Advocacy Group Angry That Moms Hate Dead Space 2

[Thaius]

Good for them. Seriously, I think, for the most part, Common Sense Media is one of the more reasonable and awesome groups out there for that. Rare groups like them, Reviews4Parents, and... well like I said, they're rare. Point is, they understand and respect the medium to a degree while also helping parents be careful what they allow their kids to play. And EA was way out of line with that ad campaign; it's degrading, demeaning, and patronizing. They're treating mature gamers like rebellious teenage brats. Anyone and everyone is right to act against them for this.

 

[shintakie10]

While I wasnt convinced to buy the game from the ad, I did find it hilarious. Kinda like how I find all the Bulletstorm ads to be hilarious even though many have nothin to do with the game.

Heck. Some of the most popular ads have only a very marginal amount to do with the product in question like that Volkswagon commercial or all the Super Bowl ads ever.

 

[wsmieszek]

Good to see the advocacy group hates dead space 2, i would likely hate everything they stand for so we're probably about equal. For those in this thread who side with the group of moms... hand in your gamer card guys lol...

I bloody hope that your post was sarcastic...

First, the agency does not hate Dead Space 2. They do not approve of the campaign.
Second, people do not side with the "moms" but with the agency evaluating the campaign.
It is not the same thing.

Also, Dead Space 2 is everything you stand for? I'm so sorry...

 

[yundex]

Good for them. Seriously, I think, for the most part, Common Sense Media is one of the more reasonable and awesome groups out there for that. Rare groups like them, Reviews4Parents, and... well like I said, they're rare. Point is, they understand and respect the medium to a degree while also helping parents be careful what they allow their kids to play. And EA was way out of line with that ad campaign; it's degrading, demeaning, and patronizing. They're treating mature gamers like rebellious teenage brats. Anyone and everyone is right to act against them for this.

Honestly, I think the age requirement for games like this in America should be lowered. We can have sex at 16 but god forbid we shoot virtual aliens. My 7 year old sister played DS2 and had fun just stomping corpses, if parents actually parented, we wouldn't have these groups or these ad campaigns.

 

[David Bray]

Everybody has a mother? Come on, dude. No one over 16 cares what thir mum thinks when playing a video game

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Intentionally or not, it comes off as directed at children.

Even setting that issue aside, the ad campaign is immature and detrimental to all of the effort everyone else is putting in trying to fight these stereotypes against games and gamers.

I was completely taken aback when I saw the slogan for the first time; it feels like we're back in 1999.

Good for them. Seriously, I think, for the most part, Common Sense Media is one of the more reasonable and awesome groups out there for that. Rare groups like them, Reviews4Parents, and... well like I said, they're rare. Point is, they understand and respect the medium to a degree while also helping parents be careful what they allow their kids to play. And EA was way out of line with that ad campaign; it's degrading, demeaning, and patronizing. They're treating mature gamers like rebellious teenage brats. Anyone and everyone is right to act against them for this.

Honestly, I think the age requirement for games like this in America should be lowered. We can have sex at 16 but god forbid we shoot virtual aliens. My 7 year old sister played DS2 and had fun just stomping corpses, if parents actually parented, we wouldn't have these groups or these ad campaigns.

First, the ad campaign is tasteless, immature, and stupid regardless of your stance on age for gaming. The "if parents actually parented" comment is also fairly dumb. Parents have a lot of things to deal with, things will slip through the cracks, and absolute big-brother parenting is probably extremely detrimental to children anyway. Also, I am extremely doubtful that there are very many 7 year olds who should be playing DS2. Perhaps I'm misreading a sarcastic remark, but if your sister actually had fun "stomping corpses" in DS2, the people trying to restrict the age are right on the mark. As gamers, we typically like to speak against the "games desensitize people" and "violent/sexual/etc games can negatively affect a person's personality", but there's no reasonable way to make the same argument when you're talking about young children playing these games.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

What idiotic accusations... I don't get, where it happens? In USA perhaps?

Have you seen the adds? They are clearly marketing towards people who would care if their mothers hated the game i.e. people who aren't allowed to get it. Yea, most people over 17 still have mothers who probably would hate the game, but they don't care.

True. I'm 23 myself, and my mother actually seen Dead Space. She certainly don't hate it, but thinks it's bland and boring: "staring on that man's ass and shooting same stupid enemies for hours?" She likes God of War series a lot though.
It's probably true about target demographic playing M-rated games being kids. Some of modern M-rated are just too bland to entertain, like CoD series maybe, although sometimes cheap approach works - I myself enjoyed Splatterhouse simply because of it's hilarious humor.

 

[bak00777]

So they are mad that the ad is appealing to the demographic that ad was aimed at?

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

"Your mom hates Dead Space 2." Common Sense Media isn't amused by the campaign, not because of its nature, but because the family advocacy group feels the ads are overly appealing to kids under 17.


So they are mad that the ad is appealing to the demographic that ad was aimed at?

Are you being intentionally dense? They're mad that the ad was aimed at a demographic that the company explicitly agreed not to aim ads for such products at.

They're probably also more than a little mad that the company continues to pretend that that's not what it's doing. Even if it was unintentional, everyone can see the effect the ad actually produced (you obviously can since you think that's what it was aimed at producing in the first place). So the "unintentional" excuse disappears since they keep using the ads and keep insisting that they're not aimed at a younger demographic even once everyone agrees that that was the effect produced.

 

[bak00777]

"Your mom hates Dead Space 2." Common Sense Media isn't amused by the campaign, not because of its nature, but because the family advocacy group feels the ads are overly appealing to kids under 17.


So they are mad that the ad is appealing to the demographic that ad was aimed at?

Are you being intentionally dense? They're mad that the ad was aimed at a demographic that the company explicitly agreed not to aim ads for such products at.

They're probably also more than a little mad that the company continues to pretend that that's not what it's doing. Even if it was unintentional, everyone can see the effect the ad actually produced (you obviously can since you think that's what it was aimed at producing in the first place). So the "unintentional" excuse disappears since they keep using the ads and keep insisting that they're not aimed at a younger demographic even once everyone agrees that that was the effect produced.

no sry, i read the OP a bit too quickly and thought it said appealing to kids over 17. I attempted to fix my post.

 

[vxicepickxv]

I think we should look at the way Graham said it on ENN this week.

 

[Noctis_XZ]

HAHA! Fantastic, im surprised EA came up with clever marketing tactics like that usually its lowest common denominator mindlessness or just adding "EA challenge everything" to the end of every game commercial.

Good to see the advocacy group hates dead space 2, i would likely hate everything they stand for so we're probably about equal. For those in this thread who side with the group of moms... hand in your gamer card guys lol...

You do mean the mothers in the actual Dead Space 2 ad and not the advocacy group, correct? Just wanted to clear that up..

For once I can actually find myself not becoming immediately enraged at how pointless one of these groups arguments is.

Actually taking a look at the Dead Space 2 ad it seems more like it was created to cause publicity instead of market the game for its merits.. in that case it was successful. Generally I'm lighthearted and can laugh at just about anything despite how juvenile it is BUT in the case of the Dead Space 2 ad I couldn't. It's one of those things that only makes the company and the people who play the game seem VERY immature.. which is NOT the case. Creating a focus group for a group of conservative mothers.. umm, is that your audience for this game? No. See my point yet?

Without getting into the rating system and how, for lack of a better word, retarded it can be sometimes this ad was clearly marketed for those BELOW the designated age to play the game. To everyone 17 and older.. did seeing this ad for the game and how your mother will hate it make you want to buy it?.. finally see the point? Let's not rag on a group for making a legitimate complaint and save it for the ones who make those idiotic ones..

I'm 22 and frankly the ad embarrassed me. The whole thing reflects on the gaming audience rather poorly..

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

"Your mom hates Dead Space 2." Common Sense Media isn't amused by the campaign, not because of its nature, but because the family advocacy group feels the ads are overly appealing to kids under 17.


So they are mad that the ad is appealing to the demographic that ad was aimed at?

Are you being intentionally dense? They're mad that the ad was aimed at a demographic that the company explicitly agreed not to aim ads for such products at.

They're probably also more than a little mad that the company continues to pretend that that's not what it's doing. Even if it was unintentional, everyone can see the effect the ad actually produced (you obviously can since you think that's what it was aimed at producing in the first place). So the "unintentional" excuse disappears since they keep using the ads and keep insisting that they're not aimed at a younger demographic even once everyone agrees that that was the effect produced.

no sry, i read the OP a bit too quickly and thought it said appealing to kids over 17. I attempted to fix my post.

Nevermind then

 

[SamElliot'sMustache]

That campaign was pretty dumb, especially because of how juvenile it was.

Since it was based around whether or not "Your mom" would hate it (personally, my mom wouldn't care), EA is making one of three assumptions about you, the customer:

a) You're a teenager, still at home with your mom, and that you'll be 'cool' if you get this game, because you'll be 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

b) You're not a teenager, but you're still under the thumb of your overbearing mom, possibly living with her long after you should have moved out, and that you'll be 'cool' if you get this game, because you'll be 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

Or c) You're not a teenager, and you don't live at home with your mom, but you still have to prove how 'cool' you are by 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

All three assumptions are based on you being so emotionally immature that you base your decisions on what you like based on whether your (hypothetically) strict, overbearing, conservative mother would like it or not, and that the only difference between you and the stunted, sniveling man-children who follow 'Mother's' every whim is that you have to be defiant even when you have no reason to be. That's what EA thinks of you, and pretty much of all gamers.

Don't know about the rest of you, but that's an opinion I find insulting, personally (though probably accurate of most of us gamers). Yet another reason I refuse to buy any more EA games (including anything Bioware makes).

 

[maddawg IAJI]

One thing they fail to remember is that the ESRB ratings are still only a suggestion in America. There are no rules surrounding them. As long as they say "Rated M" in the advertisement, they're informing the viewer of the rating of the game.

 

[lacktheknack]

Vance disagrees, replying to Stayer with: "Just because a product desires to be seen as 'cool' or 'edgy' does not in and of itself necessitate that it is directed at children."

This makes me laugh. So, having your mother hate a horror game makes it "cool" or "edgy"?

If you genuinely think that, you are definitely 14 years old, and Common Sense Media is right.

And that's what I've been complaining about the entire time myself.

 

[lacktheknack]

HAHA! Fantastic, im surprised EA came up with clever marketing tactics like that usually its lowest common denominator mindlessness or just adding "EA challenge everything" to the end of every game commercial.

Good to see the advocacy group hates dead space 2, i would likely hate everything they stand for so we're probably about equal. For those in this thread who side with the group of moms... hand in your gamer card guys lol...

I'll consider handing it in, just because having it puts me in the same demographic as you.

Common Sense Media is probably the best advocacy group of their type, and they have a VERY VERY GOOD POINT.

 

[bob1052]

People over 17 can still be rebellious over their mom's.

Do you think there is larger number of people over 17 who would want something purely because their mother hates it rather than under 17?

I'm 21 and my mom hates Dead Space 2.

Was your mom's hatred for it the driving factor for you wanting the game.

This ad campaign is so obviously targeted at the rebellious teenage kids who would jump at the chance to get something their parents would disapprove of. Most people who are old enough to buy the game are mature enough to not care that their parents hate it, or at least not be driven by their parents reaction to go buy the game.

Anyone who is older than 18 who gets all giggly at the thought of their parents disgust in something of theirs really needs to grow up and get past the phase of needing a reaction from your parents.

Since it was based around whether or not "Your mom" would hate it (personally, my mom wouldn't care), EA is making one of three assumptions about you, the customer:

a) You're a teenager, still at home with your mom, and that you'll be 'cool' if you get this game, because you'll be 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

b) You're not a teenager, but you're still under the thumb of your overbearing mom, possibly living with her long after you should have moved out, and that you'll be 'cool' if you get this game, because you'll be 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

Or c) You're not a teenager, and you don't live at home with your mom, but you still have to prove how 'cool' you are by 'defying' your parents, big rebel that you are.

That's exactly what it is. Either they are targeting people who are teenagers, or they are targeting adults who has matured mentally as much as a teenager, and thus are appealing to teenagers still.

 

[lacktheknack]

1) What?

2) Who in their right mind would find that ad appealing?

3) Who thinks that other people find that appealing?

4) Why are some people just so stupid?

2. A fourteen year old.

3. The advocacy group.

4. They aren't.