American McGee Admits ‘Tricked’ Was The Wrong Word

EA was not happy about American McGee’s Reddit reveal.

Remember a short while back, when American McGee claimed that EA’s marketing for Alice: Madness Returns had tried to trick gamers into thinking that the game was gorier than it was? So does McGee, and he’s now taken a step back from his previous position, thanks in part to what he describes as “a few pissed messages from EA.”

“Allow me to expand on my original post while at the same time making a correction,” McGee now says. “‘Tricked’ is the wrong word. I take that back. Apologies to EA and anyone else whose feelings were hurt.”

“We live in a world of marketing,” McGee goes on to say. In that world, companies like EA may pick on, or over-emphasise, attributes of a product that the company thinks will make it sell. That’s not tricking people, McGee admits; marketing is designed to elicit a particular customer response, and companies which don’t master marketing go under.

Even if, as creator, McGee didn’t agree with the direction Alice‘s marketing was taking, that didn’t mean the marketing was wrong, or lying. The attributes that EA used were definitely in the game; they just weren’t what McGee thought was important.

“Maybe I don’t agree with where gaming content seems to be going,” says McGee, “but isn’t that the prerogative of aging creators? To complain that things are too loud, too bright or too fleshy?” He then goes on to admit that “I also recognize my own faults, and actions which are to blame for things not being 100%… or for inadvertently igniting firestorms.”

Whether this mea culpa will extinguish the firestorm has yet to be seen, but – at least at EA – it’s possible some glowing embers will remain.

Source: American McGee