The Art of the Shocker? Reponsibilities, Violence, Games, Trailers, and Marketing *TLOU2 Spawn*

[Scott_Arm]

It's up to each viewer to interpret.

I see strong religious themes, in the context of anthropology instead of spirituality. We see the beginning of organized group structures which started after the last of us is gone. (tee hee)

It's using an overload of religious references and metaphors. (including "clip her wings" which is about competitive survival against rival groups, punishment, control, power, order, and justified with religious and racist meaning). How the group structure and power influence the repression of innate empathy.

All of this will have counter-themes and struggles in the main characters. Which is also in the trailer.

I definitely noticed some of the religious language. Some other group is referred to as demons, but I can't remember who or which character said it. The woman with the knife who is threatening to disembowel the other woman that's being hung also says something about sin with reference to her stomach, but I can't remember what.

You see competing factions of people, but there's no real hints at their motives, or what's led to the violence. The people being hung and disemboweled seem to be viewed as traitors to their group. There seems to be some kind of religious fanaticism, maybe blaming the sins of humanity for the monsters in the world. All in all, it seems like typical stuff for this type of story, especially the current trends in zombie/infected stories. It's kind of the typical story arch in most of this stuff - especially the walking dead which just keeps repeating variations of the same story arch over and over.

You've obviously taken a lot more out of the trailer than I have, maybe because I didn't play the original game. But I still don't see the purpose of having this content in a marketing trailer, without any context at all. I feel more like they were trying to market how brutal the game is going to be, as a selling point.

 

[BRiT]

Feel free to suggest a better thread title.

 

[iroboto]

Feel free to suggest a better thread title.

It's kind of weird because I feel this TLOU situation is probably more an issue as being released the way it was for grand stage at PGW.

Imagine this trailer at the grand stage E3?

That's all. I think it could have been handled better. Content doesn't even have to change.

 

[MrFox]

I have seen a lot of trailers at film festivals that are much much more violent than any game trailer. I think it's fine as long as the festival, or game conference, or youtube video, are correctly flagging and/or expecting a mature audience. PGW definitely was, and the trailers have the ESRB warning.

The less acceptable situation in gaming seems to be when violence is used as entertainment instead of artistic freedom and storytelling. I have no problem with that personally, but I understand the sentiment around them.

Despite being among the most violent trailers, Naughty Dog and David Cage games are definitely not in that category. Of course the trailers are shocking to those who didn't play tlou or heavy rain... But the trailers still represent the games, and if you are too sensitive for even the trailers at least it allows you to skip those games. I doubt anyone would suggest marketing the game as milder than what it actually is.

 

[MrFox]

It's kind of weird because I feel this TLOU situation is probably more an issue as being released the way it was for grand stage at PGW.

Imagine this trailer at the grand stage E3?

That's all. I think it could have been handled better. Content doesn't even have to change.

I would guess it was targeting a EU audience. This wouldn't have worked well at E3, and they probably waited for PGW to unveil those trailers.

 

[iroboto]

I would guess it was targeting a EU audience. This wouldn't have worked well at E3, and they probably waited for PGW to unveil those trailers.

Yea could be true yea.

EU is quite different would be curious to know what the rating systems are like there.

 

[Globalisateur]

I would guess it was targeting a EU audience. This wouldn't have worked well at E3, and they probably waited for PGW to unveil those trailers.

Whatever the reason. But that trailer was a mistake.

I loved TLOU1
I liked trailer 1 of TLOU2 which was basically perfect after TLOU1.
I disliked trailer 2. Total misfire by Druckmann IMO. That reminds me the odd obsessions of Kojima (wannabe moviemaker like Druckmann).

For instance his Quiet character which was purposelessly objectifying woman body -> Soft porn.
Here Druckmann is showing torture and pain...just because he can, no context, shock value, etc. -> Torture porn.

@BRiT typo in the thread title: marketing

 

[MrFox]

@BRiT typo in the thread title: marketing

No leave it! It's beautiful ART!

 

[MrFox]

Whatever the reason. But that trailer was a mistake.

I loved TLOU1
I liked trailer 1 of TLOU2 which was basically perfect after TLOU1.
I disliked trailer 2. Total misfire by Druckmann IMO. That reminds me the odd obsessions of Kojima (wannabe moviemaker like Druckmann).

For instance his Quiet character which was purposelessly objectifying woman body -> Soft porn.
Here Druckmann is showing torture and pain...just because he can, no context, shock value, etc. -> Torture porn.

Tell me what you see...

 

[JPT]

I would guess it was targeting a EU audience. This wouldn't have worked well at E3, and they probably waited for PGW to unveil those trailers.

EU audience might be more liberal on average than a US one. But usually not when it comes to violence, we usually think the "US system" of rating a naked body or sex as worse than violence is very weird. So not sure the violence is the draw for EU in this case.

 

[HMBR]

I think realistically they know that lots of kids/teenagers will be watching those trailers and events, so they should be more careful at least, while watching that trailer during the event I was not too shocked, I mean I tried to look away from the screen for a few moment, that's probably not a good sign, but overall I think I'm so used to violence because of TV/Games that I didn't think much about it afterwards, I think my main thought was that I was expecting a better trailer for such a huge title,

 

[Xbat]

The Last of Us is a game set in a bleak and violent world. So to expect anything different from it's sequel is crazy. It's not violence for the sake of violence it's part of the world and the story. So because it doesn't suit your views you want it to be censored ? If it's not for you it's not for you but why try and influence it.

 

[Nesh]

For instance his Quiet character which was purposelessly objectifying woman body -> Soft porn.

Actually thats not what he was doing. What he did was to make the player observe how HE objectifies Quiet. He was challenging it. Quiet was deliberately provoking and challenging the objectification until the end. This is why Kojima escalated her story in such a way, where there was this specific attempt by soldiers (who mimicked the hidden desires of players who objectified her) who she punished with the most vicious way, with stabs designated specifically to a certain region.
In other words he metaphorically placed the player on a wall and made him stare to himself and potentially feel guilty. He provoked the objectification and then punished it. After that he placed the player in Snake's shoes who cooperated with no lust (an ideal image) which was a contrast to what the soldiers represented, and ended it with her last act of

Spoiler

loving sacrifice

.
For me that was a genius. Her "nakedness" wasn't about using sex to sell the game. It was a theme to make the player observe himself and the subject of objectification.

 

[Globalisateur]

Tell me what you see...

"Clouds"

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Tell me what you see...

A map of Europe rotated off its conventional axis and mirrored.

 

[Sigfried1977]

I think this medium's never gonna "grow-up" as long as the usual moral busybodies continue to throw fits everytime someone veers into the realm of discomfort. Doesn't matter whether it's sex or violence. Doesn't even matter whether it's just titillating and gratuitous as far as I'm concerned. Cheap Skinemax flicks didn't doom TV, and The Human Centipede didn't keep Moonlight from being made. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask questions either, but that "interview" Eurogamer conducted was about as interested in healthy discussion and truth-seeking as the Spanish inquisition used to be. I'd like to see that kind of ire when it comes to pointing out some of the unquestionably shitty business practices in the games industry. I guess you shouldn't bite the hand that feeds to severly, ey?
Still a shit trailer because I already knew ND could direct movies. I'm still not convinced about their game making abilities, though.

That's why the Detroit showing worked much better for me. Love himn or hate him, at least Cage combines game mechanics and movies. ND tends to keep the two separated with electric fences.

 

[milk]

Sidenote: the violence in TLoU2 was still pretty hollywoody. 2 perfect one-hit-kill hammer stabs in a row from a girl whose arm had just been broken? Reality is much messier and uglier.

 

[AlNom]

A map of Europe rotated off its conventional axis and mirrored.

booooooo

 

[Scott_Arm]

The Last of Us is a game set in a bleak and violent world. So to expect anything different from it's sequel is crazy. It's not violence for the sake of violence it's part of the world and the story. So because it doesn't suit your views you want it to be censored ? If it's not for you it's not for you but why try and influence it.

Who has said anything about wanting the game to be censored?

 

[Scott_Arm]

I have zero problem with violence and adult content in any form of media. There just has to be a meaningful reason for me to want to put my time into ugly realistic violence. People can watch/play if they like it. I have no desire to censor anyone or pull games of shelves. Purely about what I like and do not like, at my age. Violence becomes more uncomfortable for me as I get older, because I feel like I have a harder time compartmentalizing fantasy from reality. When it starts to feel too real, it just becomes depressing. I'm not going to subject myself to anything depressing unless I feel like there's something really valuable in the movie/game as a whole.

This particular trailer just seemed like run of the mill Walking Dead content. I watched 5 seasons of that show and bailed, because it recycled the same plot points over and over, and slowly became more bleak and gruesome while pretending to me more enlightening than it really was. This trailer gave me the same vibe. It just plays as a typical scene out of any zombie movie. Zombie and apocalypse movies have played with themes about the nature of humanity and society forever. Movies like Night of the Living Dead, A Boy and his Dog and countless others from the 60s and 70s all tread across that territory, not to mention the newer movies which all take the "the living are the real monsters" approach. Everything in the trailer was typical generic stuff, focusing mostly on the violence at hand in a short reveal with no context. Makes it seem like they're trying to be edgy, advertising the violence over anything else.

That's how it came across to me. I have no problems with other people playing the game. Makes no difference to me.

On the same note, I'll probably be avoiding Wolfenstein 2. It's different in that the violence can be over the top and cartoony, but it still doesn't sit right with me. Yah, I get that it's nazis, but I'm not really into eviscerating or dismembering people in games anymore, nazis or not.