Most of you have complained about the marketing campaign for Dragon Age: Origins, and BioWare's decision to use Marilyn Manson's "The New Sh*t" as a backing track. I personally love it and think it's a hilarious move, but nevertheless, during my interview time with lead designer Mike Laidlaw, I had to ask him: What's the deal with that music?
"It's funny," laughs Mike. "I think honestly the fact that it was labeled as Marilyn Manson actually caused people to flare up more than if it hadn't been, but if you dig into what I think people are reacting to, it's, 'Why are you putting rock n' roll into my fantasy? Or 'Why are using Goth Pop?,' Whatever you want to call Marilyn Manson -- why are you putting it in my fantasy?
"I think part of the reason it's infamous is because people were surprised and just weren't expecting it. What they expected was a long string of flutes and some harpsichord, perhaps. Quite frankly, Dragon Age ultimately is about surprising the player in terms of their expectations of fantasy.
"It's going to shock them in a lot of ways. At the same time there's a deep RPG in there, and a great story, but what I think that particular campaign achieved is, it hit an element of the game, and the game's about eighty hours for average players, so you certainly can't make a three minute marketing spec that covers every friggin' element of that, so you pick a part of it and go, 'let's talk about violence for a while, and while we're talking about violence, we're going to play some music that, essentially, is pretty violent.'
"And if that wakes you up and shocks you and makes you go 'aurururgh,' is that really a bad thing? Because what it does, I hope, is make people go, 'y'know, what is up with this Dragon Age thing?' and they go digging a little further and discover that there's far more than just killing some people, but at the same time, killing people is a very real part of the game, there are many, many deaths. We have a persistent gore system, so there you go."
More after the jump.
"I am very unabashed," continues Mike, "but I think it woke some people up that were maybe like, 'Yeah, Dragon Age, whatever,' and maybe made a few of them angry, maybe it made a few of them really excited, who didn't know anything about it. Certainly in the hardcore crowd I think it was just unexpected, and so there was a backlash from that, but at the same time we're doing events like this right now which is certainly to show that there's more to the game than just that."
So, that's BioWare's reasoning for using the music, and if you don't like it, perhaps that's what they wanted. With that in mind, I did have to ask BioWare a very important question, perhaps the most important question they'll ever be asked:
Are you motherfuckers ready for the new shit?
"Oh I believe so," answers Mike enthusiastically. "In fact we've been working on this for so long that it'd be nice to see it ship [laughs]."
Contest:
12:00 PM on 09.09.2009
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But get it for PC instead man, atleast with that it could be considered a spiritual successor to baldurs gate (isometric camera and all)
I love BioWare but man, it seems they are truly out of the loop when it comes to anything outside of videogames. Remember those christmas cards with the Conan/Santa Claus amalgam? And that whole high fantasy-low fantasy marketing strategy they tried which proved only that they didn't know wtf they were talking about?
Hilarious stuff - still, these guys have never dissappointed me when it comes to games (I even liked Jade Empire) so I am confident Dragon Age Origins is going to be ridiculously awesome.
...wrong thinking, PR. I just wasn't expecting a shitty song. Any classic Metal tune would have been adequate.
...Agreed.
I bet a ton of people buy this on console who have never played this kind of game before and seriously have no idea what to do with it.
Same here. Totally because Bioware is making. I don't even really like fantasy either.
Ahhhrooo?
Popular music; rock, goth, rap, or otherwise, in my games usually makes my nose wrinkle; stinks of sponsored music and advertising deals with record companies. Give me a taste of what the in-game music will be like and your far more likely to catch my attention. That is as long as the in-game music is worthwhile.
As long as I don't have to listen to a Kid Rock song, I can handle it. If it's Kid Rock though, I'm just going to start burning things until it stops.
As long as I don't have to listen to a Kid Rock song, I can handle it. If it's Kid Rock though, I'm just going to start burning things until it stops.
Let's see "breakin the law, breakin the law!!!!!"
Ohh much neater ;)
Maybe you meant Slayer, in which case most would actually not
watch the rest of the trailer.
If you guys knew the "meaning" of the song, you'd actually appreciate
it more. It's about prepackaged, recycled product released year after
year as new. And how the grovelling masses lap it up because of boredom.
Seeing how many call it "recycled LotR crap" I find it wholly ironic.
monster, the lyrics "c'mon admit it, tomorrow's never coming" (ie.
I can't wait so long for it 2 be released I WANT IT NOW!!!!)are VERY
apt. See Manson is more about lyrics than musicianship.
Marilyn Manson is not my favorite artist, and Goth Pop is certainly not my favorite kind of music (I didn't know there was such a genre until today) but the song fit well with what was going on. I also don't think it's a shitty song, but I do think that Marilyn Manson is shitty. I suppose what it comes down to though to the unbiased crowd is whether or not they like that particular song. By no means is the song definitively shitty.
so, showcase for the maturity and darkness of the game? pretty flatly failed, in my view - they made it look more childish than it likely is in reality (at least, i hope!), and that's a bad thing. and violence in games is hardly a new or interesting thing, so it's ridiculous that they figured violence in the ad would shock many people.
as a side note: when will people figure out that Manson's music is not, in any shape or form, Gothic? there's a word for Manson's music - "Metal." sure, not all Metal sounds like it, but there *is* Metal which is simlar to his, whereas there are basically no Gothic bands that sound like Manson. the *closest* i might give is Industrial Rock, but, again, Industrial is another genre which people mistake for Gothic if they dont know much about these genres of music.
Lazaro Cruz:
"Goth Pop? I don't even think thats been invented yet...."
i'd say The Cure fits the bill pretty well (though i'd be hard pressed to name any other examples - not that my knowledge of music is voluminous or anything, mind you).