This puppet may be scary, but I know of a scarier one you
you
Hello, internet
Welcome to game theory the only show willing to play a triple a video game for 20 plus
Hours just to prove that an imaginary Police Force is racist [Toward] some imaginary characters. [how] about that episode?
Huh, that was a biggie pretty earth-shattering stuff
But it also brought up a bigger issue in gaming seems like every day our beloved source of entertainment is constantly being
Threatened in some way as extremely aggressive special interest groups and Jack thompson types
Crusade to get our favorite games pulled from the shelves
[as] a result we as gamers are constantly having to rise up and defend it sometimes. We do a great job other times
We could do better, and that's just against external threats consider the gamers themselves
controversy breeds
Discussion gamers raging at each other on social media about everything from Mass effect sex scenes to Mario's mental state
This game is sexist. No, it's not he's a sociopath. [no]. He isn't five nights is awesome. No. It's not it sucks
You suck and you should go die in a fire
But before you have a knee-jerk reaction to all this and send me a defensive rant on twit longer at Matpat Gt
By the way stop and think we've all heard the phrase
There's no such thing as bad publicity rights
And when it comes to games on the internet those words have never rang more true
All these controversies sure do toss a bunch of free brand awareness to these games
Don't they whether it's doa being too sexy or gTa being too violent?
Costumes being banned and games being censored does tend to get them a lot of headlines in the press and angst in the comments on
Facebook Twitter from enraged gamers attacking or defending this that or the other game regardless of what side they're on
They're spreading awareness of those games
It's the best marketing money can buy and no one's really even buying it [so] what if I told you that this was precisely?
The point that that has been the goal the entire time for the game publisher
It's not about artistic purity or keeping games on sense. It's about cash units sold the bottom line
What if I told you that by defending these games until you've been blue in the face
You've only been used as a puppet by these game companies. [well], I guarantee you that today's episode will forever
Have you thinking twice about that angry tweet defending Christie's skimpy?
do a
Costume [as] you know game theories on official
Subtitle is the smartest show in gaming so in the interest of maintaining that sexy little moniker
I decided to do what I do best research and in the process I discovered a juicy little story
Thanks in part to the Sunday times of london. [that's] right. I read the Sunday times of London
Hashtag not-so-subtle brag that's like plus a hundred points and being either super cultured or super douchey right?
Maybe both perhaps. I don't know anyway
Let me tell you a tale of a small game called racing Chase back in the mid 90s
a tiny company called DMA design
Was working on this game about cops and robbers or players had the chance to play as bowl in a living breathing city where all?
The cars and Civilians obeyed the rules as a criminal you could pretty much do whatever you wanted
But as a cop you were responsible for enforcing the rules problem with that though is
Not that fun
and so half [the] game was just boring [the] guys working on it found that it was a lot more fun to mess with the
System as the criminals to disrupt order to cause panic and unrest little by little the game moved away from a linear story
Monetary rewards were added to encourage the Chaos and once the single button
Carjacking feature was added and a few hookers Sprinkled in because that's what you do with hookers
You just sprinkle them in race and [chase] had evolved into what would eventually become one of the highest selling game franchises in history
[Grand] theft Auto problem was this was the 90s
How do you market a game about killing people stealing cars and using said cars to kill more people?
I mean just to give you some context here the sega CD
action horror game night Trap had just gotten pulled from store [shelves] [in] response to get this a woman wearing a nightgown in a
Private bathroom
How will this affect the children [this] was also the era of politicians debating the lifelike realistic violence of [de] Mortal Kombat series?
Who gotta watch out for that hyper realistic edge of blood and those dragon?
Transformations in Fact the Mortal Kombat Debate directly
Led to the formation of the [entertainment] [software] ratings board otherwise known as the Esrb in the United states [for] scenes
like this
my how times have changed
[so] what do you do when you have a hooker filled car theft?
Simulator on your hands well you go to a man named Max clifford back then the most famous publicist
The United Kingdom had ever known responsible for promoting everyone from the beatles to Oj simpson
He was very good at his job, but his methods [were]
questionable at best
He encouraged his clients to Lie cheat steal
He did everything from helping cover up the sexuality of multiple soccer players to creating the most famous
Headline in British Tabloid history, Freddy Star ate my Hamster which claimed a uk comedian had
Literally eaten a live hamster in a sandwich yep
It was a lie [of] course
But Freddy star suddenly became a household name and it was here in the mid 90s with Max clifford that manipulating
controversy spread into gaming Mac's planted stories and conservative newspapers plied outspoken political figures and
Meticulously planned out exactly how the outrage around grand theft Auto's violence would snowball through his careful planning
GTa ended up appearing before British Parliament to defend itself and the rights of video games to feature violent content
So let me reiterate what you just heard loyal theorists gTA is the Mammoth franchise you know today because the marketing
Strategy for its first game was to purposely throw itself into the line of fire get anti violence groups to Rally
Against it even run the risk of getting banned just for shameless headlines
You know what it worked that strategy translated to
Sales for a no-name franchise and what was formerly known as race in [Chase] quickly became a million-seller based on its notoriety
[while] the rest
Then is history and guess what internet gTA isn't even close to being the only game that's benefited from intentional Pr
Scandals around the same time a game called carmageddon was released
But rather than emphasizing wins and losses a new place where this car game rewarded points for causing as much damage as possible
Especially with regards to the crowds of people that just so happened to be strolling around on the [racetrack], [okay]?
It's so kind of stupid, but obviously a game where you drive around in 3D
And the literal object of the game is turning people into a fine mist of blood and eyeballs
But rather than explaining to everybody that the game was meant to be a humorous experience carmageddon was packaged in a purposely
inflammatory box that said and I quote
Pedestrian [gun] Target as [you] drive towards and three dem speeds of over
100 miles per hour
[the] game hit number one on the charts upon its release and of course the papers all man headlines like
Sickest video game will be in shops by Christmas and the Vicious [g's] that children play?
Great headlines even better way to drive sales
And you know what the kicker was once the game finally came out the British board of film classification
Or BBFC, which in this case acted very similarly to the Esrb in the [u.s.]
They didn't even give [it] the harshest rating they could have because it actually wasn't all that bad [and] yet the publishers knowingly Rose
public Outcry [all] the way to the bank wants more recent examples
how about in
2002 when a claim was short on cash and needed to find a clever way to market their new game Shadow [Man] 2 well they
Hired a company called frank Pr and embarked on one of the most infamous
marketing campaigns of all time in an interview with
Kotaku Frank Pr
Founder and drew apparently I did name my company after my own name block explained that none of their games were getting good reviews
[so] they had to come up with an idea that [would] sidestep reviews altogether
[so] they came up with something they called ded [vert] izing what is [ded] vert izing well if you guess that it was helping [people]
Offset funeral costs for recently deceased loved ones by paying them to put advertisements for the game on their beloved ones
Tombstone well, then you'd be absolutely correct
But that wasn't a claims only play with controversy they tried something
equally insane with their extreme racing game burnout - point of impact when they actually
Offered to reimburse the ticket costs for anyone caught speeding in the uk on the day the game was released a game company
Incentivizing people to speed of course there was scandal and yet through it all acclaim
Sat pretty according to Andrew block. They literally just did it to drum up some press
They actually planned from the beginning to go back on their word before the game came out
They just wanted headlines for a couple weeks
and there's even more acclaim got a pro Roller skater to do the
Incredibly dangerous
stunts of hooking onto the back of a car up to 50 miles per hour in front of a speed camera to try and
Jumpstart a craze of Imitators for their roller skating game
aggressive inline [o] they offered people money to change their name to Tarak in Honor of [Tarak] for weight there were four [Tarak] games and
finally from Virtua
Tennis [two] they almost hired trained homing pigeons painting to promote the game to fly in and disrupt Wimbledon live on television
[okay], [so] that last one is pretty cool
[and] if you think it's just triple-a publishers think again internet
Everyone is playing you for the views and for the sales last fall a game called hatred from [Polish] Indie Developer destructive
creations made waves across the internet when its debut trailer was so disturbing that it caused the game to be briefly pulled from
Steamed green lights only to be reinstated with a personal apology from valves managing director
The game is sold as a no-frills
Honest [apolitical]
Massacre simulator in which you play as a single man who hates everyone and wants to kill them for no other [reason] than that?
he
Wants to the depictions of violence are so realistic that publications across the internet are calling it one of the worst things they've ever seen
[and] venturing into the comments for this [games] trailer you see people
Aggressively defending this [games] artistic right to exist
So what do the creators think well destructive creations?
Themselves have been pretty candid about the whole affair [in] an interview with polygon their creative director maintained his game's artistic integrity
But also acknowledges the fact that they kind of depended on the trailer shock tactics for the extra publicity
Oh, and that he's very happy with the results kind of seems like it doesn't matter if you're for it or against it anymore
Huh?
And here's the thing these games are just the ones that I was able to find with stories admitting to using
Controversy to drive sales think of all the game controversies that cross your screen every week
how many of those [are] manufactured probably more than you or I like to think fans by going the bat for these games or
Respectfully speaking out against them are treated as puppets pawns we fought for
Years to protect our games against the threat [of] people like Jack thompson
Special interest groups looking to get our games banned or censored critics condemning games as entertainment of the lowest common denominator?
All of which slowed their transition into a respected artistic medium we took it upon ourselves to defend this beloved pastime
But as it turns out many of the game makers didn't really care either way
They just wanted their games to sell they
Purposely put those games into the line of fire just to ensure that we were talking about them attacking them
Defending them tweeting about them getting them trending and that in turn
Prompts news Media Outlets to cover the story which in turn prompts war gamer
Backlash which in turn just teaches the industry to do it over and over and over again these
Franchises have purposely given games and the people who play them a bad name
Just to sell more
[Coffee's]
They purposely exploited our passion for these games this medium just to get bigger fatter
Paychecks in the end. It's not the games
It's the players who are getting played, but hey, that's just a theory a game
Theory, thanks for watching
Obviously we here on game. Theory love doing our research, and that means a lot of reading currently
I'm reading fifty Shades of grey because a man has needs okay
No
But seriously I've been checking out Batman in psychology a dark and stormy night all about why we love a superhero without
Superpowers it even explores Batman's own pSychosis stuff like why he fights crime
And why he chose an underage kid as a partner who knows you'll probably see some of this stuff show up in a future episode
I got that book and fifty shades at audible.com where they have over
[180,000] books to choose from if you're a fan of game theory and want to help support the show consider going to audible.com slash
Matpat [M80] [P80] and getting yourself a free audio book
Seriously [a] free book no strings attached and helping us out in the process maybe even getting yourself a free preview of upcoming episodes
What's stopping you I even included a link for you to click in the description?
So you have no excuse so help us out by helping yourself out and do a bit of reading stick it to those video game
Companies using you all the time and [pick] up a book for a change now if you'll excuse me the anastasia is entering
Christians love Chamber for the first time and oh my is it exciting so I go leave me alone click audible.com slash
Matpat and leave me with my thoughts and my
Research research. I swear purely purely research