Wednesday, June 13, 2012

With so many sodas out there why do gamers do the Dew?

First off, let me apologize for my column not being here in awhile. I appreciate all of those out there that take the time to stop by on Thursday and read my column and I hope I didn’t disappoint you.

It was a hard week few months.
Excuses aside, my ideas for what to write about that week were also pretty dry and how many times can I do the “what am I going to write about this week” columns?

That brings me to this week.

Have you ever noticed how many gamers live and die by the amount of Mountain Dew they consume? Why is that?

When Diablo 3 was getting ready to drop, all of the posts on the message boards read basically the same way.

“Dude, I need to go stock up on <insert random snack here> and Mountain Dew before Diablo 3 drops! Woo Hoo”!

It got me thinking, and that can be a dangerous thing, why Mountain Dew? How come everyone wasn’t hitting up Starbuck’s or getting their Mello Yello freak on?

No, it is always Mountain Dew.

There were even special “World of Warcraft” Mountain Dew Game Fuel flavors where you could “choose your side” either Horde or  Alliance.

I have even seen websites devoted to bringing these flavors back periodically ala McDonald’s McRib.
That still doesn’t solve my original question, why The Dew?

It isn’t like it tastes incredible. I find it to be a bit sweet.

Me, I am a Mello Yello fan all the way. But I also know that Mello Yello isn’t available everywhere.

I also keep hearing people say that Mountain Dew has “more caffeine” than any other popular soft drink.

Actually Pepsi Max has 69 mg of caffeine as compared to 54 mg in Mountain Dew, so that isn’t true either.

Plus Pepsi Max is a low calorie soda so we gamers could get the caffeine rush and not have to worry about our waistlines. BONUS!

In the end, I think it has a little to do with the marketing ploy about how “cool x-gamers” were all about “doing the Dew”. Remember those commercials.

Since most gamers, including myself, find ourselves stationed in front of a computer or game console for an exuberant amount of hours, longing to belong to a group that excels at snowboarding or BMX isn’t that far fetched.

I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Shawn White ripping down a mountain with his curly red locks flapping in the breeze.

But I digress.

But my point is, Mountain Dew and gaming are a match made in marketing heaven. As long as there are gamers, there will always be Mountain Dew.

Maybe, that will change in the future, but I don’t see it happening. Mountain Dew is a part of the gaming culture now and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

So where ever there is a game launch, Mountain Dew will be there, somewhere.