Comments: 2 Comments (Go to Comments)
Categories: Commentary
Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, conan, ps3, xbox 360, zachariah alfred
Conan the PhenomenonLast week, ABC7 in Sacramento ran a non-story about Arnold Schwarzenegger and THQ’s Conan game. In something that passes for journalism, a reporter asked California Governor Schwarzenegger’s press secretary about the former Conan star’s feelings on the game and press secretary Aaron McLear said, “The Conan character existed far before the governor portrayed him in the movies, and it still exists in different forms of entertainment. The governor has no association with that game.”
Which gets spun into:
He is distancing himself from Conan, the video game.
I’ve played the demo and I’m surprised that more people aren’t distancing themselves from the game. It’s a God of War clone, but it’s not one of those good clones. It’s like one of those clone of a clone type clones. I imagine that the people who created it, had a meeting and someone said, “Hey, do you know what’s a good idea for a game?” And the other people said, “No.” And the first guy said, “Me neither. Let’s crap on the Conan franchise! We’ll give him magic powers and throw breasts on everything!”
Back to the news story– yes, Arnold isn’t associated with the game and his association with the franchise ended over twenty years ago. And yes, it is a franchise. This isn’t the first Conan game, Schwarzenegger has “distanced” himself from and it won’t be the last. He also isn’t associated with the Dark Horse comics series, the Del Ray books, or the McFarlane action figures. Asking him about the Conan game is worse than asking Shatner about the combination of Kirk’s safe.
Get a life!
And, to top it off, ABC7 closes with this quote, “The people that know the old-school movies can’t help it. They see Conan, they think Arnold,” said gamer Zachariah Alfred. “But the new generation has no association whatsoever.”
Who the fuck is Zachariah Alfred?
Did I miss the con where we elected this guy our leader?
And I’m annoyed that the gaming press that picked this up, ran with it:
Schwarzenegger Wants No Part of Conan Game [Kotaku]
Gov. Schwarzenegger distances self from Conan games [Joystiq]
On December 17th, 2007 at 1:05 pm, Steve wrote:
I honestly hear more people talking about the Age of Conan MMO as if it’ll be the best thing since sliced World of Warcraft (ok, that didn’t make any sense, but I’m leaving it in there anyway). I’ve not heard much hype about the console Conan game, but then again, it could be because I don’t have a system that can play it.
On December 17th, 2007 at 1:41 pm, terry wrote:
I’m cautiously optimistic about Age of Conan, but MMOs have never absorbed me.