Oregon Trail Turns Into... Speed Dating?

from the you-have-died-of-dysentery dept

Fri, Oct 24th 2008 2:40pm — Mike Masnick

Well, this seems like an incredibly bad idea. Apparently a company called SpeedDate that does (you guessed it) online speed dating has purchased the rights to the Facebook application Oregon Trail. Now, if you're of a certain age (and a computer geek) you probably remember Oregon Trail as an awesome game from the 80s ("you have died of dysentery"). I'm sure plenty of nostalgic folks installed Oregon Trail and had fun dying repeatedly of dysentery, but apparently SpeedDate didn't buy the rights to Oregon Trail to let people play Oregon Trail, but as a sort of trojan, by which they plan to replace everyone's install of Oregon Trail with their own SpeedDate Facebook app. The SpeedDate guys claim that there's a more popular Oregon Trail game (called Northwest Trail), but it still seems rather sleazy to take an app that people installed and swap it out for something entirely different.

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Filed Under: facebook apps, oregon trail, speed dating

24 Comments

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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 24 Oct 2008 @ 2:50pm

Do these companies really think this makes a good business model?
Do these companies that do things like this actually think that this is a successful business idea?
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Anonymous Coward, 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:05pm

Re: Do these companies really think this makes a good business model?
No, they're just trolling for that one stupid user in 1000 that will go "Wow! Cool!" I'm sure all the happily involved folks who just happen to have Oregon Trail installed, because they liked the game Oregon Trail, will be thrilled to find that it's now an online dating application.

This behavior is explained perfectly by Hanlon's razor:

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

And remember, you can't fix stupid.
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Skeptical Cynic (profile), 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:11pm

Re: Re: Do these companies really think this makes a good business model?
So very true!!!
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No one important, 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:28pm

Recipe for success
Maybe I want to find a partner with dysentery.
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Toby Sullivan, 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:40pm

Against Facebook TOS
I'm fairly confident that doing that would violate Facebook's Terms of Service for Application Developers. If they actually attempted that, I'm confident the app would simply be removed from Facebook quickly and their entire investment would be lost.
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Toby Sullivan, 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:44pm

Nevermind...
After reading the original article I have discovered I was incorrect in my previous statement. This post was missing some important information.
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Paul, 24 Oct 2008 @ 3:55pm

They received warning
At least the users of this oregon trail app are receiving warning of the upcoming change.

I received no warning when Techdirt turned into a steaming pile of gossip blog.
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dave, 24 Oct 2008 @ 4:33pm

Hi, you've been
app-jacked!
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Mike (profile), 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:07pm

Re: They received warning
I received no warning when Techdirt turned into a steaming pile of gossip blog.

Well, of course, we're neither a gossip blog, nor have we changed, but you knew that.

Paul, for a while now, you've been coming to this site and posting angry, often ill-informed, rants against Techdirt. There is a simple solution: stop reading it.

What did we do to you that makes you so angry that you must constantly post angry and incorrect rants against us?
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Carl, 24 Oct 2008 @ 5:51pm

Hmm
Thats wierd--i have Oregon Trail on my facebook. However, it changed to Northwest Trail a while ago, all on its own. Maybe they were sued by the original makers of Oregon Trail, like Scrabulous, and the the original makers made their own app? I guess i'll be sticking to Northwest Trail to die of dysentry.
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crystalattice (profile), 24 Oct 2008 @ 8:36pm

Re: Re: They received warning
Nothing. To quote comment #2:
"This behavior is explained perfectly by Hanlon's razor"
:)
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Cameron, 25 Oct 2008 @ 1:03am

Re: They received warning
Who sent you here with the inflated expectations?

As I try to understand your mental capabilities, I imagine your IQ around room temperature, maybe short-- 4'7" and possibly someone drives you around and you don't have the mental capacity to get around from one place to another by yourself.

So to save face, I will take my anger out on the person who sent you here with inflated expectations. Give me a name, and I'll kick them in the nuts, and invite you to watch.
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PaulT (profile), 25 Oct 2008 @ 2:27am

This happened a while back to another app I had installed, same company was involved - though I don't remember the name, the old app was something very different.

IMHO, it's not a big deal unless you were really attached to the old app for some reason. This isn't Facebook doing the changes, and the private companies/individuals involved can do whatever they want, just as you're free to remove the app if you don't like it.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2008 @ 6:58pm

Sounds like innovation to me. Why are you hampering it?
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Oct 2008 @ 6:58pm

Speed dating t-shirts, brilliant.
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 7:21am

As if facebook needs an app to become a hook-up spot! It would be more interesting if someone mashed your friend's friends list with a phone directory in an app and called it Booty Call. I'm patenting that right now, so don't even bother trying!
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Yakko Warner, 27 Oct 2008 @ 12:33pm

Re: Recipe for success
I am so glad I wasn't drinking anything when I read that.

Well played. :D
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Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2008 @ 1:26pm

That's not the only app that changed, others like "Have you ever" were bought and changed too.
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Brad, 27 Oct 2008 @ 4:45pm

It's kinda like the Safari trojan
I'd bet this is going to happen RIGHT BEFORE they announce some sale, deal, or other public financial transaction. Then they'll be able to say "Our facebook app has over 50,000 users!" even if it's only true for about 5 days.

Like remember when there was that huge spike in Safari for Windows users announced with 2Q earnings? Turned out it was because Apple had used iTunes to install a new browser and set it as a system default without asking the user. Next time they opened up a web browser they got sent to Apple.com and registered a "new windows user with Safari" hit.
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Speed Dating, 14 Dec 2008 @ 1:23am

Organized Dating
Seniors today are spunky and want to enjoy life to the fullest, and just like the younger generation, seniors want to share in this fun with a mate.

Rose.
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Jim Long, 13 Dec 2009 @ 1:49am

speeddate.com is a complete waste of money!!!
Please, Please, Please pass this on!!! speeddate.com is a complete waste of money!!! They are a service connected with Facebook... It is full of scammers (Mostly from Ghana and the UK) and they care nothing about their subscribers!!!
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