PS3: It only gets ripped off

[Gollgagh]

it predates spelling too

[DarkeSword]

Seriously. A note to the internet: if you're trying to make a clever graphic, make sure you spell everything right, otherwise you just look like a dumbass.

[EC2151]

You probably all know my favorite videogame commercial, and I wouldn't mind seeing it "stolen":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om84Zc4-KcQ

You may want to turn down the volume becaue of the amount of awesome.

Commercials were better in the 80s and 90s.

Much like the reason that most games were better, I think it stems from the fact that the games and commercials were less about trying to be serious and more about trying to deliver an entertaining package.

(however, I will say that the last game commercial I really really liked was Majora's Mask's commercial)

But yeah, on topic, stealing a commercial as generic as this is like making a new brand of vanilla ice cream. It doesn't really matter.

[Brandon Strader]

There's lots of ground bone in the cheaper burger joint meats. This is what my friend tells me, anyway. He and his wife work in meat.

Literally?

[Velocifero]

There's lots of ground bone in the cheaper burger joint meats. This is what my friend tells me, anyway. He and his wife work in meat.

Hence the different grades of meat I guess. It's one of those things I think were ignorance is bliss. I could look up what all the grades are and who uses what but I might ruin my favorite foods. I do love Taco Bell.

PS3 also does rip offs itself!

(this image predates playstation move by like 2-3 years too lmao)

Well to be fair too, the new black wii and accessories looks a lot like the Playstation color scheme.

[liquid wind]

Well to be fair too, the new black wii and accessories looks a lot like the Playstation color scheme.

don't see it so much, I think if you wanted to attack the wii for anything stylistically it would be emulating apple

[Schwaltzvald]

Literally?

Not necessarily as more often than not, the "bone" like pieces we'd sometimes find in some burgers from the fast food restaurants are actually bits of harden gristle or cartilage in the meat. Generally you'd rarely have that issue if you made your own burgers but that's what happens with an industrialized fast food chain. Sometimes little things like that escape quality control.

Like those rock hard hash browns that when squeezed slightly they squirt a good deal of old oil.

[Native Jovian]

Commercials were better in the 80s and 90s.

Much like the reason that most games were better, I think it stems from the fact that the games and commercials were less about trying to be serious and more about trying to deliver an entertaining package.

(however, I will say that the last game commercial I really really liked was Majora's Mask's commercial)

Because nostalgia and the tendency to forget the unmemorable portion (ie 99% of) such things has nothing to do with it.

[EC2151]

Because nostalgia and the tendency to forget the unmemorable portion (ie 99% of) such things has nothing to do with it.

No, it plays a part too, but considering I didn't really 'grow up' in the 80s, I went back and looked at things and then I just compared it to now. So nostalgia is not a big part. As for unmemorable stuff, that is true, but what was memorable then and what is memorable now?

Like I said, the last commercial for a game that really left an impression on me was the Majora's Mask commercial; I'll get into that in a bit. Outside of, say, the Windwaker commercial, I'd be hard-pressed to describe any commercials nowadays for games, and that's not through lack of effort.

There is something that I've really noticed as far as game commercials and how they've changed over the years; whether that change is good or bad is up to you.

Though there plenty of exceptions, when I watch a lot of game commercials from the 90s and 80s, the commercial seems to be really focused on giving you the 'idea' of the game. That either means the ridiculously awesome race in POLLLLLE POSITIONNNNN, or some frantic weirdo running around in a dungeon for the Zelda commercial. It was about enticing you, I think, with an atmosphere of what the game was LIKE, supplemented by footage of the game itself.

I think this is due to the fact that you really couldn't WOW anyone with graphics like you can today; you could not play the eye candy card. This forced the commercials to be a little more creative in presenting their subject matter.

However, as the 3D era came on more and more, the shift really seems to be less about setting up the environment of the game, and showing off the 'idea' of the game, and more about showing the player's reaction to said game. This is where "eye candy" comes in. Now all a commercial need do is show footage of said game, and then slap the title on and say "in stores now."

Heck, nearly every single FPS game commercial is pretty much exactly like that.

Commercials in the 80s and 90s were about the 'game', whereas commercials in this decade really seem to be about either the 'graphics' or 'the player'.

I use quote-marks to keep these terms distinct from just common usages of the word.

Another trend of 2000s commercials that I noticed (and this is the point about 'the player') is that commercials devoted more footage to game footage as well as the player playing the game (plenty of commercials today have a guy playing a game as the commercial... there was PS3 one like that, but I can't remember which game). I find this less prominent in older commercials, which is pretty odd. However, I think I know why: because in truth it's pretty damn boring watching someone play a game (unless you're like me and you like watching people play Harvest Moon or King's Quest. Yeah I know that's weird). However, I think since commercials today still want to sell the 'experience' of the game, they throw something like that in there to say "look at him! Look at all the emotions HE'S having! That's the game, right there! Buy it, buy it!!!!"

The smarter people have realized that that's pretty fucking dumb, so commercials really devolve into eye candy spectacles (like the Halo 3 commercial) that really isn't about the game; it's more I think about how the game looks.

Now this is my opinion from looking at things, but I think that's the main root of it: it's about how the game looks is the focus now, whereas (as I've said) older commercials were about how the game is experientially. Feel free to disagree; I've been wrong before.

When I watch a commercial, it has to really sell me the product, both from what a game IS and what a game LOOKS like.

That brings me to why the Majora's Mask commercial is the last commercial to really make an impression on me. I feel it was the perfect synthesis of the two aesthetics; it really made me 'want' the game. For one, its scope was something I had never really seen in a commercial up to that point, it was staged wonderfully, and it interlaced the ATMOSPHERE of the game (one of apocalyptic doom and despair) with footage of the player PLAYING the game (so we see his own reactions, staged as they may be, as well as the game itself). It showed what the game WAS (an adventure that was a race against the clock to save a dying world) and what it LOOKED like. The large part of what makes the commercial stand out to me was the former reason, and not the latter, as you can guess.

Now, in my previous post, I said "commercials from the 80s and 90s were better", and that is because it's my personal belief that those commercials got the point across, even with their limited capabilities, much better than the commercials I see nowadays.

And of course, with the advent of the internet, game commercials are becoming a thing of the past in many senses of the phrase; this almost renders the argument a moot point.

PS. if you'd like to counter with the example of that rapping Zelda commercial, I'd say you got me. I have NO clue what they were trying to get across with that one. Not that I care; it's a helluva lotta fun to watch.

[Coyote-Trickster]

http://blog.us.playstation.com/2010/07/22/kevin-butler-and-new-zealand/

[Gollgagh]

best possible outcome

[EC2151]

As much as I don't like the PS3 marketing campaign and by extension Butler, I admit that that IS the way respond.

Good show.

[Thin Crust]

As much as I don't like the PS3 marketing campaign and by extension Butler, I admit that that IS the way respond.

Good show.

You're saying this isn't a good commercial?

[lazygecko]

I think this is due to the fact that you really couldn't WOW anyone with graphics like you can today; you could not play the eye candy card.

Lulz

http://i.imgur.com/9ws5y.jpg

And there are still plenty of video ads for games that are all pre-rendered and don't show any ingame footage at all.

[ambinate]

holy shit, that intellivision guy is from good will hunting

[EC2151]

@Gecko:

That last one is kinda the point I was trying to make. It's not all that great, imo, and you see that type of commercial a whole lot more today than 'back in the day'. That commercial is about how the game 'looks' instead of what the game 'is'.

Nice find on that Intellivision commercial, though. I love the early console wars.

[Native Jovian]

So, wait, you claim that old stuff is superior because they couldn't claim to "wow" you with superior realistic graphics. Gecko posts some examples of old stuff attempting to "wow" people with superior realistic graphics. You reply by saying "yep, exactly, I love old stuff".

There's nothing wrong with preferring old stuff to new stuff, but you're not doing a very good job of convincing anyone that there's a rational reason behind it.