It's been a long time, my friends. A month to the day, in fact. Where has the pink llama been? Have I abandoned thee? The answer is yes.

Ooh. Harsh. Also, a lie.

Truth is, there have been plenty of stories I could have reported on, but work and other pursuits tied me up. And then I got really busy on MGS4. (Pigeon ranking, yay!) So you have to forgive me. I'm only human. Er, llama.

Today's news was too juicy to pass up, however, so awa-a-a-a-a-a-y we go!

Electronic Arts Admits They Used Xbox 360 Footage to Advertise Wii Game

The UK Advertising Standards Authority has laid in on EA for using footage from the Xbox 360 version of Tiger Woods '09 in a television advertisement for the Wii version.

The ad depicts Woods waggling a Wiimote around, intercut with footage purporting to be from the Wii version of the game, except that anyone who has seen Wii graphics could tell that it isn't. It's called the Kuleshov Effect, my friends: making you believe two shots next to each other are correlated, just by virtue of their proximity. It's been spreading Terrible Lies since the 1910s, and while it can clearly be used for both good and ill, let the lesson be learned: play it kosher when you're using it to sell your graphically uninteresting Wii titles.

The best part of it is the excuse EA offered in a press release, explaining the switcheroo:

Electronic Arts maintained that they were demonstrating game action that was possible on all formats and did not show any gameplay that was impossible on a Wii. They explained that Wii footage would not be of broadcast quality, and the originating agency had thought it preferable to use the Xbox footage, which was closer to broadcast definition, than to "up the resolution" of Wii footage to broadcast quality.

Harsh, EA. You know Wii's sensitive about its appearance.

Anyway, ASA's verdict was that the ad is misleading (gosh) and cannot be used anymore. But EA's adamant back and forth "we weren't trying to infer anything! except we were!" was one awesome thing to wake up to. Je vous salut, EA.

Kotaku: EA: Wii Graphics "Not of Broadcast Quality"

 

That's it for this Drama Llama. I am 83,000 words into my novel and I haven't done my Christmas shopping yet. If no other ridiculous kerfuffle happens between now and the new year, happy holidays and remember to feed your pets!