There isn't really going to be a Japanese role-playing game called Tender Rondo: The Sensitive Saga or a Wii game called The Plagues Of Egypt that lets you write blood on a doorway with gesture control.
But some people would buy them.
Outside a Berkeley GameStop, recently, a team of fake games marketing team led by 1up reporter and intellectual griefer Shawn Elliott pitched a bunch of games to ordinary gamers to see just what kind of ridiculous nonsense people would buy.
Like this game, with the following absurd features:
Duty Calls
(Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PSP, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance)
Features
- BigTek Engine: Experience the absolute pinnacle of visual fidelity. New technology creates game characters at a realistic scale while other games feature tiny characters, zoomed in.
- Capture the Flag: Innovative new multiplayer mode features two teams vying for control of a flag. Unlike Call of Duty, Duty Calls features online multiplayer options for up to six players.
- Single-player campaign allows players to fight in America's greatest conflicts, from the Bay of Pigs and the invasion of Panama to Desert One and the bombing of Libya.
Elliott and his cohort got people to provide feedback, haircut advice for the lead character (flat top vs. flat top with fade vs. shaved head) and even a prediction for a review score.
After the stunt they discovered that the titles of one of the games they made up had already been trademarked by a real game company.
What won't people call b.s. on?
Read about the games and listen to the 15-minutes of field audio at 1up.com (the Duty Calls segment is the funniest).
Merchants of Cool [1up.com]