I play video games, therefore I must be a pubescent boy who only cares about curves. At least that’s the first blush upon opening up Command and Conquer Red Alert 3 for xbox 360…
I’ve enjoyed Command and Conquer since the very first demo of the original game I played, back when all the game was a few nicely rendered squares moving around the screen. So when I saw RA3 was only 9.99 at newegg with free shipping, I had to scoop it up. I had played the demo, and thought it would be a good fluff RTS game to play some day.
When I opened the packaging, tucked in with game manual, disk, and advertising for another game was this little poster. At first it was folded up enough, I didn’t know what it was. I took it out and unfolded it, and couldn’t help but chuckle. That chuckle turned into disbelief at the pure assumption that he game would only be sold to heterosexual males, who only thought with their heads bellow. Sure, I admit it, I like the occasional potty humor, heck, I can be quoted as saying, if you live with one foot in the gutter, life is much funnier. It struck me though, how this blind marketing might effect purchasing.
I have a niece who at a very young age understood the mechanics of a game controller thanks to the time her and her dad would spend together in the mornings. He’d play games with her in his lap and eventually, to save his character’s life, she got her own disconnected controller. I think ahead several years and wonder, what if she wants to play a real time strategy game some day? Will she need to wade through a sea of pubescent boob jokes just to play? I’m just throwing it out there. Any folks out there thought about this in the past? Has anyone been detered from playing an otherwise good game because of its marketing tactics?
