Saints Row Dev Not Happy With THQ's Pornstar Marketing

[Steven Bogos]

Saints Row Dev Not Happy With THQ's Pornstar Marketing

Volition associate producer Kate Nelson thinks the porn star angle didn't really fit in with what Saints Row is at heart.

You may remember way back during the marketing cycle for Saints Row 2, in-between those Edge [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvMELFck7ZU] that she and the rest of the Saints Row team weren't too happy with THQ's focus on porn stars for Saints Row 2 and Saints Row the Third.

"I think it's important in marketing games to make sure that the essence of the game is what's being marketed, and I think the porn star angle didn't really fit in with what Saints Row is at heart, which is a parody. We like to poke fun."

In particular, Nelson says the whole Tera Patrick thing rubbed a lot of people at Voliton the wrong way. "Saying that someone who had no industry experience was in a role that is sexualised as a producer of our project, or saying the penthouse girls are our QA staff - I just...I can see the humour in that angle of promotion but for me that's the line where it gets into reality."

Nelson goes on to talk about Saints Row IV, and how the series has come a long way from its objectification days. "You can be an important female character - you don't have to have a D cup either," she says. "You can be large woman, a small woman - you can be blue. You can be who you want to be in the game and you have powerful female characters written into the narrative."

But she despairs that the press isn't going to see things that way. "The press will focus on, oh hey, there are strippers, or there's a dildo bat - it's unfortunate from my perspective that that doesn't come through." Its ok Kate, us Escapists appreciate your effort to make strong, female characters, that also happen to wield dildo bats and anal probe weapons [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126306-Saints-Row-IV-Season-Pass-Includes-Anal-Probe-Weapon].

Source: Edge Online [http://www.edge-online.com/features/walking-the-line-volition-on-courting-controversy-and-saints-row-iv/]

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[Saulkar]

So no porn star Uncle Gary Patrick posing as a stripper while impersonating a cop wielding a dildo bat while lamenting the press...

I so did not read that right.

 

[King of Asgaard]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

 

[hazabaza1]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

Ex-porn star, and god forbid someone who had a lot of sex could do voice acting! They also got Hulk Hogan to do a voice, but I doubt they'd really enjoy all of their marketing to be dumb looking wrestlers.
Although this is Saint's Row so maybe that's exactly what they're going for

 

[Legion]

Well that's what happens when you get publishers involved. They care about getting the game noticed, and having a porn star involved is bound to turn heads. Both the people who for some reason think that it's a good thing, and those that will sigh and be annoyed that they are using such a cheap method of marketing.

To the publishers it doesn't make a difference, because the game gets attention from it. It's not that different in essence when you get games such as Halo and Gears of War having heavy and emotional trailers when the dialogue and story within the game is more like your average action movie. As long as it gets people noticing it, they will consider it a success.

 

[King of Asgaard]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

Ex-porn star, and god forbid someone who had a lot of sex could do voice acting! They also got Hulk Hogan to do a voice, but I doubt they'd really enjoy all of their marketing to be dumb looking wrestlers.
Although this is Saint's Row so maybe that's exactly what they're going for

Former or not, I'm simply pointing out the irony of the situation.
Nelson's all up in arms over THQ's porn star angle, all while there's a (former) porn star taking an active roll in the game. Tell me that's not a little bit funny.
Also, Hulk Hogan is a semi-retired wrestler, so he's used to acting.

 

[Teoes]

Former or not, I'm simply pointing out the irony of the situation.
Nelson's all up in arms over THQ's porn star angle, all while there's a (former) porn star taking an active roll in the game. Tell me that's not a little bit funny.
Also, Hulk Hogan is a semi-retired wrestler, so he's used to acting.

Porn stars are actors/actresses too!

Surely the amount of irony/hypocrisy comes down to how that's pitched. If it's scrawled on the box/ads "Voiced by this porn star!" then yes, there's hypocrisy in the devs then being unhappy about using a porn star as a 'producer' for promotion.. whereas if she's (I'm assuming we're talking about a she? I've actually missed the news that a porn star is doing voice work for a SR game) just.. kind of there, doing the job, then there's less of a deal.

Surely it's the fact that a porn star is being so prominently displayed in the promotion that has rankled the devs, not that their product is in any way related to the profession. The whole things strikes me as a bit odd anyway, almost as if they're trying to pass off SR as a srs bznz legit artform, instead of funwhackytrashyextremeobscene junk.

I'm not sure I've typed the word 'porn' quite so many times before in a single post here.

 

[Evil Smurf]

The porn star angle just made it more interesting, but maybe the dev's hands were tied here.

 

[TheSYLOH]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

Ex-porn star, and god forbid someone who had a lot of sex could do voice acting! They also got Hulk Hogan to do a voice, but I doubt they'd really enjoy all of their marketing to be dumb looking wrestlers.
Although this is Saint's Row so maybe that's exactly what they're going for

I'm going to have to dispute the "ex-pornstar" bit.
Unless "Anal Artist" is an unfortunately named art film of some kind.
Source : IMDB

 

[Korskarn]

The irony here is that Tera Patrick is a savvy businesswoman, who has been running her own company for 7 years and was one of the pioneers on the creative side for streaming media. Not to mention two college degrees with a 3.5 gpa. She probably has a higher net worth than anyone at Volition, and has more experience overseeing an online content platform than 90% of their producers.

That's not a knock on Volition's staff, that's really how influential she's been to the business and delivery side of online porn. But yes Kate Nelson, this pornstar with "no industry experience" could probably do both your job and your boss's job. I think if there's anyone judging stereotypes based on pornstars, you should probably start by looking in the mirror.

 

[MrHide-Patten]

"You can be large woman, a small woman - you can be blue. You can be who you want to be in the game and you have powerful female characters written into the narrative."

This why I've always had a soft spot for Saint's Row and why all the hullabaloo sorrounding GTA has sort of fallen on deaf ears with me. If they had a female protagonist then I would've been more excited, especially with Rockstars history of of serious story telling ("hey cousin, lets go see some big American titties").

But from of videos I've seen, they're looking to make SR4 a little more interpersonal, which I like the look of... even if they resolve their issues by fighting Soda-Can Kaiju's.

 

[hazabaza1]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

Ex-porn star, and god forbid someone who had a lot of sex could do voice acting! They also got Hulk Hogan to do a voice, but I doubt they'd really enjoy all of their marketing to be dumb looking wrestlers.
Although this is Saint's Row so maybe that's exactly what they're going for

I'm going to have to dispute the "ex-pornstar" bit.
Unless "Anal Artist" is an unfortunately named art film of some kind.
Source : IMDB

Well that's weird.

There's a bunch of articles about her quitting it and she was on a talk show about it once too. I guess she didn't?

 

[Geo Da Sponge]

The best description I've ever heard of sex and the Saints Row series is "I think they've bitten off more sex than they're comfortable chewing."


I mean, yeah, they've got the massive dildo bats, the anal probes and the bondage pony cart chases but God knows you're never going to see a male stripper or a character actually have sex.

 

[Vivi22]

And yet you got a porn star to voice a main character in Saint's Row 3.
Conflicting principles much?

Ex-porn star, and god forbid someone who had a lot of sex could do voice acting! They also got Hulk Hogan to do a voice, but I doubt they'd really enjoy all of their marketing to be dumb looking wrestlers.
Although this is Saint's Row so maybe that's exactly what they're going for

Former or not, I'm simply pointing out the irony of the situation.
Nelson's all up in arms over THQ's porn star angle, all while there's a (former) porn star taking an active roll in the game. Tell me that's not a little bit funny.

Except there's really no irony in this situation. There's a big difference between having a former porn star voice a character in the game and never really playing up that fact or marketing the game around it, and hiring a porn star to pretend she's a producer and meet with people at marketing events.

 

[Moth_Monk]

Pfft, Nelson is merely performing damage control/back peddling because video games being sexy is taboo at the moment. Mark my words: They've only come out and said this to make sure they don't lose sales or get bad reviews. It wouldn't surprise me if it's THQ that's told her to say this.

Besides using a porn star in the marketing was bang on.

 

[DataSnake]

It wouldn't surprise me if it's THQ that's told her to say this.

It would surprise me, and here's [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/121692-Bankruptcy-Court-Approves-THQ-Sale] why [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/126056-THQ-Bankruptcy-Case-Ends].

 

[Jamous]

It's funny, because Saint's Row the Third was possibly one of the most feminist games I've ever played. Seriously! How depressing is that? The game parodying ridiculous over the top bullshit and gang culture has some of the better written and treated female characters I've seen. I rolled a Female Boss and god damn if she wasn't one of the best characters I've seen. Despite the strippers, despite the giant dildos and other ridiculous features, I thought SR3 actually handled female character stupidly well, and frankly that the fact is so impressive to me is really kind of sad and does -not- reflect well on our industry.