The marketing campaign for Dante’s Inferno has been hit or miss. Do you remember when EA pissed off the entire Internet when they encouraged gamers to molest booth babes? That stunt was morally irresponsible and could have led to time in prison for hordes of sex-crazed nerds. But then EA sent a bunch of journalists crates that Rick Rolled them until they smashed the crates with the included hammers. That stunt was actually pretty funny because it played off an online meme and required geeks with no upper body strength to smash wooden crates.
EA’s latest marketing ploy for Dante’s Inferno is a new Facebook application that let’s you damn things to an eternity of torture, pain, and suffering.
The application is named “Go To Hell” to continue EA’s goal of presenting hell as a desirable tourist attraction. I wouldn’t be surprised if EA opened a hell amusement park where visitors can take turns sitting on Satan’s pitchfork and stand in line to get their genitals sanded off.
Go To Hell lets users send people, groups, brands, and other things to one of the seven levels of hell. The rest of the community can then vote whether to “punish this sinner” or “absolve this angel.” There isn’t a middle option, so if you decide that Larry the Cable Guy doesn’t deserve to have his ribs drilled by malice imps, you’re forced to label him an angel. Personally, I don’t think that Larry the Cable Guy deserves an eternity of torture, but there’s no way I’m calling him an angel.
According to EA’s press release, “With the click of a button, anyone can send a friend foe, place, product or brand to one of the nine circles of hell. Angry at your mom for grounding you? Send her to ‘Treachery’. Mad at your ex- for cheating? Send them to ‘Lust’.”
Take that, mom! I can’t go outside for two days? Well you can’t use your eyes ever again because a demon plucked them out and tossed them in the runoff from Acid Smother Cave.
Looks like World of Warcraft has a bright future.
Currently, the two most damned people on the Go To Hell application are Megan Fox and Sarah Palin. The users condemned Megan Fox to the Lust circle of hell, which makes me think that a lot of people don’t understand how the circles of hell work. Just because Megan Fox won’t have sex with you even after you struggled through Transformers 2 one and a half times doesn’t mean she deserves to have her breasts clamped in a press.
A Go To Hell iPhone app is also in the works. That should help me finally punish that staff from that McDonalds that keeps serving me cold fries.
