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."

Comments

Games already have that?

[evilNomad]

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!

Gimme a Discount, Then

[grunt107]

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...

Re:How that affect the price of games?

[Anonymous Coward]

Prices of games will never come down from this. If anyone thinks that they're an idiot. It only means that the corporate whores in the publishers companies will be making more money.

Re:consoles and freeware

[stretch0611]

This is new because: "Gamers are tracked. New advertisements are delivered on the fly. It's both a game publisher and ad exec's dream."

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.

Re:consoles and freeware

[Nos.]

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.

Re:consoles and freeware

[Xofer D]

You and I may not, but millions will, especially if it means less expensive (free?) games.

No they won't. They'll simply download a version which has been cracked to remove the ad misfeatures. You can be certain that such features will be removed along with copy protection, because any feature which downloads ads from the vendor would also be "phoning home", and what cracker would want that? Once they're merely copying the game already, there is a lot less incentive for consumers to purchase the game.

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.

Re:allows it sometimes too

[rokzy]

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.

Let me get this straight..

[d_jedi]

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 :-> )

Re:consoles and freeware

[Croaker]

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.

Re:consoles and freeware

[_Sprocket_]

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.

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.

Billboards are fine with me.

[SatanicPuppy]

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.

Re:Billboards are fine with me.

[fatcatman]

Nothing. Nothing in the whole freaking world, makes me madder than being forced to sit through an advertisement.

I can think of something. "I, Robot": "Don't you just love these shoes? They're great. They're from the year 2004. Can you zoom in on them? Cool shoes, aren't they? Grandma, make sure you ask me about my shoes later in the film, so I can show them to the crowd yet again. Buy these shoes, guys. Come on, you know you want to."

This sort of blatent product placement is a load of, excuse my language, pure fucking bullshit. It distracts from the movie and makes me feel like I just paid $10 to see a 2 hour commercial. Next time this shit shows up in a film, I'm walking out and demanding my money back.

This was as bad as the Subway stuff in Happy Gilmore. Except when Adam Sandler did it, it was a big joke and setup for laughs. He didn't try to take it seriously.

You want product placement? Stick a coke in a fridge. Have Neo use a Nokia phone. He's going to need a phone anyway, so it might as well be a slick new model that I can go out and buy if I want to. That's realistic and appropriate. Don't stop the whole movie so you can show me your fucking shoes.

Let's put it this way: Put the item there but don't make a single reference to it. If you have to zoom in on it and talk about it, you're going to piss people off.

Doom3

[Andy Dodd]

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.)

As with many things, it's a double-edged sword

[foxtrot]

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.

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. ...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...

-JDF

Pole Position?

[MasMacho]

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.

part 1: it doesn't have to be obnoxious, you know

[Moraelin]

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?