We didn’t report on Electronic Arts’ staged protest of Dante’s Inferno at E3 because it was an obviously fake marketing stunt (Although I was fooled). But people’s reactions, different story.
In case you didn’t read the free ads put out by the Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times, EA hired a bunch of people to wave signs, hand out pamphlets and pretend-protest that EA was gonna burn in hell for making a game about it. Since that stereotypes people who wave signs, hand out pamphlets and damn people to hell, someone went out of their way to be offended on their behalf.
“It’s been clear for a while now that the entertainment inudstry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers,” writes InsideCatholic.com’s Margaret Cabaniss. She’s right. I have no idea where they got that impression. She points out that some of the faithful aren’t prudes and do in fact game – her own site has discussed modern gaming favorably. (“For a lot of Catholics, the Middle Ages is the place to be. And for that, you cannot beat Medieval 2: Total War.”) And they’re rewarded with that by a fake protest that stereotypes unreasonable people.
She wasn’t the only one pissed. Ranteth Catholic Video Gamers:
Ok, look Electronic Arts, as much as the hardcore gaming community is full of the risible self-parodies known as the “freethinking” – the Richard Dawkins-loving, fundamentalist atheist, “I’m-so-much-smarter-than-you-are-because-I-don’t-believe-in-God” types, I doubt that even they would actually be more likely to buy a game because they *think* that their ideological foes (the equally risible Fundamentalist Creationist, anti-Catholic, evangelical “Christians”) happen to hate it. Gamers of all varieties will buy this product if its, well, actually a good game. So instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off and make it, ya know, something worthwhile?
Excuse my “freethinking” but we’re talking about a game that’s already made. So your admonishment to pour the effort spent hating Christians back into making the game is moot. How about this instead: Not every jackassed thing done by a game company deserves, ya know, your personal offence and an indignant response?
Faith-Based Bloggers Slam EA For Staging Fake Religious Protest at E3 [GamePolitics]
AndyN
June 14, 2009 at 11:56 AM
Well, they do have a point…
Report PermalinkChris
June 14, 2009 at 12:31 PM
Man that’s funny.. Religion turns people into a complete joke.
Report PermalinkBlah2
June 14, 2009 at 2:24 PM
Remember that Librarian that blacked out every word in Harry Potter that had something to do with witchcraft?
Yeah, lol.
Report PermalinkNick
June 14, 2009 at 4:15 PM
They do have a point. The Divine Comedy did something interesting with religious themes. EA’s game is not.
Report PermalinkLordLeckie
June 14, 2009 at 6:24 PM
So Dawkins is a fundamentalist eh? what fundamentals are they talking about? what holy writ does he have? how many people have been killed by his views? Oh funny.
Nice job kotaku im loving this article, people like this need snark.
Report PermalinkMichael Winning
June 14, 2009 at 7:46 PM
hehe Richard Dawkings, I love that guy.
Report PermalinkKelvin D
June 14, 2009 at 8:46 PM
ya know
Report PermalinkArash Mohebbi
June 15, 2009 at 11:19 AM
I just wish they’d have chosen some other literary masterpiece to vandalise? Seriously, this thing has “Quick! We need to make our own GoW! What can we grab?” written all over it.
Report Permalinktnf0200
June 15, 2009 at 3:02 PM
“I’m-so-much-smarter-than-you-are-because-I-don’t-believe-in-God”
It’s funny coz it’s true.
Report Permalinknny
June 16, 2009 at 12:34 AM
you know devil may cry came first, so god of war is the rip off.
Report PermalinkMaXX
February 1, 2010 at 10:37 AM
They will even jump on the soap box when its clear they are being made fun of for jumping on the soap box.
This is mega lulz as far as Im concerned.
This is the kinda thing Christian lobby groups LOVE to get up in arms about, EA just beat them to the punch and took the piss.
Report PermalinkRegardless of game quality, this is smart marketing. I for one am sick of screaming lobby groups controlling public opinion.
Michael Young
February 1, 2010 at 5:38 PM
If someone thinks smart marketing is pretending to be a stereotypical group who everyone KNOWS will not take it kindly (read: deliberately ticking them off) , this is a sad, sad world indeed.
Controlling public opinion? What a joke.
Report Permalink