WOTC ad - insulting to gamers?

[The Hound]

In this month's Dungeon magazine I spied a full page WOTC ad promoting D&D that I beleive is insulting to it's target audience, and probably gamers in general. I am referring to the ad on page 11, which shows a scruffy, half asleep looking guy staring at his computer monitor in a darkened room with the caption "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help."

Obviously, this ad is aimed at online/computer RPG players, and is presumably appearing in mags devoted to online gaming. I commend them for trying to attract online gamers to what I think is a more rewarding and enjoyable type of gaming, but I'm afraid that their ad just smacks their audience in the face with one of the most obnoxious stereotypes of gamers around - that of the loser/slacker who lives in their parent's basement and spends all hours of the day and night pretending to be Mr. fantasy alterego in their game addiction of choice. The only thing they didn't do was show a fat guy with coke bottle glasses. Hardly the way to attract new recruits.

And IMHO its indirectly insulting to us tabletop gamers too. Are losers who live in their parent's basements the types we play with, or want to show up at our games?

 

[Maliki]

I seen this add and thought it was funny, you should be able to laugh at yourself and not take things too seriously.

 

[msd]

In this month's Dungeon magazine I spied a full page WOTC ad promoting D&D that I beleive is insulting to it's target audience, and probably gamers in general. I am referring to the ad on page 11, which shows a scruffy, half asleep looking guy staring at his computer monitor in a darkened room with the caption "If you're going to sit in your basement pretending to be an elf, you should at least have some friends over to help."

Obviously, this ad is aimed at online/computer RPG players, and is presumably appearing in mags devoted to online gaming. I commend them for trying to attract online gamers to what I think is a more rewarding and enjoyable type of gaming, but I'm afraid that their ad just smacks their audience in the face with one of the most obnoxious stereotypes of gamers around - that of the loser/slacker who lives in their parent's basement and spends all hours of the day and night pretending to be Mr. fantasy alterego in their game addiction of choice. The only thing they didn't do was show a fat guy with coke bottle glasses. Hardly the way to attract new recruits.

And IMHO its indirectly insulting to us tabletop gamers too. Are losers who live in their parent's basements the types we play with, or want to show up at our games?

I dunno...I find that gamers (of all stripes) have an incredible ability to laugh at themselves, their hobby, and the stereotypes that accompany being a "geek" or a "nerd" or what have you. With some, it even seems to be a point of pride.

I think the ad was really just playing on that point, thinking that people wouldn't mind a laugh at themselves.

I wasn't offended, but I suppose I could see how someone else might be. I would be inclined to think that such a person probably needs to lighten up a bit...

 

[Captain Tagon]

Considering in my experience the stereotype is mostly true, it doesn't really bother me. But oh well. Seemed pretty funny to me.

 

[Dimwhit]

Sounds like they nailed it, to me. At least the stereotype. I think it's funny.

 

[Treebore]

I thought it was insulting as well. I feel emotionally and pychologically traumatized and am seeking the advice of my lawyer.

Seriously, though, I didn't like it and definitely feel stereotyped and desriminated against. I guess either their marketing types don't think or they expect us not to think.

 

[IronWolf]

I am another one who always thought that ad was pretty funny! I thought it was pretty clever of their marketing department.

 

[The Hound]

I wouldn't say that I was personally offended by it, I was commenting on what I suspect is cluelessness on the part of WOTC's ad agency. They are using this ad to attract online gamers to the tabletop gaming, yet they are doing it in such a way as to offend a good many of them.
Not very smart, IMHO.

 

[cjdc1973]

I thought that the advertisement was brilliant. It was clearly aimed at the MMORPG demographic. The crux of the argument was that it is better social outlet to get together as a group and participate in a joint story telling session than to sit at home alone on the computer in the dark.

 

[Varianor Abroad]

That was in Dragon too. I thought it was darned funny. But I don't take myself very seriously either.