Bloggers down on marketing - who knew?
March 29th, 2008It’s come to my attention today that the brilliant gamesblog, Kotaku, is really giving the marketing departments of the focus of their attention a bit of a beating which I think is a little out of their remit.
Exhibit A - The Silicon Knights Too Human teaser mockumentary
Link - I thought this was a brilliantly produced, nicely thought-out piece of obviously virally-intentioned marketing. The lack of a payoff at the end was a bit disconcerting but it was great, overall and a different take on the tried and true methods that more uninspired developers take.
Exhibit B - Microsofts plea to parents
Link - Again, I really liked this (as a parent and a gamer) and thought that Kotaku’s comments about it being ridiculous, uncomfortable and even pathetic a bit… offensive. I think that Kotaku’s take on parents is something akin to a Victorian dad sitting in an armchair, smoking a pipe, however most of the parents I know are twenty/thirty-somethings that have similar interests to the market cache. Add to that the fact that the sarcastic tone is obviously a move to make fun of the culture of ‘the kids’ means that it’s pretty brilliant fodder for even forty/fifty-something parents.
Lay off talking about things you don’t know (marketing) and talk about things you do (games).
