Category Archives: Media
Playstation PSP : Fake boards
I just came across this piece (Playstation PSP : Fake boards) about a set of mock-up/fake billboard adverts for the Sony PSP. It’s good to see marketers putting some effort into creative advertising which actually relates to the product. In this case the billboard puts game characters into the real world by using the billboard/PSP screen as a see-through window onto the real world thus highlighting the PSP’s portability which allows gamers to play wherever they may be.
Moral rights, porn star Tera Patrick and Saint’s Row 2
Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) aren’t something most people think about in relation to porn. However that is exactly what I thought about when I read this article, published by Kotaku (Saint’s Row 2: Porn Starlet Tera Patrick Joins Saint’s Row 2). The porn st…. sorry adult star Tera Patrick has been appointed “Special Producer” for the THQ published game Saint’s Row 2 – much to the embarrassment of some members of the development team, Violition (www.volition-inc.com).
Now don’t get me wrong, I am as sick as the next guy and am happy to keep staring at naked ladies until they find the drill hole and block it up. In addition to liking naked women I also like games and films and beer and animals. (The latter burnt just enough that they stop moving then smothered with bar-b-q sauce). What I don’t like is stupid and lazy marketing people who think that the best way to sell me a game (or any of the other things I like) is to dangle Tera Patrick, or any other porn star, in front of my face. Tera Patrick isn’t really a producer (special or otherwise) on the project. She doesn’t have any involvement in the development of the game and the game isn’t about Porn so her use in marketing Saint’s Row 2 is completely gratuitous. Saint’s Row 2 is about Gangs – would anyone seriously think that it would be good marketing to use a porn star to promote The Godfather or Gangs of New York? All this does is tell me that, in addition to being lazy, these marketeers have no understanding of why people buy games and have no respect for for either the customer or the developers that make the games.
So what does any of this have to do with Intellectual Property Rights? Well, in addition to the more commonly discussed IPR such as Copyright and Trademarks there are another set… Moral Rights. No I’m not talking about anti-sin, placard waiving Republicans. Moral Rights are the rights of a author not to have their work distorted, mutilated, or modified in a way that would prejudice the author’s honor or reputation. Something that they could certainly claim is happening as a result of this marketing campaign. Of course they will almost certainly have had to sign a development contract with assignes/waives any such rights but that doesn’t make it acceptable, it just means that unfortunately they can’t do anything about it.
Negative campaigning
“Wii Is ‘Expensive Niche’ Says Sony’s Stringer”
http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=19394
I don’t get it. Sony’s negative marketing* makes them look mean (and a little stupid) just as it does when Hilary Clinton or any other politician uses the tactic. More importantly it would also seem to be a less efficient use of Sony’s time/money, because there are three consoles in the world. If Sony spend their time telling me the Nintendo Wii isn’t what I want (but don’t actually bother to tell me what is good about the Playstation 3) then I may just go off and buy an Xbox 360. That means Sony need to spend more time/money rubbishing Microsoft’s console – but even then they still haven’t given me a reason to buy a Playstation.
Wouldn’t it be cheaper and more effective to just do one set of work telling me how good the Playstation 3 is?
* Yes Microsoft and Nintendo are just as guilty of this as Sony.
Holocaust game shocker? … no New York Times are rubbish so no shock there then.
The New York Times web site media section posted a story (nytimes story) yesterday about Holocaust themed game Imagination Is the Only Escape, claiming that there had been disgust following the announcement of the game and that the game would not be coming to shop shelves in the USA as Nintendo of America had stated that “At this time, there are no plans for this game to be released for any Nintendo platforms in North America.”
The clear implication in the story is that there has been widespread criticism and that Nintendo won’t be allowing the game on their systems. The truth (a depressingly alien concept to many in the media) is nothing of the sort. What Nintendo actually meant was that the product isn’t on any release schedule yet. Hardly surprising for the simple reason that it isn’t far enough into development by the UK developer/publisher Alten8 (www.alten8.com).
With depressing predictability the story was then picked up by other sites such such as Videogaming247 (incorrect story) but posted with the even more misleading title “Nintendo refuses to release Holocaust DS game in US“. Thankfully Eurogamer (Eurogamer story) checked with Alten8 who confirmed that Nintendo were in no way blocking the release of the game. In a statement to Eurogamer they stated stated “Imagination is the Only Escape is only in its early stages. No one has blocked it, and it has no definitive time scale for release.”
So, no one has banned anything or even made anything yet for that matter… guess I’ll post a review of the game tomorrow then.