This ad for Interplay from 1999
This ad for Interplay from 1999
BY GAMERS, FOR GAMERS
It's like if someone distilled the entire reactionary anti-woke gamer mindset into one picture, it's amazing
The developers are all "cool" white guys with shades while the only women in the picture are anonymous blonde bikini babes only there for eye candy
Everyone wanted to be Smash Mouth.
Frosting my tips because it improves my videogame reaction speeds
It is worthy to note that by 1999, Interplay's finances were absolutely in the pits, their critically beloved games and reliable licensed stuff were just not paying the bills for their atrocious management, and the whole company would move A) toward consoles and B) toward desperate cringe like this, in a failed attempt to "broaden their audience". (to 18-34 white dudebros) This type of shit led to Fallout Brotherhood of Steel which has commercials, cutscenes and dialogue which is exactly as cringy :)
Feargus Urquhart
The simulation is fucking with us.
Nah, Feargus has been around forever. He worked on all of the good fallouts.
And Planescape: torment
There is not a single Black person in this picture‼️🗣️
computer g*mes and their consequences have been a disaster for the human race
based and
pilled
what if the guys were wearing trousers but also barefoot and the babes were in bikinis but also wearing heels?
deeply unserious poolside behavior on all counts
and all of the guys have 1 Crystal Geyser water bottle
they're resting
It's doubly disappointing because Interplay turned out surprisingly queer in retrospect: Rebecca Heineman, one of the more prominent trans women in video gaming history, was involved in its early days, and both Tim Cain and Black Isle's Josh Sawyer later came out as gay. Also, slightly unrelated, but I appreciate that because Baldur's Gate 1 and 2's NPC portraits were based on staff, it had at least some PoC representation, even if it was mostly on a visual level.
huh i didn't know josh sawyer was gay! neat
i'm sorry i just can't trust "gamers" that don't have socks
Maybe I’m thinking about this too hard, but is this actually a bit self-deprecating? Like, the gamers and the women both have their backs to each other. The women seem to be completely oblivious to the presence of the men, and vice versa.
With the caption "SHOT ON LOCATION AT INTERPLAY WORLDWIDE HEADQUARTERS" the implication is that Interplay HQ is such a wild place and the guys working for them so cool that there are just bikini babes spontaneously congregating at the company pool
They're as much a part of the furniture as the pool itself
Go check out Tim Cain channel if you haven't btw (he had left interplay a year before at that point)
You know at this point I feel like whenever I see women being objectified like this i kinda just imagine that they're all twinks and it makes it far more amusing for me
People in fursuits
