The Sims 3

I got this for free at E3 last year. A really nice person gave one to me from a big pile of swag.
I went to E3 last year with my friends Moke and Jared. To get anything from EA we needed to first wait in line. We happen to be walking by their booth just as they opened up the queue for the next "showing". While waiting in line some booth girls handed out little Sims plumbob headbands. The presentation was the third part of the process. Once we got inside they showed us a movie and a demo of The Sims 3 for consoles. I don't really like The Sims but I'll do almost anything for free stuff. When we got out of the room they had our stuff waiting and also gave us a keychain. I don't think you can get this shirt anywhere else, especially since it is dated for when the game released.
Unlike most of the E3 free shirts, this one is really high quality. See, in my opinion, if you were the company giving them out you would want to have the highest quality shirts you could get -or at least make them passable-. That way people associate your brand with good quality things. Because whenever I put on one of my other free shirts it leaves a negative message in my head because the shirt is really light or the ink wore out quickly. They even went to the effort of having almost all sizes of shirts, I was able top get a medium when Nintendo was only giving out mono-colored larges.
On the front of the shirt it has the "Sims 3" logo featuring the iconic "plumbob" -that green crystal selector thing- that has been appearing above their characters heads ever since the franchise began. It is in multiple colors and is very bold. On the back, laid out in a well designed column, are the words "PLAY WITH LIF3". They used the plumbob for the "A" and the number three instead of an "E" because this is the third game in the series. I don't like the particular slogan, it doesn't capture anything unique about the game being new or different or that it is now on consoles. This could just as easily be the slogan for the first game or even Sim City for that matter. Anyway, below the tagline, in green, it says "On console 10.26.10" the release date of this game on consoles -multiple platforms-. If you didn't know that this game was out already or even coming out in the first place I don't blame you; I went to this event and couldn't care less. At the very bottom they put their website URL, "thesims3.com/console".
There is one thing that I'll give to The Sims, and that's its popularity with girls. If at the moment you can assume that girls dig Angry Birds, a few years back they were all playing The Sims. I would try and wear this shirt if I was going somewhere that I was sure to meet casual gamers. You know the type: Farmvillin', Bejewelin', Tetris stackin' casuals. In the past few years they have dominated the amount spent on games -fiscally and time played- but in the process have dumbed down the entire industry for the rest of us. When you see numbers like that how can you not alienate your core fan base?!

I have to say that people really don't care about The Sims that much anymore: the shirt is typically a dud. Even though they did just release a new "expansion" or pack or whatever. The headband however attracts a ton of attention. When it was taken to a party everyone noticed it and wanted to try it on -the plumbob is like the easiest costume ever-. It makes me sad that I dislike casual games as much as I do and still have a to live with the fact that it will probably bee the top selling PC title of that month. There has to be a way to use this power for good.