Compromise: The Inherent Tyranny of Colons: How A Long-Ass Title Divided Is An Early Sign of Executive Interference

Filed Under Advertising, Video Games, Blow On It, Development, Feargus Home | 9 Comments

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 I don’t know how recent a trend this is, but I don’t remember game titles being separated by colons when I was young. It may have happened - I’m not saying it didn’t - but if it did it never really reached the pop culture watermark it enjoys today. From titles such as Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties to the bafflingly titled S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadows of Chernobyl, colons enjoy a prominent position in current electronic entertainment. Why? They very rarely are necessary – take a look at Oblivion, for instance. Yes, the full title is Elder Scrolls IV Oblivion but the whole bit about it being a continuation of some series is above the title in teensy weensy print. The title is Oblivion. The Elder Scrolls part is just a landmark to let you know what you are getting into much in the same way Sid Meier puts his name above Civilization so that your family will know you won’t be doing things like “noting their presence” or “maintaining a bare minimum of hygiene” or “caring if the kids turn feral when you stop feeding them.”

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The Deconstructionist: Smartads (press the button go BOOM!)

Filed Under The Future, The Deconstructionist, Advertising, Betty & Veronica, Donkey Show | 4 Comments

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Have you seen that pickup truck commercial? Now, you can’t say if you have, yet, because there are hundreds of commercials for trucks, and you have seen many. The one I mean isn’t for trucks, really, it’s for a synthetic motor oil, but it features a giant pickup truck about to merge onto a busy highway and as the handsome-but-still-hardworking everyman in the driver’s seat eyes the coming traffic, a voice posits: ‘Sometimes, you can’t wonder if you have the torque, you need to know that you have the torque.’ Then the truck explodes off of the line in a fury of CGI horses made from, it seems, synthetic motor oil—as if Gandalf were drowning Nazgul in the Erie Canal.

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