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A Place For Product Placement In Games?
Thanks to GameSpy for its CES 2004 report, which includes coverage of a roundtable regarding product advertising in videogames. The writer points out: "The Super Monkey Ball simians gobble Dole bananas. Jet Moto features a giant Mountain Dew billboard. The alien-fighters in RLH drank Bawls", and goes on to cite research that "30% of in-game ads are recalled in the short-term, which is impressive. Even more amazing is the fact that 15% are recalled after five months - unheard of in advertising." But, of course, "if a placement ticks off the gamer, there's not much a company can do to negate that negative." What are the most appropriate and least appropriate advertising placements you've seen in games?
I play video games to escape day to day crap.
The last thing I want is ANY advertising *IN-GAME*. To me, this would be as bad as escaping in a wonderful book, only have have a giant pepsi, MTV or Meryl Lynch advertisement on every fifth page.
This really only applies to the uk, but I am fairly sure other countries have similar laws.
If an ad is wrong/offensive they can be forced to stop distributing it, this could be really expensive if you have already printed a million cd's.
I'd also like to know if they ads in games evan fall under regulatory controls.
I also don't like the idea of playing a differnt game to eevryone else, cause I assume any paid advertising will probably be localised to specific countries.
In Gran Turismo 2 there were ads all around the race tracks, just like real life. Even the gigantic tire of Laguna Seca was there. I think the game would've been less real without them.
It's not bad in all instances
However, this effect can only decline - once in-game advertising becomes standard, people will probably train themselves to bypass it; the same thing happened with Web advertisments: I remember thinking the first banners I saw were kind of weird, but now they're pervasive, I hardly notice them. Studies have even shown that users have trained themselves to bypass ads of common dimension and placement (like a banner at the top of a page). I doubt you could even tell me (without looking) what the current advertisment on your Slashdot page is for.
While product placement in games can be appropriate and add to the "realism factor," like having stadium ads in a sports game, the actual effect of these ads will diminish as they're added to more and more games.
That's it. I'm no longer part of Team Sanity.
You're not supposed to. In-game advertising is all about Branding. No, NBA 2004 doesn't make you want that new pair of Nike Pumps but next time you're in a Foot Locker the brand will stick out more.
If done right, advertisments in a game can add to the realism. GTA3 wouldn't have been so real if they didn't play Pogo The Monkey ads on the radio occasionally.
Need for Speed Underground (an excellent game btw) has TONS of stickers representing REAL brands you can decorate your car with. This is not a bad thing. It makes the game more real. And hey, if I'm looking for neon next time I'll know some brands to look for. Great for me.
Clearly your blindingly witty placement of a dollar sign for the "S" in Microsoft highlights your superior mental ability. Likewise, your logic is flawless: Microsoft puts a THEIR OWN LOGO in THEIR OWN GAME (according to you it's not even an ad, but just their logo) and you refuse to purchase any more Microsoft games. It's not as if they sold huge ad-space in the game but, gosh darnit, if their logo is visible for a single second the game has to go! One of the things I always hated about Age of Empires was the Microsoft product placement that plagued the game.
Oh wait...it didn't.
And I take it you still use other Microsoft products? You said you only haven't purchased _games_ from Microsoft. Or maybe you take the moral high road by downloading them from Kazaa? Surely you can justify THAT position!
If you were attempting to be funny, you failed. If you're honestly serious, then you're a prime example of why people who dislike Microsoft are called extremist zealot idiots.
-Trillian
The problem is not that they are branded. As you say, it might be better in a realistic game to have SOME brands about that are inescapable. Say, Pepsi or Coke cans.... not a day goes by that I don't see one of those.
The problem is when the product placement has put me in some strange otherworld where every can of pop is a Mountain Dew. It's distracting. And it usually is these fine products which are less ubiquitous that do the insane product placement trick.
I wouldn't mind, though, if the Pepsi company paid to have its entire range stocked... I'm used to stepping between the Coke universe and the Pepsi universe as I browse the stalls in the food court.
Product placement in a realistic game should be realistic.
I get that reverse association too.
Every time I see Chupa Chups lollipops I think of the old Amiga game "Zool"
Same with 7-UP - it just reminds me of "Cool Spot"
The absolute worst would be Darkened Skye, where you use Skittles to create spells. In fact, the whole game is based around Skittles. I'm not just talking a web game, this game was released for PC and Gamecube.
Wasn't that the whole point, though? They specifically developed it to be a skittles-based game. That's like saying that the 7-up spot game shouldn't be marketing 7-up.
Of course they developed it to be a game based around Skittles. But, Cool Spot put the 7-Up mascot in a crazy platform game with the focus on the mascot's adventures. The game that they based around Spot made sense for Spot.
On the other hand, in Darkened Skye, they wrapped a completely generic story around the Skittles. The game is still based around those Skittles, but you could call the Skittles runes or whatever fitting synonym you might have for runes and still have a game. It would have made just as much sense to give Skye a weapon made of Ball Park franks.
Also, I checked most of the Darkened Skye site, except for the Real videos and game demo, and the only place I saw mention of Skittles were in the Gamecube manual and the PC walkthrough (which are in the downloads section).
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.