Welcome to the very first installment of U Serious, Bra?, where Claire and Wendy discuss the proper use of boobs in gaming. The topic stemmed from Games Editor Al Rosenberg’s simple question: What does it mean for a game that they have to sell it with boobs (see: Game of War: Fire Age by Machine Zone, Inc.)?
First off, let’s talk about where we stand on boobs in general.
Claire: Well. I remember the moment that I realised my forecasted eventual boob-ownership made me preemptively responsible for the rudeness of my upper torso, and I think I was four and a half? So “conflicted” is a good word here. I’ve no hatred of any given living boob, but a lot of vicious resentment for the dominant narrative on boobs that I took in as a Baywatch-era child in a family containing no breast-emphatic women. It gives me a hard time, the way Society Talks About Boobs (save the boobies! From CANCER, for example). I believe that breast fetishism is more prevalent, and far more unrecognised, than is generally healthy, frankly; I don’t think that most people who yak on about sex selling are listening to reproductive urges or the desire for human connection. Breasts are treated as inventory (gaming!).
Wendy: I quite like boobs and am particularly fond of great artistic displays of side boob. My own breasts are fairly small and, while I wished they were bigger when I was young, I took comfort in the fact that they would never be affected by gravity. Turns out I was wrong about that. Turns out, a lot of the things I believed about boobs as presented to me by the media was misleading in so many ways. Breastfeeding my own children has increased my awareness of breast fetishization, while the continued (social) media attraction to the breasts (as opposed to the actual women and men) that might fall victim to cancer continues to disgust me. I don’t mind seeing breasts in the media, but I’m tired of the complete lack of understanding in regard to how they work and the fact that they are actually attached to a human being.
With this in mind, we can turn our attention to the cleavage that inspired our train of thought, and the woman it belongs to: 23-year-old model Kate Upton, who currently plays Athena in advertisements for the mobile strategy app, Game of War: Fire Age. Prior to this ad campaign, Upton has gone on record expressing her discomfort with objectification following the reception of her 2012 Sports Illustrated covers:
“I’m not a toy, I’m a human, I’m not here to be used. I am a grown woman, and you need to figure your s— out.” — Kate Upton, The Christian Post
Yet here we see her in commercials for the base-building strategy war game that capitalize, not on her acting ability or anything about the game itself, but on Upton’s ample breasts:
Claire: I want to show friendship to Kate Upton whilst questioning the direction and costuming of her Game of War adverts. I don’t think she performs particularly well in them, but I think if she had managed a star performance it would have been a miracle; the scripts are weak and her armpit-grazing bodice is as strong as a thousand Samsons. Unfortunately, it is also as misguided, and attempts to launch her cleavage into the sun. And the cleavage, if you watch the adverts, is the only thing “about the game” that’s being emphasised.
Hey! Teacher! Leave those kids alone!
I first saw a Game of War: Fire Age advert in the cinema when I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road. It was incongruous. I thought it was a parody until it was clear that there was no joke; holy shit, I thought, that’s nakedly crap. I think I may have laughed out loud, what with being all het up from Mad Max pre-show adrenaline.
And I also wondered: what is a pop-up ad doing on a cinema screen, with dialogue, and an entertainment professional whom I vaguely sort of recognise? Where’s the money coming from here? And why’s it been spent on low-key torturing a pair of professional, publicly approved tits? Kate Upton’s main claim to fame, as touted by Wikipedia, is being in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues. Her filmic ventures are carefully defined there as “financially successful”, i.e. critics were like “ehhh.”
She’s a national-level horsewoman, so it’s nice they let her ride a bit in some I guess?
This is breast-based advertising, and yet everything about it seems to be working against success in that forum. The fit of her various bodices is baffling. Upton already has cover model, centrefold breasts when they’re left to their own comfortable devices. She’s a highly paid breast and face model. Casting her and clothing her in a less aggressive rig would still be associating your crappy build-a-civ app with sensual womanhood. Still crass, still unpleasant, still sexist–but not so stupid as to be laughable. Not patronising! Although I suppose that the game is called “Game of War”, so the weakness is chronic. Nobody, even the most dedicated everyday perv, wants to feel like an ad company is just yelling “hey, shithead, have some TITS or whatever!” Do they?
Wendy: The commercials have become a regular part of our viewing schedule since they often play during our favourite television shows. I wanted to believe that her presence served some purpose beyond being a beautiful woman seductively inviting gamers to play with her. Now, I just roll my eyes every time I see her boobs bouncing and floating across my screen or invading my Twitter feed. But my hope when I first saw the ad was that she was actually a gamer and that this wasn’t just capitalizing on her assets. I am not entirely opposed to sex-based advertising if there’s context to go with, and I particularly like the idea of advertising that reminds us that yes, women play video games, too. For example, actress Megan Fox, a known gamer, appears in a Call of Duty commercial as an active–and fully dressed yet still sexy–participant. But who was I kidding? There is nothing inclusive about these Game of War: Fire Age commercials and Upton’s role therein. Unfortunately, Upton does not play the game herself and despite what she might believe–
“It is fantastic to be instrumental in the start of a new era in gaming and communications. I love playing the part of Athena—she’s such a bad-ass character, commanding armies, slaying hydra, charging into battle—the work shows how much fun it is, and I am proud to be part of it.” — Kate Upton, AdWeek
–Athena is a static character that does very little in the game itself. She appears from time to time in the early levels to guide you and encourage you to fork up your cash for perks. In other words, Upton plays Athena the Goddess of Give Machine Zone, Inc. Your Money.
Does breast-based advertising really work?
Wendy: Game of War: Fire Age currently sits in the top three in app sales and has more or less maintained a high rank since its introduction in 2013, holding court alongside Candy Crush, a puzzle game, and Clash of Clans, another strategy war game. Both Game of War: Fire Age and Clash of Clans involve base-building, gathering resources, and training troops in order to defend and/or attack and amass more power and wealth. Or, you can amass more power and wealth by spending your own real dollars. The pre-boob revenue–that included a 15-year-old boy who spent almost 37,000 euros on the game (translation)–was enough for the company to sink $40 million into the current ad campaign. Presumably, some of that budget goes to the duct tape required to keep Upton’s ample breasts from spilling out of her ill-fitting attire. Thanks to those boobs, Game of War: Fire Age now boasts over two million players and rakes in approximately one million dollars a day in microtransactions. In a Gamespot article, Machine Zone, Inc reported:
“The free-to-play game’s in-app purchases–which range in price up to $100–have doubled since the advertising campaign started.”
Microtransactions are the bread and butter of these mobile apps, and clearly Machine Zone, Inc. is getting it right with the results, if not the delivery, according to Paul Tassi of Forbes:
“Though both are in the same genre, [Clash of Clans] makes subtle use of its monetization strategy, while [Game of War: Fire Age] constantly assaults your eyeballs at every turn, trying to extract money from your pockets in a half dozen different ways from the moment you log in.”
Clearly, subtlety is not a strong point for Machine Zone, Inc.
So the simple answer is yes, breast-based advertising does work, but is it necessary?
Wendy: Clash of Clans’ 2015 Superbowl ad featuring Liam Neeson’s vengeful Taken persona was the most popular Superbowl commercial viewed on Youtube, according to VentureBeat, while Game of War: Fire Age did not do quite as well. It seems that Kate Upton can’t compete with Liam Neeson in terms of player engagement.
The game itself is not particularly good. It scores 67% on MetaCritic with a 1.9 user rating, which is lower than both Candy Crush and Clash of Clans, its biggest competition. Both of these games also have mainstream advertising campaigns, but neither of them have resorted to breast-based promotion. It should also be noted that, while Neeson did appear in the $9 million Clash of Clans Superbowl ad, the rest of the app’s commercials simply feature humourous CGI spoofs of in-game battles. Writes The Fiscal Times’ Andrew Lumby about Game of War: Fire Age:
“It’s strange that something so mediocre has maintained the No. 3 position in the mobile apps revenue chart for so long. The burnout rate for players is ridiculously high, and Machine Zone needs a constant stream of new players to replace those who fall away or get frustrated and leave.”
Is it really that strange, Andrew? Is it? The video game industry is, on one hand, trying to show us how it has matured and how it isn’t just about boobs and marketing to a demographic of teenage boys, but Machine Zone, Inc. has invested $40 million into maintaining the stereotype. Is this really the reputation we as gamers of any gender want our industry forever reduced to?
Claire: And are “breasts are for marketing” or “breasts provide worth” messages what we as people want out in the ether? Because that’s the state we’re in here. Patronisingly blunt breast-based advertising really does “work”. Whether through genuine enjoyment or ironic clicks, these Upton adverts are providing enough monetised, rollover interest in a basic, minor, generic game that it can sustain a place in million dollar economies. That’s plain fucked up. A product is given capital by widespread reception of the application of a woman’s displayed breasts. There’s very little to take from that beyond harm. If this is gaming, then gaming is being bad to humanity. If gamers are people–studies suggest that many are–then humanity is doing itself a disservice.
