how not to sell a game to me

[meganbmoore]

So, I'm sitting here catching up on my Captain America comics, and I turn to a 2 page spread advertising Fable II.  Normally I'd just skip past it, but there was what appeared to be a pouty nobleman with a vampire lurking behind him, and I was curious.

So, I know nothing about Fable, really.  Either one.  But this ad  features what looks to be a bar full of men from all walks of life.  And no women.  Not even a barmaid.  There could be a plot reason for this.  A good one.  I don't know.  But from the image and description, it seems to be a normal medievaloid fantasy adventure.  Mind you, 27-year-old women aren't exactly the target audience for Captain America in the first place, but my reaction to what appears to be a large, exclusively male, ensemble, is "no thanks," even if a few of them a quite good looking.  Hi there, Mr. Strategically Posed Swordsman and Mr. Hooded Man.

See, if I see one or two men and no one else, or vague background characters, my mind will go "ok, main characters."  If I see a full room, I'm going to take that room as representative of the entire world in the game.  (And yes, even a buxom barmaid in the corner would influence that impression.)

I suppose it's the flipside of things titled Male's Daughter and Male's Wife. (If the title of the work is defining the female by her relation to a male, there better be a pretty good reason.)

Comments

[mycenae.livejournal.com]

The Fable II tv ad I saw perplexed me, since I didn't know anything about Fable. It shows a guy sitting at a table playing that folded paper fortune telling game that I associate with being in 3rd grade writing down boys names to find out who we'd marry. That ad was a big old pile of WHAT. Now that I know the premise of the game, it makes more sense, but it's still somewhat ironic that it shows all these incarnation of macho personas, while he's playing a game associated with 8-year-old-girls. Was that intentional??

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[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

*nods*

As a marketing strategy, it will keep the old customers, but not bring in new ones.