We see it all the time. A game is released, or appears somewhere on the internet, that pushes the limits of good taste, and suddenly everyone from Fox News to CNN is up in arms about how is corrupting our youth. Critics tell us all how awful it is, some gamers defend the game, some agree, some couldn’t care less, parents panic, lawsuits are launched, etc., etc., etc.
What’s ironic here is that the public outcry just makes the game that much more popular. People who have never even heard of the game, or who have heard of it but just weren’t all that interested in trying it out, now flock to it, raising traffic and/or sales figures (just look at what the Hot Coffee scandal did for sales of GTA San Andreas…).
Today’s video game controversy is brought to us by Newgrounds and Kongregate, and is called “The Torture Game 2″. It’s a free flash game (well, really more of a ragdoll physics engine). It started with a parental alert from the Parents Television Council, then MSNBC picked up the story, and then it popped up on FOX News.
Don’t get me wrong… the game is one of those tasteless little creations that are kind of fun for a while because they’re so very wrong, and then people get sick of it. And a lot of the people commenting on the game even acknowledge this. Most of these titles enjoy a brief stint as a novelty and then fade away into the archives.
It’s when mainstream news gets ahold of the story that they become something more. Is there really anyone out there who can say that they never once wanted to do something even more after their parents told them no? Had it not been for the overzealous critics and the warnings about how “dangerous” it is, the game would have made the rounds online and then quietly the attention would die off.
But thanks to outlets like MSNBC and FOX News, even more traffic is being driven to the game, gaming blogs like Game Politics are posting about the mainstream attention on the game, and traffic to game itself is up.
It’s a perfect example of the old axiom “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”.
Nikki Blight: is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.
Comments
RH (RH) says:
(Posted July 3rd, 2008 at 3:10 pm)
Sometimes being awful sells. There’s no such thing as bad publicity … every publicity is good 
nikki (nikki) says:
(Posted July 4th, 2008 at 9:46 am)
@Steve: I rather enjoyed the dismemberment. 
@RH: It kind of turns the biggest anti-video game critics out there into video games’ best advertisers, doesn’t it?
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the217
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Nikki Blight
is still trying to find that damn princess... when she's not writing fresh code for the217.com.
Steve (Steve) says:
(Posted July 3rd, 2008 at 11:01 am)
The painting part was the most fun.