Little Inferno’s trailer is an absolute banger. The Tomorrow Corporation could sell me anything with commercials that good. Hell, I’d buy an entertainment fireplace if they pitched it hard enough. The game, however, is overtly anti-capitalist. Little Inferno forces players to consume their way through the narrative without ever giving players any real agency. The only way to progress is by continuing to buy and burn each of the catalogue items, but the letters you receive eventually criticise you for mindlessly burning. Still you have to buy, burn, and unlock more items before you can do anything differently. At this point, the player is given their first and only choice - they can destroy their house and leave the system or ignore their neighbors warnings and continue to play. Neither option represents success. Burning your house ends the game, but finishing Little Inferno isn’t much of an accomplishment. Continuing your play avoids ending the game, but is a moral failing in the game’s opinion. Both options can be labeled as a “win” or a “loss” depending on your own interpretation. Is it game complete or just game over?
As a game about consumption, Little Inferno draws equal criticism from both armchair socialists and libertarian keyboard warriors. Both sides are eager to point out the irony of “anti-consumerist” goods as if it’s somehow disqualifying. It’s easy to call Little Inferno ineffective. I doubt anyone who played it stopped buying things or playing new games, but that’s a simplistic and unrealistic objective. Little Inferno makes every player choose to consume or to quit. Even if players make this decision blindly, they are able to consider it later. Would I rather have continued playing? Was there any point to continuing? Why did I play through at all?
I played because of the trailer. I won’t downplay Little Inferno’s gameplay or story, but I will admit my own bias. I like good advertising (a lot). To me, the trailer stands out to me as the games strongest point. It’s narratively significant, good looking, and beautifully scored. Most importantly, the trailer sold copies and drew eyes. Watching it in-game was the highlight of my time playing Little Inferno. Given the game’s messaging, advertising is an important component. Marketing drives consumption. Little Inferno follows the tried and true model of opaque game trailers. It doesn’t look anything like the game or help players evaluate the gameplay. All you get is a general sense of the narrative and a pleasing viewing experience. Except Little Inferno’s trailer isn’t dishonest (at least openly). The gameplay is little more than using the entertainment fireplace pitched by the jinge. Plus, it’s not exactly like they’re going to say “receive messages from your neighbor.” However, I still feel that the trailer is deceitful; not maliciously, but to prove a point. Most players probably wouldn’t expect a (not-so) idle game looking at the trailer.
I’ll briefly take a step back to discuss games advertising as a whole and point out a few relevant details. First, that a list of best game trailers and best games will likely be very different. A list of the games that sell best would look different as well, although it would probably more closely resemble the former. Also, none of these lists would be the same as the games that are regarded most positively. Opaque trailers, large marketing budgets, and lazy consumers (I like a good franchise myself) probably explain most of the differences in our lists. I also want to point out the trailer’s genre. Jingles are less fashionable now, but was an advertising staple for decades.
About halfway through the game and well into boredom, I started wondering how I would act in the world of Little Inferno. What idiot would burn things instead of playing with them? It can’t just be me. How hard would it be to just turn around? There I sat, burning virtual items in a game I didn’t enjoy. Maybe I shouldn’t keep playing it?
Yeah, not happening. I spent another hour guiltily burning things until the game let me out. Sure, I could have accomplished the same thing by just turning it off - but momma ain’t raise no bitch.
I’d at least like to pretend my house wouldn’t have a little inferno entertainment fireplace. Then again, I played the game for three hours.