Force-Fed Advertising

[NovaXpress]

CNN: Ads Insinuated Into Video Games

This is really going to get out of hand. If a company is raking in extra millions by selling ads in their games then I don't expect to pay for the experience.

On Monday, Massive Inc. launched what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind video game advertising network, allowing marketers to deliver new ads into console and PC games via an online connection.

 

Billboards in a subway scene could feature a new movie trailer one day and the hottest new energy drink the next. Promotions could be tailored to geography, so that players in New York and California might see different versions of a car ad.

 

Massive's service can also track the viewing time each ad gets -- a key metric that advertisers traditionally rely on in paying for television spots.

So there's the future of video games for you. The only thing that will matter is how many ads are pushed. When the top priority for a game maker is to sell ads, the quality of the games themselves can't help but suffer.

 

Capitalizing on the same advertising trend, Nielsen Entertainment is working with game publisher Activision Inc. to start a game-rating service similar to its existing TV-ratings system.

So now they'll also be spying on you to find out how you play the game. "This kid in Denver keeps getting stuck at the end of Level 3 and a cross-reference to other marketing databases show that he visits a lot of acne web sites. So let's fill his Level 3 with Clearasil ads!

 

A few product placements haven't been a big deal so far, but these nnew trends are scary. When so much energy is devoted to selling ads, much less effort will be given to actually making a good game.

[Happy_Dude]

Sounds like a good idea to me.

I don't think game quality would (or in fact could) deteriorate much.

Companies making good games will be able to pay their programers more or make their games cheaper.

And with a rating system bad games wouldn't be able to charge much for advertising.

 

 

 

 

 

But mabye I'm just an idealist

[NovaXpress]

Companies making good games will be able to pay their programers more or make their games cheaper.

Yes, because companies are just dying to give away money, aren't they? Did you see anything in that article about dropping the prices? I would gladly accept all the advertising they could feed me if they'd give me the game for free. But when I'm paying $40-70 I don't expect to see that crap. I also don't expect to see commercials before movies that I pay to see or on HBO which I also pay to see.

 

What I read here is that ad designers are becoming more important than game designers to the gamemaking process. We've seen the same thing happen in movies after ET sold billions of pieces of cheap candy. Advertising doesn't make a good game bad, but it is a distraction which could prevent a good game from being made. If the primary concern in designing a level is no longer focused at exciting the gamer but in providing screen time for Gap ads, we can guarantee that the art of level design will go downhill. When a designer selects the tools available to the player, will they be focusing on doing something suitable and interesting or will they be finding a way to insert the latest Nokia phone into a sword and sorcery game because some suit upstairs just inked a big endorsement deal?

 

It's all about the art form being eroded little by little. Marketers make every thing they touch a little worse because their presence is not needed or wanted. Maybe most people won't be bothered when Mario is climbing through pipes covered in Home Depot logos or their PS3 plays Nike ads while they wait for the next level to load. Maybe the masses have been trained to swallow that shit and like it. We shall see.

[liveinabin]

I think the art form is safe. It won't get any worse than the movies, sure, your big summer blockbuster, some big EA title for instance, will have a truckload of embedded adverts though, somehow, I doubt something like Ico or KOTOR would stoop to that level.

 

Man, that was a lot of commas.

Seriously though, there always seems to be a saturation point for advertising, where too much product placement actually puts people off. Look at all those bloody McDonalds themed games from the 80s, if they hadn't been so overtly geared towards advertising, might they have sold better long term? I think so.

[NovaXpress]

It won't get any worse than the movies

That's exactly what scares me!

 

As the business goes the way of other media and the big 4-5 companies swallow up all the independents, we'll have less of a choice. Like I say, this doesn't mean we won't get good games in the future but it will be lless likely.

 

The Mickey d games wer different because it was too upfront about it. Slipping a certain brand of cellphone into the matrix game is much sneakier and more effective.

[Brad2600]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want product placement in the video games I play.

 

I pay money to play a game and experience it. I don't pay money to see a game full of ads for garbage I wouldn't think twice about buying.

[Jess Ragan]

I'm with Kepone on this one. There's no need to fund the development of a video game with advertising when we're already paying fourty or more dollars for them. The concept of advertising in video games is fueled by greed, plain and simple.

 

How much longer is it going to be until stores are armed with retinal scans that detect your presence and assault you with advertising until you go mad and gouge out your eyes? The grim future of Minority Report is brought that much closer with this new development.

 

In conclusion, video game companies... you already have my money. If you want more of it, then release more games. Don't shove Snickers bars and Coca-Cola in my face.

 

JR

[SS]

This isn't really anything new, you know. Atari hyped their own games on the billboards in the coin-op version of "Pole Position", the Japanese version of Sega's "Power Drift" hyped Marlboro, and who can forget about "Tapper". These are just the first examples that popped into my head but I know that there are more. We live in an advertisement driven society. Why would anyone expect video games to be immune from them?

[Chickybaby]

Most of the"popular" TV shows and Series already do things like this. Like the food they are making in the kitchen etc. Some people would argue that it makes a game more "realistic" even.

Supposedly, they would like to place products "only where they make sense". Somehow, I just don't believe those greedy,manipulative ... buggers. I hate watching television most of the time because of all the stupid commercials. Sports games,like football, take so darn long because of all the advertising. Even with movies and the cost of some used DVD's being as little as 10$ on a regular basis or rentals being so cheap, most of the time I just wait till then to see a movie rather then see it in the theatre. It's cheaper, less advertising being shoved down your throat, and you don't have to deal with all the crowds(mostly noxious pre-teens). Just like the TV "on demand" that's becoming popular.

For anyone else who is highly against advertising in games like I am, it doesn't leave us many choices. Me personally, it just means I will devote more time to my classic gaming collection and ignore most new games. I do that already as it is. It's about preserving history as well as having fun, kids should know how games are supposed to be - enjoyed without worries or wondering what's cool one day and out the next. I also don't play PS, XBox etc. games on line - can't afford it for one, and more ads are just re-affirming that choice.

It really does make for a bleak future but I think in most of our nightmares, we all knew it was going to end up like this anyway.

[Artlover]

Product placement is on thing, and when done correctly can enhance the product. IE: Seeing autozone signs in NFS Underground isn't really an issue.

 

The issue being raised here however is maintained real-time interactive advertising.

 

Take these websites that will do annoying crap like pop up a forced delay ad that shows a movie trailer or something before getting to the content you had original clicked on. Fair enough for a FREE website. But if you pay for a subscription, the ads go away. Again, fair enough, they have to pay their bills of running a website somehow.

 

But would you accept buying a videogame, and instead of a loading screen between levels, you are presented with this week's popular movie trailer or advert to buy other games they make?

 

Sorry, the game has already been made and paid for. It's not like they have any ongoing costs as a result of me buying and playing their game. So what justification would the ad placement have? God forbid some game company decided to offer a subscription based "ad-free" mode.

 

Also, it's talking about being able to, in effect, alter the game depending on where you live. Those background graphics that I'll see playing whatever game here in OKC could be different then those you'll see playing in Burbank, or Miami, or Canada. Well ain't that just dandy.

 

How far would such control be extended? Maybe control what background music plays depending on where you live. Here in Oklahoma I'll hear country music, Detroit players will hear motown music, Bronx players will hear rap music, and Tennesee players will hear hillbilly music, and so on?

 

In essance, you're not even buying a complete game anymore. But an open ended product that changes as the makers & advertisers see fit.

 

Sorry, but no thanks.

[liveinabin]

While I agree that offline games are indeed 'bought and paid for' and shouldn't require extra funding by live advertisements, I wouldn't mind having the billboards in, say, an online racer constantly updated if it meant that someone else was paying for the server.

[Dones]

Another idea: advertisers could pay the game publisher to display an 30/15 second ad at key points in the game without the chance to skip it by a button press. Eg, everytime Joe Gamer turns on GTA: Ad City on his PS2, he would see a 30 second ad selling music.

 

The ad could also be forcefully inserted between loading segments. Say you reach a new level on a given game. Instead of loading a new level, your playstation plays the ad. When its finished the console would continue actual game chores.

[Jasoco]

"Thank you for playing Animal Crossing 2; brought to you by AOL for Broadband with Top Speed technology. Try it free for 50 days! Would you like to begin or change your settings?"

 

[raindog]

I very much enjoy product placement and even some forms of advertising in games that take place in the present day. But if it doesn't, I don't want to see any of it. I can handle Super Monkey Ball pimping Dole because it makes it feel like a pro sport, which in real life are more about product endorsements than actual athletics.

 

But I never, ever want to see Link finding Snickers bars, or getting to the end of a Mario level and seeing "COKE GET!!!" If games move towards interstitial ads I think gamers will eventually reject them, but if that were going to happen it would have to be some game that was so popular that backlash would be futile, e.g. a GTA series game as long as Rockstar is still on top of the business.

 

Also remember that some licensees will want to control their branding, and so the NFL or the Bond people aren't going to let game developers just start throwing random brands in there that they didn't get a piece of to begin with.

[MegaManFan]

Exactly. I'm sure this issue has come up before in the NHL games when the designers wanted "real arena" settings, and the arena owners argued that would include all the ads on the sideboards, and the game designers argued that would be giving them free unpaid ads in the game - back and forth. I never really decided who was right about that one.

[Dones]

I see what you mean. I used to enjoy driving through Pizza Hut's and KFC's in Crazy Taxi. In that game it didn't bother me at all. I also never gave much thought to see the Dole logo on Monkey Ball (my mind was more focused on not falling off the level).

[Radio F Software]

I wont be mad at some ads, like maybe a billboard for Doritos 3Ds in Grand Theft Auto, because in real life, you DO drive past billboards. And in Crazy Taxi, you really CAN drive past pizza huts and KFCs.

 

Now, theres places where ads dont go. Like, beatings final boss. While your waiting for the ending movie to load you shouldnt have to watch some AOL "or Ba-da-da-da-DA Im Lovin It" McDonalds shit.

 

If it's realisitic, like for instance, a lowly security guard in Metal Gear drinking a Pepsi or eating some M&M's (which would make GREAT physics bits!) than that's fine. Being interupted by a friggin commercial in a GAME is a no go zone.

[liveinabin]

Nothing they do can be as annoying as that f***ing " EA games, challenge everything" whispering crud. That just freaks me out.

[Chickybaby]

Almost every effing TV station has that retarded McDonalds Chicken Select strips commercials on. I am not loving it! I would sooner not eat for an entire day that eat those damn strips now, not like 'quality food' and 'McDonalds' were ever associated in the same sentance anyway.

[msaeger]

Haven't games been around 50 bucks since back when it took one guy to make one in a few months ? Now games cost much more and take way more people to make them so I don't see how the price couldn't go up. If they can sell ads to help keep the price down go for it.

 

Yeah like raindog said I don't want to see link finding snickers but having actual products in the games instead of made up ones would't bother me. If they had an ad at the begining of the game if wouldn't be anymore annoying than the 15 developer, producer, whatever logos that we get now.

[SteveW]

This move by game developers just reeks of late 90's dot-com companies, and their stupid ideas for advertising. The guy who created the web site www.fuckedcompany.com also wrote a book about all the dot-com mismanagements and disasters, and a huge amount of the companies listed were depending upon advertising revenues that never came in. The companies never took into account that people just didn't want to look at ads. Why do people use pop-up window blockers? Why do people use software to block banner ads? Why have some companies resorted to virally installed adware on people's computers, just to pimp their crappy product? People just don't want this crap. Look at X-10's spy cam pop-up ads from a couple years ago. The ads offended people so much that people stopped buying their products, and the company went belly up. I hope videogame buyers will send the same kind of message to game publishers who try to sneak ads into games. We don't want to see this garbage, so stop it or go out of business.

[gdement]

Haven't games been around 50 bucks since back when it took one guy to make one in a few months ? Now games cost much more and take way more people to make them so I don't see how the price couldn't go up. If they can sell ads to help keep the price down go for it.  

 

If you factor inflation, I think the peak of game pricing was probably during the NES days. Most of those games were $50-$60 late-80s dollars, and I don't remember old titles ever dropping to $20 like they do now. I don't think pre-NES games were quite as high, but I was young then so I might be wrong. The NES used an expensive cartridge design though. Now they don't even use cartridges at all, they use dirt cheap discs.

 

Even though game pricing hasn't inflated since the 80s, the volume of sales has grown considerably. Back when 1 guy could write a game in a few months, they didn't sell as many copies as they do now. Modern games are more expensive to develop, but they pay for it with higher sales volume (at least so far). They'll probably find that moderate use of advertising doesn't impact sales and generates more revenue. I'm not sure this is new really, except now the video game business seems to be more consolidated so negotiations are more worthwhile for the advertisers. We'll probably see broad patterns where all Infogrames or EA titles will feature similar ads. I think the ads will be hardcoded though. The idea of having internet connected adware inside of a paid videogame will probably anger a lot of customers and won't ever succeed in my opinion.

[SteveW]

I'm playing a few rounds of Motor Mayhem on the PS2 right now, and there's all sorts of billboards for companies like Iomega in it. Look how financially strong the advertising has made their company. Oh, wait.... they're on their last legs. Money well spent, huh?

[Jasoco]

Chicken Selects are excellent! I love them. But they are overpriced. More than KFC is and not even as good. So I don't get them often. So stay away from my Chicken Selects!

[chrisbid]

nobody bitches at movie theatres for showing full blown ads, even though you pay admission and inflated conscession prices

 

there is also ads and messages on DVDs that wont allow you to Fast Foraward through or skip, and hacking your player or DVD to do so is against the DMCA