Animal Crossing's Arwing - Free Prize Or Seditious Spam?
The ever-furious Tony Walsh has posted on Clickable Culture about Nintendo's in-game method of promoting Star Fox DS within the v.popular Animal Crossing: Wild World.
Though subsequently corrected that the messages from Nintendo are optional, he notes: " Players of the online-enabled town-building game Animal Crossing: Wild World received a... marketing message recently from Nintendo, the game's maker. The message was sent through the game's email system, normally used to deliver inter-player mail as well as free virtual gifts from Nintendo such as home decor and furniture. According to Animal Crossing Ahead, the message refers to the recently released Nintendo game Star Fox Command: "Dear [name], Star Fox Command stats are live! We were going to give you Slippy, but take this instead! Attached to the letter is an Arwing!"
Commenter Dezro notes: "This is a pretty benign thing IMO. No illusion-shattering graphics, nothing you can't turn off... You can even throw out the letter without opening it, and still keep the rare item they send (which is already available in the game - Nintendo didn't just have it there for the express purpose of promotion)." But even more tragically, does this break the fourth wall? Oh my.
Comments
I'm not furious on weekends and holidays. And also for roughly 14 seconds immediately following any decent cup of coffee.
The whole Nintendo-spam thing is sort of a non-issue, considering what Dezro pointed out. Although opt-out does suck as an option.
Is there much of a 4th wall to break in AC:WW?
Posted by: Tony Walsh | September 14, 2006 6:22 PM
It's not even that blatent of a spam. It claims stats are live, not "Star Fox Command, now available at retailers everywhere for a MSRP of $34.99." If it was the latter I would be pissed, but it's not.
Posted by: d | September 14, 2006 6:46 PM
It wasn't spam when they used the exact same item in Animal Crossing on the Gamecube. The real issue here is laziness, not advertising.
Posted by: 20XX | September 14, 2006 7:05 PM
I can't stand advertising in my games usually. Not because of any dislike of advertising, but because it destroys the illusion of the game.
However, I find the advertising in Animal Crossing enhances my feel of the game world. Rather than detest it as spam, I felt excited to get a letter from Nintendo. :)
Biased maybe, but I think it's just the fact that it was delivered to a letter box - it had a greater context.
So I guess advertising in game is okay with me, if it doesn't break the 4th wall, and especially if it enhances the feel of the game.
Posted by: wht.rbt | September 15, 2006 2:49 AM
It surely doesn't break the 4th wall more than it does to have a character yell at you for resetting without saving your game first. Animal Crossing is supposed to simulate living in a town. Heck, I get promotional junk mail in real life ALL THE TIME. Sometimes a car company will send me a trinket attached to the mail, like a tiny soccer ball or something. If I don't want it, I toss it. I don't look at the junk mail and go "OMG stop breaking my wall, man!"
Posted by: Icupnimpn2 | September 15, 2006 4:27 AM