Developer Perspectives: MMO Booby Prize

That isn’t actually the nakedest image you get when you search for “Guild Wars box art.” This one also comes up, and steals the whole “is that a nipple?” question from DAOC:

But if you want to really sell the whole Guild Wars package to date (the “Trilogy” box set), and really sum up what this award winning game is all about, then you go for the warlike images… of three women. Nothing says combat instancing like cleavage, nipples, and leather:

In case you don’t get the message from the “armor” or the come-hither expression or the slightly moist pouty lips, you often get a little text message to drive the point home. “Death Never Looked So Hot,” indeed!

Of course, if you’re really looking to save a bundle, you can just steal your imagery. The erstwhile “Civony” now going as “Evony” to get past those pesky copyright infringement laws (no word on whether or not they removed the copyright infringement from the actual game, mind you) is famous for their remarkable google-fu, and their painfully obvious ads. The original Civony ad was one of the more blatant come ons I’d ever seen, and used an image stolen from someone else’s ad campaign:

At least, it WAS the most blatant come on that I’d ever seen. They could only be topped… by themselves.

I’m sorry, did that advertisement just suggest we masturbate at our offices, schools, or homes? Bear in mind this is an RTS filled with derivative gameplay and art that (at least in the original version of the game, I haven't been back to check) appeared to be a pixel for pixel reproduction of various assets from AOE and Civ. There are no naked women in this game at all. You are unlikely to encounter someone roleplaying a nymphomaniac elf lady, either, because… this is an RTS, and not an RPG.

Here they cleverly remind you that internet porn is the number one free web game ever.

Oh, nice one! They saved a little money and turned their tower ad into a banner ad, with the clever visual pun of putting the sexy lady on her BACK! As in ready to have sex with you! In a real time strategic way, no doubt!

Not everyone goes full metal titties. Some games are content to simply place a feminine face front and center, to communicate a more subtle message. Would a little cleavage have sold more boxes? Did leaving the breasts out broaden the game’s appeal to women making impulse buys in the software aisle? With these two examples, it’s hard to know:

Finally, there is no limit to what a game studio will do to get your attention on a newsstand - and that means creating special images for magazine covers that would not pass the license holder's approval process in one million years. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Va-va-va-voom Vulcan!

So please, understand that while not all men will buy a game just because there are breasts on the cover, the fact is that enough men do make their purchasing decisions in just that way. If they didn’t, web ads and box art would be very, very different. Advertising always follows the money.

I would (and regularly do) argue that the reason men still outnumber women in our world is due in large part to this marketing, because women look at this stuff and subconsciously register the message “this isn’t meant for me.” But again, follow the money. There is research suggesting that the strength of a woman’s negative response to this sort of advertising is much less than the strength of a man’s positive response. Therefore, the negative response can be overcome by other elements of a media strategy, while the boobies “Hoover” up the easy marks on the other side of the gender line.

But there’s a lot of money sitting there on the table for a game studio savvy enough to go after it. And that’s why a little digging will almost always turn up something for those of us who enjoy a different kind of visual stimulation: