7.15.2009

Wednesday WTF (Part II): Just slap some boobs on there and call it a day.

Came across this via Sociological Images, which you should be reading if you aren't already. Following is the chronological progression of online ads for a game called Evony:


Pretty innocuous, right? Dude with sword and armor. Standard for the genre. But it goes on:


Sadly, also pretty standard. Pretty maiden enticing assumed-to-be-male player. Bleh, yeah, reinforces idea of gamer=man, woman as prop, etc. But still not bad, as far as these things go. Until it continued:


Still playing the "my Lord" game, and you notice that though it uses "lover" singular, there are two fainting decolletage-y women waiting for you? Don't worry, we're not done yet:


Um, ok. Off of real-ish women and onto plainly cartoonish ones, but this one is kneeling and gazing at you piteously, begging you to save her! Also there's a suspiciously phallic phantom half-a-sword dangling over her cleavage. Seriously, are they even trying anymore? Why not just put a big red arrow and say "Look! Boobies! Right here! And the sword stands for a penis!" Sadly, however, we have not yet reached rock bottom. With increasing desperation:


So now we have a woman with an expression that could pretty easily be read as the transports of post-coital bliss, with the kind of cleavage that makes even me sit and wonder "Is that a hint of areola I see?" And the text, which no longer makes any pretense of talking about the game, but rather borrows phrasing and tone from the late-night "singles chat" ads: "Talk discreetly with other singles in your area, NOW!" See, this woman here, she stands for a hot and available real-life woman. And our game stands for you having sex with her. Don't you want to play? NOW? But we have STILL not reached the end in this race-for-the-bottom! Perceive:


Are. You. Fucking. Kidding me? Having given up even the pretense of anything to do with the game, in terms of background, font, lighting, costuming, anything at all, Evony goes for the slap-you-with-a-brick style of marketing: LOOK BOOBIES, NOW PLAY OUR GAME. BECAUSE YOU LIKE BOOBIES. EVERYONE LIKES BOOBIES. EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE TOPIC AT HAND.

And after all that boob-heavy marketing? There are no queens and no women characters in the game. At all. In fact, it's apparently come up so often that Evony's FAQ had to address this:
How do I get my queen?
There is no queen in this game, the ad you saw is for marketing purposes and seems to be highly effective by the number of times this question has come up.


That sound you just heard? Was my forehead and my keyboard meeting in a glorious dance of WTF. That is all.

5 comments:

FilthyGrandeur said...

well, since this is addressed to "lord" and the boobies are all, "you want?" i guess i'm not invited to play.

i love the subtlety on the last one too. ingenious. if you remove the "evony" thing from it, i would think this was either a porn site, or some place i'd buy lingerie. gotta love the fragmenting of women's bodies...ugh. this is a serious wtf. i think my brain exploded.

Jadelyn said...

I know, right? That's a really BIG "No Girls Allowed" sign they've hung on their clubhouse.

CaitieCat said...

Well, at least they're kind enough to adopt advertising saying "This game is for douchebags only, dogs and ladies need not apply." :/

Jennifer said...

Holy crap. I thought you made that last one up, until I read the commentary.

Jadelyn said...

Jennifer, I checked this thing on like three different sources for that exact reason. I thought it was a parody when I saw in on Sociological Images. I thought, no, there's no way a game seriously went that low.

Alas, I underestimated the levels to which desperate marketers will go. :-/

And yeah, Caitie, I look at it like swastika bumper stickers. They come with a handy warning label!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails