Nothing was off-limits for retro game ads : retrogaming

[-] Nerdybynature@lemmy.world 187 points 7 months ago

Honestly, might be nostalgic for guys, but as a girl who was playing games in this era, it made me feel like I wasn’t a part of the culture, rarely if ever were there ads marketed towards me, but man were there a lot of half naked ladies. Glad we don’t do this as much, but god this caused a lot of younger girls to feel ashamed of playing games “for boys”.

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 67 points 7 months ago

It really sucks looking at the detrimental effect this had on gender ratios in gaming to this day. It's gotten a lot better but it's still not there yet.

[-] Kit 56 points 7 months ago

Yeah, we need to level the playing field by having half naked sexy guys on the cover of games. ^please

[-] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 7 months ago

Like Fabio? Pretty much any depiction of a barbarian is some muscular dude wearing only a loincloth and his broadsword.

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 7 months ago

Doubt that's going to be enough, I think if you want to make a sexually objectifying 90s magazine ad that appeals to female nerds you're going to have to break out the homoerotic innuendos

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[-] xyzzy@lemm.ee 33 points 7 months ago

I was a senior in high school at the time and even back then I thought this kind of advertising was crass, gross, and unnecessary. No nostalgia here, just second-hand embarrassment.

[-] molochthagod@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

The weird thing is, as a guy, I never even paid attention to the sexualized stuff in games. To me these are like two different brain activities. So, as far as I'm concerned, there was never any point in this kind of marketing. I've never in my life purchased a game because it featured sexy ladies.

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[-] agent_flounder@lemmy.world 18 points 7 months ago

I can imagine. I'm glad this is less prevalent now. Seeing it now in middle age makes me go ick. I wished I had been much more aware of this kind of sexism as a boy.

[-] ShustOne@lemmy.one 18 points 7 months ago

Yeah as a boy I didn't like these either. They were sexy but made me feel a little weird. I was young enough not to realize it was targeting only boys, but now that I'm older I think that's why I didn't like them. I wasn't in to sex at the time.

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[-] yesman@lemmy.world 99 points 7 months ago

This kind of marketing ruined gaming culture.

There is a throughline between gendered marketing; the idea that young hetero men owned gaming; and chud gaming culture like gamergate.

The idea of the young horny gamer dude is sexist toward men too. Never mind the accompanying stereotypes of gamers as loosers and nerds.

[-] cupcakezealot 27 points 7 months ago

cough big bang theory

[-] p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 7 months ago

Nerd blackface.

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[-] Beardsley@lemmy.world 85 points 7 months ago

I'll fight anyone who says 1998 is retro. I'm getting old, but give me a few more years damn.

[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 59 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Those few years between 1992-1998 were as .. game-changing .. for games as probably the two decades that followed. We started it with side scrollers, Dune and Doom and ended it with Diablo II, StarCraft and Half-Life.

For the kids here who haven't experienced Half-Life, you should play Black Mesa. For the retro farts who have played Half-Life, you should also play Black Mesa. It's the Half-Life you couldn't have in 1998 because of the slow hardware. I weeped from feels playing it.

[-] sparky1337@ttrpg.network 13 points 7 months ago

I spent sooooooooo much time on StarCraft and Diablo II. First video game I remember playing was Wolfenstein 3D, then Duke Nukem. Found RTS soon after.

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[-] fluxion@lemmy.world 13 points 7 months ago

Blizzard used to give me such warm fuzzies.

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[-] GrammatonCleric@lemmy.world 30 points 7 months ago

Bro, 2010 is retro now

[-] ahornsirup@sopuli.xyz 14 points 7 months ago

We're gonna have to rethink definitions at some point. Yes, video games are still a comparatively new medium, but nobody would call a 2010 film a retro film, nevermind books or paintings.

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[-] scops@reddthat.com 28 points 7 months ago

Bro, we lost that fight. I was watching a Youtube video of a guy clearing games from his Steam backlog and introduced one with, "So, many of you watching probably weren't alive when this game came out. Everyone talks about what a classic this is, but I don't think I've met anyone who has actually played this game."

I died a little inside when it turned out he was talking about the first Half-Life.

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 22 points 7 months ago

If in 1998 you would have argued that 1972 is retro, then I'm sorry to tell you that 1998 is retro

[-] Hyperreality@kbin.social 27 points 7 months ago

No, you're retro! runs away sobbing

[-] hydroptic@sopuli.xyz 17 points 7 months ago

I am retro. You have no power here.

Embrace it! Gonna happen anyhow whether you want it to or not

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[-] Unforeseen@sh.itjust.works 15 points 7 months ago

You mean the late 1900's

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[+] crackajack@reddthat.com 61 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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[-] Blackmist@feddit.uk 33 points 7 months ago

I'm sure in the 2040s, people will say the 2020s were misogynistic too. And they'll be right. Equality isn't here yet.

Progress always seems to mostly march onwards, but you only have to watch Beverly Hills Cop 2 to see Eddie Murphy calling Brigitte Neilsen "that big bitch" like it was perfectly acceptable. And even that was probably considered pretty forward thinking at the time having a woman being cast in an action role, rather than just being fucked or fridged like pretty much every other 80s action movie.

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[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 56 points 7 months ago

Oh, man, you have NO idea:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/mar/15/games.advertising

[-] The_Picard_Maneuver@startrek.website 23 points 7 months ago

Oh my god, this is dark.

[-] kratoz29@lemm.ee 14 points 7 months ago

Bro, using ads in the graveyards this is new for me...

I bet this will make a comeback...

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[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 39 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My favorite old school game ad is one for Quake 3 Arena:

[-] leave_it_blank@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago

https://i0.wp.com/boingboing.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/quake_is_for_everyone_german_.jpg?resize=600%2C413&ssl=1

This German ad for Quake is awesome too!

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[-] frezik@midwest.social 13 points 7 months ago

And people make fun of that one ad where John Romero was going to make us all his bitch.

[-] Kolanaki@yiffit.net 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

To be fair, Daikatana sucked so the ad is mostly funny in retrospect because it didn't make everyone his bitch. If it had, I'm not sure we'd be making fun of it.

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[-] samus12345@lemmy.world 36 points 7 months ago

I thought they were cringy even then.

[-] BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 14 points 7 months ago

I was hitting puberty, this was prime material

[-] UKFilmNerd@feddit.uk 33 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Yep, those were different times.

Battlecruiser 3000AD. This advert was later revised and they drew black knickers on the model.

Psycho Pigs UXB. Another British classic?

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[-] f4f4f4f4f4f4f4f4@lemmy.world 26 points 7 months ago

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[-] Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social 24 points 7 months ago

Dreamcast ads got real weird. I vividly remember this one ad for Seaman: It showed a pair of feet and a fish tail sticking out from under a blanket. The accompanying text was "I will not mate outside my own species " repeated several times.

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[-] NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone 24 points 7 months ago

I can’t even process what’s going on with the reflection in the mirror being from an angle at about head height over the bed. I like that they didn’t even trust teen gamers to understand the allusion of a woman standing in a bedroom doorway without comping in this extra element.

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[-] Adalast@lemmy.world 23 points 7 months ago

Am I the only one cringing at the perspective in the mirror more than literally anything else in the ad?

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 18 points 7 months ago

Is there a reason they used the "You wouldn't download a car" font?

[-] Jackcooper@lemmy.world 24 points 7 months ago

Gen X edgy font?

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[-] CraigeryTheKid@lemm.ee 17 points 7 months ago

but why is he wearing a diaper?

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[-] dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

I'm still waiting for John Romero to make us all his bitch.

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[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 15 points 7 months ago

and above all - sexy new outfits

The most important part of a game.

[-] CurlyMoustache@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

This one is newer: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9f95EJaTHg/VNBkM0cJhCI/AAAAAAAARzs/wIzGSSJkiCo/s1600/alison-carroll-kick-1210867833.jpg

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[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 14 points 7 months ago

It took me a couple seconds to understand that it wasn't a before/ after set of pictures. It was a little confusing.

[-] AceQuorthon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 7 months ago

Man, 90s video game ads were wild lmao

RetroGaming