• Jo Miran@lemmy.ml
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    5 months ago

    Since she’s a a Tomb Raider, a dungeon crawler, a spelunker, does that mean he wants her to peg him? Color me interested.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        I did a search on that page for “mod” and didn’t seem to get any relevant hits. What were you referring to?

        • Irishred88@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I don’t remember a mod but I seem to remember that Gamepro magazine would sometimes parody their own magazine calling themselves “Lamepro” followed by a few pages of fake upcoming games, a nude Lara Croft I think was part of all that.

          • 🐍🩶🐢@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            It has been years, but there was this whole easter egg thing about when you dive off a certain spot into the pool in her mansion she gets back out naked. They always put in a bunch of different easter egg challenges in her house.

  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
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    5 months ago

    I can’t even process what’s going on with the reflection in the mirror being from an angle at about head height over the bed. I like that they didn’t even trust teen gamers to understand the allusion of a woman standing in a bedroom doorway without comping in this extra element.

    • Shapillon@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      In order to make the reflection work the bed would have to be angled against the wall.

      It’s funny how the brain instantly notices that the perspective is nonsensical but can’t really pinpoint the issue ^^

    • whereisk@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Not if you’re a literalist exec that saw the creative and didn’t think it was clear enough - “where’s the target audience? How are they going to see themselves in this ad?, she’s clearly out of our average user’s league”

  • Beardsley@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    I’ll fight anyone who says 1998 is retro. I’m getting old, but give me a few more years damn.

    • scops@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      Bro, we lost that fight. I was watching a Youtube video of a guy clearing games from his Steam backlog and introduced one with, “So, many of you watching probably weren’t alive when this game came out. Everyone talks about what a classic this is, but I don’t think I’ve met anyone who has actually played this game.”

      I died a little inside when it turned out he was talking about the first Half-Life.

    • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Those few years between 1992-1998 were as … game-changing … for games as probably the two decades that followed. We started it with side scrollers, Dune and Doom and ended it with Diablo II, StarCraft and Half-Life.

      • sparky1337@ttrpg.network
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        5 months ago

        I spent sooooooooo much time on StarCraft and Diablo II. First video game I remember playing was Wolfenstein 3D, then Duke Nukem. Found RTS soon after.

        • Thorry84@feddit.nl
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          5 months ago

          I remember upgrading my PC from 4MB to 8MB, just to be able to play Duke3D, cost me a pretty penny as well

    • M137@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I understand saying you don’t feel like 2010 is retro, but 1998? That’s been retro for a long time. You’re in a really extreme place in your head when you stick to not calling something that’s 25 years old retro.

    • hydroptic@sopuli.xyz
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      5 months ago

      If in 1998 you would have argued that 1972 is retro, then I’m sorry to tell you that 1998 is retro

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You and me both, but to be fair it’s a year closer to the creation of console gaming to modern day. So I’ll let it pass.

      People who call my music vintage or classic can get right the fuck back, though.

    • PlasticExistence@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Hell, I can remember when the word retro meant something new inspired by something older. Now it just means old / classic.

      • ahornsirup@sopuli.xyz
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        5 months ago

        We’re gonna have to rethink definitions at some point. Yes, video games are still a comparatively new medium, but nobody would call a 2010 film a retro film, nevermind books or paintings.

        • Anarch157a@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I define “retro” as anything made before an average Army Private was born, so about 19-20 years. By this standard, games released in the early 80’s were retro when the current generation of Privates was born, so how do we call that ? I propose the term “paleogaming” for those.

  • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
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    5 months ago

    Yep, those were different times.

    Battlecruiser 3000AD. This advert was later revised and they drew black knickers on the model.

    Psycho Pigs UXB. Another British classic?

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      5 months ago

      Well-placed censorship of pictures was the best purpose of a Battlefield 3000AD box. That was one of those games where the drama around it was far better than the game itself.

      • UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk
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        5 months ago

        Isn’t this the game that had to run full page adverts claiming a new, updated version was available and “the bugs have been squashed!” Obviously this was pre-internet, so updates like this were quite uncommon.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          5 months ago

          Might have been. That game was so bugged that the installer crashed for a lot of people. Once it got patched enough that you could actually play it–which took years–it was supposedly pretty good, but nobody cared by then.

      • Odo@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Sorry, but Acclaim really was that wild for a bit there. They also had a promotion where you’d get a free copy of one of the Turok games if you named a newborn child after him. For what it’s worth, I don’t think anyone took them up on either offer, but it certainly brought in the publicity.

        • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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          5 months ago

          I currently work with someone who worked with acclaim back then and Virgin at one point too. The stories he tells me of some of the game Devs of the time. Insane. Some of them Devs still exist to this day and knowing what happened behind closed doors I have no idea how they got more business.

            • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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              5 months ago

              One UK based dev that worked on some edgy PC games had a “Red Room” at their offices that was purely there for them to take drugs and trip inside. It was just a room completely painted in red.

    • kratoz29@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Bro, using ads in the graveyards this is new for me…

      I bet this will make a comeback…

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Hahaha, yeah, that one was great.

      Also the one where they paid parents to name their baby ‘Turok.’

      I sometimes wonder what those little Turoks are up to today (at least a half dozen parents took them up on it IIRC).

      The shock advertising campaigns around games really were something. They worked - got a ton of free media coverage. But this was also at the time that video games were the Boogeyman like rock n’ roll had been to a generation before. The media loved nothing more than a “look how terrible video games are” story and PR firms were playing into that environment.

      So campaigns like this were basically the equivalent of Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a bat.

      As games became more normalized, the campaigns shifted accordingly and - like Ozzy - tamed quite a bit out.

      • katy ✨@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        [Here lies your loved one]

        “Ah! Fresh meat! Journey into Tristram and see what the Butcher is up to today!”

  • yesman@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    This kind of marketing ruined gaming culture.

    There is a throughline between gendered marketing; the idea that young hetero men owned gaming; and chud gaming culture like gamergate.

    The idea of the young horny gamer dude is sexist toward men too. Never mind the accompanying stereotypes of gamers as loosers and nerds.

    • Skull giver@popplesburger.hilciferous.nl
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      5 months ago

      Unfortunately, gendered game marketing was an issue long before the horny period of games advertising. The problem started right after the video game crash in 1983 that nearly ended the industry, and horny marketing at teenage boys was just a consequence of a much larger “video games are for boys” marketing that has been prevalent ever since.

  • Nerdybynature@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Honestly, might be nostalgic for guys, but as a girl who was playing games in this era, it made me feel like I wasn’t a part of the culture, rarely if ever were there ads marketed towards me, but man were there a lot of half naked ladies. Glad we don’t do this as much, but god this caused a lot of younger girls to feel ashamed of playing games “for boys”.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      5 months ago

      It’s not really nostalgic for me, TBH. It’s actually kind of embarrassing that marketing like this existed and that it worked. I love T&A as much as the next female-loving guy, but ads like this are condescending. But again, they sold units…

    • Daxtron2@startrek.website
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      5 months ago

      It really sucks looking at the detrimental effect this had on gender ratios in gaming to this day. It’s gotten a lot better but it’s still not there yet.

      • Kit@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, we need to level the playing field by having half naked sexy guys on the cover of games. ^please

        • molochthagod@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          I’d rather we stop sexualizing characters altogether. If anything, it’s silly and makes it more difficult to take them seriously.

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            I think there is space for both sexualized and non-sexualized characters, as long as they are treated evenly. This is entertainment, they don’t need to be all business serious.

            I dread that in trying to be perfectly respectable, the medium might err to the side of prudishness and sexual repression.

          • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            5 months ago

            Doubt that’s going to be enough, I think if you want to make a sexually objectifying 90s magazine ad that appeals to female nerds you’re going to have to break out the homoerotic innuendos

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            People used to bring up Kratos in these discussions but before these new games he seemed far more likely to bite someone’s face off than to kiss anyone. There’s a difference.

        • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          After a woman says she doesn’t like being sexualized, your response is to not worry because the sexualization of women will continue, but you’ll start to sexualize men, too?

    • agent_flounder@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I can imagine. I’m glad this is less prevalent now. Seeing it now in middle age makes me go ick. I wished I had been much more aware of this kind of sexism as a boy.

    • xyzzy@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      I was a senior in high school at the time and even back then I thought this kind of advertising was crass, gross, and unnecessary. No nostalgia here, just second-hand embarrassment.

    • ShustOne@lemmy.one
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      5 months ago

      Yeah as a boy I didn’t like these either. They were sexy but made me feel a little weird. I was young enough not to realize it was targeting only boys, but now that I’m older I think that’s why I didn’t like them. I wasn’t in to sex at the time.

    • molochthagod@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The weird thing is, as a guy, I never even paid attention to the sexualized stuff in games. To me these are like two different brain activities. So, as far as I’m concerned, there was never any point in this kind of marketing. I’ve never in my life purchased a game because it featured sexy ladies.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
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        5 months ago

        It’s supposed to be subconscious, like with most marketing. It hits the animal part of the brain, rather than the thinking part.

    • otp@sh.itjust.works
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      5 months ago

      There were lots of half-naked men, too. Including in this ad.

      Most of them in games were more male fantasy stuff…ripped, shirtless dudes with big weapons. Not really appealing to most women, but checks the “I want to BE him” aspect for lots of guys, lol

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Yeah, but that is just another facet of marketing for men. Sexy dress-up vs tighty whities. Definitely not intended to get women interested.

      • BigMikeInAustin@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        Are you really out here in public view still trying to use the “not all men” to tell a woman her feelings are invalid?

        • desconectado@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          How does that comment invalidate the previous one? If anything it actually reinforces it. Are you just looking for an excuse to shame someone?

    • kromem@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Yeah. Even just around a decade ago I’d explain the demographics shift to more women gamers to clients and they’d not believe it.

      Stereotypes stick around for a long time, even when (or maybe especially when) untrue.

      It’s a shame that “girl gamers” were considered such a rarity when it really seemed like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

      “Oh, a game with only male protagonists with activities only primarily associated with boys doesn’t have many girls playing it? I guess girls aren’t that into games and we should double down on the focus on dudes.”

      As a result, the market effectively abandoned around half of two generations of a potential continued audience and had a significantly reduced pool of interested labor to make games.

      It’s a bit frustrating given my love for games that they could likely have advanced even further had it not been an exclusionary industry for as long as it was (though that can be said about pretty much every business vertical in existence too given our generalized collective history of exclusion).