APB Reloaded

This shirt is also from E3 2011 day two. You're gonna see a few more of these since I just got about six and am almost out of shirts entirely.
Moke, Jared, Ron and I were transitioning between wings outside the convention center when we saw the Alienware booth. I normally really look forward to their booth since they always have amazing computers with huge screens and awesome peripherals. This year however their booth was outside, which lead to very low foot traffic, glare on all the monitors and an overall crappy experience. As we were headed straight for it Moke shouted and alerted me to a girl at the booth. She had a big pile of shirts in her arms and, from about twenty-five feet out, was trowing this shirt straight at me. Because fabric isn't the most aerodynamic material it was falling short and I was able to run up and catch it before it hit the ground.
I wasn't expecting a shirt like this from Alienware. I wasn't expecting apparel  from them at all, I really was looking for a computer accessory or something. Last year they had really awesome flash drives but who am I to question a free shirt. Firstly, this design has nothing to do with Alienware, it isn't even sponsored by them somewhere on it -like "Powered by Alienware" or something-. They have a strong brand and should flex it at an opportunity like this. Secondly, they gave me a freaking extra-large! I could understand not throwing the right size because it's just whatever she had at hand but once we got to the booth we asked if they had any other sizes and they were only handing out extra-larges. Finally, this shirt is right in my sweet spot for a "cool" shirt, black, video game reference, white/grey designs, free, etc. I just wish that it fit me, you can even see in the picture that I have to like hold it up on my shoulders to get it in the frame.
On the front of the shirt was some artist's afterthought. Someone told them to make it look stylish or street or something and they designed from the elements down rather than the content up. They took a stock picture they were given, desaturated it so that they could print it in two color and then slapped a bunch of stereotypical "messy" and "grimy" ink-type splotches behind it. Ohh, it's got some tire treads and brush strokes and graffiti elements to it, aren't you cool? No, you're not clever, that takes like a second and doesn't fit the product! Get your head in the game. And on the back it just has the standard logo; also desaturated to gray. It says "APB Reloaded" which is the name of a game that flopped about a year and a half ago. As one of my friends was remarking about the game's publicity last year, "It looks like they invested more money in the booth promotion at E3 than they did in the game". I don't even know why Alienware was giving out shirts for this title and not some other one they were pimping, but whatever, I'm definitely not sold.
I almost feel embarrassed for wearing this shirt. The game was so bad that they're trying to shoot life back into its veins with more content and patches. I almost hope people don't recognize this game or perhaps just mistake it for an anti-establishment message like an 187 or an anarchy shirt would be. I do like the notoriety that comes with wearing a shirt that I got for free from E3. It's elite, it's rare, it's exclusive, and -despite being shitty- is a status symbol. If anyone tries to bring up the fact that the game bites I can at least tell the anecdote of how I got it.

Unfortunately, due to my super bad sleeping schedule as of late, I didn't get this shirt on until around 4 o'clock today. No one recognized it and I got off scot free. If I was more inspired by the design, or the negative space on it, I would augment it with some more elements or screen something else on there. Saving this already oversized burden is too much work and I think I'll just end up shelving it for a more worthy spot in my lineup.