Online game advertisements have just begun featuring nonsensical quotes and in-jokes from other game related material. How does this impact your purchase? Would you be more or less likely to buy a game if the advertisements were humorous? What if you don’t get the joke?
This week’s Zero Punctuation was hilarious. Just when I’d thought Yahtzee’s wonderful career as a witty game-bashing motormouth video host had lost its steam, his Painkiller review brought me back into the fold. That said, I never expected to read one of his punchlines in an advertisement for that very same game — and if when I said “Yahtzee” even a sizable fraction of readers thought of the Milton-Bradley game of dice, then this requires some further study.
As Kotaku points out, this quote highlights the biggest selling point of the title, and is furthermore guaranteed to put a smile on the face of Zero Punctuation fans who instantly link it with a lovable stick figure and plenty of mindless decapitation. But would that induce you to buy the title? And if you come across this ad randomly, with no knowledge of the quote’s contextual significance, would the lack of a standard brag quote throw you off?
If you haven’t seen it, here’s the Zero Punctuation review I’m referring to:
Perhaps even stranger is a series of banner ads for Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness Episode One. Here, advertisers use a negative quote from a known troll to sell the game.
Now, since we’re talking about a game based on a webcomic — regardless of this particular webcomic’s popularity — the audience for the game is decidedly niche, and it’s very possible that Penny Arcade fans will read this, and think it is hilarious (since they know better, or know of the troll). Others will note how nonsensical the language is, and smile. But is humor an adequate replacement for a value judgment by a game reviewer? Will it sell you the game any better than an honest commendation would? And what if you don’t get the joke?
Personally, I think a little more humor in advertising is a great idea. Humor is compelling, humor spreads virally, it’s humor that made Penny Arcade and Zero Punctuation alike the sensations they are today. Humor sticks in your noggin. So as long as the ads only circulate among those likely to get the joke or look it up, I think advertisers would do well to turn these isolated incidents into a trend.
Your opinion, please:
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