Ever notice that most ads for mmo's, except some shooters and the good ones worth playing, marketing ploy is anime style females that are either: annoyingly cutesy (case in point the Secret of the Solstice ad), or have extremely revealing clothing or the lacking of most clothing usually posed in a way that best showcases their exceptionally well endowed chests(case in point the Mabinogi ad).

I mean, are they depending on cheap advertising as the sole source of newcomers? Because a community of people who joined for the boobies generally wouldn't turn out to be typically wholesome. If you want a game with a good community the first step really is to charge money for it, because idiots is the plague that infests every free mmo I have ever played, since the $10-$15 a month for most good mmorpgs is the biggest filter for most of the early teen hormone fueled tit-jockeys.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against breasts, I like them very much. But using sexuality as a cheap method of attracting an audience is not a clever marketing strategy. I just find it a little annoying, and was wondering if anyone else shared the same view.

I guess it is pretty much whatever sells the game. If boobs is what it takes to make a sale for some people, then boobs they will get.

I have seen that much, actually. It is getting kind of annoying.

Dude, I have seen a chess set for sale with a half naked woman pouring over it.

And if you've not seen Beckham's ads for pants, his schlang takes up a good 10th of the poster.

I've often found that things that overtly use sex to sell their products usually aren't sure what the hell their product is good for or why anyone should buy it. Example: Axe Body-spray, razors with more than three blades, mass-market beer (seriously, take a look at the ads, more common the beer, the more tits you see), and yes, half the MMORPGs out there. An ad using sex-appeal will make me do two things: One, say "Nice ass on her, eh?" Two, question why the maker of a new gum wants me to think of tits rather than their product.

You don't see T&A in BMW or Mercedes ads because they don't need it, their products sell themselves (at least until we run out of petrolium and have to use Soylent-fuel)

Interestingly enough the advert at the bottom of this page is a cutesy anime elf of some description with big boobs. I agree with Pie. Sex sells. Think of the most likely target audience of these games (I'm guessing mid to late teens, sorry to stereotype) and it's no surprise they throw in a cleavage or two. It's not really annoying for me as I don't really pay much attention to internet adverts.

As an afterthought, boobs rock!

You say using sexuality to market a product is not clever but I'm afraid evidence rises up here to comment on that statement since sex is almost guaranteed to sell, along with controversy. If a strategy sells a product a company will use it again and again and again until it no longer works. The thing with sex is that it is a universal constant, that is to say in most cultures it is almost guaranteed that putting sex in something will boost its sales significantly among the average Joe. Yes, it might drive away someone here and there who thinks it's demeaning to women/ is annoying fanservice but the fact of the matter is that sex sells and as long as it sells companies will use it to sell their product.

If you want a game with a good community the first step really is to charge money for it, because idiots is the plague that infests every free mmo I have ever played, since the $10-$15 a month for most good mmorpgs is the biggest filter for most of the early teen hormone fueled tit-jockeys.

I had a good laugh at this, mainly as some of the biggest (insert insulting adjective here) I have met have been on WoW. That cash filtration system works so well there...

as the kind of person who would buy a game for boob-content

its a golden age, we want, they provide.

btu then again, i was the son of a bitch (now quit) who said things like:

1) i had sex with every one of your mothers.
2) My balls are itchy
3) Anyone got some spare money? just asking

over Orgrimmar general chat. And none of you could stop me.

Hooray Boobies! Wait, what was this about again?

-Only joking, but I try to stay away from responding to ads that pander to my cromagnon sense of lust out of spite for manipulating something as malleable as clay, i.e: me. Damn those malevolent bastards in marketing for trying to capitalize on mankind's flimsy morals and penchant for buying anything with a pair of tits on it.

Which brings me to a point, the longer I stay up, the larger my words become. Completely off topic, I know, but damn I should have done this back when I actually needed to write essays.

marfoir(IRL):
You say using sexuality to market a product is not clever but I'm afraid evidence rises up here to comment on that statement since sex is almost guaranteed to sell, along with controversy. If a strategy sells a product a company will use it again and again and again until it no longer works. The thing with sex is that it is a universal constant, that is to say in most cultures it is almost guaranteed that putting sex in something will boost its sales significantly among the average Joe. Yes, it might drive away someone here and there who thinks it's demeaning to women/ is annoying fanservice but the fact of the matter is that sex sells and as long as it sells companies will use it to sell their product.

If you want a game with a good community the first step really is to charge money for it, because idiots is the plague that infests every free mmo I have ever played, since the $10-$15 a month for most good mmorpgs is the biggest filter for most of the early teen hormone fueled tit-jockeys.

I had a good laugh at this, mainly as some of the biggest (insert insulting adjective here) I have met have been on WoW. That cash filtration system works so well there...

i agree that the cash filtration won't stop everything... but it at least prevents a percentage of the general idiocy in the populace of the game.

I mean... look at runescape... that community is the purified essence of shit.

The Lawn:
If you want a game with a good community the first step really is to charge money for it, because idiots is the plague that infests every free mmo I have ever played, since the $10-$15 a month for most good mmorpgs is the biggest filter for most of the early teen hormone fueled tit-jockeys.

I agree with this whole statement save 3 words. 'The First Step'. One one hand, a cost turns off most of the immature unwilling to pay a price to be a jerkoff.

Then again, it also scares away people who would be all over a game in the right ways because they can't toss away even a paltry sum to find out if it's good.

So maybe, the First Step is to offer a trial. Sure, jerkoffs would come, but they'd go just as fast, and it'll draw in more of the demographic they desire, rather than turn aside those who can't 'go in blind' as it were.

DMShade:

The Lawn:
If you want a game with a good community the first step really is to charge money for it, because idiots is the plague that infests every free mmo I have ever played, since the $10-$15 a month for most good mmorpgs is the biggest filter for most of the early teen hormone fueled tit-jockeys.

I agree with this whole statement save 3 words. 'The First Step'. One one hand, a cost turns off most of the immature unwilling to pay a price to be a jerkoff.

Then again, it also scares away people who would be all over a game in the right ways because they can't toss away even a paltry sum to find out if it's good.

So maybe, the First Step is to offer a trial. Sure, jerkoffs would come, but they'd go just as fast, and it'll draw in more of the demographic they desire, rather than turn aside those who can't 'go in blind' as it were.

I haven't seen many subscription based games that don't have a trial version save Phantasy Suck Universe.

Seriously, as soon as Pie said 'sex sells', this question should be answered.

Most marketers seem to think that guys will do anything for breasts (sex, really). They think that since the gamer is a social outcast, and can never be female [/generalisation], gamers will be drawn into anything with the lure of the female mammaries (also, they think that bigger tits mean better, which can get really uncomfortable at times...).

Hope this helps.

Breasts do very little for me... Yes you can stick it between them, but it's just not the same as down south. And seeing as I have my own pair (Mantits HO!), its not like boobs are a rare sight.

Now if they started advertising with a snatch...

As with what Stompy said (and it's sad but true,) there is little that can be done as long as pornography is still legal and fornification etc. is acceptable. Which for me is Totally not.

I believe a comic has explained this better than I ever could.

http://www.thenoobcomic.com/index.php?pos=186

Sadly, it's pretty true.

The Lawn:

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against breasts, I like them very much. But using sexuality as a cheap method of attracting an audience is not a clever marketing strategy. I just find it a little annoying, and was wondering if anyone else shared the same view.

it's simple sex sells

as much as we want to say "oh i don't look" or what not, yes we do, we ALL look.

when a guy first meets a girl he checks her out, specifically the breasts and the butt. this is because of a genetic disposition to see how fit she is as a mate. more round and firm both are the better the chance she has of being a good mate. also the reason guys like bigger breasts because it's easier to tell the age of the woman, we all know large breasts succumb to gravity after a few years and even more so after having a kid.

now as much as they deny it, when a woman first sees a man they will look at his physical shape as well as his package. this is to see how well he could provide and protect her as well as father a child with her. which is of course genetic

i mean look at hooters, do guys go there for the great food and service? uhhh no they go there for well the hooters

and for the women, look at the romance novels, they have some well muscled guy on the cover

i think the issue is it's not real boobs being used to sell the mmo, it's fake ones and the thought of them isn't as appealing as a real pair. and as computer animation gets better they'll look more realistic and creep us out even more

Well the entire human population want one thing deep down: ME. No not really its sex and if sex sells then it will be used as far as it can without pushing anything too far.

cleverlymadeup:
i mean look at hooters, do guys go there for the great food and service? uhhh no they go there for well the hooters

I go there for the food. Their chicken fingers are decent, nothing special, but edible... But they have CHEESE dipping sauce on their menu. I'm talkin simple melted cheddar curds like NewYorkFries has... The only restaurant I know with cheese dip on the menu, so I go there for that. The fries are great too, and the hotdog is terrific (but overpriced)...

As to the tittychicks, they annoy the shit outta me. I wanna eat my cheesesauce-dipped chicken in peace, I have no interest in fake boobs so get them outta my sight, and while I love real boobs, they don't let the customers plant their face inbetween them and jiggle their heads, so why tease us?

cleverlymadeup:

The Lawn:

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against breasts, I like them very much. But using sexuality as a cheap method of attracting an audience is not a clever marketing strategy. I just find it a little annoying, and was wondering if anyone else shared the same view.

it's simple sex sells

but DOES it? Does anyone seriously care or notice anymore? I see half naked women on every ad, for fucking everything now-a-days and i just don't care. It raises no emotional or physical response from me.

One can prattle on about subconscious desires (which aren't nearly as real as most fiction writers would have you believe), but I've just been desensitized now. Would I buy a toothpaste if it has a life size cutout of a naked chick holding it? Not at all.

When you see a razor commercial and a guy has girls all over him stroking his face for some reason, is there ANYONE who honestly even delivers a hint of "If I get this razor, that could be ME!!!"? It's just illogical.

AC10... You forget that average Joe is a phenominal retard. Spammers and trolls aside, simply being intelligent enough to post on a forum like this proves we aren't average Joe, and so to us submitters it is easy to point and say "That only works on idiots"... The thing is, it DOES work on idiots. My brother, someone so dumb he quit his high-paying draftsman job because his drivers license was taken away for a month for speeding/DUI and refused to take a bus, is a perfect example... He believes that shitty AXE bodyspray will get him chicks, buys into all the fashion trends, and blows money on low-pro rims and tires for a f**king '99 NEON because it's "Ghetto".

Khell_Sennet:
AC10... You forget that average Joe is a phenominal retard. Spammers and trolls aside, simply being intelligent enough to post on a forum like this proves we aren't average Joe, and so to us submitters it is easy to point and say "That only works on idiots"... The thing is, it DOES work on idiots. My brother, someone so dumb he quit his high-paying draftsman job because his drivers license was taken away for a month for speeding/DUI and refused to take a bus, is a perfect example... He believes that shitty AXE bodyspray will get him chicks, buys into all the fashion trends, and blows money on low-pro rims and tires for a f**king '99 NEON because it's "Ghetto".

I see and accept your point O_O

Khell_Sennet:
AC10... You forget that average Joe is a phenominal retard. Spammers and trolls aside, simply being intelligent enough to post on a forum like this proves we aren't average Joe, and so to us submitters it is easy to point and say "That only works on idiots"... The thing is, it DOES work on idiots. My brother, someone so dumb he quit his high-paying draftsman job because his drivers license was taken away for a month for speeding/DUI and refused to take a bus, is a perfect example... He believes that shitty AXE bodyspray will get him chicks, buys into all the fashion trends, and blows money on low-pro rims and tires for a f**king '99 NEON because it's "Ghetto".

Sorry for chuckling, but that was life in a nutshell.

I trust that free MMORPGs suck, and don't click on the ads. What do I prefer to look at? I like the Fiesta ad, not because of the chick, but because of the colours that run across her armour. I hate the Mabinogi ad. If I know I'll be working on my post for a while, I'll refresh the page so I don't have to look at the inhuman and freakish breasts on that little girl. I get it, guys like breasts, but isn't it better if they're more realistic?

My interest is better kept by something that's beautiful and well done. High production and aesthetic value, you know? I remembered liking the blindfolded chick on the Guild Wars Factions box so I googled it. She's pretty, but I'd be a lot more interested in the game if they had this (something I found at the bottom of the page) http://2black.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/crabfort.jpg on the cover. So I guess colour trumps hot people for me. Weird.

And cleverlymadeup I don't look at a guys package unless it's David Bowie in Labyrinth or some other circumstance where it's unavoidable.

Sex sells. There's a reason it's the world's oldest profession. People want it and can never get enough of it.

Larenxis:

And cleverlymadeup I don't look at a guys package unless it's David Bowie in Labyrinth or some other circumstance where it's unavoidable.

The riddler form the 1966 batman... it just sticks out there!!

General Ma Chao:
Sex sells. There's a reason it's the world's oldest profession. People want it and can never get enough of it.

Sex sells, but who's buyin'? Heh.

Read a comic book lately? Tall insanely powerful men follwoed by the most well endowed of ladies you'll ever see this side of reality... Dude, our culture practically demands it.

just something funny I kind of noticed, if you dont know which ads we are talking about, refresh the page a couple times and look above the header.

now seriously, it seems that every free game out there is an asian style MMORPG, and atleast half of those advertise scantily clad women, but lets turn the the best advertisements, the ones that treat us like total idiots. has anyone else seen the ad on the back of the newest PC Gamer -welcome to the gun show- ( thats where I saw this ad anyways) that advertised how it taught "life skills"? I almost pissed myself I was laughing so hard.

Sex sells. It leads to the deadly evolutionary cycle of a pretty face being more attractive than a brilliant mind, but what are you going to do? The only thing that can change that is swift social reform and change.

TheNecroswanson:

General Ma Chao:
Sex sells. There's a reason it's the world's oldest profession. People want it and can never get enough of it.

Sex sells, but who's buyin'? Heh.

Read a comic book lately? Tall insanely powerful men follwoed by the most well endowed of ladies you'll ever see this side of reality... Dude, our culture practically demands it.

Yeah, but that's different, cause... well, um. Hey Shadowcat's hot!

I like this thread. It's a cleaverly diguised booby thread under the name of 'Some little questions that have been eating at my mind' Haha! Noone will know!

Sorry, I was going to write something sensible about this being no different from any other contemporary advertising with the idea that pitching a product to an audience is more about selling a lifestyle or something connected to the product as opposed to the product itself...
But the repeated use of the word "boobs" is just too much... I need to go and take care of some things...
*hangs "DO NOT DISTURB" sign on door*

AHHH!
The ad that appeared when i posted is of an anime character with boobs you could use as trampolines!

The thread has a very valid point.

Larenxis:

And cleverlymadeup I don't look at a guys package unless it's David Bowie in Labyrinth or some other circumstance where it's unavoidable.

Avoid people wearing leather pants at all costs.

Honestly, I barely notice it. When I'm browsing forums, I tend to focus on reading the posts or stare at people's funny avatars. Sure, I noticed the adds when the first popped up, but not after the 30th cycle rolled around. As for the breasts argument...what, they think I never go outside? The whole "sex sells" thing doesn't really work on me anyways.

You all are missing the point. Yes, sex sells. But that's only half of it...

Sex sells for those old enough to enjoy an MMO, but too young to go out and get a job to pay for one. The game companies like Nexon and whatnot making these games are trying to create a social network for pre-teens and the like. And let's face it, that's the kind of stuff that'll draw them in.

Personally, I find it admirable, even if I hate most of the types of people who buy into it.

GrimRox:
As an afterthought, boobs rock!

QF*profound*T