Advergames

[classicgamer74]

This week we discuss advergames.  What is your opinion on using video games to sell a product?  Or do you think product placement in a game is better?

[MrTrust]

Advergames are like any other genre; they can be really good, or they can be awful.

 

Chex Quest probably remains the best example of a good advergame.  Denny's once did an app with the Atari arcade games re-skinned with food themes. Things like Tapper or racing games with real products in them I wouldn't count.

 

Generally speaking, I dislike advertising in general, but I especially detest advertising in the 21st Century.  The "funny" commercials feel more forced, and have none of the charm of the commericals of days gone by.  The hip commercials made by pink-haired 22 year-olds with marketing degrees are about as authentic as a football bat.  You know the kind: somebody's surfing to a Nina Simone song to demonstrate the water resistance of the new Apple watch.  Don't you want to be part of the upper middle class?  The kind who have the money and time to go surfing?  The kind who have the musical sophistication to appreciate "Sinner Man"?  The kind who are busy and important enough to need a smart phone on their wrists?  Then, there are the maudlin advertisements that relate products to Covid, or social and political issues.  These should just be flat-out banned and the people responsible for them should be put in stocks and have tomatoes thrown at them in the public square.  The question for me is can games be used in such a way as to avoid these things?  How?

 

First, if I have to pay you to view your commercial, you can get boned.  It should be free.  Second, the game should have some kind of connection to the product that makes sense, but isn't patronizingly simple.  Go back to Chex Quest?  What is it?  A wholesome FPS for kids that doesn't have a bunch of bad stuff in it, like Chex cereal is purported to be.  Or Denny's Atari?  It's a cute little phone game that appeals to nostalgic kitsch, like the restaurant chain.  Third, it should not be a competing product with any "real" game on the market.  Of course CQ is not as good as Duke Nukem 3D; it's not meant to be played by the same players or be the same kind of game, despite the superficial similarities.

 

Games with product placement are fine if the presence of the product makes sense.  Kawasaki products in a motorcycle game, for instance, or Budweiser in a bartending game.  Games that are retroactively built around the placement of the product tend to be mediocre to terrible for obvious reasons.  Really, this is not different from games based on any other licensed properties.

[CapitanClassic]

@MrTrust, Chex Quest is just Doom reskinned. That would be like saying Noah''s Ark 3D is one of the best SNES games.

 

For one of the better Advertisement Games, I would say Dumb Ways To Die. Their point was to bring awareness to the dangers of railway crossing to prevent deaths in the UK, and the mini games arent bad. (Although I would say the YT video was better at spreading the message)

 

I have heard one of the Burger King Xbox (360?) Games weren't horrible, the other two were though.

[MrTrust]

8 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

@MrTrust, Chex Quest is just Doom reskinned. That would be like saying Noah''s Ark 3D is one of the best SNES games.

 

That would be a pretty weird thing to say, huh?  Good thing I didn't say that, or anything like it.  Did I say Chex Quest was one of the best DOS games ever?  No, I said it was probably the best example of a good advergame.  If you can find me another advergame that was unanimously well-received in its day, and still has an active and loyal fanbase more than 20 years down the line, let me know.  Until then, I think my point stands.  Also, I converted to Christianity because of Super 3D Noah's Ark, so show a little respect.

The Burger King game you're referring to was probably called Sneak King, where you had to sneak up on people and give them burgers, like a Splinter Cell game or something.  I found all of those in a pawn shop for a few bucks once; they all might have worked as free downloads for 5 minutes' amusement, but you had to jump through some sort of hoop or pay to get a full physical copy of them, which made them pretty pointless.
 

8 hours ago, CapitanClassic said:

For one of the better Advertisement Games, I would say Dumb Ways To Die. Their point was to bring awareness to the dangers of railway crossing to prevent deaths in the UK, and the mini games arent bad. (Although I would say the YT video was better at spreading the message)

 
Just me, but I would not classify that as an advergame.  It's not advertising a commercial product; it's a public service announcement by way of a game.  These are usually bad both as games, and as PSAs.  The most notorious of them was probably Hit the Bitch, which IIRC was a Scandinavian anti-domestic violence, FMV game where an actress berates the player, who is invited to do what the title says by clicking a button until the woman is eventually left visibly bruised and sobbing on the floor.  Then, the game announces you are "100% Idiot", and explains how that's totally not cool, man.  I don't believe it can be played anymore, but you might be able to find video of it on YT.  It's about as terrible as it sounds.

Dumb Ways to Die is pretty cute, though the game itself is pretty well divorced from the original PSA message.