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NYT on In-Game Advertising
The New York Times has a piece on in-game advertising, likely sparked by the installment of RL billboards in Anarchy Online. They discuss the ways in which ads are placed into games and the possible negative reactions from game players as a result of advertising in entertainment they've already purchased. From the article: "I don't want to pick up a sword and have it read Nike on the side..."
As someone who works in a marketing related field, I can say how excited I am at the possibility to narrowcast to individuals. Perhaps these ingame ads can be player-sensitive? For women players, they see soap advertisements while guys see adverts for pickups.
Obviously there are problems in some cases (what are you going to advertise in a world like World of Warcraft?) but thats a problem for another discussion.
Truth be told, I'd like to see in-game advertising take off. It'd be nice for game companies to get another source of revenue going in a crowded market. Potentially, it could mean for more creative or ambitious games.
As for the adverts being annoying, all I have to say is this: It won't take much to get a bad review in a mag over it. Supply and demand means they shouldn't blow it.
"Derp de derp."
Obviously there is the player concern about it being "world appropriate". Ie. having an ad on a sword in EQ would not, while billboards in AO are. To those worried about this, I say relax. People in advertising are WELL aware of your concerns (trust me, we're not stupid) and most likely would never do this unless they had a DAMN good reason.
Now, I think its only a matter of time before these become clickable and maybe open a pop-under ad that you see once you close the game. If that ever happens and they move from passive ads to interactive ads, I think they should be clearly labeled as such with some text stating that it is a "sponsored ad" just so there's no confusion.
Other than that, in-game ads are here to stay, and look forward to advertisers grabbing every available in-game space, especially once word gets around about how more men are playing video games than watching tv. Although I wouldn't be surprised if someone creative invents a 3rd party in-game popup blocker.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Personally, whenever I see any product brand, it takes me out of the money, but then again, that has a lot to do with me being a former hyper-analytical creative writing major who took a lot of media studies courses. Unrecognizable brand names and generic (ie: no-name) brands are quite common. When you're creating a work of art, every detail is important, and to use big brands as THE choice of a given product says either that you believe in a world where the average person only buys products from the corporations (read as much or as little sinister intent into it), or you've just flat-out sold the corporation advertising. Or you can take the harmless view, where not everything has a deeper meaning, and we really aren't surrounded by marketing propaganda everywhere we look.
Consider this. The character is thirsty. Why not just have them drinking from a glass of cola? This way, you know it's cola, but you don't know what company it is. Why has the choice to actually show the CAN been implemented? Answer: marketing. Take it another way. Yes, a character going to fridge and opening a can, in the middle of some conversation, is a perfectly plausible act. So is a character going to the bathroom and taking a leak while maintaining a conversation, and both extraneous actions are equally relevent to the central story line (ie: not very). So, why the need for an action that includes branding? It's gotten that we're so conditioned to it, we pretend it doesn't exist, and the first reaction to having it pointed out to us is that the person doing the pointing is a silly hippy communist, if only because people don't like to learn just how sheeplike their habits are.
Now, that said, in a world of neverending branding, it's still possible to use it in an artistic way.
Right Way: Use of Coke and Pepsi in Election. Reese Witherspoon describes the need for marketing aggressively in her high school campaign, saying that Coke is number one in soft drinks because it spends more money than anybody else in marketing. An annoyed Matthew Broderick, upon drinking a can of Pepsi later on that night, looks at his can, remembers Witherspoon's quote, and decides to get a competitor against Witherspoon.
Wrong Way: Use of Coke in The Thomas Crown Affair. A parched Rene Russo comes into to meet up with the rest of the detective crew. She pauses to pop open a can of Pepsi (not even your average, run of the mill Pepsi, but a Pepsi One), label perfectly held towards the camera, for an extended period. It was just bloody awful.
PS: Gotcha. I don't really believe all that I wrote just now. Personally, I see how branding operates with verisimilitude. That said, sometimes it's worthwhile to have an opposing viewpoint argued out, and something can be both realistic and also a little insidious at the same time.
You've got to wonder how this will affect a players attention to detail. Most people these days naturally ignore ads on websites, commercials on TV, billboards while driving, etc...In game, much of the time we're required to notice ever detail or we may miss something.
Advertisers/developers are placing content in game that people have a tendency to want to ignore. It's not like you're going to mute the game, and you do want to pay attention. What's a gamer to do?
Kind of the same subject, I don't care if having a coke machine does make sense in game. I'd rather see some creative knock off or a brand that mocks the corporate giants over something in real life.
Maybe the game companies should hire Don Hertzfeldt for some ads.
I find they really detract from the game, With all these damn EA Game Billboards over the place. Its bad enough with they're slogan: Makes me think of Gamers playing chicken with an oncoming bus in a supermarket trolley. But then it is a game where you are doing almost 200mph most of the time you don't really see them. A lot of people don't.
Automation - The Car Company Tycoon Game
The New Yorker had an article a couple of weeks ago that talked about this phenomenon. Apparently advertisers are being involved now at the level of producing and writing the shows. For example, Ford is apparently deeply involved in American Dreams (a drama set in late 1960s America), and they coordinated an episode where the plot revolved around a Mustang with the launch of their new model year. This goes well beyond simple product placement (but I guess falls short of The Disney Channel, although there you know what you're getting yourself into).