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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."
I'm not quite sure how this is all that new. Many, many console games have ads throughout the game. I was playing Madden 2005 just a few minutes ago... and the billboards in the stadiums are pushing all sorts of EA-related stuff.
What has shocked me is the failure of freeware with embedded ads. For a while it seemed many freeware authors were trying to make money with this concept.
As a freeware author myself, it didn't work well for my product. People preferred the old, buggy ad-free version to the final version with small, tasteful ads. I ended up making more money off the google ads on the download page than I did from the product.
I finally killed the ads and the number of people using the program hit the roof.
AC
Will there be points for Coke vs Pepsi? Can I get all the Gatorade? If I get generic, will get sick?
...should soon be rife with this sort of thing. Want to play the game? For free? Well, here's some ads to enjoy in the mean time. Might bug some folks, but if the game is really that good, hell, i'll buy...if the ads are taken out of the pay-version.
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!
Forget the Coke ads. I want the Budweiser girls!
Can anyone remember an old Amiga games called Pushover? Sponsored by Quavers?
Or Zool not only being covered with advertising but even came with its own Lolipop
Mouse powered Chips, Open source Processors and Lego
Yeah, I was playing Evil Dead the other day and saw a blatant ad for S-Mart. It was terrible because it wasn't a billboard or anything, it was actually part of the storyline.
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.
I would compare the appearance of Omega watches and Aston-Martins in James Bond and Starbucks in Shrek (which I think was all well done) with the appearance of Audi in I,Robot and BMW in James Bond: both of which I felt jarred and reduced my enjoyment of the film.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
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...
Something like this?
why does the porridge bird lay his eggs in the air?
You can use the god cheat by typing at the console:
"Iforgiveyouforcrystalpepsi"
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
NetHack's Mail Daemon has been delivering spam to me for years.
Ads on TV I can mute, but I can't stand ads in the movies, when you've already paid high dollar for a ticket, then while you're a captive audience they blast Coke/Blockbuster/Body Fantasies ads at you.
Arrgh.
Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a soportar Si la vida me da palo, yo la voy a espabilar
..keep the ads somewhat tasteful and out of my way, then who cares?
And by tasteful, I mean no flashing crap at me, alternating contrasting colors. Or, say, flash.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I remember playing text adventure games on a Commodore Vic 20 where you'd find leaflets and reading them presented you with an ad for another game by the company. Granted, this wasn't an unrelated company looking for product placement, but it was still advertising within the game.
I have discovered a truly remarkable sig which this margin is too small to contain.
...Never heard of it!
*Cough*America's Army *Cough*
Just like porn, except whereas some people actually like porn, no-one likes advertising.
I will resist any attempts to force advertising on me e.g. Adblock, and if my attempts fail I will just turn away entirely.
Thankfully I'm an academic and don't even have to deal with billboards.
A single non-intrusive, correctly targeted and well implemented advert is a million times more effective for legal businesses than a million expensive "let's ruin another part of your day with offensive crap" campaigns.
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?
Get hit with the Ad Cannon and you'll be incapacitated for several seconds while your avatar stops and conspicuously consumes:
- a bag of Doritos
- a can of Red Bull
- a bottle of Tums
- a tube of Preperation-H
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
Will we be able to blow up the ads? That might make it acceptable.
Looking for a job?
Want your resume written professionally?
DON'T USE TUNAREZ!!!
Keep your dickbeaters out of my bitstream.
Ads, especially billboards, in an urban driving game or FPS, are kind of OK. For realism, the billboards have to be there anyway. Make 'em realistic, and if the publisher can get a kickback from Pepsi (theoretically lowering the price of the game - - HA!, but I digress), well and good.
But reading what I'm going past, and phoning that info home? Gimme a break.
Pretty soon, your next upgrade patch will include not fixes for the actual game, but new ads. "Our new sponsor is now Coca-Cola. Your gaming experience has been enhanced to reflect this exciting new addition to our corporate team!"
EA's Fifa series has been doing this for sometime now. The commercial billboards on the soccer fields do advertise real products.
This is my sig. There are thousands more, but this one is mine.
Games have been trying to emulate movies for years, in the false idea that since both are visual entertainment, they should both be approached in similar ways.
Having to interact with an advert in order to progress, I can see as being a very infuriating premise, unless it is done in a clever way.
Movie promotions you can generally ignore, and let them pass you by, as they are simply passive images, game promotions I can see as being more invasive, and less avoidable.
...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.
I am Leviathant and I approve this message.
Need i say more?
martianbuddy.com
Wed, 25 August 2004
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If there is a Diablo III, the potion vendors get replaced with vending machines, the smiths get replaced by Wallmart, the other NPCs will be wearing sandwich boards, and all of the armour will have logos on them...
(S(SKK)(SKK))(S(SKK)(SKK))
Has been throwing in outside advertisers for some time. From what I can remember, the music that used in the latest version of their wonderful madden games was provided in a fashion similar to "payola" or pay for play...
To be honest, this doesn't actually bother me because the advertisements within the game take place while the action is still going on. Whether is the "Nokia Sugar Bowl" within NCAA 2005 or the "Gillette Half Time Report" in various other games.
Its completely unobtrusive and works well with the game. I'd go ahead and say that it provides a kind of realism to the whole experience.
I came here to kick ass and chew Watermelon Bubblicious... and i'm all out of Watermelon Bubblicious
Well Playboy magazine is already one step a head of you. Their next issue will be an interesting crossover of video game advertising and girlie photos. See here for more info.
Given one hour to live, the student replied: "I'd spend it with professor FP who can make an hour seem like a lifetime."
This is just what we need, next time a good looking female shows up in a game I honestly wouldn't mind the trojan man popping out to give me a free box of condoms...
If carrots got you drunk, rabbits would be fucked up. - Comedian Mitch Hedberg R.I.P. 03/30/68-2/24/05
Anarchy Online already has billboards advertising Alienware computers :)
(This is a tie-in to a marketing campaing related to the launch of AO expansion titled 'Alien Invasion')
I doubt any gamer would mind much for (paid) advertising in the form of (animated) billboards or 'holograms' in first person shooter levels, but the stuff should *fit the theme*. Futuristic shooter such as Unreal Tournament would be easy - just stick in some billboards to suitable levels, but if someone would start selling McDonalds stuff by planting ingame ads into something like Everquest, gamers would go berserk over it...
It all depends how it's done. I think Sims Online and The Sims 2 also have somekinda marketing/product placement deals already set up.
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.
I think he's referring to the latest edition, Worms 3D. I'm not sure if that's out in the US yet.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
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
I am the maverick of Slashdot
I can't wait for Adbusters: The Game .
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.
It would be a great use of the audio commentary; when he cracks a soda and takes a swig I can just hear:
"Hmmm... What _is_ this crap?"
-- You are in a maze of little, twisty passages, all different... --
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?
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
Jennifer Government.
Read it. It will happen (or something like it). It IS happening. Futurama was NOT at all wrong when it depicted advertisers beaming their crap into people's brains while they dreamed. Every successful marketing/sales droid I know would have zero second thoughts about anything which can increase revenue. Among those people, there are no morals. I mean, Pepsi has already tried to pollute the night sky. Pizza Hut is slapping their logo on the side of spaceships. This has been going on for years. There's nowhere they won't try to go.
These people looked deep into my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined.
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
As I recall, Red Bull was even advertised in WipeOut (the first PSX game) not only on in-game billboards, but also during the opening cut scenes. Only, you couldn't buy those energy drinks here in the U.S. back in 95(?) because they weren't sold here. We (at least, I) didn't know who or what Red Bull was.
Though, as soon as RB hit our market, the brand was instantly recognizable by me, and possibly by others who've played this game to death. Hmm, maybe advertising in video games does work?
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
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.
PepsiQuest, MMORPG gives virtual cash and gifts for real purchases! Buy a pizza from pizza hut and get an AOE spell doubling stamina for all in party! Each pepsi can code entered rewards with 10gp and a full life bonus! Pepsi/Sony/GM - buy a Saturn vehicle and get an online virtual vehicle, purchase a Sony big screen and get Full set of the best armor.... Hey it just makes sense for this to happen sooner or later. The fact is that in most MMORPG's people who have real money buy online credits and charachters anyway.
Does the ban on Tobacco advertising on television and radio cover video games as well? Since NASCAR and other sports series are trying to avoid the potential millions of dollars in tobacco advertising money, how long will it be before Duke Nukem stops his bloodfest to enjoy the fresh taste of a cool Laramie cigarette?
Before anyone comments on it, I know that one of the reasons NASCAR switched from Winston to Nextel partially because the poor, poor tobacco companies lost so much money to the swine lawyers in one of the biggest tort cases in history. Combined with the restrictions that the U.S. (not to mention the European Union) put on tobacco advertising on television, many sports have been forced to seek their fortunes elsewhere.
------
There's a fine line between cuddling and holding someone down so they can't get away.
I seem to remember Crazy Taxi 2 being nothing but advertising. "Take me to Kentucky Fried Chicken" they would say. Or "I need to go to the Levi's Store." The first game was great and the second one was all right, but there was still a lot of advertising in both games.
"Damn TV, you've ruined my imagination, just like you've ruined my ability to -- to, um...uh...oh well."
The Japanese version of Shenmue had Coca-Cola, Fanta, and Sprite in its drinks machines but they were removed from the US version in favour of fictional generic brands. I actually found that far more distracting because I rarely see machines in real life selling generic drinks - they're invariably Coca-Cola or Pepsi.
That's why there's a place for product placement in games, just as long as it's not too invasive and I don't get offered cheap viagra on the loading screens.
Nah. Those are the old days where they advertise products that exist.
Look at Doom III, they have a game called "Super Turkey Turbo Puncher". When this game gets released for real, it'll be a smash hit automatically. I can't wait to punch that turkey for 500 pt.
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."
The other day I visited my local cinema with some friends to watch I, Robot. We went to the pub for a drink first and after queueing and my friends buying expensive food products we got in to the theatre proper about 35 minutes after the billed start time, expecting to have missed the start. We were quite shocked (and, on that particular occasion, relieved) to find that we arrived in time to see the last preview trailer as well as the "don't let mobile phones ruin your movie" and the "Love Movies? Hate Piracy!" (Aarr!) stuff.
That's 40 minutes of junk before the film starts! Normally I don't notice the length of time because I'm chatting to my friends during this time. The ticket cost five pounds (roughly 9 US Dollars) and then once the film finally started the main character kept going on about his basketball shoes, which were of a brand I've never heard of and thus promptly forgot. The blatant nature of that product-placement was actually quite amusing, which was probably what they were going for.
We had a pretty good money offer to put a sponsored add in the Quake 1 entry level. We decided not to just on the basis of it being tacky, which was for the best, considering the company (some random early internet company) dissapeared into obscurity.
I don't have any fundamental problem with product placement in games, but it isn't something we pursue. I would just as soon have real brands in realistic settings instead of made up ones.
John Carmack