated to include PS3 availability for balance’s sake.

I’d say that, given the disparity of the price, selection and service, a properly researched separate article (should take 5, maybe 10 mins at the most) would be most fitting.

- At last glance there’s 21 Jackson tracks (including the 13 minute version of Thriller) on VidZone this morning.

- VidZone streams videos rather than downloads them.

- As I understand it, VidZone is availabe in Europe, not the US (whereas this article is about a US only promotion)

- The videos are free, along with the service.

An off-the-cuff footnote implying ‘also on another platform’ would not be fully accurate and the information that applies to one platform (cost, regional availability etc) does not apply to the other. Ambiguity could lead to confusion.

Credit to Cort for bringing this information to the attention of people that have an interest in information and content of more than a single gaming platform.

And, I dare say Sony didn’t choose to “get off their ass and send out a press-release” because, on their video service, the Thriller video isn’t part of a bait-and-switch stunt to rake in some extra cash whilst everyone is going on about Michael Jackson – it’s just like all the rest of the content on their music-video service. At least, that’s what my tin-foil hat tells me.

Do get over yourself, Shatner. There’s a good chap.

Hasn’t the Thriller video been on Sony’s Vidzone service for a while, though? I don’t think it qualifies as “news”, really, but I do think it deserves mention in the context of the piece above.

I believe the Thriller VHS tape is currently available in charity shops all over the UK as well, perhaps that should have got a mention in the story?

I agree with Shatner’s tin-foil hat.

Quite, Bill. Here’s how this thread should have gone:

1. Original story.
2. Someone comments that you can also get it for free on Vidzone, in a light-hearted and friendly manner.
3. Someone perhaps updates the original story with a little afternote to that effect.

And then all would have been well in the world. Instead we get treated to yet another over-acted “OH THE HUMANITY” thread assassination.

You know… sort of how this Kotaku thread went. Same story, same set-up, froth-free outcome.

Ah, I see Blerk’s now given up his misguided tirade and just resorting to making empty smartass remarks. How unexpected!

And I also note that Whizzo has made exactly the same ‘don’t read but make a smartass comment anyway’ error that Blerk did that prompted #20. What a smart chap.

DB: Well, that all depends on what the original focus of article was about. That would be the genuine focus of the article, not the one that might now be retrospectively claimed by its author(s). I’ve witnessed retrospective editing on this site more than once simply to (silently) dismiss a piece of critique. I wouldn’t be surprised to see it happen again. It just adds to the lack of professionalism that can rear its ugly head around VG247.

Given that the current zeitgeist isn’t about Thriller but about Michael Jackson and that VG247 have already posted a couple of articles about the man rather than just one particular song, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect this article is written with the same view.

But, having said that, given the article seems only concerned with taking their sources from what’s going on with one platform whilst disregarding the other it would be perfectly plausible to determine that if this promotion on the 360 covered more than just Thriller it would have been covered in this article.

As I mentioned in my first comment here, it’s not serving the readership at all. Even *IF* it were only about Thriller, it’s failing to report it in a balanced way that applies to all the platforms VG247 claims to cover.

Even so, if VG247 was interested in serving its readership – like how it often does by writing a piece about a game dropping in price or a special offer at a vendor for a limited time – it begs the question: Why only tell your readership about one video that’ll cost them money when you could also inform them of 21 relevant videos that are free?

Again, simple, reasonable question that I’m sure nobody will choose to address. And therefore I (and others) will have to determine our own conclusions.

Nuts.

I think you can get this free on “VidZone”.

34: Was I agressive? I was calmy and clearly making a point.

To which you leapt in with “For fucks sake” in a classic and predictable effort to inflame the situation. Congratulations, you’ve done that, you’ve brought the trolls.

Now you’re trying to insist that, inspite of your deliberately inflammatory trolling remark, you’re the peacemaker.

In fact, out of all of this, Blerk, you’ve been far more aggressive than me. Choosing to make an empty insult on more than one instance and demonstrating that you’re not actually interested in what’s being discussed, you’re more interested in throwing fuel onto the fire.

So, please, don’t try and make out what a decent reasonable chap you’ve been all along Blerk. I’ve been very polite to you considering your behaviour towards me and your clear lack of interest in the discussion. You’re in no way innocent here. Quite the opposite. And the more times you throw in a needlessly incendiary comment (yes, I know that’s your ‘thing’ around here) the more evident that becomes.

It’s always the aggressors that insist they’re the peacemakers. Check your own comments Blerk.

What a mentalist.

Actually I did read most of your drivel Shatner but the story that’s on this page is pretty specific, for a short period of time yesterday US Live customers could download Thriller for nothing.

That’s the story, nothing more, saying that you could get it on the PS3, on YouTube or any other means would not change the fact that this story was specifically about it being free on Live, for about five minutes, in the US (maybe Canada too).

It’s quite a simple throw away story, especially considering how limited it was, it’s not a break in at a prominent Washington DC hotel or an undercover investigation into the murky depths of human trafficking.

Maybe so, Whizzo. So why are so many people going out of their way to imply that a request for a bit of balanced reporting is such a hugely unreasonable request?

Why selectively report one thing and choose to ignore equally relevant information elsewhere?

Why are people bending over backwards claiming that research takes “5 hours” and that when useful, relevant information is provided to the site and then snubbed that calmly questioning such behaviour is the same as crying “OH THE HUMANITY!”

Why are people so upset by the request for balance that they resort to such insults, drama and exaggeration?

What’s wrong with balanced reporting?

See? All reasonable questions, all asked in a reasonable manner. Let’s see how reasonably people respond to them shall we?

I think it’s more the way you request it than what you request per se.

I’m not a peacemaker in this instance, Shatner. You’re clearly a complete ego-maniac whose one and only interest in this site is to somehow prove how much ‘better’ you are than everyone else and to deride anyone else’s opinion as irrelevant when touting your own as though you are the only person in the world who is qualified to have one.

Your one-man crusade to ‘fix’ a site which pretty much everyone else seems relatively happy with is excruciatingly tiresome.

I look forward to you starting your own news site. I’m sure it’ll be absolutely perfect.

Blerk, seeing as you jumped on my initial remark with “For fucks sake” and absolutely nothing else I find it difficult to take your concerns about “deriding anyone else’s opinion” as little more than another example of your insularity.

Deriding another’s opinion is EXACTLY what you set out to do. You didn’t even have the courtesy to present any counterpoints. You were just rude and dismissive.

You’ve got exactly what you set out to achieve. Perhaps when you and others will extend the courtesy of allowing me to express my opinion without deriding or dismissing it in the most tiresomely infantile and empty ways then you’ll enjoy this site more.

Few seem willing to allow me to simply ask a question or express an opinion with deriding or dismissing – then after they’ve thrown insults and acted like a 5 year-old they go on about how wrong it is to have their opinions dismissed and derided.

Perhaps they should practice what they preach. Or at least appreciate that if you’re going to dish it out, you’d better be prepared to get it back.

Perfectly schizophrenic.

That’s because there are ways and means to express a complaint, Shatner. And those ways generally don’t include pompous derision of a person’s skills or accusations of corruption.

Thread needs a little music.

Blerk, after “For fucks sake” and your proclamations to not read comments before making a response to them, I’m really finding it very hard to think of any reason why I should take your views on conduct as anything worthwhile.

If you don’t like the idea of people deriding other’s opinions then stop doing it yourself. You’re in no position to attempt to lecture anyone on how to behave or what standards to apply.

I didn’t accuse anyone of corruption. AGAIN you’re misquoting and exaggerating for effect. AGAIN this is infantile and transparent behaviour that undermines any pretence at being reasonable you’re putting on.

I’ll file “corruption” alongside your remarks about “5 hours of research” and “OH THE HUMANITY!” and others.

Are you starting to understand why it’s hard for me to talk you seriously Blerk? You make stuff up. You exaggerate. You don’t read comments. You go about trying to inflame situations. Then you try to say that someone else is being unreasonable!

Post 43 @Blerk: I agree. Shatner, you can continue your attempts at wit but in my opinion you’re just making a fool of yourself.

I’d just like to be allowed to express an opinion without an army of trolls jumping on it one moment then crying like victims a moment later.

But, I freely admit, the endless stream of hypocritical two-faced bullshitters that can’t handle a fraction of the criticism they’re so keen to dish out is hugely entertaining to me.