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Scarlet Blade: Most Absurd MMO Advertising Ever?

KurushKurush Member Posts: 1,303

Just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

Check out our "mature" game, they say, followed by an ad campaign clearly targeted at desperate fourteen year-old boys.

I get the whole sex sells thing.  Heck, even EQ's box art had its share of scantily-clad ladies.  But this really crosses a line into outright absurdity.  Plus, it's a reskin.  People looking at your comp can see it.  If you're using a laptop in a place with people you know, you look stupid with these juvenile cheesecake shots on your screen.

I literally feel stupid coming to this site while this reskin is up.  It feels like it's aimed at teenagers.

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Comments

  • Juz10y0Juz10y0 Member UncommonPosts: 12

    *Shrug* Doesn't bother me. People have asked me "lol wtf is that?" "Some MMO that has half naked girls in it." "Oh cool." 

     

    MMORPG.COM has to get their money some how, and if Scarlet Blade pays more than others at this hour - then keep them up!

  • KurushKurush Member Posts: 1,303

    I know they're going to keep them up.  We're not paying them anything, after all.  We're the product.  Advertisers are the customer.

    Just trying to get a feel for how widespread (if at all) my opinion on it is.

  • ScalplessScalpless Member UncommonPosts: 1,426
    It's ugly. I was relieved when a rather stylish TSW ad took the place of all those naked woman-like creatures, but then it changed back. Makes me want to turn Adblock back on.
  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713

    It's the internet, I don't get bothered by that anymore than stupid pop ups with "Click here to earn 100k a year from home!"

    And anyone who would judge you for an ad on your screen is either too stupid to tell its an ad, or never used the internet. Either way you shouldn't care.

    image
  • KurushKurush Member Posts: 1,303

    Whatever.  I just set my browser to block all images matching images.mmorpg.com/images/*sb*

    It disables the entire site skin and leaves a stupid blue/red background, but oh well.  I guess I'm just annoyed that I actually disabled my adblock for this site specifically to give them revenue since I use the site a lot, only to see this garbage.

  • Dreamo84Dreamo84 Member UncommonPosts: 3,713
    Originally posted by Kurush

    Whatever.  I just set my browser to block all images matching images.mmorpg.com/images/*sb*

    It disables the entire site skin and leaves a stupid blue/red background, but oh well.  I guess I'm just annoyed that I actually disabled my adblock for this site specifically to give them revenue since I use the site a lot, only to see this garbage.

    I never knew someone care about ads so much. But to each their own....

    image
  • zellmerzellmer Member UncommonPosts: 442
    Between the front page, user panel, navigating to this thread from the front page, and replying to this thread I've seen  4 different half nude advertisements for it..

    Was watching a Dota 2 stream and they jokingly talked about the winning teams sponsors during a post game interview with a player.  When he couldn't name any they went to his teams website and  burst out laughing when they saw an advertisement for Scarlet Blade.

    They proceeded to click on the links while dieing of laughter at how absurd and over the top the ads where before finishing up.  The chat exploded from thousands and thousands of viewers sharing the sentiments of "LOL, is this for real...?"


    It's just odd that they dumped so much money into it, and use such over the top ads which seems to inspire more laughter then genuine interest...
  • CleffyCleffy Member RarePosts: 6,412
    The marketing team at Aeria is pretty good.  I would say for a non-subsidary host Aeria has been doing a fantastic job.  They are a pretty good host.  I think Aeria knew what they had when they got the rights to publish Scarlet Blade.  They have a mature rated game with strictly female characters who happen to be scantily clad.  When you have a product that obvious there is no point in showing maturity or class.  You should just go right out and say it, we have a game that is selling purely on its character images.  The way they portrayed this was very creative and the management gave them the freedom to explore very interesting designs.  I clicked a few of the ads because they were quite humerous.
  • ScotScot Member LegendaryPosts: 22,824

    “It’s getting hot in here so take of all your gear.”

    “Prepare to get whipped…whose really in control?”

    These ads made me smile and that’s a good thing to start the day.

  • KazuhiroKazuhiro Member UncommonPosts: 606
    Just adblock the images ones by one, they no longer show up, problem solved.

    To find an intelligent person in a PUG is not that rare, but to find a PUG made up of "all" intelligent people is one of the rarest phenomenons in the known universe.

  • KurushKurush Member Posts: 1,303
    Originally posted by Cleffy
    The marketing team at Aeria is pretty good.  I would say for a non-subsidary host Aeria has been doing a fantastic job.  They are a pretty good host.  I think Aeria knew what they had when they got the rights to publish Scarlet Blade.  They have a mature rated game with strictly female characters who happen to be scantily clad.  When you have a product that obvious there is no point in showing maturity or class.  You should just go right out and say it, we have a game that is selling purely on its character images.  The way they portrayed this was very creative and the management gave them the freedom to explore very interesting designs.  I clicked a few of the ads because they were quite humerous.

    Very well.  Diversity of opinions is a good thing, I guess.  At least so far as discussions go.

    Caused me to lose a lot of respect for Aeria, but to each their own. :P  And yeah, I've played and enjoyed some of their games.

    I guess the only question I would ask in response is, "Do you think such a campaign is really conducive to their ultimate goal?"

    They're not trying to get people onto their site, though that's a necessary step.  They're not trying to get people to play the game, though that's a necessary step.  Their ultimate goal is always the cash shop.  So do you believe this style of advertising is a good way to attract the attention of people who will actually pay for items within the game?  I'm guessing they think it is.

    Maybe they're right in doing what they're doing.  They're only interested in acquiring rights to profitable titles and appropriately marketing them.  Though I guess there's also the question of whether certain titles bring sufficient baggage with them to degrade the performance of others.  They clearly don't think this is the case with Scarlet Blade.

  • GyrusGyrus Member UncommonPosts: 2,413

    I'm surprised that Funcom hasn't complained that they stole their slogan...

    What was it AoC said?  "adventure has never looked this hot?" or something like that?

    THAT was stupid - because AoC wasn't marketed at adults... sure they said they were... but at the end of the day they wanted (and needed) the teenage dollar.

    Scarlet Blade?  The warning I see says "Mature 17+" so I assume they decided they are aiming at adults?

    I guess there must be a market for it?

    Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.

  • NL-RikkertNL-Rikkert Member UncommonPosts: 134
    Originally posted by Kurush

    Just wondering if anyone else feels this way.

    Check out our "mature" game, they say, followed by an ad campaign clearly targeted at desperate fourteen year-old boys.

     

    Uhm bro the game was rated 17+ (if I'm not mistaken here)

    So uh yes it is 'mature' and yes nudity and violence are still mature things (IMO).

    but quite honestly do you know any games that are age restricted that aren't played by 9-16 year olds?

    Aren't games like CoD or BF or whatever game supposed to be 18+? Quite sure atleast 50% (if not more) of their players don't meet this age requirement.  So really what is you problem exactly?

    Rid the world of  "porn" and "incorrect" and stupid advertisements and we would lose billions a year, so let them have their fun eh?

     

    To be clear, yes I tried this game and no, I did not like it.

    I don't care, much rather spend my time on something that I do like and perhaps so should you?

    STOOPID
    When someone does something so utterly moronic that it kills your brain cells at the very thought of it.

  • cowheadcowhead Member UncommonPosts: 94
    I would say it's very effective advertising. After all, here we all sit discussing the game. Love the game or hate it they got people talking about it which is the point of advertising. 
  • deamordeamor Member Posts: 7
    Is there something that block the image for unregistered visitors or members under 17? Since I don't think those 14-year-old members' parents will be happy with the half-naked girls in the ads...
  • CaldrinCaldrin Member UncommonPosts: 4,505
    Originally posted by deamor
    Is there something that block the image for unregistered visitors or members under 17? Since I don't think those 14-year-old members' parents will be happy with the half-naked girls in the ads...

    Its ok you can strip off child like characters in that game as well.. so the 8-14 year olds can player with semi naked 8-14 type characters in game..

     

    the game should be banned..

  • TokenaruTokenaru Member Posts: 58
    Meh I think in general most Americans arent ready for that sort of thing, other countires are not as conservative as we are.  They do naked news casting in Japan I think its great :)  Ive been all over the world and I think America (my home country) is the most sheltered and conservative of everywhere ive been except Iraq.  I think just from watching commercials today and comparing them to 20 years ago you can see we are starting to come out of our shell, its a good thing imho.  I will admit the qoutes on those Ads for Scarlet Blade are friggin cheesy as hell though lol.  "Its getting hot in here, so take off all your armor." <----lmfao
  • Sk1ppeRSk1ppeR Member Posts: 511

    Whoever is against this game is obviously 

    a) Old fart.

    b) Virgin

     

    If you don't like it - ignore it. That's your choice. Don't bother us with your stupid limited eyesight please. kkthxbye 

    Nobody at public places cares what you watch on your laptop. And if they do don't worry they won't be judgemental because they know what happens on the internet.

    I forgot to mention that below all this nudity and all there actually is a game. The combat is nice, the environment is nice you have nice "mounts". The quest hub system is simplified to oblivion and that actually makes it fun and gives you a purpose. 

     

    If you are worried about teenagers playing this game, there is a thing called "parental control". If you are parent, control your children, don't bitch about it on forums otherwise you seem pretty much like an attention whore with 1k+ posts

  • bliss14bliss14 Member UncommonPosts: 595
    Originally posted by zellmer
    Between the front page, user panel, navigating to this thread from the front page, and replying to this thread I've seen  4 different half nude advertisements for it..

    Was watching a Dota 2 stream and they jokingly talked about the winning teams sponsors during a post game interview with a player.  When he couldn't name any they went to his teams website and  burst out laughing when they saw an advertisement for Scarlet Blade.

    They proceeded to click on the links while dieing of laughter at how absurd and over the top the ads where before finishing up.  The chat exploded from thousands and thousands of viewers sharing the sentiments of "LOL, is this for real...?"


    It's just odd that they dumped so much money into it, and use such over the top ads which seems to inspire more laughter then genuine interest...

    "...thousands and thousands of viewers sharing the sentiments..."  

    I bet out of those thousands and thousands of viewers some of them went to try it out.  Which is the whole point of advertising.

  • deamordeamor Member Posts: 7
    Originally posted by Sk1ppeR

    Whoever is against this game is obviously 

    a) Old fart.

    b) Virgin

     

    If you don't like it - ignore it. That's your choice. Don't bother us with your stupid limited eyesight please. kkthxbye 

    Nobody at public places cares what you watch on your laptop. And if they do don't worry they won't be judgemental because they know what happens on the internet.

    I forgot to mention that below all this nudity and all there actually is a game. The combat is nice, the environment is nice you have nice "mounts". The quest hub system is simplified to oblivion and that actually makes it fun and gives you a purpose. 

     

    If you are worried about teenagers playing this game, there is a thing called "parental control". If you are parent, control your children, don't bitch about it on forums otherwise you seem pretty much like an attention whore with 1k+ posts

    I don't have anything against it, I'm fine with it. I know there are worse games out there. However it's not the game we are talking about, it's the ads. the minors who are visiting this place often will have problems with it. They don't play the game, however, they will see such ads which are bad in general.

  • TalonsinTalonsin Member EpicPosts: 3,619

    Lets be honest, boobies sell.  Magazines and TV have been showing us side-boob for years.  Almost every game ad has a chick on it.  Remember the STO ad with a vulcan chick showing lots of cleavage?  This is just the natural course of advertising, as long as it continues to work, it will only get worse with each passing year.  My guess is my 4 year old will see full frontal nudity in ad's before he is 30.

     

    "Sean (Murray) saying MP will be in the game is not remotely close to evidence that at the point of purchase people thought there was MP in the game."  - SEANMCAD

  • Ramonski7Ramonski7 Member UncommonPosts: 2,662
    Originally posted by deamor
    Originally posted by Sk1ppeR

    Whoever is against this game is obviously 

    a) Old fart.

    b) Virgin

     

    If you don't like it - ignore it. That's your choice. Don't bother us with your stupid limited eyesight please. kkthxbye 

    Nobody at public places cares what you watch on your laptop. And if they do don't worry they won't be judgemental because they know what happens on the internet.

    I forgot to mention that below all this nudity and all there actually is a game. The combat is nice, the environment is nice you have nice "mounts". The quest hub system is simplified to oblivion and that actually makes it fun and gives you a purpose. 

     

    If you are worried about teenagers playing this game, there is a thing called "parental control". If you are parent, control your children, don't bitch about it on forums otherwise you seem pretty much like an attention whore with 1k+ posts

    I don't have anything against it, I'm fine with it. I know there are worse games out there. However it's not the game we are talking about, it's the ads. the minors who are visiting this place often will have problems with it. They don't play the game, however, they will see such ads which are bad in general.

    You see more skin at an actual beach than you do on these ads...and the beach has real women. Go figure. But then again you'd probably have a problem with kids going to a beach or parents exposing them to a movie with a beach scene anyway right?

    image
    "Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."

  • deamordeamor Member Posts: 7
    Originally posted by Talonsin

    Lets be honest, boobies sell.  Magazines and TV have been showing us side-boob for years.  Almost every game ad has a chick on it.  Remember the STO ad with a vulcan chick showing lots of cleavage?  This is just the natural course of advertising, as long as it continues to work, it will only get worse with each passing year.  My guess is my 4 year old will see full frontal nudity in ad's before he is 30.

     

    well idk... young boys tend to go on the internet to search for porns. And in such sites full-nude ads is pretty common.

    @to the comment above, the beach does show more skins, however it isn't as suggestive or seductive as the ads. "It's hot in here, let's remove the armor". Really?
  • Ramonski7Ramonski7 Member UncommonPosts: 2,662
    Originally posted by deamor
    Originally posted by Talonsin

    Lets be honest, boobies sell.  Magazines and TV have been showing us side-boob for years.  Almost every game ad has a chick on it.  Remember the STO ad with a vulcan chick showing lots of cleavage?  This is just the natural course of advertising, as long as it continues to work, it will only get worse with each passing year.  My guess is my 4 year old will see full frontal nudity in ad's before he is 30.

     

    well idk... young boys tend to go on the internet to search for porns. And in such sites full-nude ads is pretty common.

    @to the comment above, the beach does show more skins, however it isn't as suggestive or seductive as the ads. "It's hot in here, let's remove the armor". Really?

    Ads that catch minors in the crossfire happen all the time. From alcohol to movie trailers to YouTube and Facebook. It will happen. The key to keeping things like ads from having the desired effect on kids called are laws and especially parents. They are suppose to be the first responders to keep Marty Minor from going any further.

    image
    "Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."

  • KurushKurush Member Posts: 1,303

    Let me clarify something.  I'm not a prude.  I'm not a virgin.  Porn exists in the world.  I'm fine with that.  Sexy advertising exists in the world.  I'm fine with that.  I've said as much.

    But there are lines past which something stops being sexy and becomes juveline and awkward.

    And this game crosses that line, runs a few hundred yards father just to be sure, then does a merry jig.  That's my issue.  The subject of the thread says Absurd, and I think it is absurd.  I don't think these ads are in any way sexy, just childish.

    That's my opinion.  I'm not here to make some grandiose moral statement.

This discussion has been closed.