Slashdot Mirror
Nielsen Adds Videogame Ad Rating Service
Thanks to Mediapost.com for their article discussing the attempt by TV rating arbiters Nielsen to move into the videogame market, launching the Nielsen Video Game Service, intended to calculate "the data and metrics that will enable video game marketers to pitch advertisers on the value of 'in-game ad exposure.'" The service, backed by publisher Activision, who is "eager to cultivate a video game advertising marketplace", launched alongside a survey that "claims 27 percent of active male gamers noticed ads in the last video game they played", and further revealed statistics claiming "52 percent of heavy gamers saying they like games to contain real products and 70 percent saying that the placement of real products makes the games more 'genuine.'"
Once games start getting rated for advertisement and demographics are launched against the gaming community, it's a full sign The Man has taken a vested interest in the video game agenda. We can expect even more annoying advertisements put at the bottom of future console games. Maybe even some popups. Heaven knows there aren't enough goddamn advertisements everywhere else. Reminds of the Diamond Age by Neil Stephenson where people who got optical implants committed suicide because they kept getting spammed, literally to death, by ads.
Same with FPS war games. Far more fun to have a M16 then generic assault rifle type 2.
But I can't really see that much marketting for it. Surely real gun nuts shudder at the kind of ballestics you find in games and simirally a FPS fan will have little use for a gun you have to use OUTSIDE?
I can see product placement in a game like The Sims. Say coca-cola company making free models available sporting their logo. Coca-Cola fridge? The pizza delivery guy in a domino skin?
But will this sell anything?
Sports games have long since had real advertising but the way I understood at least in the time of "grand prix legends" it was more the game makers begging if they could please use the image instead of being paid to include a companies logos.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Well, it's no surprise to me that Activision would really like to cash in, with games like Tony Hawk and MX Superfly, there's bound to be quite a market for advertising. Knowing how to place those ads would be very beneficial to them, although I don't know how well Nielsen's method will help.
However, they better play wisely. Gamers would be quick to turn their noses up at ads where they're too intrusive or don't make sense, and thus blacklisting the developer and publisher responsible.
I'm not surprised by Activision, the king of sequels and licenses, wanting to do this. I just hope that they don't shoot themselves in the foot.
Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
...because Neilsen already does such a stellar job estimating the true value and popularity of TV and radio programming for advertisers and networks.
Bush is a cylon.
I'd choose Slurm any day of the year.
I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
Clearly the pitch from the publishers will be: "It'll help us defray costs and let us get more, better games to market for a lower cost to the consumer!"
Not that there's any chance of that happening.
I might give a purely ad-supported free game a shot. Similarly to how I'm not philosophically opposed to catching such 'free' content from TV/radio broadcasting.
But this new craze of putting ads in consumer-funded-content is pure BS. Product placement shots in films haven't kept the price of tickets from going up. The ads thrown in amongst the trailers at the movies haven't kept ticket prices from going up. The ever-increasing quantity of ads in magazines and papers haven't kept their prices from going up.
Of course, no-one's started voting with their wallet just yet - so why should advertisers and publishers care?
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"
Quake was a much better game and a much more engaging experience thanks to the Nine Inch Nails logo.
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
I mean, sometimes it is actually cool to have a real product (wouldn't GTA be cooler with real cars?), but most game advertising doesn't make sense. A billboard along a racetrack or ads along a stadium, well, they kinda make sense, and I guess I could put up with them (I don't play many sports games anyway) but most game ads are crap. You'll find big ads for completely unrelated products plastered all over the levels, and worse still, sometimes integrated into the gameplay. Remember in Super Monkey Ball, how you picked up Dole bananas? Hmm...I kinda have mixed feelings on that. I mean, it's kinda funny, and not too out of place (except when they have the Dole logo on the floor of the level). Remember San Fransisco Rush? In one of the various sequels, I remember how you had to find cans of Mountain Dew that were hidden in the levels. That's just kinda dumb, and it's going to get worse. It's like product placement in movies: I've paid for the entertainment, I don't want ads.
the game should be free. I will not knowingly pay money for software that contains ads. Neither should anyone else.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
It seems to me that when real products are put in a game like car models in some racing games, the cars are required to be invincible. They never take any damage because it would make the model "look bad". This is crap! What is a racing game if I can't crash into a wall and watch peices of metal fly off it?
I can't wait until I get my Nike chain mail boots.
You may find my appearance and demeanor foolish, but it is you who plays the fool.
go to a gun show some time and see how many people oogle the desert eagles and h&k's "thata like da gun from CS yo"
Putting ads in content that you still have to pay for isn't a new idea by any stretch of the imagination. How about newspapers and magazines? They've been supported by advertising for well over a hundred years, but you still have to pay for the things.
That was the damn point.
How in the hell are adds for 21th century products going to make sense in a FANTASY RPG? Yea, I won't to be exploring a dungeon and see ads for pepsi.
this will eventually create. "Our in-game Nielsen meter reports that the Mountain Dew billboard was viewed for an average of 8.2 seconds, while the Pepsi sign only scored 3.6 seconds. Also, three times as many rockets were fired into the Pepsi sign, which suggests that the Britney texture on it needs revision in the next forced patch--perhaps we should show 52% of butt cleavage instead of the present 46%. It's great how the game stops working without each week's updated batch of product impressions from our valued partners."
Does anybody remember the European release of "Biker Mice From Mars" on the SNES? SNICKERS ADS EVERYWHERE! Talk about out of place advertising... And how about the 7-UP Spot video games? Or the game starring Chester the Cheetah? At least they're not making games like that anymore. Oh well. At least "Yo Noid!" was somewhat fun.