I wish I could say I'm surprised to see Shamus screw up again with something Mass Effect related, but I'm not. When he criticized [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/8868-What-s-Wrong-with-Mass-Effect-2"]a lot of supposed plot holes in ME2[/a], I felt the need to [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/6.283688.11167963"]correct his misunderstandings[/a], and now it seems I have to do it again.
He has two main points "They make Shepard sounds like someone who isn't Shepard but rather some lunk-head", and "the DLC sucks, look at how bad this commercial is".
His first point is reminiscent of his earlier problems criticizing ME2: He doesn't immediately get it so there is no way it actually could make sense. He seems to be forgetting the part about the Reapers being scary as hell. No single force in the Universe stands a chance against them. People may attempt to flee such a situation, and it must be made clear that running away isn't an option. The Protheans tried that and the best they could do was allow a small handful to survive, a number so small that they didn't have enough genetic diversity to continue breeding.
Thus, Shepard must convince everyone that the choice is between fighting and having a chance of survival, or dying. This is actually a rather old philosophy going back to Japanese Bushido: "If a warrior goes into battle with the knowledge that he will die?then he will not. If he is unsure?he will surely die?. This is something Shepard echoed even more closely in the latest trailer [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/116120-Mass-Effect-3-Launch-Trailer-Redefines-Epic"]here[/a], when he says "Each of you needs to be willing to die. Anything less, and you're already dead." There are times when such a line would be over the top, but with what they are facing it is entirely appropriate.
The other point is his diatribe against the EA commercial. Now it does seem to be a pretty stupid commercial, but his beef here is with EA, and this seems to be a trailer for Gamestop to encourage people to get it there rather than Amazon. It's also unfair to use this clip as something that is supposed to represent EA marketing with ME3 overall. Most of the video clips I've seen, and I've seen plenty, have been quite excellent. Shamus even admits to this in the beginning. What he has done is take the worst example and tried to paint the entire campaign with the same brush.
Now the commercial is about pre-order DLC, so he also attacks that. The fact that EA is offering the pre-order DLC is not the same as the marketing for said DLC. You can appreciate the marketing for something you hate, like my appreciation of the Bud Lite commercial where the [a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bmotlurx0EM"]guy jumps out of the plane to get his beer[/a], or you can appreciate the product and hate the marketing. Thus, I'll leave whether EA should be doing the DLC for another time.
Shamus has this problem with the marketing specifically:
Shamus Young said:
"We've got this awful dissonance where the "Take Back Earth" trailer tries to sell us on this universe of loss and hopeless odds, and then we've got other commercials telling customers the game is all about "LOL Gunz!!!"
Yes, it's almost as if EA is trying to market to multiple groups and its primary concern is not what you alone might want. The truth is, the game has both of these things. These things will appeal to two different groups. People will play for the story, people will play for the guns, and others will appreciate both. This isn't "dissonance", its a nuanced approach to marketing that widens the market as much as possible. People who only want a good gun game might actually start appreciating deep and engaging story, but may never had tried it out because they assumed they only liked games with lots of guns and explosions.
Shamus, the marketing isn't saying it's big, dumb, and loud. They are saying "Hey, if you like story, holy *#!% is there an awesome story. Oh, you want intense military action? Holy $#!*ing %*#! is there some awesome action in this game". Please, start looking beyond your immediate first impressions.
