The Game Boy: Do Videogame Companies “Get” Gamers?
Posted 07/29/09 at 12:35:11 PM by Nathan Grayson
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Ever have one of those moments where you said something completely inappropriate – like, say, any number of four letter words – while strolling through a locale where things like that just don’t fly – like, say, your kindergartener’s bring-your-parent-to-class day or a nun convention? You know how it is; seas of chit-chat part, as though diving out of the way of the approaching eighteen-wheeler that is the crushing realization that you just screwed up big-time.
Electronic Arts recently found itself caught in the sizzling headlights of a similar situation. In promoting upcoming hack ‘n’ slash ‘n’ totally ignore the source material Dante’s Inferno, EA thought it might be fun for gamers to take pictures of themselves performing “acts of lust” with its already swamped staff of Comic Con booth babes. The winner of this competition would then get a night on the town with said babes, and some other odds and ends. Yeah. Predictably, the entire gaming community immediately ceased to jabber about other topics, crossed its collective arms, and sent a damning glare in EA’s direction. “Oh, haha, we didn’t mean it like that,” EA essentially said in reply, backpedaling. But obviously, that didn’t undo the damage that’d already been done.
Clearly, EA – in this situation – had its audience pegged incorrectly. Despite our apparent love of some of life’s baser aspects (shooting, explosions, and John Madden, for instance), gamers don’t take too kindly to blatant misogyny. Big whoop, though, right? In many gamers’ eyes, this is just another dark mark on a record already stained by countless instances of greed and sloth. Throwing in lust just rounds out the roster, right? It’s EA, after all. And as we all know from previous experiences, stereotypes and generalizations are always right.
Obviously, then, I don’t think EA deserves all the crap people give it. Nor do Activision, Take-Two, or any of the other alleged hair-pullers and groin-kickers that we call major gaming corporations. The Dante’s Inferno incident does, however, shed some light on the oddly paradoxical ways big companies seem to think about gamers.
See, I would have expected something like this from the “old” EA – you know, the monolithic sequel factory that gobbled up developer after developer, just to feed the flames of a machine that constantly spit out sports games and bad movie tie-ins. But we’re talking the John Ricitiello-era EA. This is the publisher that risked its 2008 holiday season on untested, innovative franchises like Mirror’s Edge and Dead Space, and is now putting its considerable weight behind Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend, despite many of Schafer’s other games’ sleeper-hit status. Point is, this EA isn’t some brainless, tasteless money-make machine; it, at the very least, cares what people think.
Does EA get gamers? Sort of...
Submitted by mesiah on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 11:10pm
EA hit the nail on the head of who the typical gamer is in day to day life. What they didn't acount for is hypocracy. The majority of male gamers love to phantasize about banging super models and going on killing sprees, and act it out in the digital world on a daily basis. They even hang out with friends and talk about their exploits "Dude, I picked up this hooker, gave her 50 bucks, banged her back out, then beat her to death and took my money back. It was awesome!" But you throw those same people in a room full of run of the mill journalists and they feel the need to conform. So when a company like EA comes up with a promotion like this, all the gamers on the inside are going "Sweet!" but on the outside they see the disgust of the journalists and go right along with it. It seems anymore that we just look for things to get upset about. A company could come out with the best promotion ever and someone would still complain. EA could give away a free $100 prepaid debit card with every purchase and people would be upset because they could have given the money to charity instead, or that EA is falsely inflating their sales numbers by paying people to buy the game. You can't win these days.
As for companies like EIDOS trying to blackmail people out of good reviews, that seems a totally different subject to me. That is shameful and people have every right to be upset. An over the top promotion is one thing, promoting out and out lies is another.
Submitted by Evasive on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 5:47pm
What's wrong with taking pics with hot women and having a night on the town, paid for by EA? People have thin skin...
Are you kidding me?!?!?!
Submitted by Righteous Fury on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 1:58pm
You have just finished listing prime examples that these companies are simply up to their old tricks, and you try to play it off as if it proves just the opposite? Where did you learn journalism, University of Obama Admin?
Submitted by Righteous Fury on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 2:02pm
Just who's ass are you trying to stick your nose up, anyway?
Submitted by arkweld on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 11:09am
The only thing EA got wrong was the entry qualifications. If the prize had been the same but the competition involved something more bland like a Street Fighter tournament or "make your own wand", there are few people who would have complained. Because the fact is ... gamers like boobs and girls with hardly any clothing. That's why Olivia Munn is popular, Dead or Alive make a franchise out of virtually nothing and every female video game protagonist wears a thong as armor. Any male gamer who says they don't appreciate a hot girl in tight clothing is most likely lying for morally superior effect.
EA can't win in this case. Gamers want to be addressed like everyone else and not as outcast nerds, but balk at the same marketing tactics that companies use to address young males for other products like beer, cars and sports. And this is no different to many marketing campaigns ran by other companies in those areas.
Do EA get gamers? If you mean do they see them as the same regular young males who like boobs that everyone other company aims for, then yeah, EA get gamers exactly.
The alternative is that EA see gamers as socially-awkward nerds with a handful of books and taped-up glasses. You know, like the majority of the outside media does.
EA has had it comming for
Submitted by WindowsXP on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 1:32pm
EA has had it comming for some time now. I wish they could just vanish :<
Submitted by Trooper_One on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 10:50am
What Eidos did was no more different than what Sony tried to pull for their new releases in theatre - they had actors pretending to be normal audience giving rave reviews - turn them in to commercials.
Night out with the babes? I don't find that offensive - let me have them if you don't want that!
Submitted by Muerte on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 10:38am
A. Did anyone win?
B. Where are the pics?
Meh it's EA. King of
Submitted by nekollx on Wed, 07/29/2009 - 8:44am
Meh it's EA. King of Piracy Trojens. They'd have to pay me to rebuild my trust.
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