Outraged parents and gruesome videogames aren’t exactly breaking news anymore – oh, except when EA decides to cash in on ignorant public hysteria for a marketing campaign.
They’ve just pushed out a new promo for Dead Space 2, showing a bunch of middle-aged moms being grossed out by the game. They’ve even launched an accompanying website, yourmomhatesthis.com.
While the ad is admittedly sort of amusing at face value, one can’t help but wonder at the rationale behind the campaign – apparently endorsing stupid moral panic is the hot new way to undermine it or something. I can’t work out how appealing to fatuous adolescent rebelliousness is supposed to sell a game rated for mature audiences.
In a socio-political climate where gaming is increasingly under scrutiny – and with potentially very real consequences for everybody – I’m not convinced that punting a game on the basis of its violence and shock value is such a clever idea.
And where are the horrified dads? I know loads of guys who were too scared to play the first game. Hey, Nic!
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