Something for fans of The Office, poetry, holidays, or humor.

A couple weeks ago on Dunder Mifflin Infinity, each branch had the task of coming up with a holiday theme party. My branch, Ypsilanti, came up with an awesomely bad party that is told in an awesomely good poem along with awesome pictures. If you're a fan of The Office, poetry, holidays, or humor, then I think you'll enjoy this. Here's just the beginning of it:



All the finalists' parties, along with voting buttons so you can vote for your favorite party (the deadline to vote is January 8 at 3 PM ET), can be found here:



ETA (2009-01-08): We won!!!

Posted by DMIHumanResources on January 8, 2009 at 9:30 PM:

Official congratulations to Ypsilanti who is the winner of the Holiday Theme Party task! They had twice as many votes as the runner-up so it's apparent how many of you loved the originality of their "'Twas The Night Before Christmahanukwanzakah" party.

Thanks to everyone who voted for us!

Something awesome at DMI

A couple weeks ago the weekly task on Dunder Mifflin Infinity was to create a music video for the song "That One Night" by The Hunted. The song was featured in the episode The Dinner Party, and it is excruciating. The company wide vote, which is open to the public, has now begun. Fortunately, some of the music videos created by DMI participants are nothing short of incredible. Here are links to my favorite videos:

dabaum (Hilo):


Clockwise (Ypsilanti):


loadedteapot (Canton):


Amethyst (Medford):


Redbarron (Drummondville):


-----------------

Here is a link to one more video. Clearly it is not in the same league as the rest of the videos I posted above, so why am I posting it here? Simple, because it's mine!

happysmilepatrol (Corner Brook):

MIT Blackjack Team Sets Sights On DMI

Cambridge, MA - The infamous MIT Blackjack team has reportedly stepped away from the blackjack tables and turned their attention to an online game based around a popular TV show. Dunder Mifflin Infinity, or DMI for short, is an online game based on NBC's The Office. In it, people complete various tasks to earn SchruteBucks, the currency of DMI.

The MIT blackjack team's exploits are the basis for the new Hollywood movie 21. The movie is based on the 2003 book Bringing Down The House by Ben Mezrich. Both detail how a team of students from MIT were able to use perfect strategy and teamwork to beat the casinos at blackjack, and sometimes walk away with over a hundred thousand dollars in a single weekend.

One of the team's members, who wished to remain anonymous, said, "With all the publicity from the movie we're going to have to lay low for awhile. DMI gives us the perfect opportunity to keep our minds sharp and earn some moolah on the side."

While the team was understandably mum about what strategies they were planning to use to conquer DMI, the team was not shy about discussing what effect they expected their strategies would have on DMI. One team member said, "MIT on DMI is going to be like an asteroid hitting the Earth, and MIT is the asteroid, and DMI is the Earth."

After a few boilermakers, one of the team's junior members let one of the team's secret strategies slip. He said, "First, we're all going to join the same branch. Then when a branch vote comes up we're all going to vote for the same team member's entry. Booyah! 200 SchruteBucks in the bank!"

At publication time it was not yet clear whether the MIT team understood that SchruteBucks could only be used to buy virtual items to decorate a virtual desk on one's DMI profile page, or that each SchruteBuck only has a cash value of 1/100th of a cent. DMI's current SchruteBuck leader, a person with the username dundermifflininfinity, has so far earned 9,180 SchruteBucks in the 6 months that the DMI game has been running. He has spent 4,120 SchruteBucks on virtual items for the virtual desk on his profile page, leaving him with 5,160 SchruteBucks, which are worth $0.51 US dollars.

Just as blackjack and other forms of gambling have their many critics, DMI is not without its critics, either. Critics contend that DMI is little more than a way for NBC to generate extra ad revenue with banner ads and exploit the good will, creativity, and free labor of fans of The Office to generate commercial products using their ideas without having to pay them in real dollars. The first task at DMI, create a branch logo, paid users 50 SchruteBucks (0.5 cents in US Dollars) for designing a logo for their branch, and 200 SchruteBucks (2 cents in US Dollars) if they won their branch vote for best logo. NBC later started selling various products prominently featuring the winning logos from each branch. The products sell for up to $600.00, of which the creators of the logos do not see one cent.

No response yet from the NBC Universal Store

It's been 3 days now and I still have not received a response to my question at the NBC Universal Store about whether or not the Dunder Mifflin Infinity players whose logos are being featured on merchandise sold in the NBC Universal Store are being compensated for the store selling items featuring the logos they designed. So a little bit ago I sent the question again, with a slightly different wording:

Are the people who designed the logos featured on the Dunder Mifflin Infinity Custom Gear merchandise being sold in the NBC Universal being compensated in any way for the use of the logos they designed as part of the Dunder Mifflin Infinity game? If so, will they be getting a percentage of the profits from the sale of items featuring their logo, or a flat fee for the use of their logo, or something else?

I'm sure you guys are very busy with the holiday season and all, but I would greatly appreciate a response to my question at your earliest possible convenience.

I dropped the part where I asked what percentage of profits they're getting, since if they are getting a percentage of profits, it's not my business what percentage they're getting, as long as they are getting a percentage, or some other form of compensation for the use of their logos, then that's all that really matters.

I don't know how good the odds are I'll get a response this time, but as before I'll post here if I do.

Something rotten at Dunder Mifflin Infinity

So I logged on to Dunder Mifflin Infinity this morning to see what the new task was, and while the new task isn't up yet, I saw this news item which was posted last night:

Nov. 29, 10:00 PM ET
BRANCH MERCHANDISE NOW AVAILABLE!

Attention all DMI Employees:

T-shirts, mugs, posters, cards and mousepads featuring all of the official branch logos can now be purchased exclusively at the NBC Universal Store! Show your DMI pride, click here!

Dunder Mifflin Infinity, for those that don't know, is an online game where people form virtual branches and participate in various tasks each week to earn SchruteBucks which can be spent on virtual items to decorate a virtual desk. Creating a branch logo was the very first task that was assigned, about 2 months ago. For completing the task we were each paid $50 SchruteBucks for completing the task, which is a meager sum, even in SchruteBucks, which have no monetary value outside of the game. Then we voted on our favorite logo in our branch, and the logo that got the most votes became the branch's official logo. While most of the logos are OK, there are a few that are awesome (e.g. Racine, Topeka, Spokane).

The big issue here, though, is whether or not the people that designed the logos on this new merchandise that's being sold are going to be compensated with a percentage of profits from the sale of items featuring the logos they designed, or will receive some other fair form of compensation.

Shortly after seeing that items featuring the logos we created were now being sold, I emailed the NBC Universal Store with the following question:

With the new Dunder Mifflin Infinity Custom Gear being sold in the NBC Universal Store, what percentage of profits or other compensation will the creators of the branch logos that are being put on the various items being sold receive in return for their designs being used?

I have not yet received a response, but I will post as soon as I do.

If it turns out that the logo designers will be getting a % of profits or other fair compensation from the sale of items featuring their work, then that's great!

But If it turns out that the logo designers will not be getting a % of profits or any other fair compensation from the sale of items featuring their work, then this is an outrage that must be responded to.

This is the same bullshit (on a much smaller scale, obviously) that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) tried to pull on the Writers Guild of America (WGA) regarding online use of programs without compensating the writers.

If the logo designers are not going to be fairly compensated, then I think we all must do the following:

1. Boycott the NBC Universal Store for as long as these items are being sold without fair compensation going to those who designed the logos.

2. Express our dissatisfaction with this at Dunder Mifflin Infinity, by either quitting the game until those who designed the logos get fair compensation for their work, or continue to play the game, but express our dissatisfaction with this in every way that we can (e.g. every new task, message board posts, emails to DMI) until this is resolved.