PAXstroturfing

I was at the Penny-Arcade Expo this weekend in Seattle. This is the first of at least a couple posts on my thoughts of the whole experience.

Part of what makes PAX great is that it’s real. Just about all the panel presenters, game developers, musicians, etc, are accessible to anybody at the show willing to take the time to wait in line. And promoting upcoming games is a huge part of the show. Part of my reason for going is that marketing, and the opportunity to try out the newest titles before anyone else. However, some of said marketing isn’t just bad, it’s insulting. Consider the following exchange:

“Hey guys, do we have any Star Wars fans in the line?” *grunt*
“I said, do we have any Star Wars fans in the line?” *roar-ish*
“Have you guys heard about the new game ‘Star Wars: The Old Republic?’” *cheers*
“Have you guys seen the trailer?” *cheers*
“Well, have you seen it on a 10-foot screen that’s 8 feet above my head?” *cheers the first time, groans each subsequent time”
“All right, guys, check out the new trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic!”

I’m paraphrasing it slightly, and the first time this played out, it got a great reaction (as well it should have – independent of how the game looks, the trailer is amazing). However, 5 minutes before each event let in (several times a day through the three-day expo), this exact same exchange played out in the queue room – word for word. As a gamer, I recognized that I was getting played, that someone was probably filming this, and that footage would be used by some guy in an office to derive sales projections. Again, this isn’t a criticism of Bioware for sponsoring the show and promoting their wares, but for having someone do a spiel introducing it that was scripted to sound spontaneous. In the political and marketing fields, it’s referred to as astroturfing when something with the appearance of coming together spontaneously turns out to be completely fabricated and planned to look that way. Obviously this isn’t quite the same thing, and spiels that don’t sound like spiels can be extremely effective, but when we can see through the facade we don’t like what we see. Whoever handles the marketing on that title screwed up, plain and simple.

I think there’s a lot of false assumptions made when it comes to marketing for a geek audience, and it results in a lot of the ads aimed at us falling to the lowest common denominator: sex and swordplay sells. But what these ad guys fail to realize (at their peril) is that there is a subset of gamers and geeks who can tell when we’re being marketed to, and we don’t like it when marketers think they’re smarter than we are, because they probably aren’t. I only speak for myself here, but it’s insulting when a company thinks it can script something like that and not have me see through it. And here’s the thing – those of us who are smart enough to pick up on that stuff? I’m the early adopter. I’m the one who wants to be the first to know and share details of the things I find cool with all my friends and contacts. I’m the one who will sell your product for you if have a great product and don’t talk down to me.

Because when you talk down to me… I write posts like this instead.