Just like before–sometimes I have ideas that I can’t do a thing with. So rather than let them fester in my cranium, I have decided to release them into the wild. And there’s not much wilder than here among you, my caffeinated friends.
So. Here we go.
I came up with the concept first and then tried to find the video game to apply it to. I went with Silent Hill V. Now, if that doesn’t work for you, then apply it to whatever survival horror game you wish.
“MONSTERS NOT SILENT AGAINST SILENT HILL”
Series of between three and five short 60-second internet commercials. The gist is that real demons, monsters, zombies, etc. are protesting the upcoming release of Konami’s Silent Hill 5, stating that the game is so scary that people are beginning to be unimpressed by real evil.
Each commercial has a creature being interviewed by a camera crew and speaking very calmly but passionately about how the game is ruining their livelihood. We would see a recreation of the events as they describe them.
One example would be a ghost desperately trying to even get a young man’s attention, he’s so busy playing the game. The ghost even admits, teary-eyed, “At one point I found myself just standing there and watching the game. I mean, the graphics are so sharp, I couldn’t help myself. (pause) I felt so dirty.”
Another example would be a zombie (subtitled, since he’s mostly just groaning and moaning) talking about how he’s so depressed he can’t even eat. Every time he tries to get close enough to bite the young woman playing the game over the internet, she just smacks him in the face without even looking, like he was a bad puppy or something. The zombie states, again, in subtitles, “I tried to get anti-depressants from my doctor, but she just told me: Richard, remember, you’re dead. (pause) And I couldn’t really argue with that, could I?”
There would be a tie-in to a website where people could sign up “against” the release of the game and offer sympathy to the monsters. Further updates would include a Monster Conservation Society that wants to get them declared endangered.
I decided that this approach might work because everybody knows commercials are supposed to show that the game’s scary. Not novel. Everybody’s heard that. But just like the WoW commercials with celebrities took a different approach than just highlighting gameplay, this comes at the product from an odd direction, and I think would get people’s attention.
