PC Gaming

8576 readers

234 users here now

For PC gaming news and discussion. PCGamingWiki

Rules:

Be Respectful.
No Spam or Porn.
No Advertising.
No Memes.
No Tech Support.
No questions about buying/building computers.
No game suggestions, friend requests, surveys, or begging.
No Let's Plays, streams, highlight reels/montages, random videos or shorts.
No off-topic posts/comments, within reason.
Use the original source, no clickbait titles, no duplicates. (Submissions should be from the original source if possible, unless from paywalled or non-english sources. If the title is clickbait or lacks context you may lightly edit the title.)

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

210

'Marketing's dead, and I can back this s**t up': Baldur's Gate 3 publishing director says players 'just want to be spoken to, and they don't want to be bamboozled' (www.pcgamer.com)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 54 points 6 months ago (3 children)

Oh it's not, dead, it's just changed shape so we don't immediately recognize it. This, for example, is an ad for about 5 different games.

Notice how the brands were mentioned. Notice how much more palatable this is as a delivery system for that sweet brand awareness. They're making statements we agree with! They're demonstrating values that align with our own.

Now look it's video games so I really don't mind. This is certainly nicer than what we had in the 90s and 2000s (which were occasionally hilarious but I digress) , but I still want to raise awareness a bit. Larian isn't the only company that rolls this way. Thing is, they're probably not even lying, but an executive at a company does media like this for a reason.

This is them "speaking to you."

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 months ago (1 children)

That's fine. If you want to sell me video games tell me they exist somewhere that isn't in the middle of a YouTube video I'm trying to watch, or in the middle of a TV show on Netflix/hulu. People want to play these games, we just don't want ads shoved down our throat when we aren't trying to seek put these products.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

A lot of the most heavily advertised games are the ones people wouldn't play without addiction models or whaling hooks, ones that require marketing to get people on board.

I've been pretty insulated from ads for a good bit (by design) but what is that meme one again? Raid Shadow Legends?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago

I think he made a very good point, that traditional forms of marketing are dead, and the best place to market is the storefront itself (on the Internet).

Then again i also agree with your point, this kind of puff-piece is a type of marketing as old as human beings.

All in all 10/10 glad i came to this post

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

It's a PC Gamer article about a meeting between developers. Of course they mention the dev names and a recent product from them. That's how these fluff pieces have always worked. This isn't even a different shape of marketing. It's the same old shit. It's not even just a gaming industry tactic. Next time you read any news article about a thing or a company, look how often they name the brand and products or that of a competitor (depending on if the news is good or bad about first product). Much of "journalism" these days is just advertising.