WATCH_DOGS is a totally next-gen video game produced by Ubisoft Entertainment, which was released as one of the first titles for the PlayStation 4. As part of a joint effort to advertise the new console and the original title taking advantage of its next-gen potential, this advertisement appeared on YouTube in the spring of 2014, a couple months before Watch Dogs was released (on May 27, 2014).
When first watching this advertisement, one can see that this game features much violence. Between explosions, gunshots, and police chases, it is clear that this game features the classic anti-hero, fighting the law and using vigilante justice to right wrongs. The advertisement also shows that in-game video can be shared using the PlayStation Network, inviting the player to share more easily with friends and suggesting that the high-quality graphics and gameplay will be worth other people's time.
The advertisement has a layer of irony to it. The song that is played has a cheerful tone and has optimistic, altruistic lyrics, such as, "it sure feels fine when I can share with you," and, "sharing means caring." These contrast with the visuals of the gameplay, showing gratuitous violence and destruction. If the song and the game are viewed as two different characters in the advertisement, this is a classic comedy duo, with the game playing the part of the straight man. This result in dramatic irony, as the audience is aware of this clash of ideas while the characters act as if they are ignorant of it.
Watch Dogs has a classic revenge-driven plot, where the death of Aiden Pearce's niece leads him to take on a vigilante mission to destroy her murderer. Knowing this, the advertisement can be seen as using wrath as a means to encourage gamers to buy this game and this console. Players can take on the role of a hacker determined to avenge his niece's death, and the violence in the advertisement is a medium for players to take out their own anger in a socially-acceptable fashion.
Like many titles released by Ubisoft, Watch Dogs is tailored towards a narrow audience of gamers. Featuring a gruff white male as the main character, the game appeals to a white male audience, mostly within the 17-35 age group. The use of explosions and action scenes is part of an effort to be exciting to this audience, which is often the target of action movies and video games.
Myself being within this target market, I feel that the advertisement is somewhat successful. When I first saw it, I really enjoyed it. Between the catchy, happy tune and the crisp 1080p visuals, I was excited for this amazingly-detailed open world game to be released. I was not drawn in by the violent actions of Aiden Pearce, but the gameplay mechanic of hacking the environment seemed unique and innovative. However, the advertisement failed to get me excited for the PlayStation 4, because I already have a PlayStation 3 and a computer, which both do the thing that the PlayStation 4 does: let me play games. Also, I became much less excited for Watch Dogs once I researched about the game, which I was prompted to do by seeing this advertisement.
The method used by Ubisoft and Sony to appeal to this audience is in part based on stereotypes. The standard gamer is thought of in popular culture as a young male that is driven to excitement by destruction and action. However, me and many other gamers find excessive violence to be nonsensical or boring if it is not used as a means to make a statement about society. Also, female gamers are often an afterthought if they are not completely overlooked.There is not even a single female presented in the ad, neither through a virtual character nor one of the voices heard in the ad.
For anyone who wants to see more amazing next-gen content, here is a full playlist of amazing next-gen action featuring the beloved Aiden Pearce and the realistic immersive city of Illinois Chicago. Watch so many dogs everyone!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9Rlm-fZ2cj8t8w_KLjlmKOM94RF8i9WK
"watch so many dogs. watch all the dogs." - Aiden the Next-Gen Vigilante Hacker
After reading this post a few times to double check I hadn't missed important details, I can honestly say you did a great job breaking down, explaining the context behind it, and analyzing the advertisement through literary devices. However it appears you only explicitly state that the advertisement is using wrath once within the entire blog entry. Of course talking about violence and such made it easy to interpret that you were referring to wrath as the sin the advertisement demonstrated, but I personally was looking for it to be somewhere within the introduction or near it, that way I wouldn't have had any doubt while reading the rest. Aside from that I think this was a really solid blog post. I also enjoyed seeing what you thought about this advertisement since you do talk about WATCH_DOGS and how next-gen it is quite frequently.
ReplyDeleteYour description of the minute details that Ubisoft portrays in the advertisement's song lyrics is impressive, especially when you mentioned how the how the lyrics speak of morally upheld qualities such as sharing, but when one actually examines the context in which it is set in it appears to be somewhat morbid since most if the playstation 4 launch titles had violence whether it was Watch dogs or not, also it is important to note that Ubisoft is a major promoter in the Playstation 4 launch titles since every game promoted by them was violent whether it be Watch or assassins creed , and that this violence is strictly oriented towards authority which you explained magnificently by stating that it was a revenge driven plot , I think one should also mention how, although this game is aimed at males from ages 17 and up , a lot of those who actually purchased watch dogs were under age and that this might affect them psychologically since most are in their adolescence stage in accordance to Ericsson's stages of development model, and thus any psychological impacts that can affect how they view morality might be dangerous. This was an overall great post and you did a great job showing how these characteristics of the game might allude to their wrath oriented deadly sin.
ReplyDeleteOh and by the way watch this
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYnBVtvy2iI&app=desktop