Evan Cowgill
ENG 400
Dr. Cream
7 September 2017
Rhetorical Analysis 2: Your Mom Hates This
Link for Reference: https://youtu.be/nKkPFDEiC6Q
In their commercial, “Your Mom Hates Dead Space 2”, Visceral Games (the main developer) and EA Games (the publisher and most likely culprit for this advertisement) try to assert that Dead Space 2 is a game so violent and horrific that every player’s mother is going to hate it. The commercial is broadcast with the intention of convincing young games that their mom’s disapproval is the reason why they should buy Dead Space 2 – or any game for that matter.
It starts with several video clips of moms reacting to footage of gameplay, immediately setting the stage in this way before the game has even been shown. No room is allowed for other interpretation of the gameplay, because it is entirely framed by the disgust present on the participating mom’s faces. Following this introduction, a deep-voiced narrator speaks over a frenzied series of clips from Dead Space 2 with a potent slogan: “It’s revolting; it’s violent; it’s everything you love in a game, and your mom’s gonna hate it.” I can’t help but think of Heather Chaplin’s warning against games that rely solely on violence for incentive to buy and play, as they increase the danger of inorganic imbalance in the game industry.
