I'm writing this assuming that Dante's Inferno is the perfect game. Why? With the marketing and promotional ills this game has suffered, one can only 'hope' that Dante's Inferno is absolutely immaculate. Let this be known, I am all for 'thinking outside of the box' and making your product stand out [especially since there seems to be quite a few comparisons to a certain game associated with gods with possible war in it]. Dante's Inferno has managed to: stage a fake Christian protest at a major trade show, play the role of pimp by raffling off a date with a booth babe and most recently they have decided to send very real checks to well known [and maybe not so well known] gaming journalists.
[The photo comes compliments of Chris Grant of Joystiq]
It is already hard enough to promote games as art. This is very much a business as well. Writers and enthusiast understand that, ultimately if Dante's Inferno is the perfect game [which I hope it is] it should be pushed to the best of Electronic Arts ability. Speaking of EA, remember when they were stressing experimentation and quality instead of quantity? Mirror's Edge was not promoted with such crassness. I do not remember journalists complaining about their dates with Dead Space booth babes. Wait. Dead Space and Mirror's Edge may not have made enough money which is probably why EA is digging into the gutter for promotional agencies.
It should be stressed, this is constructive criticism and hopefully a reminder to those who are going into promotional advertising for a big company. DON'T DO THIS. Thanks to the fake protest which was staged at one of this years largest gaming conferences, Dante's Inferno had a stench about it which could be hard to shake off. As opposed to listening to the feedback from anyone after that trade show, Electronic Arts decided to kick it up a notch and attach a fake website supporting the very fake protest. EA Spokeswoman Holly Rockwood said that "EA hired a viral marketing agency." Holly, choose wiser next time.
It should be stated from the onset that EA has since apologized for their 'Sin to Win' contest. The 'Sin to Win' folly was a contest held by Electronic Arts and Visceral Games at San Diego Comic Con this year. In said contest, an attendee is encouraged to 'commit acts of lust' and then post it on facebook. EA later explained that this 'act of lust' was to simply take a picture of their 'costumed representatives' and post it on their company facebook page. Phew! You know, for a second there I thought they were encouraging rape and misogyny towards women, but when they explained it all corporate-like...really cleared things up.
I can see the flames building so I'll say this, with all the good that Dante's Inferno had [and possibly still has] going for it, namely having the same development team [EA Redwood Shores a.k.a. Visceral Games] who also worked on Dead Space are now in a position of supporting this game through and through [this is their baby and they don't want anyone talking bad about it. Understandibly so]. With all the negative press Dante's Inferno has garnered it really is a shame that the game developers have to issue statements and double-talk, because an ill-advised advertising agency is making a potential quality title look less than.
Lastly, if it is any consolation, it does appear that the most recent ring of hell the Dante's Inferno team is promoting [Greed] is one that does not offend the religious or women. It just offends game journalist and the games industry as a whole [however, if you are a female and/or religious games journalist...then Dante's Inferno is definitely not going to be in your good graces soon]. Sending a check to games journalists at major publications with the tag line "If you spend it you are greedy. If you don't you're wasteful" is quite hilarious and sad. Couldn't we just send the check back?
I wonder if some blogs and publications are still holding on to their Satan checks? We have seen silly advertisements since the very early days of gaming. We will continue to see them well after the release of Dante's Inferno. I decided to write about these issues because I was one of the apparent eight people excited for the game. I really like supporting mature games, but when they are promoted in such an immature fashion it really is quite telling about the progress that needs to be made in the games industry.
Sidenote: I really do hope Dante's Inferno is able to throw the Hail Mary pass [no pun intended] and rebound from this bad press. It really should be about the game and not about the hype [or lack there of] surrounding it.