PS情人节射击游戏的小算盘

    今年情人节，成千上万的人敲击电脑键盘、使用网页浏览器不是为了订购鲜花和勿忘我，而是在操纵一挺机关枪，瞄准、射击一辆由嗜杀成性的虚拟小丑驾驶的冰淇淋卡车。我本来也应该是他们中的一员。

    这些人参与的是广告公司Deutsch LA发起的射杀卡车（Shoot My Truck）推广活动。Deutsch的客户、索尼（Sony）旗下的PlayStation业务部门想通过一场热热闹闹的推广活动，重新推出其《烈火战车》（Twisted Metal）特许赛车游戏。Deutsch拿到的有限预算在通常情况下只够做一个网页横幅广告，但这家广告公司选择了一种非同寻常但引人注目的方式。他们拿出的东西有点古怪，有点前卫，颇为吻合《烈火战车》的暴力美学。

    Deutsch的首席数字官温斯顿•宾奇表示，几个月前他们就产生了这个想法，让粉丝们通过自己的电脑，远程操控一挺机关枪，射击沙漠里一辆类似游戏中的角色Sweet Tooth开着的卡车，最后用C4炸药将其炸毁——很普通的营销点子。项目筹备花了五周，实弹射击时沙漠现场有55个人监督和控制整个过程，采用了几挺M249 SAW轻机枪，进行了45次爆炸，最后一次摧毁了目标卡车。

    2月14日情人节这天，Deutsch在Twitter上启动了#shootmytruck的全国推广活动，15日继续进行。在项目网站shootmytruck.com上，实时微博信息列出了很多粉丝的点评，但同时有些人困惑地写道，为什么要射击自己的卡车。通过Twitter或Facebook进入，粉丝们可参加抽奖，有机会射击钢琴、油桶以及目标卡车旁的其他物件；几年前玩过这一系列游戏的玩家都很熟悉卡车这个靶子。

    情人节这天通过电脑操纵一挺机关枪进行射击，绝对算不上一个浪漫的点子。但索尼希望它能激活Twisted Metal的玩家群，即青年男性和青少年男性，正是他们驱动着游戏行业的销售。根据Deutsch的流量数据显示，确实有很多人参与了这一活动：约319,000人访问了Shoot My Truck网站，在Twitter或Facebook上转发和点评约10,000次。有这样的数据，不难预见将来Deutsch或其他广告公司还会尝试这样的电脑结合实景推广活动。

    我也登陆了这个网页，但结果很失望。技术故障使我一直无法射击。通过电脑操控一挺机关枪进行射击，参与这样的推广活动本身就够怪了，但更怪的是周围人都能成功地连续射击，你自己却啥也干不了。Deutsch LA称，此次活动基本上没有出现技术故障。“种种活动永远无法做到完美无缺，”宾其说。“它不像单纯的广告。它是实时的，必须实时解决所有问题。”他说的可能没错，但这话还是说给我蠢蠢欲动、想要扣动扳机的食指听吧。

    This Valentine's Day, thousands of people used their keyboards and web browsers not to buy flowers or forget-me-nots, but to aim and fire a machine gun at an ice cream truck best-known as the wheels of a homicidal, virtual clown. I was supposed to be one of them.

    They were participating in ad firm Deutsch LA's Shoot My Truck campaign. Its client, Sony's (SNE) PlayStation division, wanted a buzzy campaign to re-launch its Twisted Metal racing game franchise. With a limited budget that would have traditionally gone to pay for banner ads online, the advertisers took a more unusual, eye-catching, and disturbing route. They came up with something off-kilter and edgy, much like the video game's apocalyptic aesthetic.

    Winston Binch, chief digital officer at Deutsch, says the team conceived the idea to have fans use their computers to remotely shoot a machine gun at a truck looking like the game character Sweet Tooth's ride in the desert and then blow it up with C4 explosive -- just your run of the mill marketing idea -- months ago. The setup for the project took five weeks. For the actual shoot, there were 55 people on the ground in the desert overseeing the operation, which used several M249 SAW light machine guns and included 45 explosions, the last of which obliterated the targeted truck.

    The stunt started Tuesday and continued Wednesday, when the team kept #shootmytruck a nationally promoted trend on Twitter. On the project's website, shootmytruck.com, a live stream of tweets showed that many fans were writing about the effort, along with a few lost souls of the social media platform who posted confused messages questioning why they would want to shoot their own trucks. By logging in through Twitter or Facebook, fans were entered in a lottery to get a chance to shoot the pianos, oil drums, and other objects surrounding the truck itself, a well-known target for those who played the series years ago.

    Shooting a machine gun through your computer on Valentine's Day. It's definitely not the most romantic of ideas. But Sony hopes it energized the Twisted Metal fan base, younger male users who drive much of the game industry's sales. Plenty of people did participate, based on the traffic numbers from Deutsch: about 319,000 people visited the Shoot My Truck site, and posted about the event on Twitter or Facebook about 10,000 times. With numbers like that, it would not be shocking to see Deutsch or another agency try an effort with similar computer-to-live environment engagement.

    I was one visitor who walked away disappointed, however. Despite quietly skipping the line, a technical glitch kept me from taking my turn against the truck. One of the only things weirder than shooting a gun for a promotion through a computer is feeling disappointed that you can't when others successful blaze away around you. Deutsch LA says the event went off largely without technical hiccups. "It's never going to be flawless," Binch argues. "It's not going to be like with a pristine ad. This is live, and you've got to work through things in a real-time manner." He is probably right. But tell that to my itchy trigger finger.