Christians decry fake Dante protest Related content
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Oli Welsh
EA is being attacked by Christian bloggers for staging a fake religious protest against Dante's Inferno during E3 week.
A viral marketing agency hired 20 people to picket the game outside the Los Angeles Convention Center, bearing signs reading "Hell is not a game" and "Trade in your PlayStation for a PrayStation". They even blamed a rare day of rain in LA on the godlessness of EA's game, based on Dante Aligheri's Divine Comedy.
Although the LA Times fell for it, Associated Press later exposed the stunt.
Now Christian, specifically Catholic, bloggers are taking exception to EA's marketing tactics, reports GamePolitics.
"It's been clear for a while now that the entertainment industry views Christians on the whole as priggish, thin-skinned fun-killers," said Maragret Cabaniss of InsideCatholic. "Has anybody at EA actually read the Inferno?"
Catholic Video Gamers was more direct: "Gamers of all varieties will buy this product if it's, well, actually a good game. So instead of engaging in a shamelessly anti-Christian stunt to promote your poor excuse of a product, maybe you ought to work on making this game, you know, something better than a blatant God of War rip-off and make it, ya know, something worthwhile?"
Touché. Dante's Inferno is out next year for PC, 360, PS3 and PSP.
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25 February, 2009 [3]
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ChthonicEcho
15/06/09 @ 08:26
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Sounds like a pretty poor marketing attempt. It's not witty, clever and doesn't get the point across (buy our game 'cause it's x and y and z!). Seems as if they wanted attention, but didn't know what to do with it.
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The Bodybuilder
15/06/09 @ 08:42
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Good work? Not only is it bad, but EA got owned.
stop making rip offs. |
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squarejawhero
15/06/09 @ 08:44
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EA did get pwned here.
Mainly because thus far the game is looking like a pile of badly-designed arse. |
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How can you say it's looking badly designed when we haven't seen any gameplay?
All we have it CGI trailers which amazingly good art direction. And the previews, from those who have seen it in motion, have been very positive. The last time EA ripped something off... we got Dead Space. Explain to me how this is a bad thing. |
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ChthonicEcho
15/06/09 @ 08:52
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How can you say it's looking badly designed when we haven't seen any gameplay?
That's not the sort of 'design' they had in mind, Shirley. I'm quite positive they meant the overall direction, or art design. And, admit it, aside from penis-mouths, the game does look fairly horrendous. Thrusting a magical cross forth to defeat generic enemies? Puh-lease. |
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makeamazing
15/06/09 @ 08:53
+3
I'm not religious, and it gets on my nerves when a group of religious people complain about something (street protests, burning of things etc etc)... but in this case as it was all fake and meant to trick us into shaking our heads in disgust at them, I think very poor show EA.
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I'd have thought it'd be more Christian to just ignore it and let God sort them out when they die. If he has any objection I'm sure they'll have the chance to do some re-enactments at the gate of HELL! Though to be honest, I'd think the Devil would be more interested in paedophiles and rapists than people who engaged in some marketing.
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The Bodybuilder
15/06/09 @ 09:07
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>"The last time EA ripped something off... we got Dead Space."
That wasn't the last time they ripped off. /glances over at EA active. |
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VandelayIndustries
15/06/09 @ 09:10
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menage "And seeing as the Dead Space team is doing this and they actually made a Resi better than Resi I doubt this will be actually bad. In fact, I think it's going to be quite good."
It's the same studio but a different team, according to gamesTM. |
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Amazed by the bitchiness on this game, if worth the slightest ill get it just for that lol. Plus ill have to agree with Gearskin on this one. Things are simple.. If you cant do it as good as someone that even copies you then the copycat is more worth than you if you think about it if they make it work on the first try.. Whats wrong with that?
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ChthonicEcho
15/06/09 @ 09:27
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I haven't seen any real good gameplay footage to say it will be horrendous.
Since when do you need gameplay footage to judge art design/direction? |
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peak_performance
15/06/09 @ 09:45
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These bloggers are also part of the marketing campaign, since absolutely no-one heard about the "Dante protests".
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notmyrealname
15/06/09 @ 09:52
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lol, I like it! this is almost as good as that huge alert that USA company did to scare the shit out of some town.
In 10 years they'll be sacrificing babies for the release of god of war 5. WORSHIP THE SOULLESS MUAHAHAHAAAA |
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At the risk of insulting a bunch of people who care more than they should: surely it's more of a Devil May Cry rip-off than a God of War rip-off? DMC did pre-date God of War by about 4 years didn't it or am I going crazy?
Other than general similarities in the enemies (various Greek gods + mythological creatures + angriest man in the world in GoW, various demons and other denizens of hell + world's ass-kickingest poet in Dante's Inferno, more demons + guy called Dante in DMC) the game-play style is the main similarity and that was DMC's invention. Or am I mad? Personally, I like the art style of the parts of the game we've seen, I'll be looking forward to seeing more. Now, if only we could somehow harness the power from Dante Alighieri turning in his grave... world energy crisis: solved. ;) |
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monkeylite
15/06/09 @ 10:44
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I dislike Christian groups (and Christianity in general), but EA really got pwned there. Serve them right really for being twats.
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+1
I like how they could have taken the piss out of almost anything and no one would have said a word.. But the minute you mention someones religion... watch out.
I've never understood why religion is held in such high regard. You can question and criticise almost anything that someone stands for and that's fine, as soon as you move onto their religion it's a different story. Really grinds my gears... |
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It's because they think their opinion (and religion is a form of opinion imo) is fact, Kinda hard to argue with facts or people who believe they are absolutely in the right. It's not even worth discussing with them, as they will never change they're stance about they're belief 99% of the time, which makes a discussion kinda pointless, seeing as in a discussion both parties should be willing too adjust they're view.
Kinda like fanboys:D
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 15/06/09 @ 15:07
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