Rant: Game marketing and the evils thereof (with comedy mp3)

You know, there are times when I feel deeply ashamed of being a gamer. It's stupid, I know, but I can't help it. Since the public percieves gaming as something for children and social misfits living in their parents cellar (and quite possibly living there to spare their parents the shame of their offspring being seen in public), being a gamer feels like being part of a small, intimate group, and thus anything horrendous done by other members of the group sullies me that much more. When I see The Real Cancun in the boxoffice charts, I feel like bemoaning the all-consuming greed and blatant disregard for such things as artistic merit (as well as bashing the cynical corporate scumf*cks responsible over the head repeatedly with a shovel); when I see Dave Mirra BMX XXX I retreat to my greasy little corner, grab the comfy blanket and cry my heart out as some bastard just stained my soul enough to ensure my reincarnation as an insect.

It all comes down to mainstream acceptance. I want to see games enter the public concience as something worthwhile; I want to games like Torment, System Shock and Thief get the recognition they deserve. I want the alarmist cries about the evil games to stop. I want gaming to be accepted as something anyone can do regardless of age and gender, so I'll be able to see something juvenile or horrible, like the E3 booth babes or Acclaim, and not feel raped.

Which is why those high scool dropouts, big-business rejects and all-round incompetents in charge at publishers' must die. Take a good, long look at the average gaming ad. Count the number of breassts rubbed in your face. Compute the leather to sensible clothing ratio. Look at the second rate artwork, coming off as a two minute photoshop job. This is what they think will make us buy their product. How can we ever be taken seriously by anyone else when even the industry believes us to be dribbling imbeciles?

Admittedly, they can't be blamed completely for the gratious nudity and leather, as every other developer seems to be living out his S&M fantasies through his games, but look at it this: someone, somewhere thought this abomination was a good idea.

Weep with me brothers and sisters.

(But It'll all be ok, won't it? Because Infogrames is innovation. Infogrames rocks, rocks, rocks our world! Christ. :lol:)

[size=9]I intended to write a brief something instad of just posting the link with the prerequisite 'lol'. It got a little bit out of hand.[/size]

I wonder if the woman who sang this, and yes, I''ve heard its horrid melody before, promptly went outside the studio and hurled herself off a bridge, a cliff, or into traffic. What I think is that somewhere, someone presented this song, most likely accompnaied with a slideshow in a dingy hotel meeting room during some kind of awful company junket while people who died a little inside watched, listened, and wished they lived in the woods of Montana with an extensive arsenal.

There was also that bit from Billboard (via Evil Avatar) about the theme song to Spy Hunter 2 being sung by Vanessa Carlton. You wouldn''t think she''d be able to pull off the James Bondesque type theme song.

OMG!

You know I thought I was going to have something smart to say about a new thought I had regarding the abundance of juvenile attitude in the industry. Yet, somehow listening to this completely cleared my train of thought.

I ended up bursting into uncontrollable laughter in the last 10 seconds of the song. Somehow this just doesnt have the same oomph to it like Intel''s 4 note diddy.

Oh ya now I remember.

Has anyone dared think that, since games are becoming more mainstream, juvenile attitude is mainstream.

We have a Pontiac commercial where the Dad driving the car is racing his 2 sons in the back playing GBA''s.

Sex is everywhere on billboard''s, magazine ads, and TV spots.

That awesome spot, "" I, love, burritos at 4 am, parties that never end, and TWINS!""

We have ads with moms standing with mop in hand, looking as majestic as a comic book hero, over her shmmering spotless floor.

"fangblackbone" wrote:

Has anyone dared think that, since games are becoming more mainstream, juvenile attitude is mainstream.

I generally only have to look at the top box office hits on any given week to know that this is true. Well ok but not this week, this is matrix weekend and X2 Whoohoo... oh... sh*t, ok but they still are good intellectually stimulating movies right?... hello? Dam, but I stand by my statement and now I''m going to bed in a funk thanks Fang.

Coming soon ""Infogrames: Greatest Hits"" to music store near you! Stop waiting and get this instant classic, featuring songs like ""Infogrames - Rocks my World"". Which put them on the top chart for 3min* straight.

*.about the same as the length of the song.

So, are they going to redo that brilliant song with ""Atari"" instead now?

Oh, and claiming that games gaining mainstream acceptance leads to immaturity leads to ""TWINS"" in beer commercials isn''t a logical connection. Beer commercials have always had scantily clad women, even before the dawn of gaming... or even time for that matter.

The acceptance of gaming into mainstream culture is a double-edged sword; that is, greater acceptance and prominence leads to better games, but eventually homogenizes the medium to a state where only large corporations can put out unoffensive ""safe"" material. Luckily for us right now, we''re riding along the peak of the wave, getting deluged with great games before the inevitable crash on the beach of Political Correctness. Enjoy!

"baggachipz" wrote:

Oh, and claiming that games gaining mainstream acceptance leads to immaturity leads to ""TWINS"" in beer commercials isn''t a logical connection. Beer commercials have always had scantily clad women, even before the dawn of gaming... or even time for that matter.

See thats not what I read. I read that as gaming is becoming more mainstream, but not getting more mature, that becoming mainstream doesn''t neccisarily mean becoming mature. I didnt think that gaming caused anything, but that gaming wasn''t becoming mature because the mainstream wasn''t demanding it. But it wasn''t my post, so I dont know.

Yes I was stating that mainstream is immature and that gaming becoming more immature is a sign of being more accepted in the mainstream.

I do not believe immature games are causing mainstream to become immature. Mainstream already is immature and has been for a long time.

Gaming going mainstream is only a matter of time, if it''s not happened already. As we ex-young gamers grow up and get ""normal"" lives, and kids, we''ll be more understanding of videogames than current adults are. I hope.

However, immaturity in the industry will never really go away. Just as in movies, or music, there will be a niche audience, that loves good, innovative, quirky games. And then there will be the mainstream that will always love big boobies, sports, and beer, if they can somehow work it into a game.

There will always be a Grim Fandango, outsold by DOAX Volleyball.

I''m not ashamed of saying I''m a gamer. I stopped caring what random people thought of me back in grade school.

Edit: Ok, I''m a bit ashamed of saying I''m a gamer after listening to that song. If I was a singer, I''d know I ''ve reached my all time low when I found myself singing ""Aloone in the Dah-ah-ark"", yeh yeh.

"fangblackbone" wrote:

Yes I was stating that mainstream is immature and that gaming becoming more immature is a sign of being more accepted in the mainstream.

I do not believe immature games are causing mainstream to become immature. Mainstream already is immature and has been for a long time.

Ahh, my bad... wise man once say, ""Read post twice before responding once."" Well, maybe he didn''t, but he should have. That pathetically nay-saying post of mine was just reflecting the worst possible scenario in my head; that gaming becomes boring because it''s forced to conform to mainstream. It strangely coincides with my fears about the Internet, strange.

If I wasn''t clear in my point, I''m just as guilty if not more so than you are baggachipz.

You dont have to apologize for addressing confusion. It helped me clarify my argument.

"baggachipz" wrote:

The acceptance of gaming into mainstream culture is a double-edged sword; that is, greater acceptance and prominence leads to better games, but eventually homogenizes the medium to a state where only large corporations can put out unoffensive ""safe"" material.

Yeah, that''s a fair point. Gaming becoming more mainstream would probably lead to the pandering to the lowest common denominator we see in movies today, but a bigger market would create economically viable niches for companies like Looking Glass and Ion Storm Austi to actually survive in. That''s what I''m putting my hopes to at least. I''d rather be ridiculed all my life than se gaming becoming more lobotomized.

Regarding that atrocious mp3, does anyone else think it sounded suspicously much like the singer of M People? (I think that''s what they were/are called.)