Earlier this week, we got an e-mail about Mass: We Pray, a Wii-like game where you Church at home. The Web site and video for the "game" was pretty outrageous, and pretty much bordered on heresy. Well it turns out the whole thing was a viral for the Heretic section in Dante's Inferno!
Reader patty n. went back to the Mass: We Pray Web site today to see if the pre-order link would work. Instead, patty got the above trailer showing off the Herectic level. After the trailer finishes playing on the Mass site, a link comes up for you to damn your friends on Facebook with this app. It's neat in a "I have five minutes to kill" kind of way, I guess.
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I remember on the article discussing the video, someone mentioned the video possibly being a viral clip. I thought to myself "Oh hey that would be pretty funny if it was for Dante's Inferno." The only thing that made me doubt it was the fact that the game in the video was for the Wii.
Just as I expected. I don't think a Christian game would go that far. Plus that trailer was far too poorly created. Still, this is my second favorite stunt they've pulled yet, next to the package they sent Yahtzee.
The video was a funny satire of how developers treat the Wii like crap, but it being a viral video for a stupid game makes me think it was just in bad taste. Is it really necessary to poke fun at church when your game is essentially taking people to hell?
That's pretty fucked up, to be honest. I can just imagine some devout family that actually wanted the game and went to pre-order it. Instead of wholesome religious family activities, they get a trailer about Hell.
Clever marketing. I wonder if the product will actually play some role in the game/the overall story. Dante's Inferno's marketing is actually doing a pretty good job of taking a game I initially said "Meh." to and making it seem a bit interesting.
Perhaps the site is a way of EA giving a huge middle finger to Nintendo because they aren't getting the sales that they had hoped for with Dead Space Extraction on the Wii?
Holy ass! I totally called it! When I saw it, I told my friends, "I bet this is another stupid Dante's Inferno PR stunt from EA"...and I was right!
Man I feel really smart right now for some reason.
Not only they are not realising this game on the wii(while even the psp is getting a version) and now they are mocking it? strange, last time i checked was the 360 who where receiving a online bible...
i guess thats viceral revenge for the poor sales of DC E
Thats too bad, I wanted to see how much money that Church game was going to make. I mean I figured it was probably fake, but that would have been awesome if it was real.
Lotta sand in vag here. Taking a wild guess they probably picked the Wii because the name is similar to WiiPlay, and the fake game they're advertising isn't making fun of churches, it's pretty much the definition of heresy.
Even thought everyone said it was this I didn't believe it. Of course it was fake but this? Well...nice job EA.
Also was the link new? Did nobody actually follow that preorder link?If I had visited that site and saw a link to preorder I would've clicked on that instantly.
"That's pretty fucked up, to be honest. I can just imagine some devout family that actually wanted the game and went to pre-order it. Instead of wholesome religious family activities, they get a trailer about Hell."
Frankly, I think that EA's marketing for Dante's Inferno, will not be topped for some time. While some simple folk will dub all they've done folly and stupid, you should be looking at it all within context of the game they are trying to sell, to see how creative it is.
Only other marketing campaign that comes close, was the God of War 2 fake goat sacrifice. This was genius, because sacrifices to the greek gods, were a key part of ancient greek life. Sure, it sounds crazy now, but it got God of War 2 noticed and talked about more.
It's a shame more game advertising and marketing teams can't be more creative. Can you guys really name marketing teams that you love or even know of, who help get games to us?
Nothing wrong with EA having a pop at religion, as nothing in life should be beyond good or bad criticism. Deal with it.
These stunts are a bit dumb. I think there is a much better way to get people interested in the game. I for one am interested in the game, but these are turning me off. A better way would be to show someone living their life and then committing one of the 7 deadly sins, the flash to the level in the game. These current ones are tacky and are purely out to seek controversy.
It's funny how EA can just insult people with their previous stunt by saying that most Christians want to censor games and act like they are being oppressed by Christians, when it turns out to be a viral marketing campaign. Their marketing is just trying to appeal to those who go with the most trendy beliefs, which right now is the "douche bag atheist"( the specific group of people who say the are atheist but have put no thought on why or why not they should be one and like to act like they see stupid Christians EVERYWHERE in America stupiding it up, and actually go up to people to tell them to stop forcing their beliefs on them; these people usually talk in fake British accents and are as bad at arguing as the Christians they say annoy them so much). This game makes me mad, not because it's Sacrilegious, but because it's using a book as its source material while completely ignoring it original intent, and they act like it's supposed to be okay because the author is dead (I never read the book, but I base this off of other people who have).
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 11.20.2009
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I remember on the article discussing the video, someone mentioned the video possibly being a viral clip. I thought to myself "Oh hey that would be pretty funny if it was for Dante's Inferno." The only thing that made me doubt it was the fact that the game in the video was for the Wii.
Oh EA PR, you silly bastards.
Man I feel really smart right now for some reason.
"Mass: We Pray is really a Dante's Inferno rival"
i guess thats viceral revenge for the poor sales of DC E
Also was the link new? Did nobody actually follow that preorder link?If I had visited that site and saw a link to preorder I would've clicked on that instantly.
That's why it's funny as shit.
Only other marketing campaign that comes close, was the God of War 2 fake goat sacrifice. This was genius, because sacrifices to the greek gods, were a key part of ancient greek life. Sure, it sounds crazy now, but it got God of War 2 noticed and talked about more.
It's a shame more game advertising and marketing teams can't be more creative. Can you guys really name marketing teams that you love or even know of, who help get games to us?
Nothing wrong with EA having a pop at religion, as nothing in life should be beyond good or bad criticism. Deal with it.
These stunts are a bit dumb. I think there is a much better way to get people interested in the game. I for one am interested in the game, but these are turning me off. A better way would be to show someone living their life and then committing one of the 7 deadly sins, the flash to the level in the game. These current ones are tacky and are purely out to seek controversy.