Yesterday was April 1st and it was quite memorable, considering the length people would go to pull a prank. It was all over the internet, especially YouTube videos. Perhaps the most outrageous was Mashable’s stunt. Conan ‘O Brien bought Pete Cashmore’s Mashable, moved on to unveiled the most anticipated Apple iTV, but later resigned after understanding he had only bought the Mash Fan TV.
Other famous players – Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo, Facebook, and my friend who pulled a he-just-proposed stunt on me. Mashable still had the top spot until my little brother shared the below with me, a few hours to midnight. I sure didn’t see this coming because I had just finished playing SEGA’s Football Manager, when he buzzed me via blackberry and shared the screenshot.
Yup! He got an April Fool prank on Football Manger 2012. How did they pull that off? He got a mail (inside the game) that read:
In a display of incredible generousity, the A.C. Milan board have decided to award you a sum in the region of £500M to spend on players and a new stadium.
Please confirm your acceptance of this unexpected bonus.
Are you kidding me? £500M just like that? Who wouldn’t accept that? Well my little brother went ahead to ‘Accept’ and then it happened.
The only tip-off that this was a prank, is the addition of ‘a new stadium‘ in the message, as the club never issues cash to the Head Coach for a new stadium; the Head Coach can only make a request at a Board Meeting for a new stadium.
There you have it. Our Best Tech ‘April Fool’ didn’t come from the web or the expected players, but from a game that has been around for a while. The team at SEGA sure thought ahead. #NoDoubt.
