Don’t deny it: you have inevitably consumed a non-video game product that you otherwise never would have gave a second glance at simply because of the perception that it’s what you’re supposed to like as a “gamer”.



There’s no shame in it, but what I want to know is: why on Earth is the marketing directed towards the gamer niche so utterly retarded?

Sometimes I feel outright insulted by blatant corporate whoring designed to lure me into a movie about a dude taking over another dude’s body in a ridiculous real-life “game” or to get me to consumer some otherwise idiotic product. What’s insulting to me isn’t the marketing itself, it’s the simplicity and recycling aspect of it. It’s pretty clear, for example, that gamers like non-utilitarian design, art, etc. (customizing things, different colored controllers, mod cases, RPG armors, etc.) So with this information, look at how The Powers That Be tried (and seemingly failed – thankfully) to capitalize on that: interchangeable Xbox 360 face plates… The grand irony of such a half-baked idea is this: the entire point of customization and art is not simply to differentiate, it’s to create something wholly unique (create being the key word). What The Powers That Be attempted to do was industrialize and institutionalize artistic expression by mass producing “edge-y” plastic covers for the front of your home console!

But enough about my thoughts. What about yours? Tell me, were your career aspirations transformed, and did you picture yourself smoking pot and busting beta test games for $50K a year when you saw this commercial blaring again and again on “youth-y” channels like Comedy Central, G4, or MTV?



I can’t believe I get paid to write this blog!

Oh wait, I don’t. I better enroll at Westwood!