Not Representative of Gameplay

 

“Whoa, is this the new Disney movie?” asked my housemate looking up from his iphone to stare at the TV.

“Oh. No, it isn’t.” He replied answering his own question and returning to Ragdoll Blaster.

I smiled wistfully as I too had fallen into the same trap only one day earlier.

Yesterday, in fact.

I am, of course, talking about the Final Fantasy XIII-2 TV ad.

Now anyone could be forgiven for this mistake, in the last few years John Lassiter has done an excellent job of bringing Disney’s CG department up to a level almost on a par with Pixar.

And that music.

Combined with a cursory glance this case of mistaken identity stems from, I think, advertising agencies reluctance to get to grips with the source material.

Now I’ve heard all the arguments for the difficulty of advertising an interactive pursuit through a passive medium, even more so the grumbles of Nintendo trying to showcase 3DS on 2D TV’s. But it’s this sort of dichotomy faced by advertisers trying to demonstrate the advantages of DVD via the technical limitations of VHS, and that can’t have gone too badly because now we have Blu-Ray ads on DVD’s.

 

Instead it’s this that I take away from every ad: NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY. This, for me, is the crux; gameplay is what it’s all about if I don’t enjoy playing I won’t Continue.

It’s not that Square-Enix don’t make good CG, they have always worked to an incredibly high standard. Their art direction, design and cinematography have always been exceptional; it’s simply technical quality that’s improved in step with advancing computing power. Most of XIII-2’s ad could just as easily be from 15 years ago.

With graphics today going far beyond my wildest boyhood fantasies thanks to the work of hundreds  of coders, designers and artists putting in tens of thousands of collective hours to make a piece of interactive art, why only show a small slice of what the animation team has to offer.

Not that footage of people playing games is necessarily better; Nintendo’s current adverts, while working for their family targeted demographic, have all the style of Microsoft’s ads when compared to Apple’s.

A conveyed sense of what it’s like to play is what’s needed. Driving a car is an active experience but a car ad describes what becomes available when driving; freedom, mobility, status.

Sony has always had strong ad campaigns and their recent Move offerings are a step in this direction; demonstrating the core principals behind these games: social play, mobility, adventure all demonstrated with visual flair and style.

 

There is one example, however, which in my opinion is the pinnacle so far. OK so it was gratuitous and totally unnecessary and flaunted a budget that would have some indie films green with envy.

This time I’m talking about Modern Warfare 3.

 

Unnecessary in the sense that the franchise is at the forefront of gaming consciousness, and like Cocaine pretty much sells itself, but vital for setting a new benchmark.

Of course the disclaimer NOT REPRESENTATIVE OF GAMEPLAY is equally applicable here; even on the highest spec PC the graphics will never approach the photo realism on offer here. However, everything we see Sam Worthington or Jonah Hill do we can do ingame and is not relegated to a cut scene or QTE. There is no confusion as to what you’ll be doing while playing this game.

It references our culture and demonstrates player development from one ad to the next; we get a real sense of what playing this game is like.

It’s confident and brash, not just an ad for one game but an ad for the rise of an entire industry pushing itself to the forefront of mainstream focus.

We are here.

To play.