Kate Upton is the face of the free-to-play mobile MMO game, Game of War: Fire Age, which obviously attempts to play off of the titles of popular games. Like most other F2P MMO-like games for smartphones and tablets, Game of War: Fire Age constantly barrages you with suggestions to buy in-game currency with real money via microtransactions. Such is the way of mobile gaming. And while spending money on advertisement for a mobile game isn’t new (see Supercell’s Clash of Clans), the way the money was spent is a little atrocious and insulting.
Machine Games hired Kate Upton. She’s the face of their game. She’s in the TV spots, scantily clad and chest all out there. She’s in the game as an avatar, serving as a host and advisor in a way — advising you to spend money on the game. Because who can deny Kate Upton as Athena, the Greek god of war, suggesting they buy some in-game currency?
I don’t blame Kate Upton one bit for taking the money given to her to do this ad and be in this game. Good for her. If I was her, I’d do the same thing.
But to Machine Zone, the developer of Game of War: Fire Age, is that how you get people to play your game? I guess they don’t really care how people get to playing it, as long as they do and spend money while doing so. That’s why they make a generic game that copies so many others before it, and then pay a model with lots of sex appeal to make seductive suggestions for people to come play. Most of the reviews on the app store suggest that people love the game, but the developers are greedy and it’s pay-to-win. The more money you spend, the better you’ll be in it. So I’m sure the hope is for Kate Upton to bring in a bunch young, male gamers with their bodies full of hormones and their wallets full of cash to come play their game where they can regularly see Kate Upton’s cleavage and some thigh instead of going online and seeing pics of her and Justin Verlander.
Kate Upton’s acting isn’t what I find atrocious about the ad (even though it wasn’t good). It’s the image they’re trying to portray to make their game successful and popular. It’s a cash grab using sex to fuel a game where sex really isn’t a factor. Sure, Kate Upton’s character in the game is Athena, but no one believes that, right? They didn’t get Kate Upton to portray Athena; they got Kate Upton to portray Kate Upton and the assets that Kate is wildly popular for. That’s what I find atrocious — the use of Kate in this obvious cash grab in a market filled with these types of games. You know why Supercell didn’t do this type of thing with Clash of Clans? Because they didn’t have to, Machine Games, that’s why.
