View Single Post
Old 09-17-2008, 03:33 PM   #11
Udvarnoky
Senior Member
 
Udvarnoky's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 632
Default

It's the game's box art, and it was designed to make people carry the game to the checkout counter, and nothing else. Everyone knows the art on that cover is ugly - we really don't need a thread of people pointing this out to prove how not-shallow they are. I don't know if having a woman with barely any clothes on slapped on the box will help or hinder this game's sales, but you know what, if it does help the game's sales, why would we complain about it? Aren't adventure games (still a niche market) allowed to use such methods to sell themselves just as much as any other kind of genre?

This is just the marketing, and has nothing to do with the content of the game itself. The game maker's job is to make the game, and the marketing department's job is to sell it. There is a reason these two are separate entities, because their needs often clash. If a developer makes a good adventure game, would you rather it have artistic artwork that fails to catch the Average Joe's interest, or bad cover art with flames and gals that causes the game to sell to more than just the couple thousand adventure game forum frequenters who do real research and blog their gripes about sexist box covers to people who already feel the same way?

It's the same principle as a movie studio's marketing department taking a genuinely funny movie and constructing a lame trailer that highlights its obvious and easily-digestible-by-a-mass-audience jokes, with the result of the advertising campaign almost (or totally) inaccurately representing the product. It makes the people who know better (who were always going to see the movie) roll their eyes, but it also makes the unwashed mashes more likely to buy that ticket. The point is, that trailer doesn't change the fact that the actual movie is good, just like this Leisure Suit Larry box art doesn't diminish the content of Mata Hari, whatever quality it might be. I'm not saying it's something to be happy about, but it's also not worth raising a big stink over. It's just the cover. If you're the type who refuses to buy a game because the cover looks too cheesy, then okay. Just three years ago millions of people passed over a certain Double Fine game with gorgeous Scott Campbell art on its packaging because it wasn't cheesy enough. Perhaps dtp entertainment is going to find out which group is larger.

Last edited by Udvarnoky; 09-17-2008 at 03:50 PM.
Udvarnoky is offline