Duke Nukem (and the videogame industry) is Sexist, and another Post About Marketing

I read this amazingly well written article on Kotaku scribed by Lydia Heitman. It was all about how terribly Duke Nukem was marketed, and it isn't a surprise because the project is a failure in every way. It really is the zenith of how the video game industry does not understand it's customer base at all.

Stay with me!

Bethesda is stupid because they are wasting money on marketing for the already hyped up sequel to The Elder Scrolls Oblivion, Skyrim. Like all good PC master race out there I can not wait until November when this game comes out and would get a second mortgage on my house for the privilege to play it. I'm already sold. The demographic that Skyrim appeals to is me. We know the game is coming, and we will pay full price on release day.

Seeing ad's for Skyrim on sites like The Escapist is like watching an advertisement for the Next Food Network Star during an airing of the show; I'm already watching. You don't need to waste time and money getting my attention.

When Valve spent millions of dollars to air a television commercial for Portal 2 what was in the video? Was it Glados? Was it Chell? Nope! It was two adorable robots hugging. Why you may ask? Because Valve knows that people like me are already going to purchase the game no matter what they do, so they want to get my wife to buy it. They wanted to advertise to another demographic who wasn't already predisposed to having a favorable view.

Advertising a game like Duke Nukem is tough. Most people old enough to remember the original (ME!) have long outgrown the mechanics and spirit of the game. People who are younger and into FPS's are curious. The people you want to market to are the people who wouldn't normally purchase your game, but might be interested. You don't need to market sex to young men because hey; it's what they (we) will flock to like flies on stink.

If Duke Nukem was really a good game they would go after the second largest demographic in our indusrty (women over 25!!!!! Its true!!!!). Let's not also forget that the largest group who consumes video games is men over 25 and the second largest is women of the same age range. We have careers, spouses, often kids (yikes!), we have mortgages, life insurance, and real world problems. We aren't college kids or teenagers. We don't care what our parents think about games. When Duke Nukem 3D came out we were 11 to 15. Now we are in our late 20's to 40's. We don't care about digital boobs, we care about a fun escape from our normal, mundane lives. We want a mature plot, a well realized world, and a story that can make sense. That doesn't mean it can't be full of dick and fart jokes, but that won't be enough to make a successful experience.

Problem is the game is crap, so they thought they could pull a fast one on "hardcore" gamers and throw a fastball by us. When a game is actively marketed towards me (the apex of the largest consumer demographics for video games, see previous paragraph) it makes me very wary, because I know what games I like. I know what sequels are good and which are crap, I know what new IP's look awesome. I'm too savvy for box art blurbs. If you aren't marketing towards a new demographic to whom you can expand your userbase, and instead are solely focused on who should be your bread and butter it is indicative of a big ol' desperate move.

That is clearly what the king has become.....

Epic Fail.

Dead Island Gameplay Trailer

Thanks to the amazingly beautiful and haunting, yet increasingly irrelevant cinematic trailer released for the upcoming release Dead Island I have been following the media surrounding the game reasonably closely. Just a couple days ago a 12 minute gameplay trailer was released finally granting us snarling undead masses of the game buying public it's first real impressions regarding the actual mechanics to back up the amazing 3rd party cinematography. Don't remember the video? Click here.

So the game looks like a Grand Theft Auto clone with zombies. Well that's not entirely accurate..... more like a Just Cause clone with Zombies with a bit of Bulletstorm (minus the subliminal sexual assault impulses) mixed in.

It looks like it might be fun, but my pressing concern is that of a lack of gameplay focus.

I see instances of score boons rising from bloodied undead corpses being shot with automatic weapons and then scenes portraying horror and other similar emotions. It seems to me like you have to choose between Duke Nukem and Silent Hill 2; it really would be impossible to be both. Bottom line is looks like the game is trying to mix arcade style action with tense survival horror and that is the developer trying to have it's cake and eat it too. (The cake is obviously a lie anyways wakka wakka)

A horror experience needs to be before anything else immersive. For a survival horror game to really be effective the player needs to truly forget they are sitting on their couch and really be fully emotionally invested in what is happening on the screen and in the game. Huds, numerical scores, and other numerical information displayed on screen serves only to remind us we are playing a game; a pleasant diversion rather than being a part of a story in another universe.

Arcade style games are very fun, but for completely different reasons. It is simply a blast to pwn newbs with the sniper rifle from half a map away and see the kill message broadcasted to the entire server. It is a blast to get points for mutilating fodder enemies in creative ways a-la Bulletstorm, but it is a completely opposite experience from that immersive survival horror.

My kingdom for a true zombie apocalypse sim!

Honestly, making an fps where survival is prominent, you need to strike a balance between resource management, creating safe houses, and staying a step ahead of the zombie hordes would be epic. Hell a talented modded could do it in Minecraft in theory, or make a complete mod for L4D. It really would be a license to print money if someone would do it right.

Regardless Dead Island looks to be in danger of having an identity crisis. Of course the game doesn't release for some time, but being an anonymous internet troll I certainly won't let that prevent me from passing judgment!

I've been away for too long

And there is so much to talk about. LA Noire is finally out. Duke Nukem was supposed to have a gay robot sidekick. There are evidently no women in Brink. Evidently there is a game called Brink that was published but not developed by Bethesda which means it much suck.

So much to talk about....

Fox News attacks again... but what can WE do about it?

The only thing surprising about Fox New's most recent attack against Duke Nukem Forever and the game industry in general is that it took so long. I think the gentlemen at Penny Arcade said it best in this comic from last week. Here's the thing, as much as Fox News and people like Jack Thompson just plain don't get it or us, we, as an industry and a culture, invite this sort of contrevorsy that art(paintings and sculpture to clarify), books, music, and movies have long since shrugged off.

Why is it okay to have a naked woman or man sculpted to perfection in public viewing, or an Alien vs. Predator movie that is PG-13, or a rap beat with more racial slurs in it than otheres, but we can't have a simulated slap by an admited chauvinist by design to a submissive woman? It's because video games are afraid to tackle difficult issues in a mature fashion.

To end the Duke Nukem debate I don't think there is a single rational adult who would play through Duke Nukem Forever and not see it as an ironic commentary rather than an attitude to aspire to.South Park always manages to tackle very sensitive and difficult issues in fun and (duh) cartoon-ey ways, but video games still don't have any mature, grotesque art in our culture (that is relevant).

I have obviously bitched about it before, but we are an industry where the primary consumer base is males 25 to 40and the second largest consumer base is women similarly aged. We are mostly adults who, more often than not, have jobs, spouses, own property, pay taxes, and who are generally contributing, mature (debatably) members of society. We also read, have social groups, watch movies (it's always the comic book movies and Sci Fi that make the most money), and some of us even have children. I am 28 and the panel at PAX East 2011 that the most of my friends were most excited about was the Geek Parenting panel. So why is it all games that get the M+ or AO rating are so immature and blatantly trying to offend?

Now let me be perfectly clear; I am not saying that Duke Nukem is bad (I think the reviews will say that) or that it shouldn't exist, or that Fox News is or is ever remotely close to being correct on the issue. Hell anyone who plays the game and decides that it is then okay to objectify and/or batter women is just stupid. To think that a video game, or any other piece of art can perform inception or do anything else than inspire is just plain ignorant. With that said the video game industry is all cartoons and no Shakespeare. There needs to be, and I would argue there would be a lot of profit in finding a middle ground between ironic and mistivous comentary and "mature" drama.

There is room in my heart for the movie Dumb and Dumber, Love Actually, Gattaca, Pan's Labyrinth, and Sin City. Why can't we have a game industry that represents those same broad subject matter as fiction, art, movies, and music? When our industry is so one note, are we really suprised that's what the harpy's will dwell on?

Hooray for Owlchemy and the Boston Indie Scene!

One of the many marvelous things about PAX East is the Boston Indie Showcase. It was really nice to see my perennial favorite Cambridge's own Fire Hose Games with a release build of Slam Bolt Scrappers out today on PSN), but the highlight for me (besides getting a picture with Tim Schafer SQUEE!) was getting to watch the game Smuggle Truck by small indie developer Owlchemy Labs.



I have talked a lot recently about wanting to see games tackle mature, adult subject matter and I would definitively say that this is a major first step. I would call this game way more "mature" than Duke Nukem any day of the week because it's not afraid to tackle a tough subject matter, and not just boobs and guns (not that theres anything wrong with that).

The game reminds me of a Southpark episode. It is cartoony and melodramatic, yet it tackles the difficult issue of immigration policy in the US to aplomb. The game is definitely an inexperienced effort and very simple, yet it is a great way for a budding developer to get some income and make a statement and a name for themselves.

The game play revolves around tilting your iPod or iPad to guide a truck filled with illegal immigrants as fast as you can through hilly terrain without losing any out the back. Sounds simple right? Sure is, but also is a ton of simple, portable, nonviolent fun. It is whimsical yet poignant and everything that I would want in a videogame.

I really hope this game does amazingly well (and we all know that simple iOs games can) and that we see and hear a lot from Owlchemy in the future. Cheers guys and nice to see your booth at PAX East!