Do You Feel Lucky?

(and feel free to comment! My older posts are certainly no less relevant to the burning concerns of the day.)

Monday, October 19, 2009

Game Development Pipeline: Term Life Pt.2

Other aspects of the game. If you survive long enough in the game to where your children are all grown and your spouse is dead, and you've got grandchildren and stuff, then the game starts pitching you funeral insurance instead. There will also be a special parking meter you will have to keep going to, to keep pumping quarters in there and live forever.

This really only works if your character in the game is female - only grandma types ever appear in those ads guilt-tripping the elderly over sticking their descendents with the tab for a pine box and a plot of dirt. As if those punks can't foot that one lousy bill for the person who put them here! Shit.

You never see an old coot in those ads. It's always a biddy. Perhaps coots are less susceptible to giving a shit? I picture if gramps was in that ad, it wouldn't be "How I hate to think of leaving the burden on my children." Naw, he'd be all "After everything I sacrificed for those ingrates! They damn well better have enough socked away to send the old man off in style! My dad raised me up enough to be able to bury him right and proper, didn't he? Did I do such a shitty job on these kids, they can't do the same?"

All things considered, I think maybe guilt trips probably just sit that much sweeter when laid down by granny instead of pop-pop. And I wouldn't be a bit surprised if they have studies to back that up.

I've always taken a keen interest when it comes to these subtle distinctions and shades of demographics.

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