Gaming

19919 readers

149 users here now

Sub for any gaming related content!

Rules:

1: No spam or advertising. This basically means no linking to your own content on blogs, YouTube, Twitch, etc.
2: No bigotry or gatekeeping. This should be obvious, but neither of those things will be tolerated. This goes for linked content too; if the site has some heavy "anti-woke" energy, you probably shouldn't be posting it here.
3: No untagged game spoilers. If the game was recently released or not released at all yet, use the Spoiler tag (the little ⚠️ button) in the body text, and avoid typing spoilers in the title. It should also be avoided to openly talk about major story spoilers, even in old games.

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

366

'Marketing's dead, and I can back this s**t up': Larian's 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]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

[–] [email protected] 53 points 6 months ago (2 children)

I wouldn't say that past generations wanted to be marketed to, it's just that before the internet, marketing was the closest a customer could get to being spoken to by a brand.

And at some point in the history of marketing, I think companies used to see it that way too, marketing was a means of communicating with potential customers what your product offered. But as capitalism progressed, and media outlets expanded (print, radio, film, TV, etc.), honesty was optimized out in favor of "bamboozleism".

It's now easier than ever for a brand to have a direct, two-way conversation with their customers at any time, but marketers are still stuck in that 20th century mindset of "we just say whatever we want, and you just accept it". The internet is in the process of popping that bubble.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I work in the industry, and yeah. Before, marketing was based on utility. "Buy this because it can do this and this and that", basically marketing how effective or what it can actually do for you. Around the 50s (in the US) marketing changed to be based around lifestyle. "Buy this so you can be this". Now nearly all ads appeal to emotion instead of reason, and it is very effective.

Researching about what a product offers is so much harder than just buying on a whim because the ads and the product are colorful.

You can see this change in old (really old) newspapers. Ad spreads were chock full of text about features. Now 3/4ths of the ads are an image of a happy woman if marketed for gals, or a stoic muscly man if marketed for guys.

Gives me the ick.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Limbic capitalism. The product will make you happy. Only the product will make you happy.

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

The act of purchasing the product will make you happy.

Subscribe now to receive happiness for a monthly subscription fee of $14.99. Or, save 18% by paying $149.99 for the whole year!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

THX 1138 gets home and throws out the widget.

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

Largely agree. I think the bamboozlers were there the whole time - after all, a lot of early radio was for propaganda purposes. But I do think most companies try to do things the right way, and there was a point when marketing was seen as simple outreach.