Make Money Motherfuckers’ misuse.
With the end of season 3 of Westworld, I wanted to give a wrap-up of the viral marketing; and mourn Make Money Motherfuckers’ misuse.
The viral marketing for Westworld season 3 has had less content than the previous two seasons. Why? I don’t know! It’s possible it’s related to the reduction in episode count for this season (10 to 8). In addition, the Covid-19 pandemic could be playing a part too. That being said, I want to wrap up what happened since the last post, and talk about a missed opportunity with Make Money Motherfuckers.
The wrap-up
Since the last post we received two emails, both announcing changes. Plus there was an update to the Delos sites that I totally missed until I saw it mentioned on the Westworld subreddit.
Episode 5: Genre
After episode 5 an email was sent out, apologising for the data leak, and being told to ignore it. There was a minor pop-up on the Incite Inc site, that is no longer viewable due to the latest update. However, reddit user /u/elleestprivee did post a video of the notification. It’s just a “We’re experiencing technical difficulties” message, with the website glitching a little in the background.
Episode 6: Decoherence
With Incite taking over Delos in this episode, all the Delos sites, including the parks, now have a message saying “An Incite company” in the bottom left corner.
Episode 8/Season finale: Crisis Theory
After the finale aired, we got a new email! The email states that the service is being discontinued, and that “all activity is being suspended.” The email is glitched and you get flashes of a crudely drawn maze.
Who is the maze meant for? Us, the players? humans in general? Maybe. Clicking on the email takes you to the InciteInc website. Selecting any of the options leads the whole website to get deleted. I was able to record it and I’ve included below:
In the console log that pops up, there are two links that are clickable, if you’re quick enough:
Firstly, there’s block-six-alpha-one. This is a short, repeating gif of Dolores’ memories being deleted. This looks similar to part of Season 2’s viral marketing where we put Bernard’s memories back together. I could see this being expanded in a similar manner. Possibly saving Dolores’ memories?
Secondly there’s MakeMoneyMotherfuckers.com. This site had the biggest potential for the viral marketing yet wasn’t taken advantage of. There’s nothing on the site to interact with, as far as I can tell. This brings us to my biggest gripe of this season’s viral marketing.
Make Money Motherfuckers
The problem
Make Money Motherfuckers had the potential to really bridge the gap between show and viral marketing for this season. With the site appearing in the show as an app, it had the potential to make this season so much more real. Sadly, the site was given out after the last episode aired, so it had no potential to advertise this season, nor allow interactivity and immersion.
The fix
In the show, characters used the app to get less than legal jobs. The jobs available were varied from stealing stuff to “personals” such as kidnapping and murder. In our world, the app could’ve existed as a desktop-only “activity board.”
In its’ simplest form, it could share a feed of what’s going on in the show, since it’s shown some jobs being done (eg Caleb and co stealing an ATM, the riots near the end of the show). At the other end of the scale, it could’ve been taken to the real world with actual “jobs” you could take. Take a selfie at this location. Find a poster we left at another location. Solve this puzzle (eg like fixing Bernard’s memories). I know the “visit location and X” activities would’ve been impossible at the moment with the current pandemic. Even they didn’t do the real world visits, the site could’ve still done online-only activities, even if it was just providing another window into the show and its setting.
With that, I’d be interested in hearing what you think. What did you think of the viral marketing for this season? I’d love to hear what you know, so tweet me your thoughts!