The good, machismo-waxing he-men of Epic Games would like you to believe that the secret to effective marketing is to cake your product in Gradeall-loads of pretention. I suppose the motivation in taking this approach is to intimidate the “core” consumer into believing that images of a generic, beefy crawlout from the wastebin of Rob Liefeld backed by a somber piano re-arrangement of a radio relic from the 80’s is Deeply Moving Artistic Value and should therefore not be passed by for fear of being regarded by his Dew-slurping associates as not loyal to “the Cause”. On the other side of this worthless conceptual wooden nickel, the mainstream consumer will see the big gun and immediately equate that the possible body count / the amount of dollars spent times 756 + x number of Loud Noises = Fun. Don’t… even try to out-think the mainstream. Madness is a guaranteed result.
It’s a goofy goddamn conceit, which makes me appreciative of the people out there who still know how to draw the eye of their target audience without resorting to exploiting the audience’s alleged lack of a positive self-image. Just come out with it, man. In Gears of War, there is shooting. Much. Shooting. Of things that drool and often go “Raragghh!”. One might say that the balance between gunpowder dominance and emotional depth in this game is precarious at best.
So by that prescribed criteria, we look to Bethesda Soft for our latest exhibit in hyping its intended demographic into sogging their Cavariccis. Say what you want about their ability to stitch together a quality pantsuit, they know how to make a mean store display:
Edit: And then I trip headfirst into this. It is the Alpha and the Omega of viral marketing and could accurately be classified as “sumptuously indefatigable” if you’re the type of person to use such strained vocabulary.
