Monday, November 2, 2009

MW2 Homophobic?

Simple answer, No.

Well it's about a week or so till the release of the game Modern Warfare 2 has come out, and like the Hover Damn, a small stream of trickling is coming out just building up the hype for this game. So with that, it seemed quite odd that a small short PSA ad with Phillies Pitcher Cole Hamels. As of now, Modern Warfare 2's hype could be rivaled with Gears of War 2 and Halo 3, so you'd expect mountain dew sodas or 7 Eleven redecorating themselves in the theme of the game. Nope, a small, short ad came out pretty much in time for the World Series with an MVP player, in fact seems to be in the spirit and the target audience of most of the previous MW2 ads. Still there isn't any real ambition to these ads or any other ads to aim for a larger demographic. It slightly reminds everyone of Dice's Battlefield Bad Company ads or Valve's Team Fortress Meet the player ads, but still there is a slight machinima theme to it in hopes to make the ad viral.
And here's where I feel the ad goes wrong. There's nothing wrong with mocking Grenade Spaming, in fact it's something that any fan of the original game can immediately identify as the main problem with multiplayer. But I think it's early on with the "Blunt Trama", it feels a lot like out of touch step parent desperate attempts at being hip with his forgotten children. Unlike other video games that merchandise with Wallmart, Doritos, or Mountain dew, there's this just reek of desperation and acceptance with this ad.
Still there isn't much to talk about this ad, considering that in a matter of minutes the ad was pulled by the community manager. There's be great lengths to stop the Homophobic slander on multiplayer games, this wouldn't have helped. In fact like I said before, there's an element to it that feels like "Get it, 'Fags' we highlighted it 4 times in hopes you get that. Get it? I'm just like you. That's what the kids would say. Do you think I'm cool? Hey guys I'm cool right?" I feel like Modern Warfare is at the threshold of controversy, and just adding a homophobic ad that's desperate appealing to a younger audience attention just would have gone badly for them.
Christmas shopping has already started and Fox News needs a segment to pump fear into children's toys.

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