Rage

[GiantRaven]

True. But what's better? A superficial improvement on the way games are presented to the public at large with 'better' advertising and marketing, or a deeper advancement and development of the actual games? You could well argue that these are strongly linked; if boobs are heavily featured in the promotion of a game, it's probably going to feature a lot of jiggle physics and gratuitous camera angles. And really, it would be wonderful if we could have both.

If we can't have both though, I know which one I'd rather have.

While I would love the second option, if the majority of the general public get exposed to purile advertising such as this as opposed to the actual contents of a game it's going to create more negative effects simply because there is a larger audience for an advert than a game. Hell, it's not even the violent gore related content I take issue with, it's the subtle hints of child focus and general immaturity that annoy me.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

However, I will say that one should probably complain more about the final product and how little that might contribute to the advancement of the medium rather than product's advertising campaign.

I respectfully disagree. What are 'non-gamers' likely to be exposed to more, the advertising or the actual game itself? Where is their opinion on violent videogames more likely to stem from?

True. But what's better? A superficial improvement on the way games are presented to the public at large with 'better' advertising and marketing, or a deeper advancement and development of the actual games? You could well argue that these are strongly linked; if boobs are heavily featured in the promotion of a game, it's probably going to feature a lot of jiggle physics and gratuitous camera angles. And really, it would be wonderful if we could have both.

If we can't have both though, I know which one I'd rather have.

I think that they are linked. Game developers unfortunately do not have full artistic control over the games they make. Publishers are the ones who fund, market and sell the games. If they don't think it will sell then they wont pay for it. It is the publishers who are to blame (IMHO) for games that should be 18+ being marketed to under 15's. There is a reason why quality, deep, mature games are few and far between and are also only made by developers not yet killed by EA. It is beyond me that the greatest market share of gamers (those over 25) are not catered to by the big publishers (outside of generic FPS, which are marketed to under 15's anyway).

 

[mindlesspuppet]

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.

You seem to be quite the uptight individual. This advertising campaign is brilliant. The older generation is going to hate on games regardless of how mature(mean this in terms of maturity not gore) they are; ME got hell for a sex scene which would be acceptable in a PG-13 movie, RE5 caught hell for being racist, L4D2 got the same. People who don't understand games are going to hate on them for whatever reason they can find.

So why not give them a fucking a reason. Get in their face, show them games are not going away, nor is everyone going to cave to the 'angry mom club'.

Games are toys for children? Since when? Since pin-ball games have targeted adults. Most games these days target young adults. To call games toy is an insult to the gaming community, and a frame of mind that is far more of a "step backwards" than the advertising campaign you hate so much.

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.

The Godfather has some incredibly graphic scenes and is considered one of the best films in the history of cinema (if not the best). You could make the argument The Godfather succeeded because of its great story, but there are plenty of other examples that don't have a great-story or cinematography to fall back on. There is a huge market for horror movies, many classics are downright brutal, far more so than even the torture porns of today, and they didn't have profound stories. These are things that have been accepted by, and thrived, in the mainstream.

There's no reason Visceral should try to appeal to people not in its demographic. If anything, this is a step forward. This game will be hated, boycotted, etc and it will sell. This will, if anything, help cement games in the mainstream in a similar fashion that the horror movies or gangster rap of past had.

Mortal Kombat paved they way for this sort of thing. It thrived and the gaming industry thrived because of it, despite being controversial. It certainly was not an example of "games as art" it wasn't thought provoking, and yet it did more than any other game to get them accepted into the mainstream. A similar argument could be made regarding the early id FPSs.

Honestly, it seems like you're living in the early 90s.

 

[kitsuta]

I know at least one person who is convinced this is a tongue-in-cheek jab at boys' "you must love everything your mom disapproves of" culture. He has a point in that the very people who would be able to purchase this game would not care what their mothers thought of it because they are adults, not children itching to define themselves as "not their parents." I hope.

But there's nothing specifically to indicate this, so I fear the marketers either did not realize it or ignored it and decided to treat adults like 13-year-old boys, or worse, to actually market to 13-year-old boys. Furthermore, it makes no sense to market to young boys by telling their guardians that mothers disapprove of the product. So the only conclusion I can come to is that some joker thought I would appreciate being talked to like a middle-schooler. Joy.

Not the first time marketers have had the wrong idea, though, and it's not necessarily specific to games either. Many movie ads I see are inexplicably eager to show me all the sex and violence (and er, sexy violence?) the movie contains, as if to lure me in with gore, sweaty making out, and scatological jokes. I generally chalk it up to the magic of lowest-common-denominator marketing.

 

[AhumbleKnight]

Do you know what makes me rage?
People who think video games need to mature & that we should rid ourselves of games that hold this back. Now I don't mind if mature, deep games are being made but the idea that getting rid of the exciting gory zombie shooting games will encourage this is shit. I'd rather them than The Man who fell to Earth in video game form or some such thing.

There is a market for these type of games. I love L4D games. But there should be no doubt that these games should not be marketed to people under 18.

 

[FightThePower]

Agreed, but I'm looking forward to the game a lot. Because it's fun, damnit. Every genre has its high art and it's dumb fun.

 

[Judgement101]

F*** YOUR MISLEADING TITLE! Sorry, let me expand. There was a game being made by Bethesda by the name of Rage. I was excited that this may about that game. (No much is said about it)

OT:You claim to not be an eliteist but if you had read what you wrote you would have realised you are taking an extremely elitist point of view. Mainly saying that gamers can't admit that games are toys just comes off as extremely snobbish. <Blah Blah Blah *Insert more things that'll probably be taken as trolling* Blah Blah Blah>

 

[moretimethansense]

This is why I already said, in another topic, I won't be buying the game. The marketing campaign is juvenile.

Speak with your pocketbook, gents. Don't buy it, and it won't come again.

I was going to attack the OPs use of the term toys to describe an artistic medium but this got my attention first.

What exactly is wrong with being juvenile?
I for one am sick of every game lately trying to be "mature" or "realistic" when we as ganmers give up that part of us that laughs at the sight of a sticky bomb strapped to someones arse, the part of us that giggles with girlish glee at the sight of an enemy gibbing, the part of us that stares in glorious awe at the sight of a giant robot T-Rex firing missiles at zombie king kong we lose who we are, we forget our roots, we cast aside the very reason we got in to gaming in the first place.

That will be the day that giming truly dies.

I for one won't be buying DS2 simply because I like my horror to get under my skin and make me fear the dark again, but I will never stop loving juvinility, it's what makes us,us.

 

[mindlesspuppet]

F*** YOUR MISLEADING TITLE! Sorry, let me expand. There was a game being made by Bethesda by the name of Rage. I was excited that this may about that game. (No much is said about it)

Rage is id Software, not Bethesda.

 

[rockingnic]

I'm just going to say this about the commercial...

Advertisements are aimed at people that aren't already interested in the game itself because if you are, you already going to get it (or at least most likely if you have the funds or means) and that would be a waste of time and money if they did it for only those people. I, myself, found the commercial very entertaining and hilarious which I'm sure is what the creators were aiming for. The whole "Your mom is going to hate this" statement is suppose to (I think) relate to the fact that this game gore is suppose to be among highest on the charts which is a selling point that many other games like, God of War, Gears of War, Splatterhouse, etc, use to SELL there games. It's a gimmick and gimmicks sell, just ask Microsoft, Sony, Apple, and any other major entertainment corporations.

 

[Judgement101]

F*** YOUR MISLEADING TITLE! Sorry, let me expand. There was a game being made by Bethesda by the name of Rage. I was excited that this may about that game. (No much is said about it)

Rage is id Software, not Bethesda.

Oh...that's why I can't find anything about it....thanks. (Wow I feel extremely stupid...what was it that Bethesda was ma......nevermind)

 

[mindlesspuppet]

F*** YOUR MISLEADING TITLE! Sorry, let me expand. There was a game being made by Bethesda by the name of Rage. I was excited that this may about that game. (No much is said about it)

Rage is id Software, not Bethesda.

Oh...that's why I can't find anything about it....thanks. (Wow I feel extremely stupid...what was it that Bethesda was ma......nevermind)

Bethesda is working on Skyrim. id Software got bought by Bethesda's parent company Zenimax some time ago, so that's probably where the confusion came from.

 

[TrevorGruen]

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.

I can respect all that you said, and it may well be true, but i feel it isnt fair to judge a game so severely when it hasnt even been released yet. I personally have been looking forward to the game since i got the first one a few weeks ago (but no i never heard the slogan before now) and i currently have a pre order on the CE, but i will be the first to message you that you were right if, once i play the game, that it is as Stupid, asinine, and immature as you said. All im saying is, dont judge a book so harshly simply by the blurb on the back =P.

 

[FieryTrainwreck]

An immature obsession with violence isn't a video game trait. It's a human trait.

The most popular sport in the America involves massive, superfast athletes destroying their bodies in highspeed collisions. We watch other athletes demolish one another in caged rings. We start a bullshit war roughly every decade - probably to justify the hundreds of billions we spend on the miliary. We insist upon an armed citizenship. We flock to theaters to see reprehensibly violent movies. We listen to fantastically aggressive and violent music.

With respect to violence, ideogames are no better or worse than any other entertainment in this country. We shouldn't expect any more or less from this medium than we do from any other.

 

[Vault101]

I disagree. First off, it's supposed to be funny. Second off, you know what happens when you get accepted into mainstream? It all starts to become shit. You know what will happen if gaming becomes mainstream? Everything will be like the Wii. Is that what you want?

oh come on now, if that was true than all movies would be animated family films good and bad (mostly bad)

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ok throwing my rage over the OPs description of games as toys into the corner, I found the ad quite funny but then again i usually find ignorant people mouthing off about something they know nothing about funny so whatevs

This one ad is not going to destroy gaming progress to acceptance, that's like basing your entire opinion of films on a single Saw trailer.