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In-Game Advertising Breaks Out
UID1000000 writes "MSNBC reports that companies like Nielsen are implementing tracked advertising in video games. Viacom is also considering in-game advertising. I can't wait until your first person shooter stops and drinks a nice cold refreshing soda."
Does that mean that the price of games will come down? If so, will companies want people to "pirate" games because it would only mean more exposure for their advertisers?
PlanetSide already got ads for Intel on the loading screen, and tbh i doesnt really bother me, if it means more money for development, then they can fill the loading screen if you ask me!
IMO if a videogame is going to advertise during the game, there better be a substantial discount (I know there won't be but a guy can dream). I do not see the game experience benefit of the Master Chief powering up with a SoBe Liz Blizz, or enjoying Coke often.
It would be less distasteful to include advertising with the game documentation - although that fails with online downloads.
Strangley, now I WANT a Fanta...
...Never heard of it!
*Cough*America's Army *Cough*
I will not pay for a game that tracks me or downloads ads. I am not even sure I would play it for free under thsoe conditions.
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The idea of advertising in some games just doesn't really bother me. If you want to change all those soda machines in Doom 3 to Coke machines, I have no problem with that. As long as the ads don't affect gameplay, what's the problem?
One man's "tasteful" is another man's "extremely annoying".
You and I may not, but millions will, especially if it means less expensive (free?) games. Targetted and tracked advertising is the way things are moving. Pushing a commercial to thousands or millions is going by by, which is why were seeing thigs like Google's Adwords/AdSense becoming very popular. Its targetted advertising.
The old Playstation game WipeoutXL (wipeout2?) had Red Bull ad's all over the place, and that was well before Red Bull was even sold through major distributors in the US (i think). They weren't distracting at all, kind of fit with the game. To this day WipeoutXL remains one of my favorites.
...has Pizza Hut logos in it. So in-game ads aren't all that new. Neislen ratings figuring on calculating how many times someone runs past the wall with Pizza Hut written on it is new, but the fact that their ratings systems seem pretty shoddy at best isn't all that new either. I still find it pretty crazy what people accept for ad exposure rates when buying ads for TV, radio, magazine and newspapers, when the one surely trackable ad system (teh interweb) shows just how infrequently people really pay attention to the stuff.
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If it's unobtrusive or, even better, adds to the game then all well and good. If it jars or is too blatant then back goes the game to the store.
Uhm, you haven't noticed that all video game sellers are required to have a "no refunds on open boxes, only exchange is for same title" policy by law? I highly suggest you start renting your video games if you want to be able to take them back...
I'm not a puritan.
In an ideal world porn's victimless but then so is advertising.
In reality there tends to be a lot of illegal and immoral activity associated with both.
It's not the adverts or the porn itself, but the way they exploit other people and resources.
If you're claiming the porn industry has never caused exploitation then stick to your fantasy world and maybe one day that supermodel really will choose you!
This probably will not mean less expensive games, and it certainly will not mean free games (giving it away for free makes it less valuable as an advertising medium; free things don't always get used). The game companies will want to maintain the perceived value of their games by not positioning it as a cheap, second-rate game. Of course, we know that it'd just be cheap spyware, so you can count me out too. That's my internet connection, thanks, and just like spam I don't want them using it for their benefit and not mine.
The Signal/Noise ratio can be improved in two ways. Remaining silent is the OTHER way.
You seem to be confusing free speech (as in the fundamental democratic right) with free media (as in not having to pay to read something).
That is a very dangerous position to be in.
They want *me* to pay for games.. so that I can see advertisements??!
:-> )
I absolutely do not see how this benefits gamers in any way.. game prices will NOT go down (exclusive scoop.. you heard it here, folks!), and game quality will suffer (progammers will be forced to change their mindset from "what will make this a good game?" to "how can we maximize the ad space?")
I prefer the "fake" ads in many games s/a GTA.. they're funny (I want a Mibatsu Monstrosity
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You and I may not, but millions will, especially if it means less expensive (free?) games.
The thing is, it won't result in cheaper games. As an example, take a look at the movies. Back in the 80's, it was unheard of to have advertisements for products (other than the coming attractions, that is, which had been established almost as early as the movie theater itself). Now, we have 10 minutes of so of ads for all sorts of crap, reducing a trip to the movies to being TV you pay $10 or more for.
And has your ticket price gone down at all since they started showing ads? Concessions gotten any cheaper? No. Prices still continue to climb. The theaters and Hollywood just pocket the extra revinue.
A key part of this is the tracking. Google Adwords goes to certain pains to maintain a privacy barrier between users of Adwords (via site visits, searches, etc.) and those who establish a business relationship based on an Adwords ad (that is - someone who clicks on an ad... and even then the information is limited). This, among other user-favorable approaches to advertising, is what has made Google's system a success.
The grandparent doesn't say what ad tech they used. But the problem is that by this time, the well has been poisoned. Any app that admits to being "advertising supported" will be viewed as a likely carrier for untold amounts of scumware (spyware, et al). Even if it isn't. The perception is there - and for good reason. Scumware companies have soured our view of that model.
The interesting thing is that Google entered a poisoned market. Advertising ilk such as Doubleclick polluted online advertising with inappropriate expectations (why is just seeing an ad on TV acceptable but an online campaign a failure if it doesn't generate click-throughs) and playing games with tracking cookies, pop-ups/unders, java, and flash. It's a wonder anyone loads ad banners at all (and an increasing number of users don't). Yet Google has flourished in this wasteland. And a large part of this has to do with their behavior. At the least, they don't behave in a manner that makes it worth the effort to block them. And that only makes an already effective system more effective.
Purveyors of "tracking" and "targeted" ad technology should be very careful as to what limits their targets will accept.
People DO like advertising. Tastefully done advertising. I happen to like TV shows that show Ads from all over the world... it's a laugh every 30 seconds for an hour. Very enjoyable.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
The example they gave in the article was GTA, referring to the billboards on the streets. I can honestly say that it wouldn't bother me at all to see companies pay to put their real product ads in games in that manner. Same goes for sports games, which the ads in the arena, yadda yadda.
These are places where, in our every day lives, we are used to seeing ads. This is no change, as long as its done in a non-invasive sort of way...That is as long as you aren't forced to sit and absorb the ad.
Nothing. Nothing in the whole freaking world, makes me madder than being forced to sit through an advertisement. If I have paid for a freaking movie, and they make me watch some goddamn annoying commercial at the beginning, I find that completely intolerable. I doubt I'm alone.
So it all comes down to the same thing; how much advertising can be done without making people crazy? I think GTA would be a good testbed, because if the ads make the players crazy, you know someone is going to go to the ad company and kill everyone there. Its a given.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Compare it to shoes. Some are made in decent factories with reasonable health and conditions and pay. Others are made in sweatshops. And some are even manufactured in prison-labour camps in countries with far from reasonable human rights records. Would you make a big deal about the evils of footware on the same basis?
I wouldn't condemn all advertising either. I want to know about new products and services, and people knowing about them creates jobs and ensures people can benefit from wonderful new things. I condemn misleading and fraudulant advertising though.
D3 has lots of advertising/news for fictional companies.
A non-futuristic FPS occuring in current times could include Microsoft software boxes, Dell monitors on desks, maybe the occasional Coke machine, etc.
Stuff we're used to in our everyday lives that just appears natural there. (Similar to product placement in movies. I'm not speaking of the commercials beforehand, but within the movie, such as a person wearing Nike sneakers or driving a Lexus.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Another thought: Nike|Reebok|Adidas-brand armor boots would actually be a big hit among certain gamers...the ones that buy Nike|Reebok|Adidas-brand shoes because [favorite athlete just out on parole signed for another 15 million] wears them. Pretty lame, but this sort of product placement would work among the insecure adolescents out there who are seeking their place in the world of empty fashion.
-- "Makes Little Debbie look like a pile of puke!" - Moe Szyslak
Do I want billboards all over my games, so while I'm eliminating the Zerg, they're running past a big ad for a Volvo? Not really.
...but y'all are probably right. What we're gonna get instead is a cut-scene in Fallout making sure we realize our Pip-Boy runs Microsoft Pocket PC 2025...
On the other hand, remember the original Castle Wolfenstein? To regain health, you'd eat a meal that someone left out. Does it hugely change gameplay if, in a more modern setting, to regain health the object you grab looks like a bag of Doritos and a can of Pepsi? Not really.
Done well, in-game advertising can actually yield a more realistic feel-- if I'm playing an FPS set in modern times, I should be walking past Coke machines and USA today newspaper boxes and have a UPS truck drive by. It's reality, and having them say "Cola!" "News!" and "Package Smashers!" detracts from the realistic feel of the game.
-JDF
Am I the only person here old enough to have played Pole Position? Where all the billboards were for things like "Dig Dug" and Namco? It would seem this is hardly a recent phenomenon. What is recent is that nobody had any info on whether the kid with the two liter bottle of shasta was walking over to the Dig Dug game and inserting quarters. What Neilson is trying to do is figure that out.
Yeah, let's use sponsorship for something valuable to the consumer again. Like the sponsored shows in early television (like "The Maxwell House Price is Right", for example -- I made that one up, but you get the idea). The whole show was basically a commercial for a single product, and the whole show was paid for by that company. Kind of like what stadiums and concert venues are doing now, except without the benefit to the customer. It should be either cheap or free to go to a stadium that's named after a company, but instead of lowering the price of admission, they're doing that to pay obscene salaries.
But I digress....
I think a sponsored video game would be a great idea. Say Pepsico pays great game developers to make a great game, then they give it away. You can download it or pick up a CD at the store. It's blatantly a Mountain Dew advertisement, with Mountain Dew billboards all over the game world, and yes, the main character always finds his refreshment in a nice, cold Mountain Dew. Before you know it, you're thirsty for a nice, cold Mountain Dew also.
And the best thing about it is that the consumer once again gets dramatic benefit out of sponsorship, just like you do on the radio and on broadcast TV. You get the content for free in hopes that you'll buy from the sponsor.
RP
This is just further confirmation of the fucking abominable shit that computing has become. I've been a computer nerd since I was 13 - that's 23 years - and it's getting to the point where I just don't want anything to do with the goddamned spying, spamming, slime- and lawyer-infested world of computers. It's just sickening.
If they want to stick a coke can in my game, pizza hut logo, etc. I could care less. If it is part of the game (find the coke can for bonus points), I could care less. Actually if it reduces the cost of the game or helps keep the game maker in business - even better!
Now if it tracks me - which means it is using my bandwidth, and sending information about me - I DO care and would not buy the game for that reason. Though, I could see it being in every game (eventually) making it that you have no choice....
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I'm not sure why everyone assumes it _must_ be an intrusive in-your-face affair, or that tracking _must_ mean your data being sold to the advertiser.
There are lots of opportunities for advertising in online multiplayer games which won't necessarily break the game.
E.g., a MMO which happens in modern times is pretty much expected to have billboards. City of Heroes for example has them, but they're just funny in-game stuff (bail bonds for villains and such) instead of trying to sell a real world product.
Now think a little. Getting a couple of real world banners for those billboards would definitely not be annoying or break suspension of disbelief in any way. E.g., if I saw a big MacDonalds billboard in that city, I wouldn't stop and think "wtf is it doing there." It would fit right in with the rest of the urban landscape.
It also doesn't even need to be a big billboard, but can be something even more subtle or less intrusive.
E.g., in a town you _expect_ shops. In fact, you tend to be disappointed when you don't see them. I know I've stopped and wondered about how few the shops in City of Heroes are.
So I don't think it would look out of place if in a hypothetical modern day MMO you saw a MacDonalds or Pizza Hut on a street corner. It fits there and it makes sense. Those townfolks must be eating somewhere.
Or you can go even more subtle and have stuff like: if that town has a shoe store, sometimes it could sprout a sign in the window proclaiming a big sale on Nike sportswear. It's not like you don't see those IRL, you know.
Also, these are massively bandwidth intensive games anyway, _and_ are based on stuff downloaded on-the-fly from their servers anyway. Having to download an extra 16k worth of compressed texture for some billboard ad wouldn't really make any difference.
So, really, what's the problem?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
What about America's Army? It's one big ad for the Army.
"If Diet Coke did not exist it would have been neccessary to invent it." -- Karl Lehenbauer
The issue is the fact that the movie companies ("Suits") are extremely risk-adverse these days; they want a guaranteed hit. To do this, they go with a familiar story (remake of some old chestnut, or a action/hot babe thriller) and lots of star power. The latter thought is based upon the assumption that people will want to go see their favorite star in a poorly-written story, rather than a cast of unknowns with a well-written script.
The cost of the stars and the cost of overhead, of continuously tweaking a good story until it is a tired, retread POC, is what drives the cost up.
Some of your best bargins are the so-called "minority" films. The studios generally pay much less for a "Mexican" or "Black" flick, even though the writing is generally of good quality, as in "Mi Vida Loca" or "Soul Food."
Yeah, right.
Have you ever played Super SX Tricky from EA Sports. The 7up billboards (for dnl) and are EVERYWHERE. I'm aware that snowboarding tracks would have billboards and the city tracks would have billboards but every 3 seconds you see yet another one. Also that game advertises for the honda element but not as obtrusive. The most blatent one of those is when you do a jump right throught the middle of one with its doors open. Just a few billboards.
My point of this is that they will be obtrusive. Why would a game company put in subtle ads when they can put in blatent ones and really attract the advertisers? Look at nascar, professional bull riding, or american football. "We'd like to welcome ya'll back to the Miller invitational rodeo. Next up, we have the Wrangler focus on a cowboy. But first, lets check those Copenhagen real time stats."