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Richard Porter
Professor Onwuzuruoha
English 1010
July 18
th
, 2014
Visual Analysis

Yes, this image is an actual advertisement for a product. It showed in several video game
publications in the year 1998. Looking directly at this ad, one can draw no conclusions about the
product. Everything about this ad is meant to be harsh and abrasive and could only succeed at its
unintentional end goal, angering everyone who read it. There are very few pieces of information
that would even allow someone whose interest was sparked by this ad to research. The first piece
of information would be the name, John Romero. Who is John Romero? Why and is he about to
make me his bitch? What could any of that possibly have to do with any product, let alone a
video game? The second pieces of information that could provide any insight to what this ad
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could possibly mean is at the bottom, the names Ion Storm and Eidos. A quick google search
would have shown you Eidos is a game publisher attached to such franchises as Tomb Raider,
Thief, and Deus Ex. These are all very popular and very well respected franchises in the video
game world. The other name, Ion Storm, would yield a search result talking about a game studio
responsible for creating the original Deus Ex, which is critically hailed as one of the best games
ever made. You would find some very influential people In the world of games attached to the
name Ion Storm, such as Warren Spector and Corrine Yu. Corrine Yu went on to work very
deeply with Microsoft and Bungie on the Halo franchise. Warren Spector is one of the most
influential people in video games today, speaking about execution and creation, and what it takes
to be successful with a creation as he was successful with Deus Ex and Epic Mickey. Look him
up, he is kind of a big deal. Why would people of this caliber want themselves and the company
they work for represented by this type of advertising?
After initial analysis of the advertising the pathos is very clear. The emotional response to
being told what the text has conveyed is impactful and clearly negative. The entire design of the
advertisement is meant to be abrasive. The choice of red as a background, possibly representing
heat, or blood, or anger of some kind, makes for a harsh template. The black scuff marks
scattered across the red landscape, possibly representing some type of tempered or battle
hardened imagery add to the abrasive look of the work. The lack of anything possibly giving the
viewer a reprieve from the harsh characteristics, must be by design, to create the negative
emotional response this ad was intended to create. One only needs to glance at the visual to
achieve these emotions.
The ethos of the work is what the interesting part becomes after your emotional response
has faded. The credibility of the writer and people represented by this visual are called into
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question right away by emotional response. If a viewer bothered to look past that initial shock,
what would they find about the names in the article? Starting at the top, who is John Romero?
John Romero, upon deeper investigation, is a designer who worked at Id Software during their
glory days. Id Software is responsible for two of the greatest gaming franchises of all time,
Doom and Quake. Romero worked with some of the great industry leaders during his time at Id
Software. He was well known for his trash talk and his brash behavior during his gaming
sessions, whether it be a pen and paper D&D game, or online sessions of the video games he
worked on. The term Suck it Down as it appears in the ad is something he would say during
this trash talking. His brash, egotistical, rock and roll, lifestyle could only lead to his ego giving
life to something of this caliber.
The game this ad was designed to represent Daikatana, a game which is now infamous
for its commercial and critical failure. John Romero himself was quoted ten years later as
saying,Up until that ad, I felt I had a great relationship with the gamer and the game
development community and that ad changed everything. That stupid ad. I regret it and apologize
for it. You know, when the ad was first presented to me, I knew it was risky, and I didnt want to
do it. It didnt make sense. I mean, theres the whole culture of smack talk that goes with games
and especially the FPSs, and that was something I was known for. Romeros arrogant thinking
led to the release of the ad which changed everything. As the game experienced failures and
delays, the community who would have gladly waited for the complete product to be finished, as
was customary in those days, were turned against the product with the negativity the ad
produced. If he is going to say things like that in his ads, the least he can do is put out the
game, became the mentality and mantra for the consumer base. What would have been met with
understanding, was met with hostility. When the game finally did come out, and did not live up
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to the level of hype the ad produced, it was dismissed by gamers and became the infamous
commercial flop it is known as today.