Topic: How to Advertise a Video Game

[Pale]

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/blogArt.cfm?artid=16012

  The guys over at Penny Arcade are used to blazing their own path.  Over the past several years, they have been some of the most outspoken and rude (by most standards) game critics on the net.  This heavy dose of realism mixed with massive amounts of humor is what makes the comics and posts on their site so appealing.    

This week, their first ever video game was released, Penny Arcade Adventures: On The Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode 1.  Everyone, including themselves, knew this may have been a bad idea.  They've pissed off a lot of people by being hyper critical of their games.  Now the shoe was on the other foot.    

Who knows who this mysterious poster over at the Game|Life blog is, but ddf is not a fan.    

So what do the guys at Penny Arcade do about this ridiculous attempt at blog trolling?  They use it in their advertising campaign for the title!  Check out their official ads in the image.  I hope ddf is happy now!

[Caliban]

ddf probably hung himself.

[shammack]

He responded in the comments for the Game|Life post about this, but it's pretty anticlimactic.

[Shift Key]

Great stuff from the PA guys.

ddf's even got his own blog, apparently he's a troll and a video game "mover and shaker" and uses "internets" way too much (from the bits I did read).

http://denisduckfat.blogspot.com/

[S-U-P-E-R]

Who knows who this mysterious poster over at the Game|Life blog is, but ddf is not a fan.

I know who he is

and he's probably right

[KDR_11k]

So is the PA game funnier than PA itself?

[vudu]

While funny, I doubt this is effective advertising.  It won't get anyone who's not already a Penny Arcade fan interested in the game.  Although, I could easily be argued that the game isn't meant to appeal to anyone who's not already familiar with the comic, so it could be a moot point.

Reports indicate that the game is breaking early sales records, but again, I suppose that's to be expected, given the target audience.  People who are likely to buy the game are the kinds of consumers who purchase games on release day.  Will the game have legs?  I fully expect sales to drop after the first week or two.

[NWR_insanolord]

I laughed. This is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from them.

[Svevan]

Reminds me of when David Lynch advertised Lost Highway as receiving "Two Thumbs Down!"