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Cheap or a the long awaited truth?
skAnarky | 11:33 PM on 11.08.2008 6 comments


Owen Good over at Kotaku recently posted an opinion piece about a current marketing item for Activision's Call of Duty: World at War. You can read the the article here - http://kotaku.com/5080808/where-was-the-editor-on-this-one - and as you can see he takes offense to the how the World War expierience is reduced to a type of prime time TNA commercial.

I like it this video. I understand that those who participated in the events portrayed in this game went through tramautic times, and their actions have deep ramifications, but I really do not need another Saving Private Ryan clone to tell me that I am about to relive a watershed moment in history. While this may not sound very upstanding, the sad truth is no one is going to play this game to get a better understanding of a war survivors expierience. While some games may have done good work to pay respect to the millions who have died in many gruesome battles, this trailer tells the truth: you are going to play this game to blow things up and shoot people to shreds. There are much better way's to pay respect to a war survivor than to play a game from the large selection of World War Two action titles available.

I understand Mr. Good's disdain, and I feel it too, but this trailer is far from the culprit. If anything, this piece of marketing draws our attention to the fact that many of our cheap expieriences are veiled in a sence of historical and moral importance as a means to make them more appealing. Before anyone who reads this decides to tare me a new one for choosing what appears to be the uninformed moral highground that many opponents of video games take when attacking this form, I just think more work needs to be done, thats all. Video games are still a blosseming medium, and while there has been steps forward in the subject matter that is mentioned above, I think that this trailer is quite a revealing piece of work, and it would be much more worthwhie to look at why is elicits disdain rather than to just act in disgust. After all, video games are a massive money making industry, and while marketing can miss the mark fairly often, sometimes it can show us the dark side of what really drives our expieriences.



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6 comments | showing # 1 to 6
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I Gotta Rock's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 00:14
I Gotta Rock
I thought it was pretty tasteless, but I agree that it's not entirely the trailer's fault. Activision's marketing team was really just reacting to our new, more violent culture. It really doesn't have a place in a World War Two game, though, or any game with realistic depictions of war. Even the Gears Of War ads show the harsher side of war, and I'd call those games far from realistic.
MrSadistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 00:25
MrSadistic
It's so funny to see people get butt hurt over something such as that. Movies have shown trailers/commercials that are made just like that CoD one. If anything I just think it's really crappy marketing using butt rock to accompany an overplayed video game setting.
Neonie's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 01:04
Neonie
I Lol'd. I can think of a few other games this trailer style would be better suited for. Mabey they just put the wrong theme on the wrong game.
VWGTI's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 03:28
VWGTI
Brb, gonna grab a tissue for his ass.
Timmeh's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 08:06
Timmeh
That trailer is fucking awful. I don't mean the whole morality thing or whatever people want to be offended about, but the music is terrible and totally has nothing to do with the setting. It'd be like advertising There Will be Blood or something to a bangin' house track. Or something.
skAnarky's Avatar - Comment posted on 11/09/2008 11:06
skAnarky
I totally agree this video is crap. Anyone with any semblance of style could throw together any number of trailers similar to this one. I just like how it reveals what the developers think our priorities as gamers are.

No Rules? When was the last time you played a videogame that wasn't dominated by an ever increasing array of mechanics and confines. No Mercy? Doubtful. I am sure that as soon as you die, you will be comfortably placed at one of the many autosave points which appear about every 50M throughout each level. No Fear? I'm not sure anyone buying this game ever expected to be afraid.

Obviously the people who died and survived horrific wars deserve more respect, but this trailer doesn't surprise me in the slightest.

Anyway, what could be more authentic than two people fighting over a rifle, one of whom happens to be on fire; that kind of thing happened all the time in World War Two.
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