Any bets on whether the male version of that battleframe is fully sealed?
I also love the attempt at subliminal sexual innuendo word highlighting and phrase choice in the Firefall advert. Subtle.
And we’re still debating why Skyrim is a runaway success while the reputation of the MMO genre goes from bad to worse?
No respect for a huge section of your paying customer base, garners no respect in return.
Subtle, but obvious…. I always wonder who is NOT picking up on this stuff. I’m obviously not the demographic they are aiming for as to me it is obvious. I’d prefer an honest approach like:
Do you want to shag her? Do you? DO YOU? Then give us money now!
Shag tokens available from the latest raid dungeons or through the in-game store!
I’d have noticed the exposed navel, because I’m not blind. I wouldn’t have paid any attention to it, though. Decades of exposure to such images mean they just get filtered out before my conscious mind notices them.
The innuendo I wouldn’t have spotted at all. I had to re-read the add twice after I read your post before I got what you meant. That’s the thing about double-entendres – sometimes people only hear one of them. Growing up in the 1970s provided a pretty powerful inoculation against innuendo.
Having parsed it I’m not sure that any marketing department would want to get a potential male customer imagining a woman asking him if he was in yet. Have they really thought that through?
Well, if these really got ‘filtered out’ by their target audience, you might ask why they can’t just leave them out altogether…I’m not sure it’s a good sign that the ridiculous armor and misplaced nudity isn’t even being consciously noticed anymore.
I was vexed when I saw the Tier 11 armor for females back when I still played WoW and I’m vexed still when I see pictures such as these. the worst I’ve seen lately was TERA; and there bare midriffs are the least of your problems. a big reason why I shun Asian MMOs which excel at stuff like that.
I kind of doubt their target audience is guys in their mid-50s in long-term stable relationships. I probably would have noticed it more when I was 15, which is presumably why they are doing it.
In case anyone here hasn’t seen it yet:
http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6550847/female-armor-sucks
Mildly NSFW, but pretty hilariously on-topic.
@bhagpuss: Perhaps years of training in Carry On, Benny Hill and others have trained/warped my mind in the art of innuendo spotting. You noticed, for example, that ‘coming’ is subtly highlighted too?
I do not meddle in the affairs of marketing, for they are unsubtle and quick to remove the clothes from a female protagonist.
@Syl: Oh yes, we’ve had some TERA highlights on KiaSA in the past. The up-skirt panty shots have been most, uh, revealing…
@Brian ‘Psychochild’ Green: Indeed, most splendid! M’colleague and I might have tried to produce something similar ourselves in the past, had we any video editing skills between us, and if the thought of the trauma caused to the Internet by us appearing in chain-mail bikinis hadn’t dissuaded us.
So honestly, look at both pix above side by side for 30 seconds. If you had a device that measured how long your eyes rested on each, I’m betting it’s 60:40 for the midriff pic, regardless of the sex of the observer.
Subliminal isn’t about “buy me and you’ll get shagged.”
It’s just about subtly winning the “look at me longer and imagine what’s inside” war.
Books and movies have long proven that the right image can sell.