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[PATV] Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 2, Ep. 5: An Open Letter to EA Marketing

DogDog Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
edited June 2012 in The Penny Arcade Hub
image[PATV] Tuesday, August 30, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 2, Ep. 5: An Open Letter to EA Marketing

This week, we turn a critical eye to some of EA's worst recent marketing campaigns.

Read the full story here

Dog on

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    Mihen5574Mihen5574 Registered User regular
    Despite the way EA treated this game, it was nice to see a platforming game again. I played it, beat it, and I did enjoy it. Artistically, it had one of my favorite visual and audio representations of Satan in film or game. It could and should have been way more than it turned out to be..

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    brunoaisbrunoais Registered User regular
    DId EA hear you?

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    DxionDxion Registered User new member
    I genuinely hope so Brunoais. They probably didn't but they really should pay attention. Mihen... after the lust scene.. I just couldn't really take the game seriously anymore. I tried to like it but in the end I beat it and got rid of it cause I juts didn't WANT to own it anymore. I felt bad for playing a game that ... well honestly truly didn't do any justice to the literature.

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    Visual.PollutionVisual.Pollution Registered User regular
    You know, this really illustrates that a company of such a powerful standing when it comes to the video game market started both small and hopeful for the future, and aimed to do all of the things for the medium that Extra Credit talks about on a regular basis. They wanted to do GREAT things, it wasn't just about money, or power over the other companies. It was about pushing the envelope and making new and amazing games for people to take in emotionally, and mentally. To prove it wasn't a waste of time, or a distraction from our everyday life, as much as it was a way to learn and enrich your life. It is sad that EA hit rock bottom, and I've only heard that once you do the only way left to go is up. I truly hope so. If they could go back to the mentality and commitment they had back in those days what do you think Mass Effect 3 would have become? While I had no trouble with the ending as it was very much left to your imagination, it was a huge disappointment for many a gamer. So what might have been done differently? I hope EA picks itself up and starts climbing out of that hole. The second I saw Dante's Inferno I pretty much knew I wasn't interested. Not for religious reasons or the fact that it looked like God of War pretty much... But because it looked nothing like the original story and while a book/poem is going to be perceived differently, and even though I liked the original God of War (only the original) this game seemed to take nothing from the poem but hell, it's circles, and an angry dude who didn't use blades on chains but a scythe... Immediately what I saw was, kill everything, learn nothing about yourself, it'll be a waste of time for you to play it like it was a waste of time for us to make it! This of course is my opinion, I don't think someone who did enjoy it should be considered lesser or stupid in the least, everyone has they're preferences. But once the crazy Christmas advertisement came up I knew it was one for the black book under avoid.

    As for Dead Space 2. I loved it, but the "your mother isn't going to like it" campaign told me that for some reason, they felt the need to get underage kids who aren't "allowed" to purchase the game without an adult who says it's alright, to rebel against their parents over something that frankly, would be just wrong. I don't agree with censorship. But some children are just not ready to enjoy a game like that without maturity. It's a judgement call on the parents but that doesn't mean you should push young adults and children to make an issue out of it. It's really almost an attention ploy that really was unnecessary. EA is big enough, it's name sells itself for better or worse (and it looks like they're taking the worse path). Which is sad, because like they said in this video, they make everyone who enjoys video games look bad and feed ammo to the haters.

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    rainbowhyphenrainbowhyphen Registered User regular
    At the seven minute mark, as the EA letter continues against a backdrop of their recent transgressions against our culture, I couldn't face it. I closed my eyes, and shook my head.

    We are better than this.

    raise-this-arm-to-initiate-revolution.png
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    Dapper DuckDapper Duck Registered User regular
    But they won't change, because like the Republican party they can't see past their own fucking feet. And again like the republican party will sell short our promising future. It's because they aren't artists anymore... They are a massive international corporation, trampling everything in their path so that they can squeeze out a few more dollars.
    R.I.P EA
    R.I.P Westwood
    we miss you both.

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    twistedmetalheadtwistedmetalhead Registered User new member
    I guess this just proves that either you die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourslef become the villain.
    From the looks of it EA has become the villain a long time ago, and have simply lost all interest in being seen as a hero anymore.
    But who can really blame them ? EA makes huge ammounts of money by being a heartless corporation, and even though their add campaigns are of poor taste, people still purchase their games by the millions, so why should they stop ? After all, they are a company and the goal of any company is to make money.

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    FacelotionFacelotion Registered User new member
    Can we say bad business model for SWTOR?

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    ZeroWalkerZeroWalker Registered User new member
    Problem there Ea today care more about cash than games or gamers so they will never change they board will run the company to the ground just to make more cash. Maybe the developers care but the fat ass people owning the company don´t give a damn about gamers and our image I would bet they would remake the E.T for the atari 2600 as long as they could make a few bucks on it.

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    FreakyCheeseManFreakyCheeseMan Registered User regular
    The thing that annoys me most about this is that Dead Space 2 was not a stupid, immature game. I loved it for showing an interesting, in depth sci-fi world, for the strength of the characters, the larger themes of loneliness and co-dependence. You can argue that it didn't portray these in a cohesive manner, or that it sacrificed its horror elements in favor of action, but the thought was clearly there; it had a lot more going on than just "Cheap shocks" or "Pushing sensibilities".

    Just... look at the opening moments of it, the little video call between Nicole and Isaac. It was short, but it actually did a marvelous job of portraying a healthy adult relationship - two people invested in each other's lives, Isaac encouraging Nicole to pursue her own goals and interests even if it meant being away from him... you don't normally see that out of Hollywood, let alone games.

    It just seems to me like the marketing betrayed a great game, and sold it far short of what it deserved.

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    ZombieAladdinZombieAladdin Registered User regular
    edited May 2013
    You know, I watched this video a while ago, but I'm reminded of it form time to time.

    I would bet at least someone at EA knows about this video, and by the looks of things, sees it as a joke. Heck, I'd bet most people at EA see Extra Credits as a whole as a joke, as a bunch of big-egoed artists telling other people what to do and can't take a joke.

    ZombieAladdin on
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