Electronic Arts has been playing games with attendees of the nation’s biggest video-game trade show.
The game publisher hired a group of nearly 20 people to stand outside the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles on Wednesday and appear to protest the upcoming EA game “Dante’s Inferno.” EA spokeswoman Holly Rockwood says the stunt was arranged by a viral marketing agency hired by EA.
The group claimed to be protesting the third-person action game – loosely based on Dante Aligheri’s poem “Divine Comedy” – because they said the game glorified eternal damnation.
The fake religious protesters passed out pamphlets and held up picket signs with messages such as “Hell is not a Video Game” and “Trade in Your PlayStation for a PrayStation.”
Har!
This is plausible behavior by religious protesters. I wouldn’t blame the media for getting sucked in.
Ha! The little “EA” logo on the bottom of the man’s sign is a dead giveaway. Why would a real religious protester put that on his clever twist of a Sony product name?
Good to see there are still marketing agencies ready to go the extra mile and push the envelope,.. right up peoples noses. Hey check it out, it sure worked well enough to make it to this blog. I imagine EA should be quite pleased with the result. As far as the game’s concerned, sounds like an interesting concept no?
Which news outlets fell for it?
Using loonies as a marketing strategy is brilliant! Not only does it bring publicity, it also deflates their effectiveness.
On the next gay pride parade, I may join the loonies in the corner with my own “DEATH TO HOMOSEXUAL PERVERT PIGS” sign!!
#3 “Democrats have been staging protests for years…making it appear their agenda is either hated or loved, whichever required at the moment, to manipulate the media.”, said the man whose political party recently held tea bagging party set up by a bunch of lobbyists and Fox News.
I thought the loons were marching down the street, at least that’s the case in CA.
“Media pwned by phony EA protestors” Really? Well then post links to the so called “pwned” media. I haven’t seen any story that ran with the assumption that these guys were real. The only link in this article is to the media outlet that reported on the real story.
#11 – Google is your friend. Or classroom monitor, perhaps.
I think EA could have saved some marketing money and found some real religious nuts to protest the game. Or maybe that will happen with their new game “Abortion Doctor ’09”.
#8 Dallas Very insightful!
Well, this took about 30 seconds to track down a gullible gamer media site:
http://tinyurl.com/osbzj8
The LA Times blog was taken in http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/06/e3-protesters-target-dantes-inferno-game.html The Mercury News’ blog also mentioned it http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/06/03/e3-tidbits-from-today/
It was pretty obvious that something fishy was going on. 1)the game is about fighting demons not really glorifying them or anything and 2)the signs were way to clever and elaborate to be real.
#11 A search of google news shows that no real news sites picked up on this. A couple of brain dead gamer sites only.
He. He. Good one, EA! But did they really have to pay religious conservatives to protest?
# 12 – When an article says media was pwned, it’s good practice to actually link to whomever it was that got pwned in the article.
“…they said the game glorified eternal damnation…”
I don’t think that’s quite fair. They merely mentioned that Alfie would be in heaven.
Was it Mark Twain who said: Go to heaven for the climate or hell for the company?
Alfred,
Im guessing you missed it when Robert G. Kaufman claimed that the GOP needed to acquire ANOTHER television network to help articulate its message.
#23 Missed that. What current network is owned by the GOP?
lol. I thought the guy’s poster was just translating English to Engrish
#25 zzzzzzzzzzzzzz…………..
#27 – Did Alf say something?
Alfred must be on his meds today- I didn’t see a single “dickhead” in any of his loony rants.
I have to confess- I figured he was a plant to pump up the page views, til I read his meltdown over President Obama’s Cairo speech. I had to go re-read my bible after that to find all the d*head references- I finally found them in the Book of Alfred, 1.15 (more commonly known as ‘Psalm of the Loon’).
[Comment deleted – Violation of Posting Guidelines. – ed.]
#31 – If you want to call being a total asswipe being effective…
Alfred, for you: http://tinyurl.com/29pge4
#32 – Sister, it is a fact of life, asses must be wiped. Or kissed.
>> Alfred1 said, on June 5th, 2009 at 9:50 am
>> they label and dissenting opinion “hate speech” etc…to discredit arguments THEY CANNOT REFUTE with reason…
I’m a lib and I LOVE it when conservatives debate the issues.
But, most often, they just attack the person.
And, often its hate speech.
#37, Alphie,
In 2006 Democrats took over both houses of legislature
…
They, not the President, control the economy.
Is that what they taught you on the carnival? Try reading up on a little civics. Do yourself a favor though, don’t rely on Cow-Patty, he knows about as much as you.
#38,
The public’s lack of critical skills is evident here…most posters attack each other or their ideas with claims of their own, they don’t know how to identify a premise, and refute that critically to win an argument…
This from the guy that posts the same bible passages over and over in some steooopid attempt to “win” an argument? And then claims all that disagree are moonbat loons? Any political point is “statist”. The President is a drug dealer? and on and on …
#40, Alphie,
You are an idiot. You don’t know the basics of government. Instead you make baseless claims and assume they are correct. They aren’t. Since you are too fucking stupid to understand I’ll try and put it to you very simply.
The Legislature writes the laws. The Executive appoints people to oversee the implementation of the laws as it sees best. It is the Executive that makes policy, and shapes the economy within the framework constructed by the legislature.
Congress does not “seat” the Fed. The President appoints five of the twelve Directors to the Board.
The President gives a proposed budget to Congress that is prepared by every department and agency. They ask for the money to replace old equipment, estimate salaries, and for money for mandated programs. The budget is broken into several pieces and each dealt with separately, such as DOD is one budget, Justice another, Transportation etc. Some may be joined such as CIA and NSA and get buried within other budgets.
A claim is not an argument…its not a refutation at all…its just a claim, that the Constitution refutes…a civics course is irrelevant to this…it relates to the rights and duties of citizens…not Congress or the economy.
I’m not sure what point you are making, but whatever it is, I’m sure it’s wrong.
A claim is a fact that can be backed up. I know you don’t understand this as you can’t ever back up your claims. Facts can and do refute bad claims.
The Constitution has nothing to do with making a claim. It is a political statement and the highest law in the land. Actually, instead of refuting a claim, the Constitution has on many occasions, revoked laws that were unjust or wrong.
A civics course will teach you what the relevant responsibilities of the various branches of government are. Things such as Congress not making policy or being responsible for the Federal Reserve. Things you obvious don’t know about.
So your response is not critical thinking at all…its a knee jerk STATIST public Education indoctrinated response that automatically rejects anything from conservatives, and believes without question liberal false generalizations.
I reject any opinion not based upon sound facts or that are wrong for our society. That YOU are usually wrong and are a conservative is false. You are not a conservative, you are a fucking wing nut, as evidenced by your constant comments of hate saying Obama is a dope dealer and everyone who holds scientific study over fairy tales is a moonbat loon.
Your problem is you don’t know how to argue rationally. Your claim not withstanding. Your proofs are, as far as I can remember, nonexistent or based upon conjecture, speculation, and fiction. I’ve seen US$3 bills with more validity than you.