Misogyny Marketing: EA Pimps Booth Babes for Dante’s Inferno Game

First a little background.  EA is putting out a game called Dante’s Inferno and by all accounts, it’s looking like it’s going to be a really good game with elements of God of War, quick time events and the story-line is from one of the best classical literature works of art of all time.

The game looks amazing and at the E3-09 press event, they previewed actual gameplay that sold me on the game.  Even the marketing for the game at E3 caused a bit of controversy.  EA hired a viral marketing group to round up fake religious protestors of the game who called EA “Electronic Antichrist” & “Ditch your Playstation for a Praystation”.

Ok, fine. You created the controversy and buzz you wanted.  You got real religious groups and Christian gamers upset because you used their religion to market your game.  My personal opinion on this type of aggressive viral marketing is that it supports the goal of getting the word out, it gets people talking about it.  I have no real issue with this staged event, I wouldn’t do it because at the core it separates your audience into factions, it supports stereotypes and reduces people to characatures.

Meghan Rodberg (Community Manager for Turbine Games) tweeted:

RT @cuppy: Seriously game industry? Way to go misogyny. http://bit.ly/10DQS7 <- 15 years in the game industry and it’s still the same!

Now, at Comic-Con International 09, you are encouraging people to “Commit Acts of Lust” with the Booth Babes you hired, prove by posting a pic to Facebook, Twittering it or emailing it to EA.  Then…. do it again, the more times you commit acts of lust on these women, the more chances you have to win.

One winner will get:

• Dinner and a SINful night with TWO hot girls
• Limo service
• Paparazzi
• A chest full of Booty
• Dante’s Inferno game
• A gift card to EA
• Shirts and more swag.

Ben Kuchera at ArsTechnica said:

I hope they gave their models a can of mace or, better yet, an actual mace. Or maybe just a few sharpened sticks. Going into that throng, in a thong, with prizes being awarded for lustful actions being enacted upon you? Dear Lord.

This may fit in with the theme of the game, but those poor, poor women. *shudder*

He’s got the right sentiment, but the wrong conclusion.  This does not fit in the game.  The game is about Dante trying to rescue his beloved from Hell, the entire motivation of the game is because of the selfless love of a woman.  Dante descends through the levels of hell, which are themed after sins… including lust.  By marketing this game where you are the lustful, the hateful, the proud… puts you in the position of being the enemy of Dante’s righteous quest.

Those details aside, this is absolutely wrong image for EA to be presenting to the public.  This is nothing more than a cheap stunt to promote their game, this is exploitive and divisive and it could potentially put the female employees at Comic Con at a very real risk.  This kind of marketing gives not just EA a bad name, but all gamers a bad name.

We have very real threats to our First Ammendment rights, there are some very vocal people who want to legislate the content in our games.  We have people who believe that video games only cause harm.  These are some very real situations and threats that we face.

At IndustryGamers.com, Hal Halpin, the president of the ECA wrote a brilliant article about perception being everything.  He wrote:

And oftentimes, the folks that propagate those defamatory impressions don’t realize that they’re doing as much harm as they do. That doesn’t mean however, that those on the receiving end are off the hook or doomed to martyrdom. They have a voice. And they can choose to take a stand. By doing nothing they have also made a choice; they have chosen to permit it, and as such are at least as guilty as the offenders.

This marketing event shows that EA, on one hand, gives us games that we want to play… yet on the other hand, they are propagating lies, myths and falsehoods about gamers.  They are putting us, their customers, in a position to become evidence in our detractors’ hands.  When groups who want to legislate our games get these pictures in their hands, does EA really think that they wont use them as red meat to the people who believe that gamers are anti-social, sex-starved, perverted potential criminals?  Does EA really think that this is a good idea, other than the fact that they’re blindly trying to push their game?

Hal Halpin continues:

We’ve allowed people to equate gaming with everything from laziness to isolationism and antisocial behavior, when so clearly it’s the opposite. Because we’ve permitted everyone from anti-games advocates (disbarred attorneys included) to the President of the United States of America to perpetuate those fallacies and said and done nothing, we need to take ownership of at least part of that blame; until and unless we speak up and do something about it. It’s time.

This is one of those times where we need to stand up and call out EA’s destructive campaign.  At the core, EA is pushing this campaign to sell more games… but the long term effects of campaigns like this might fill EA’s coffers, but it’s at the expense of every good, responsible gamer out there.   I’m calling bullshit on this campaign.  It’s short sighted, misogynistic, antithetical to the core aspects of Dante’s Inferno and an insult to every gamer with a brain.

Misogyny Marketing: EA Pimps Booth Babes for Dante’s Inferno Game