Honestly, might be nostalgic for guys, but as a girl who was playing games in this era, it made me feel like I wasn’t a part of the culture, rarely if ever were there ads marketed towards me, but man were there a lot of half naked ladies. Glad we don’t do this as much, but god this caused a lot of younger girls to feel ashamed of playing games “for boys”.

This kind of marketing ruined gaming culture.

There is a throughline between gendered marketing; the idea that young hetero men owned gaming; and chud gaming culture like gamergate.

The idea of the young horny gamer dude is sexist toward men too. Never mind the accompanying stereotypes of gamers as loosers and nerds.

I'll fight anyone who says 1998 is retro. I'm getting old, but give me a few more years damn.

Oh, man, you have NO idea:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2002/mar/15/games.advertising

The early 00s was pretty mysoginistic.

I originally came from a conservative country, and yet there were plenty of ads for softcore porns in TVs and billboards in those days. Even as a child, I questioned why do they show such images in front of full view to everyone.

The thing is, such mysoginy was the norm without us even realising it. I remember reading an article of a woman reminiscing her college days in early 00s. There were pictures of college girls on pin up boards and they get graded on how beautiful they are. The author said no one thought bad about it but looking back, it was very degrading and also invading privacy. There was also the matter of the infamous wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson. She got all the public spotlight afterwards because she is a woman, but Justin Timberlake pretty much got away with it for free. JT also shamed Britney Spears about losing her virginity to him, instead of keeping his mouth shut, while Britney was branded as slut.

My favorite old school game ad is one for Quake 3 Arena:

I thought they were cringy even then.

Yep, those were different times.

Battlecruiser 3000AD. This advert was later revised and they drew black knickers on the model.

Psycho Pigs UXB. Another British classic?

Dreamcast ads got real weird. I vividly remember this one ad for Seaman: It showed a pair of feet and a fish tail sticking out from under a blanket. The accompanying text was "I will not mate outside my own species " repeated several times.

Am I the only one cringing at the perspective in the mirror more than literally anything else in the ad?

I can’t even process what’s going on with the reflection in the mirror being from an angle at about head height over the bed. I like that they didn’t even trust teen gamers to understand the allusion of a woman standing in a bedroom doorway without comping in this extra element.

They were going with a "sex sells" approach to marketing, but what they got was just an unrelatable and cringe piece of 90s trash.

but why is he wearing a diaper?

I'm still waiting for John Romero to make us all his bitch.

Is there a reason they used the "You wouldn't download a car" font?

and above all - sexy new outfits

The most important part of a game.

This one is newer: http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j9f95EJaTHg/VNBkM0cJhCI/AAAAAAAARzs/wIzGSSJkiCo/s1600/alison-carroll-kick-1210867833.jpg