Is this the future of ‘buying it for the articles’?
As I was editing a video recap of Steven’s news post about fake VR boob goggles, it struck me how deeply breasts have ingrained themselves into the world of videogames. How many arguments about sexual objectification vs. sexual empowerment have boiled down to bickering about the meaning behind a game’s “deep cleavage?” How many nights have developers stayed up wondering if the boobs they created were going to find that perfect balance between humanizing and awe inspiring?
Back in the ’70s and ’80s, these kinds of questions were usually held over the discussion of “girly magazines” like Playboy, who strangely enough, has taken up the mantel of “videogame reporting” in recent years. They’re getting some good scoops too. Nintendo even invited them out to preview Splatoon.
When I first saw that news on GoNintendo, I immediately chuckled at the irony of “old man Nintendo” turning to one of the most well-known-but-not-altogether-relevant names in pornography to help them to sex up Splatoon‘s marketing. I suppose you could say that Miyamoto is the Hugh Hefner of videogames, but only if you wanted to annoy people.
I assumed Playboy would send out some of their models to roll around in paint and do some sort of suggestive softcore “ooh, I’m all sticky” photo shoot for the game, but I’m happy to say I was wrong. There is no nudity or gratuity here, just some videogame talk and a touch of humor. Other than a little confusion about the difference between first-person and third-person shooters, and a Nintendo representative who reminds me a lot of Brandon Routh, this video is pretty identical to the rest of the Splatoon coverage sprawled over most of the game sites at the moment.
It turns out that Playboy has been doing this kind of stuff for a while. They even interviewed George R.R. Martin. You’d think that would have gotten a far amount of views, but it barely beat out Jim Sterling’s Farmer Animals Willem Dafoe movie pitch from forever ago. Both of them were beat by Captain Falcon’s ass though, which is nice.
So should I be looking at Playboy as Destructoid’s direct competition in the world of videogame journalism? If so, have I made a terrible mistake in posting this video? Are you all going to abandon Dtoid in favor of Playboy’s brand of hard hitting, no holds barred reporting?
