Playing Into the Hands Of The Scaremongers

Over the weekend the early stages of the latest moral outcry over the gaming industry began to rear it's ugly head. The Daily Mail revealed that the UK's Official PlayStation2 Magazine contained an article on the just-released game God Of War 2 covering a launch event which took place last month in Athens.

Taking cues from mythology and classical greco-roman themes and adding modern day hedonism resulted in the sort of OTT party many in the PR/marketing industry will be familiar with, although possibly with more goats. Copy from the original article hyped up the myth rather than the factuality of the party itself, talking of "eating still warm intestines uncoiled from the carcass of a freshly slaughtered goat". It was showmanship and PR at it's best and worst. I can't imagine that any goats were sacrificed or many attendees - no matter how drunk on free booze - would gorge themselves on the innards of a freshly culled carcass. But the themes, combined with the hype gave the Mail and many others exactly what they wanted. And no doubt Sony the publicity they craved. The result, a Mail journalist - no doubt a subscriber to the OPM hence receiving it before it hits the shelves - jumped on board and started a tirade.

Since then the article has been pulled from the magazine, animal rights activists have got involved and before long a slew of other anti-games protesters will use this to get on their soap boxes once more. The PR company behind this stunt may well pat themselves on the back but it's exactly this sort of thing that the games industry needs to avoid. Already the lines are being drawn and opinions polarised. Nobody cared when this happened, but a month later those who see games as a violent depraved medium that damage children and must be controlled have exactly what they want. And what for, a bit of free publicity for a game which would sell wildly anyway?

Between the 'This is Living' campaign which made no sense and this farce it's time that Sony took a long hard look at those who make their marketing decisions.

Update: GI.biz is reporting that Sony are to conduct an internal enquiry into the event. They are also claiming that the theatre of the the event was taken too literally by the writer of the OPM article and in turn by the Mail.