I am mad. Very, very mad. I'm mad about something called Dead Space 2. Dead Space one was a sci-fi horror game from a few years ago, a game that was basically a mash-up of every previous sci-fi horror movie ever, except it was about as frightening as having a cat suddenly jump out of your laundry basket. I'm not mad about the fact that Dead Space 2 is coming out, I'm not mad about any aspect of the game. I'm mad about Dead Space 2's marketing campaign.
In the week leading up to its release, Dead Space 2 has been flying under a new slogan: "Your Mom Hates This." When I first saw this, I didn't know what to make of it. Now I do: I am furious. This isn't any kind of controversy, and in fact it's probably true. Dead Space 2 is a game in which you use high-powered space tools to cut apart enemies that basically amount to reanimated, mangled human corpses. With that in mind, I doubt many people's moms will be lined up to get this game on release day. However, true or not, this is the worst and most backwards advertisement I've ever seen for a game.
Let me say something quickly: no, I'm not some gaming elitist. I am perfectly capable of admitting something that most gamers can't: video games are, at their core, toys. Toys are, at their core, designed for children, and aren't meant to be taken to seriously. However, I do think that games have a lot to offer to the world artistically, and just because they are toys doesn't mean that video games can't be mature about themselves. Games can be used to tell a lot of interesting stories that simply can't be told in traditional, non-interactive mediums like books or movies. This isn't going to happen, though, until the non-gaming population comes to view games as something more than childish fantasies or juvenile blood-baths. In order for video games to grow as an art form, which would be a very, very good thing for the industry, they need to develop enough self-respect to be respected by the community.
With that previous paragraph in mind, my anger with Dead Space 2's slogan should be obvious. This game represents, to me, everything that is holding gaming back as an artistic medium. It is shallow, it's story is predictable, it wallows in gore in an effort to appear "mature", not realizing that the juvenile obsession with violence is one of the things holding it back from real maturity. And, to top it all off, it's selling itself on the promise that the gamer's mom will hate it. This is terrible. In putting out this slogan, Dead Space's developer, Visceral Games, is forcing the entirety of the gaming industry to take a gigantic step backwards, away from mainstream acceptance. As long as companies like Visceral are allowed to do stuff like this, actually concerned gamers and developers will never gain the approval of the masses, and so many great, thought-provoking stories will never get to be told, because "games aren't mature enough to handle controversial themes." Thank you, Visceral, and may every one of your stupid, asinine, immature games bomb.
In the week leading up to its release, Dead Space 2 has been flying under a new slogan: "Your Mom Hates This." When I first saw this, I didn't know what to make of it. Now I do: I am furious. This isn't any kind of controversy, and in fact it's probably true. Dead Space 2 is a game in which you use high-powered space tools to cut apart enemies that basically amount to reanimated, mangled human corpses. With that in mind, I doubt many people's moms will be lined up to get this game on release day. However, true or not, this is the worst and most backwards advertisement I've ever seen for a game.
Let me say something quickly: no, I'm not some gaming elitist. I am perfectly capable of admitting something that most gamers can't: video games are, at their core, toys. Toys are, at their core, designed for children, and aren't meant to be taken to seriously. However, I do think that games have a lot to offer to the world artistically, and just because they are toys doesn't mean that video games can't be mature about themselves. Games can be used to tell a lot of interesting stories that simply can't be told in traditional, non-interactive mediums like books or movies. This isn't going to happen, though, until the non-gaming population comes to view games as something more than childish fantasies or juvenile blood-baths. In order for video games to grow as an art form, which would be a very, very good thing for the industry, they need to develop enough self-respect to be respected by the community.
With that previous paragraph in mind, my anger with Dead Space 2's slogan should be obvious. This game represents, to me, everything that is holding gaming back as an artistic medium. It is shallow, it's story is predictable, it wallows in gore in an effort to appear "mature", not realizing that the juvenile obsession with violence is one of the things holding it back from real maturity. And, to top it all off, it's selling itself on the promise that the gamer's mom will hate it. This is terrible. In putting out this slogan, Dead Space's developer, Visceral Games, is forcing the entirety of the gaming industry to take a gigantic step backwards, away from mainstream acceptance. As long as companies like Visceral are allowed to do stuff like this, actually concerned gamers and developers will never gain the approval of the masses, and so many great, thought-provoking stories will never get to be told, because "games aren't mature enough to handle controversial themes." Thank you, Visceral, and may every one of your stupid, asinine, immature games bomb.
