Scorpid said:
Deathfish15 said:
I have to agree with them. Any idiot that believes a CGI trailer represents actual gameplay is just that: an idiot. Honestly, I don't see anyone going up in arms against Blizzard, the masters of CGI trickery, who always has a CGI that shows off things that are impossible in their actual games.
Why don't we all just try and sue Blizzard because their Mists of Panderia CGI showed The Horde and The Alliance working together to fight a Panda; and that in PvP a Panda can take on other people else 1vs2; and that they can use environmental weapons; and that they can do acrobatic somersaults while kicking people in the face? After all...that's the "emotional tone" that was set in their trailer. It's only right to expect that everything in the trailer -not the gameplay videos- represents what's actually in the game.
For me I never look at a CGI trailer and say "oh alright this is what the game play will look like." Because you're right that that is silly. But let's look at World of Warcraft cinamatics and the feel they go for for each cinamatic is recognizable in the game/expansion they connect to. First WoW CGI for example said there will be adventure PVP PVE and big sprawling vistas, it wasn't aiming for a overarching plot and in the vanilla version of WOW that's exactly what it was. Now take my personal favorite of the five cinamatics Wrath of the Lich King and it's CLEARLY focused on a plot, on the weight regret, the power that the Lich King wields, and how it's all coming alive again... and that's pretty much where the focus of the entire expansion was. Infact in every cinamatic Blizzard puts out the CGI is easy to see how it connects to the expansion, and that's where the Dead Island trailer failed.
It was a good CGI, that had no bearing on the themes of the game, so it was absolutely misleading. Should Deep Silver be shoved off a cliff with fire and pitch forks? No obviously not but they shouldn't defend their choice either when people point out accurately that the cinamatic makes no sense in connection to the game, they should say "sorry we'll be more careful next time". I think Deep Silver is just kind of going for controversy lately, like I have no idea how they would think that little statue they putout wouldn't cause a shit storm after 2012 the mother of all gaming shit storm years.
Well, I look at it in comparison to the recent situation with American Mcgee and the claims he was making about "Alice Madness Returns" and the marketing department. He called them liars flat out in how they presented the game, but then backpedaled (probably for legal reasons) and kind of danced around the topic by saying "Well, marketing isn't nessicarly lying" but his meaning was clear. I don't agree with everything American Mcgee said there in relation to his game (I wrote a few typically lengthy posts in response to The Escapist's article on the subject) but his accusations are kind of relevent here.
At it's core Deep Silver understands that horror fans want a deep, emotional, and disturbing experience at the core of their games, in addition to the gore. Deep Silver had a trailer created for marketing purposes that presented the game in this light, rather than as a first person action RPG loot fest. It knew exactly what buttons it was going to push, and what the product was they were actually delivering. Saying they didn't lie but "marketed" becomes a technicality in a case like this, since it's still a deliberate deception intended to create hype and sales... or simply put a lie. They know what they did, refusing to own up to it just makes things worse.
To be honest I think Deep Silver is being pretty dumb, because really this has only become an issue again because they mentioned it. I'd almost suspect someone told them these clumsy apoligies were a good idea because any publicity is good publicity... and this IS getting people talking about Deep Silver again recently. That said I don't think that getting people talking is nessicarly going to help them sell their game, when it's largely reminding people of the reasons why they should be angry at Deep Silver, rather than the positive aspects of what they did with Dead Island which was a decent game overall (to me at least).
When it comes to their bloody torso, I think people need to grow up and get some perspective. This little item is no differant from similar things you'll see in specialty halloween shops around the holidays, to be honest I've seen far worse versions of the same basic piece over the years. A horror novelty in a horror game is actually a pretty good idea, and I think it's fairly cool.
Ask yourself seriously why people have decided to complain about the Dead Island torso, when they don't go ballistic every year when they sell similar things around Halloween when it's the season for horror? The answer is because it's a trolling attempt to generate contreversy and attention by people who know that aspects of the gaming community will rally behind accusations of sexism and generate tons of chaos and attacks that they can laugh at when there is no real issue. There is an audience here that can be manipulated, where if someone was to go railing about severed female body parts and such being sold as halloween props they would be ridiculed as opposed to generating armies of supporters to start a misguided crusade for their amusement.
2012 mostly stands out as being the year when people started standing up to this kind of trolling, which detracts from the real issues. Going after things like this, The Hitman Absolution trailer, or the Cyperpunk 2020 teaser, detracts from real issues when actual sexism and issues might be involved, and just generally spreads chaos, dissent, and does damage which is what trolls ultimatly want.
When I look at what this item actually is, and put it in context, it's no big deal. I don't think Deep Silver was trying to generate contreversy so much as give horror fans the kind of knick knack that they collect, tons of macabre stuff like that gets sold every year, and some of the more collectible items can resell for big bucks to the right people. I could see someome plopping the Riptide torso down on the table with all the snacks for a Halloween party, or doing something similar near the chips and munchies if they invite friends over for a horror movie night.
