Nintendo’s new advertising campaign was clearly intended to draw in more “users” of it’s 3DS (XL). Something that is especially necessary in light of it’s sketchy sales history, but I’m not quite sure it’s going to have the effect that they thought it would. The first two spots in the campaign show Gabrielle Douglass sitting on a gym mat playing New Super Mario Bros. 2 and bragging about the coins that she has collected in game, but reassures the viewer that she is not a gamer!
http://youtu.be/i6XeECPKnJM
Heaven forbid that anyone would see a Olympic Gold medal champion as a gamer rather than a “coin collecting champion”. She clearly has better things to do than play silly games, right?
The next spot features Glee star, Dianna Agron, (not) playing Art Academy on her 3DS and telling us how much she likes to draw “Abstract dessert art” and that she’s not all song and dance. Nope, Agron is not a gamer, she’s an artist who finds inspiration everywhere. The voiceover even tells us that Art Academy is not a game, but a delivery vehicle for art lessons!
http://youtu.be/LLFoNe9iD-I
I’m not sure if it’s being a gamer or specifically being a female gamer that Nintendo thinks folks will find so odious. Either way…really? Haven’t we moved past the moment of thinking that gamers are anti-social pubescent, pimply face, mouth breathing boys with CRT tans playing games in their parents basements? I guess not. The biggest problem with this is that this campaign might just feel too much like “Nintendo doth protest too much” to the non-gamer population that they are trying to convince to buy their product. Or, sweet Jesus, what if Art Academy and Super Mario Bros. 2 are just gateway drugs to the hard shit and little Johnny and Jemma start mainlining Grand Theft Auto and Mass Effect? What then? Huh, Nintendo? Everyone knows it’s only the first one that’s (guilt) free!
And if that’s not bad enough, Nintendo is, seemingly, purposely ostracizing “real” gamers! You know those folks who plop down 60 bucks per title and 300 buck on a console on the regular to play the games that they love? Yeah, those folks. Not the non-gamers who wait for clearance prices or buy used copies (I know “real” gamers buy used too but they are more likely to buy titles at launch if they really want to play them). Yep Nintendo, those are the folks that you don’t want to ostracize. I’m not saying don’t court the Christmas buying mom contingent, but I am certain that you can do that without pissing off the rest of us. Sound like a plan?
Let’s try something new. How about helping folks to see that games and gaming can be a positive thing, not something that you have to hide being.
Featured image attribution: “I am a GAMER” by Wendy B
