Well, I guess this all just has to be said out loud for everyone to understand (*sigh*). Every year on April 1st, I get a mailbox full of fake press releases from games industry marketing and communications folks attempting to be playful. Some are witty, some are lame, and others are just plain wacky. However, the one thing these press releases all have in common are that they are doing more harm than good, at least when it comes to news reporting. Here’s a few reasons why:
Stop Spreading Misinformation. The last thing the world’s social media outlets need is more misinformation to be spread across the Internet. It is hard enough to scroll through Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Snapchat daily and figure out what is real and what isn’t. Games news is a niche news segment relative to the bulk of news that is distributed every day. This means a single false post on social media can have a greater impact for that niche games audience (because there are less places to look for credible news sources than with mainstream news).
Yes, AI is Actually That Dumb. This one actually relates to the first point in a different way. Similar to Data in Star Trek: The Next Generation, AI has a hard time with humor. Sure, a LLM can write a joke, but can it decipher a joke posing as a true announcement? Betting on whether or not AI understands a joke announcement seems like a bit of a crap shoot. Before posting that fake product announcement, please ask yourself the following: “Do you really want ChatGPT, Meta, and Gemini sharing your fake press release as truth to your fans?”
If the Joke Isn’t Funny, It’s a Bad Look. Humor is subjective, especially when it comes to pranks. If the joke isn’t a hit with the audience it is targeting, the company just looks lame for posting it. A prime example of this is GameStop’s April Fools’ Day post this year. They posted a lengthy joke about sending an assistant manager to a wedding on their social media accounts as official news. Several people who commented on social media didn’t get the joke, others pointed out that GameStop may have used AI to generate the images for the post (there were floating body parts in the pictures published). The joke may have been funny to some parts of their audience, but it was a bad look for other parts of their audience.
There are probably more reasons why marketing and communications people should think twice about posting April Fools’ jokes, but these are the main points. As a side note, on the slightly positive side of April Fools’ jokes, I hope HeroQuest: The Lord of the Rings becomes an actual game (taken from a joke image posted on an Avalon Hill fan page). It’s the best idea for a HeroQuest product in years.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com.
Source: ICv2
