Tainted Love: The Marketing of Duke Nukem Forever

[Sovvolf]

I can see what you mean, I'd like it if it was just the first part of the game's feel with the old school Duke gameplay, camp, colourful and plain fun.

Still, the humor was great, 'LET'S RUPTURE SOME SPLEENS TOGETHER!'

I don't think many were criticizing the humor of this game nor the writing, honestly felt (dialogue wise) like what I was expecting from a Duke Nuke'm game. However that part is seperate from the gameplay and the graphics. Which all feel dated and inconsistent.

Honestly, a lot of the reviews are right on the mark when they say you can strip it down and see all the different generations of gameplay its going through in the game. I also did like the first part of the game a good amount simply for messing around. Was a good opening to the game. However it quickly goes downhill from there. Did I laugh at the jokes and crass humor of the game, course... However I didn't have much fun playing it after the first part.

 

[mikev7.0]

Hello I just wanted to leave a quick post to say that I couldn't finish your arcticle. I'm sorry, I know everyone here at the Escapist considers themselves the intelligentsia yet they are the elite that apparently doesn't know how to spell or type. Reading the posts here is often nearly too hard to let me finish them.

So when I find typos and poor editing in "professional" material? Especially material that is already being critical of someone else's work? Right. See yuh.

Glass houses y'all....

 

[Daaaah Whoosh]

So, I guess now the joke isn't that Duke Nukem took so long to get here, but that there were people actually waiting for it. I'm glad I'm too young for all that.

 

[Tiamat666]

Articles like these are the reason why I'm on The Escapist.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

You know what? I like Duke Nukem and I've enjoyed DNF on PS3. Bought it at launch. I had issues with loading times, but jokes? I loved his one-liners and sexist jokes. Jokes and one-liners were pretty much same in DN3D. Also enjoyed Hive level, the one getting bashed all the time.

I want more Duke games, but please no loading screens next time.

 

[Treblaine]

I am Duke Nukem, and I am here to ask you a question: 'Is a man not entitled to chew his own bubblegum?'

'No' says the man at 3D Realms 'it's done when it's done'

'No' says the man at Take-Two 'it is for the hardcore'

'No' says the man at Gearbox 'it must appeal to EVERYONE!"

I rejected those answers. Instead I chose something different, I chose the impossible, I chose:

Duke Nukem FOREVER!



I don't know which turned out more of a disaster: DNF the game, or Rapture the underwater city. But as fucked up as both of those turned out, you can't help but admire the idea and wonder - even if it was ever remotely possible - if it had turned out all right.

 

[Treblaine]

I don't mind DNF being successful but I doubt they're gonna repeat that marketing magic with a DNF 2. Hopefully they're just gonna funnel all that ill gotten gain into a super awesome Borderlands sequel.

Duke Nukem Forever 2? (Not Duke Nukem 5?)

Surely it would be 'Duke Nukem & Robin', which following the trend of the Schumacher Batman films will be so bad it'll make the Forever-entry seem quite good by comparison.

Then 8 years later an arty kind of auteur will get a hold of the licence and reboot it with an origins story to fanboy squeeing success and everyone agrees never to mention those awful awful adaptations from a few years ago.

 

[Lord_Gremlin]

Seriously, if only they kept medkit system from DN3D and allowed you to carry all weapons...

 

[sms_117b]

Really good read, thanks for the insight

 

[grigjd3]

Very good article. I really appreciate the professional view on this stuff.

 

[Phantom Echo]

I am one of the many I know who actually greatly -enjoyed- this game.


That being said, this is -DESPITE- the graphics being dated and the gameplay being a mishmosh of classic Duke 3D filled in with modern-day gimmicks to stretch out playtime. To be honest, though, I rather enjoyed some of the gimmicks... and I agree with those who have stated, time and time again, that Duke Nukem isn't about MAKING adult comedy.

He -is- adult comedy. That is to say, he's a bastardization of every 80's and 90's action hero/war movie protagonist ever created. He's the 'King-Badass-Man's-Man-of-Womanizing-and-Booze... and that's all he's ever TRIED to be.

He's a compilation parody, set in a world where that kind of machismo and over-the-top behavior is COMMON. Duke's world is a twisted, alien-infested place where the women are stupid and sleazy, and the men are too. Meatheads with guns reign supreme... and Duke is the Lord of the Meatheads.

Let's face it, he's basically a walking pair of testicles with an RPG wedged... oh-snap...

... I think I just made a dick joke.


Anyways, I agree with a lot of this article's assessment of the marketing strategy... but I don't think that anyone expected the game to be GOOD. And it's not. It's wonky. It's flawed. It's -utterly- crass...

... and as an old fan of the Duke... I love it.

I'd buy it again, today, if I had to. It's not a shining example of the Duke. It's not a great game. It's BARELY a mediocre one. But I can't help but love it... because I felt pretty much the same way about Duke Nukem 3D. Or any Duke Nukem game, really.

It's the most fun I've ever had playing a bad game.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

I do love being written off as a fanboy by the pretentious who make sure to state they "get" adult humor. Yes, it was a nice article but it also gets rather sigh inducing. I am getting quickly tired of all the people who write about the game acting like it did lascivious acts to them as a child and this is their one and only chance to get payback. It's... Weird.

It wasn't going to and didn't change the world of FPS but I've had plenty of fun. I got my nostalgia and an average shooter with quirky bits of multiplayer. I still enjoy stalking people in Duke Burger with my friends.

I am also galled by how many people act like Duke 3D was somehow different... You could kill women in cocoons, there were strippers, there were porno flicks. The level of humor is pretty much the same. What I find funny is that Duke is basically Tony Stark without the pretension and gift of being Robert Downey Jr. Yet, I don't see the bile and misogyny card played every five seconds on Tony Stark. So yes, I am glad it is going to make money. I am waiting for DLC. Hell, my wife is waiting for DLC.

 

[thepyrethatburns]

I get the idea reading a lot of the reviews or articles about Duke Nukem that everyone is so hooked on the "games are art" notion that they're kind of missing the point.

 

[octafish]

I don't mind DNF being successful but I doubt they're gonna repeat that marketing magic with a DNF 2. Hopefully they're just gonna funnel all that ill gotten gain into a super awesome Borderlands sequel.

It is in production only it isn't called Borderlands and is set in WW2 and for no reason at all is dragging the Brothers In Arms name through the mud.

 

[ms_sunlight]

I do love being written off as a fanboy by the pretentious who make sure to state they "get" adult humor. Yes, it was a nice article but it also gets rather sigh inducing. I am getting quickly tired of all the people who write about the game acting like it did lascivious acts to them as a child and this is their one and only chance to get payback. It's... Weird.

It wasn't going to and didn't change the world of FPS but I've had plenty of fun. I got my nostalgia and an average shooter with quirky bits of multiplayer. I still enjoy stalking people in Duke Burger with my friends.

I am also galled by how many people act like Duke 3D was somehow different... You could kill women in cocoons, there were strippers, there were porno flicks. The level of humor is pretty much the same. What I find funny is that Duke is basically Tony Stark without the pretension and gift of being Robert Downey Jr. Yet, I don't see the bile and misogyny card played every five seconds on Tony Stark. So yes, I am glad it is going to make money. I am waiting for DLC. Hell, my wife is waiting for DLC.

I found parts of the trailers and the footage I watched of this game genuinely upsetting and unpleasant. By this, I don't mean some faux moral outrage offendedness; I mean I genuinely felt sick and upset and found it hard to get some of the images out of my head.

DN3D was pretty vile too. I'm old enough to remember it, and I'm also old enough to remember choosing not to buy it after seeing a demo, even though I liked shooters and played games like Doom, Heretic, Quake etc.

I don't deny the company their right to make or sell this game, or to make money from it, but all I will say is that just because something is supposed to be funny doesn't make it okay, and if you tell me you love this game or find it funny I will think less of you for that. Sorry, but that's just how I feel. Enjoy your DLC.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I'm not enitrely sure what they've done with Duke here, he was meant to be selfish and cliched, but he always respected women in an odd sort of "they give me pleasure and they're soft" sort of way, at least enough to murder aliens and catch bullets with his health bar.

Anyway, that was a truly interesting read and I'm glad to see you posting articles again.

 

[Levethian]

Bad graphics, dated level design, immature humor, long loading times...

Still found it more fun than Crysis 2 and Bulletstorm.


Really interesting read!
Hope Gearbox & 3DRealms create something more polished and more 'acceptable' with their clean slate.

 

[DeathWyrmNexus]

I do love being written off as a fanboy by the pretentious who make sure to state they "get" adult humor. Yes, it was a nice article but it also gets rather sigh inducing. I am getting quickly tired of all the people who write about the game acting like it did lascivious acts to them as a child and this is their one and only chance to get payback. It's... Weird.

It wasn't going to and didn't change the world of FPS but I've had plenty of fun. I got my nostalgia and an average shooter with quirky bits of multiplayer. I still enjoy stalking people in Duke Burger with my friends.

I am also galled by how many people act like Duke 3D was somehow different... You could kill women in cocoons, there were strippers, there were porno flicks. The level of humor is pretty much the same. What I find funny is that Duke is basically Tony Stark without the pretension and gift of being Robert Downey Jr. Yet, I don't see the bile and misogyny card played every five seconds on Tony Stark. So yes, I am glad it is going to make money. I am waiting for DLC. Hell, my wife is waiting for DLC.

I found parts of the trailers and the footage I watched of this game genuinely upsetting and unpleasant. By this, I don't mean some faux moral outrage offendedness; I mean I genuinely felt sick and upset and found it hard to get some of the images out of my head.

DN3D was pretty vile too. I'm old enough to remember it, and I'm also old enough to remember choosing not to buy it after seeing a demo, even though I liked shooters and played games like Doom, Heretic, Quake etc.

I don't deny the company their right to make or sell this game, or to make money from it, but all I will say is that just because something is supposed to be funny doesn't make it okay, and if you tell me you love this game or find it funny I will think less of you for that. Sorry, but that's just how I feel. Enjoy your DLC.

I worry about the life you must have to find like this that jarring. Especially after the article mentioned Family Guy. I feel sorry for you. Seriously... Hopefully the rest of your evening is better.

 

[thethain]

Hello I just wanted to leave a quick post to say that I couldn't finish your arcticle. I'm sorry, I know everyone here at the Escapist considers themselves the intelligentsia yet they are the elite that apparently doesn't know how to spell or type. Reading the posts here is often nearly too hard to let me finish them.

So when I find typos and poor editing in "professional" material? Especially material that is already being critical of someone else's work? Right. See yuh.

Glass houses y'all....

Yea, I was thinking a little of the same thing. It felt like a pretentious letter, with typos.

I mean the basic points of the article are correct. They used contrived controversy, nostalgia and anything other than gameplay in order to sell the game. But the tone of the whole article felt a bit holier than thou.