EA’s Infernal Marketing

A while back, my friend Kelly from educational blog Unenlightened English linked me the very interesting story of EA‘s Dante’s Inferno game being protested against at E3 by a Christian group that actually turned out to be a guerrilla marketing team that EA brought in to hype the game. While there was much craziness that ensued over cleverly punned signs that said “Trade in your Playstation for a Playstation” and “Just say Infer-NO”, some actual ire from real Christian surfaced over EA’s stereotype of their faith.

There’s a certain bemusement I take in any time EA makes negative press, especially this particular time, as passionate anti-EA gamers often equate EA with Hell in some form or fashion. Although I still sting from EA’s takeover of Westwood, and their subsequent closure of two of my favorite Westwood projects (Command and Conquer: Renegade and Earth and Beyond), there honestly have been efforts by EA in order to clean up their image, whether it is from an admission from their CEO that they haven’t been up to snuff with their quality or their (mostly) non-interference policy with products like Mythic’s Warhammer Online or Bioware‘s upcoming SW: TOR.

I consider myself a practicing Roman Catholic, although I’m heavily influenced by the Jesuits, long since considered to be the liberals of the Catholic faith. In this respect, sure, it’s pretty bad that stereotypes happen to exist about religion, but people should understand that stereotypes also ring with it, at some small, miniscule level, an air of truth and fact. I won’t get into it any more, as religious debates have a potential to turn not-so-Overly-Positive, except to say that just like anyone, there’s an extreme wing of any religion that is going to end up making headlines and causing a stir. Before this was revealed to be a publicity stunt, there was certainly a debate over whether or not a protest like what happened for Dante’s Inferno was viable, or even worthwhile. Religion and games don’t cross too terribly often, so to see the discourse about it was definitely interesting.

Still, this is ultimately a plus in the EA Marketing book, as amoral as it sounds. It’s a good thing for EA because guerilla/viral marketing is designed to elicit in some way some kind of attention to the object of marketing, in a non-traditional way. There were tons of articles and many opinions posted about the protests and their eventual, fradulent reveal, and all of them mentioned the Dante’s Inferno game by name. Perhaps some, in their research to opine about it, clicked into the EA pages to read about Dante’s Inferno, too – something that might not have happened, were the staged protest had not been held. If Dante’s Inferno sells just a few more copies based upon the fact that this entire affair happened, then that’s considered mission accomplished for EA no matter how you slice it.

All that being said, though, you’d think EA Marketing couldn’t top themselves so soon after all the chaos from this stunt. Oh, how little did we know, that EA would next turn to booth babes and “acts of lust committed” to one-up themselves for Dante’s Inferno…but that, my dear, growing, tiny readership, is another positive post for another day.