Why are all these game trailers trying to have a "deep moment" with me?

[Don Flamenco]

http://www.gametrailers.com/player/42708.html?type=


I mean, the song from 6 Feet Under?  really?   (it's at about 3 minutes in.)

I'm gonna have to go ahead and agree with David Jaffe's rant on this one: http://criminalcrackdown.blogspot.com/2008/11/false-advertising.html
They're selling PoP like it's going to be some deep experience, when we all know it'll be an action platformer with Nathan Drake wise-cracking the whole time.

[cool breeze]

There was a thread about this on gaf just yesterday and it turns out that people want ham-fisted attempts at doing the whole 'gamez r art' thing -- apparently you're the problem if you don't want that.

Between the reception to this and vgcats I'm starting to think most people who play games are dense and can't understand something unless it's thrown in their face.

[Don Flamenco]

There was a thread about this on gaf just yesterday and it turns out that people want ham-fisted attempts at doing the whole 'gamez r art' thing -- apparently you're the problem if you don't want that.

Between the reception to this and vgcats I'm starting to think most people who play games are dense and can't understand something unless it's thrown in their face.

Not surprising...it seems like a lot of people there really try hard to make gaming a holistic and meaningful experience...when its so not. :\   also, I just saw the thread that claims this is the most powerful trailer or something.  Neogaf is the light world, EB the dark world..or is it the other way around?  

I would not mind it if games matured a bit and found their own way to be impactful, but this "hammer you over the head with teh emotionz" approach is obnoxious. 

[tiesto]

I've found, it's not even worth it to seek validation from playing games. People are still gonna have negative stereotypes about them, no matter what games come down the pipeline. It also doesn't help that people hype Gears of Bald Space Marine in WWII more than something like Rez or Braid...

This is why I don't even mention I play games at all, to people, nowadays. Apart from some of the classics when I'm bored.

[duckman2000]

I tend to get emotional about stuff like hitting really massive jumps in SSX3, or reaching another zone in Wipeout. That kind of stuff, the shit that feeds straight into your soul. I thought the first Mirror's Edge trailer was effectively emotional.

[Don Flamenco]

if I knew how to edit videos, I'd make an "emotional" ninja gaiden II trailer with Ryu chopping the shit out of everything in the chapter 10 stairwell to the tune of Enya.  I'd throw in part of the PoP voice over to make it extra impactful.

[BobFromPikeCreek]

I couldn't make it through that trailer. It's embarrassing.

[Howard Alan Treesong]

Yes, it's a bit overwrought, but at least the trailer is trying something other than fast cuts to Disturbed butt rock. *shrug*

I'm on record as liking it.

[cool breeze]

The first Mirror's Edge trailer was amazing and conveyed the thrill of the game perfectly.  Quiet music in the background as the sounds of Faith running was the focus, just straight gameplay, then at the end it showed you what was to come before rounding it all out and showing a huge view of the city.  Great trailer.  It also help that the music from the trailer is straight from the game itself.

Prince of Persia and the Gears trailers feel like shitty anime music videos, except worse people people were paid to make them.

[duckman2000]

The Too Human Benny Hill trailer is the example to follow, really. If they had actually launched the game with that kind of marketing, it would have probably been a success. Everyone tries to out-epic the next, and the end result is a pretty boring mess. Especially if the shitty presentation already makes comedy out of everything.

[cool breeze]

Another trailer that I didn't get the love for was the MGS4 'courage is solid' one, and I'm a big MGS4 fan.

[duckman2000]

That's an original Jarosh, right?

[tiesto]

I didn't really like the Lost Odyssey trailer... the Jefferson Airplane song didn't really fit in at all, would have been better with some bombastic over-the-top symphonic music.

[WrikaWrek]

Did you like....steal this fucking thread from Gaf? 

[Don Flamenco]

Did you like....steal this fucking thread from Gaf? 

saw it on jaffe's blog,posted,  then saw the same thread on gaf?   

[Olivia Wilde Homo]

A lot of marketing people probably think that epic trailers = more sales.  Treating it as a legitimate entertainment product instead of something you throw to Billy to keep him occupied on the weekends.  Its the same mentality that leads to longer movies = more ticket sales, which causes a whole flood of 2-3 hour summer epics that rake in huge cash.  As developer budgets keep expanding, they're going to have to try to tap into new audiences that didn't take gaming seriously before.  These developers are trying to market these games as epic movies, hoping the same marketing principles that applied to getting people to see a movie like The Dark Knight will work for Prince of Persia.

[drew]

 

[Don Flamenco]

good point    i'm a marketing tool 

[duckman2000]

A lot of marketing people probably think that epic trailers = more sales.  Treating it as a legitimate entertainment product instead of something you throw to Billy to keep him occupied on the weekends.  Its the same mentality that leads to longer movies = more ticket sales, which causes a whole flood of 2-3 hour summer epics that rake in huge cash.  As developer budgets keep expanding, they're going to have to try to tap into new audiences that didn't take gaming seriously before.  These developers are trying to market these games as epic movies, hoping the same marketing principles that applied to getting people to see a movie like The Dark Knight will work for Prince of Persia.

Developers don't market games, nor do they have anything to do with the marketing.  The Prince of Persia is just trying to set the game apart from the crows and you know, attract attention.  it obviously worked because we are having a whole thread devoted to a commercial about a game.

Either that, or it can be considered a precursor for a shit ton of discussion about the sameness of marketing. At some point, we'll be saturated with the unique and the bombastic, to the point where it turns into cliche, cheese and market apathy. I'm feeling as if this is being saturated surprisingly fast, but maybe that's an acknowledgment and reflection of the fast progress of the industry as a whole. Maybe self-parody and irony is next?

Now it they could only make good on all the epic, emotional and/or thought provoking experiences that these trailers hint at.

[Bloodwake]

It just seems like most commercials for games these days suck pretty badly because they try too hard.

Oh well, at least they are better than the old commercials.

[Barry Egan]

My problem with that Prince of Persia trailer is that they try to glue together a fairy tale narrative with a modern day pop song and it feels wonky.  Taken as two separate trailers they're actually pretty good. 

[littlemathletics]

They should clearly be using Prince in the ads. Missed opportunity.

[GilloD]

It's obscene to me that this is the foreground of "games as art". These kinds of trailers have as much genuine heft and worth as any shitty big-budget Hollywood picture. Get a mysterious announcer, throw in a pop song, make it look sad and WHAMMO- INSTANT FEELINGS. That's not art, that's marketing. To even pretend that that trailer has something to do with art is hilarious.

[Don Flamenco]

They should clearly be using Prince in the ads. Missed opportunity.

The prince's voice might change it up a bit.  Though maybe they could get him saying "GET TO THE CHOPPAH!" while the princess runs to an airplane with explosions in the background.

It's obscene to me that this is the foreground of "games as art". These kinds of trailers have as much genuine heft and worth as any shitty big-budget Hollywood picture. Get a mysterious announcer, throw in a pop song, make it look sad and WHAMMO- INSTANT FEELINGS. That's not art, that's marketing. To even pretend that that trailer has something to do with art is hilarious.

it seems to have more to do with showing people who wouldn't normally think of these games as legitimate art, entertainment, media, etc. that games can be mature or something.  it's an acceptance thing, more than a legitimate concern about artistry in games, perhaps.   

[Himu]

It just seems like most commercials for games these days suck pretty badly because they try too hard.

Oh well, at least they are better than the old commercials.

I dunno man. I mean, there are few game commercials that had impact on my like FFVII's commercial. That commercial single handedly sold me a psx.

Also, back then they talked shit and used creativity.

OoT and Majora's Mask's commercials are the shit.

Old commercials > new commercials

[Kestastrophe]

Old commercials > new commercials

[cool breeze]

Oh how Sony marketing has fallen