Irvine’s Interplay Goes for Blood to Promote Game

Interplay Productions in Irvine is known for its hokey--but effective--ploys for publicity.

There were freebie slime balls tacked on “Boogerman: A Pick and Flick Adventure.” Then, a fake announcement that the game company planned to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. (The bid would come right after 10 million fans picked up copies of its “Virtual Reality Baseball.”)

Now, it’s a blood drive for its killer driving game, “Carmageddon.”

In Interplay’s latest release, players careen off the track, across football fields and anywhere else pedestrians and farm animals might gather. Stay on the road and you’ll lose, because traffic means murder and the person who hits the most people wins.

Hoping to put a PC-spin on the gory game, Interplay will host a blood drive for the American Red Cross on July 22 at its Irvine headquarters, 16915 Von Karman Ave. The event starts at 9 a.m. and will run throughout the day.

But listening to the event’s scheduled guest, a psychologist who specializes in “road rage,” could be more amusing than playing the game. According to a company news release, the doctor will discuss “the very serious issue of ‘road rage’ and the benefits of raging against other drivers in ‘Carmageddon’ rather than taking it out on fellow drivers.”

Interplay says it will give out the psychologist’s name, just as soon as the staff checks with the doctor’s schedule. After all, there could be an emergency on the 405.

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P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830.