Update - 6/5/09: WE GOT PUNKED. Yes, a representative from EA told the Associated Press that the religious protest outside of this week's E3 event was indeed a viral marketing stunt.
Yesterday, a small group calling themselves the Salvationists Against Virtual and Eternal Damnation, protested outside of this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Parading around the sidewalk with handmade signs with catchy phrases like "Electronic Anti-Christ" and "Hell Is Not A Game," the group was calling out EA's upcoming game, Dante's Inferno, a game that makes the classic tale of one man's journey into hell into a high definition action game.
To spice it up, the group also had signs that proclaimed "We Need Pray Stations. Not PlayStations" and handed out fliers to those willing to listen, or merely curious.
The fliers, pictured here, call out several "condemnable" offenses including "witchcraft, heresy, satanic worship, occult iconography, romanticizing violence and murder, and loads more." A web site for the group offers up a stringed instrumental background track, lots of crosses, none of the spelling mistakes shown in the flier or the signs and ends with a link to the game's official site. Which caused gamers to question the legitimacy of the small group of protesters.
Was it a fake group of actors created by EA to drum up promotion for the game? If so, it certainly got attention. We did talk to several reps from Electronic Arts yesterday who said that they were not behind the site. Did we get punked? If so, you played a good game EA.
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