Volvo has historically been known for it’s developments in automotive safety. In 1959, Volvo created the first three point seat belt effectively saving and preventing countless lives. Furthermore, Volvo has been permanently engraved in automotive history by not patenting the design of the three point seatbelt and allowing other automotive manufacturers to copy the design. However, none of these great achievements were honoured today.

Last year, Valve, a video game developer, released a special halloween event called Diretide for one of their most popular online games, Dota 2. The event was well received and Dota enthusiasts from around the world have eagerly been waiting for the annual Halloween event however were let down as the online Halloween event did not occur this year.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLUzzTQIwbY[/youtube]

Coincidentally, when Valve’s gamer base is displeased with Valve’s actions, the gamers call Valve Volvo instead. Gamers have taken to Volvo’s Reddit Page, Volvo’s Facebook Page, and other social media pages to vent their disapproval of Valve’s actions. Unfortunately for Volvo, within the past 24 hours, Volvo’s Facebook Page has exploded with a never ending stream of comments similiar to the following

“༼ つ ◕_◕ ༽つ Give DIRETIDE”.

Social media pages relating to Volvo are not the only ones to have been affected by this frustration. One gamer went as far as prank calling a local Seattle dealership to ask “Volvo, Y DO U DO DIS TO US”.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B77xmQuSnU&feature=share[/youtube]

Whether or not Volvo is enjoying the free marketing is beyond us. Do you think it would be a success if Volvo made a Diretide edition of one of their cars? Let us know in the comments below.

Update 1: Through the thousands of comments, it would appear that Volvo, the automotive company has embraced the meme. Although there has been a lot of attention by annoyed gamers around Volvo, there are no genuine ill feelings regarding Volvo and the gamers’s misfortune but rather good fun poking fun of Valve, the gaming company. Volvo appears to be taking in the seasonal fun by releasing what appears to be a meme of their own and joining in with the gamers- which has positively received from the gamer community. Volvo has released the following comment on their Facebook Page “Valve, hats are great, but the people want Diretide!”

Update 2: It appears that the attention over Volvo has overflowed and the meme has taken a life of it’s own on other pages. One notable page that has been bombarded was President Barrack Obama’s Facebook Page. Do you think Obama will take it in stride like Volvo or ignore the comical overflow over a video game?