Let's do this...

We learned in the special lecture class that video game commercials show little to no game play at all. This happens more often when sequels are being released. It is hard to show actual game play or any other new features the new game brings in a short 30 second commercial. However I believe the commercials are like this because the games will speak for themselves. The following commercial is for Starcraft 2 but was only aired in Korea. Starcraft is huge in Korea, they have television channels dedicated for this video game and professional gamers are super stars there. Professional Starcraft players in Korea are similar to professional basketball players in North America in star power and money receive from sponsorships. The following commercial would make absolutely no sense to the majority of the population in North America but in Korea the people would understand it’s a commercial for Starcraft by the first ‘Yes’ in the video. The only voice used in the video is from the actual game itself and the commercial is showing a very big part of Starcraft game play. Dark Templar harassment done in real life but just as annoying in game. (Dark Templar harassment is when a stealth unit named Dark Templar’s kills your army or workers when you have no detection, very annoying.)




Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)
The marketing campaign behind the newest installment in the Need for Speed franchise, featuring a new and improved version of Hot Pursuit, features two characters from the Entourage HBO series. The commercial follows the current trend of video game advertising by showing minimal footage and leaving the consumer thinking, but not particularly about the graphics or game play. As opposed to the current trends, the Need for Speed commercial focuses on a niche demographic within the gaming industry. This commercial features Jerry Ferrara and Kevin Dillon, but depicting them as their popular Entourage characters Turtle and Johnny “Drama” Chase, respectively. So the target viewer of the commercial would first have to be interested in video games, second racing game, and the third, draws on fans of Entourage. Although the commercial depicts popular characters, the dialogue is entertaining and funny regardless of that fact. The commercial does give a taste of the game play at the very end, only for a short time. Similar genre games in the industry like Gran Turismo, used a humorous commercial approach as well; rather Forza would lean towards game play and graphics as a selling point.




In the trailer debut of Cataclysm, Blizzard decided to advertise the game differently from when they first premiered their original World of Warcraft. Blizzard did this because they were trying to get the attention of more potential players. For the third expansion’s trailer, with WoW already having a huge fan base they didn’t need to show the game play of the game. Instead, they had the trailer show Deathwing the Destroyer, being released and causing a massive worldwide catastrophe. How they try to get players attention is by introducing the new races of Worgen for the Alliance and Goblin for the Horde.