On Commercials whose Lies give me Chills

So, the Dead Island trailer is a thing.

I genuinely felt sympathetic panic watching Axe Dad scramble to save his daughter and fight for his life. It made me reconsider my position of a zombie outbreak being "fucking sweet". It gave me chills, which is extremely rare occurrence in my jaded, cynical, bleak little life. This trailer affected me in a way I haven't experienced since that Gears of War trailer which featured the song Mad World (which I'm pretty sure was developed in a lab to make me feel melancholy and isolated). Something about mournful piano music I guess. 

The problem, of course, is that the Dead Island trailer, from what I can gather from the Official Site, does not reflect anything you actually do in the game beyond the hitting zombies with axes you find. I was expecting some kind of atmospheric narrative driven by relatable characters but the screen shots feature things like a sexy lady fighting military super zombies with a samurai sword. 

Compare this to the Deus Ex: Human Revolution trailer; it is similar in that it is totally CG, features no gameplay and is cut like a movie, yet judging from gameplay footage is extremely evocative of what you actually do in the game. Another good example is the CG Trailers made for the Left 4 Dead series. Both examples show me what these games are about without actually showing any footage. Both are cut to make you go "whoa" and "holy shit" and "fuck yeah". Both are really good trailers.

Manipulating feelings and buying behaviors through propaganda, public relations and advertising is nothing new and painfully obvious when you know what to look for. I guess if all you are trying to do is create buzz and controversy and outrage and counter-outrage and blog posts (ahem) then go wild with you lying lies; just don't think it's going to sell me any games.

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