I’m a GTA fan – of that there should be no doubt. I happened, quite by happy accident, upon the original bird’s-eye-view extravaganza almost as soon as it came out. We’d just networked the computers around the office (which was a new thing back then, in a small company) and it was awesome to find such a beautifully frivolous use of that expensive network.

And the game itself represented a similarly guilty, yet mind-alteringly enjoyable, waste of time. Everything about Grand Theft Auto was gratuitously simple and perfectly fun. Of course, that game was a million carelessly-driven miles from the one we’ve been having rammed violently down our throats with a baseball bat for the last month.

Just like everyone else, I’m looking forward to playing it and have reasonably high expectations. It’s just the damn advertising campaign that I’m looking forward to seeing the back of.

UK readers will fondly remember the work of advertising guru John Webster (even if they’re not aware of it), in such classic campaigns as the Smash Mash Martians, the Kia-Ora song, Hoffmeister’s Follow the Bear, the Honey Monster and a host of others. Webster was respected and successful in the advertising industry because he stuck rigidly to his own self-appointed doctrine: Adverts, he believed, were uninvited guests in people’s living rooms, and should therefore make themselves as pleasant, then as scarce, as possible.

After the overhyped Halo 3 launch, we’re now seeing an even bigger campaign with the latest in the GTA franchise; and here we’re witness to a promotion that actively works against Webster’s concept of non-invasive advertisements. And the effect? Quite what you’d expect – the opposite to those that Webster’s adverts saw. The game itself might be great, but there’s a wealth of players out there who’re so sick of GTA IV before it’s even released that it can only bring disappointment.

A game, like a movie or other product, is its own advertisement. All this ridiculous hype is aimed at achieving one single purpose – high initial launch figures. The sheer number of units pushed in the opening few hours. But what does that matter to the consumer? Why should the gamer bear the brunt of a publisher’s printing and distribution costs? If a game is indeed good, the player will read about it, make an informed decision and go buy it – the end sales figures will ultimately be the same, even if the sales curve is slightly flatter.

If anything, this kind of in-your-face propaganda hurts a game’s overall reputation. The 10 out of 10 scores are viewed with nothing but reasonable suspicion by the cautious gamer, who (and I’m inclined to agree with them) view these unrealistic scores as merely an extension of the advertising campaign they’re already sick to the back teeth of.

Certainly on GDN, and on most reputable gaming sites (whose reviews are not up for sale), a new title loses significant points for underestimating the audience. Treat the gamer like a moron, and they’ll hate you for it – quite rightly. And that’s precisely what an overbearing promotion like this is doing. It assumes that barraging the brainless consumer with an unstoppable media machine will hypnotise or harass them into purchasing; that the average gamer-on-the-street can’t see through gaudy, shameless marketing tactics like the supposed gameplay footage “leak” we were recently insulted by.

Excessive self-congratulation like the GTA IV advertising campaign switches gamers off, and that can be seen by the industry wide response to this game’s launch. For the last month, no one’s been releasing any games. Presumably most publishers feel that competing with the Wii Fit and GTA IV for advertising space simply isn’t worth the effort; and they’re probably right. In the advertising shit storm that’s ravaging the gaming landscape right now, players are too suspicious and apathetic to any kind of game reporting to give it any interest – all because the industry is fooling itself over the importance of one single game.

Although some people obviously do it, most of us either laugh or groan (or both) when we hear of people queuing up outside shops at midnight to buy a new book, movie or game. The astute consumer (of which there are a great deal more than most manufacturers or publishers apparently realise) are adept at making informed decisions – it’s inevitable when the entertainment industries are over charging for products to the extent that they are. Wallpapering our web pages with the same, repeated advert just makes us feel exhausted with the whole scene before the game’s even been released.

But, it must surely be coming to an end now the bloody release date is finally here. It’ll be a long while before the astute consumer can gauge a reasonable reaction from GTA IV, however, mostly thanks to the game’s myopic marketing department. Official reviews are so perfect and enamoured they’re essentially useless, so it’ll be the forums and reader’s comments that will provide the real information for any gamer who values their hard earned cash.

We can only hope this ham-fisted attempt at promotion doesn’t hurt the game too badly (which, I still hope, will be enjoyable), but I for one am already feeling a distinct repulsion toward this unwelcome visitor that’s been refusing to leave my living room for the past month. It’s something of a surprise that so many presumably intelligent and reputable gaming publications have allowed themselves to provide the grease and oil for the GTA IV party line, but as we’ve already seen with Halo 3, these things are quickly forgotten once gamers – the most unforgiving and important reviewers of them all – make their verdict. And with such unreasonably high expectations blindly built by Rockstar, there’s still a lot that can go wrong once the absurd launch campaign has been forgotten.