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The Good and Bad of In-Game Ads
Dyslexia writes "MLG takes a look at the emerging trend of in-game advertising and explores the ways in which it can prove to be both good and bad for the industry and consumers." From the article: "When done in a way that isn't consistent with the themes or purpose of a game, advertising can go terribly wrong--in extreme cases even crippling the gameplay, at which point it has gone too far. Advertising that draws the player out of the experience of their game rather than immerses them further into it walks a thin line and the benefits start to get outweighed by the detractions. The recent Counter-Strike debacle is an excellent example of in-game advertising going terribly wrong."
In the cases where advertising helps create an added feeling of realism (racing games, as pictured) it's a great addition, and more power to them. However the issue seems to be with game like Counter Strike and other first person shooters where advertising is simply corny or distracting. I don't want to be defusing at basement nuke and see an advertisment for Tampax Heavy's on the wall (Yes I know, not the target audience, won't happen, blah, but I'm being dramatic).
If there was a way to make it not as distracting, but still get the message, I'd go for it. But I don't want to ever see this.
Fractured Element
in game ads could work but only in specific circumstances, if I was playing zelda and navi started saying "how about a nice refreshing coke" or something I'd be pissed off, but in a game like GTA or some real world based game set in cities then it wouldn't be inapropriate to have bill board ads or posters which actually do exist, infact it could make the game better as it would be "more real" than before.
*''I can't believe it's not a hyperlink.''
Dr. Emmett Brown: 'There's that word again; "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?'
Sorry, completely off topic, but it's the first thing that went through my head...
The really important questions.
Am I paying to look at the advertisements or are the ads serving to defray the cost of my subscription. I know that I would rather see the latter, but it seems unlikely given the way that companies work.
If I have to pay for the game and I find out it has advertising within the game, it gets returned, simple as that. If the game is free, then fine advertise all you want.
In my personal experience, the more subtle the ad, the more effective I believe it is. Advertising a big out-of-place SUBWAY COUNTER-STRIKE SPECIAL on the side of an office building in my mind ruins the gaming experience. Putting in a Pepsi machine in the office break room and having Pepsi products dump out when someone blasts the thing is probably far more effective.
Just to have fun at Valve's expense, and cause it's funny, everyone make their CS custom spray a Subway Ad!
Here's the article from Ars a few weeks back. Talks about the company "Engage Advertising" that was responsible for "pioneering localized in-game advertising programs in targeted markets." Just sounds like Spam to me.
Fractured Element
I really enjoyed the branding in Pikmin 2 on the Gamecube. It was kinda cool to see your little Pikmin drag around real Duracell batteries and that yellow lip cream container (but given that I've forgotten the name I guess it wasn't the greatest branding). It also helped to reinforce the idea that the setting was actually Earth, which was only subtly suggested in the first game.
It may seem obvious, but I always wanted game producers to replace the Fake ads used in games like Duke 3D and Tekwar. While many of these ads were very cute, they tended to get extremely repetitive, thus reminding the player he's in a game. Put in a wide variety of real ads, and suddenly things get more interesting.
That being said, I wonder how Subway would respond if I blew up their virtual sign in virtual reality?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
The only acceptable way to do in-game promotion is when you are already planning to use company logos for scenery, but instead of asking for permission you tell them it's an "advertising opportunity" and have them pay YOU to do something you would have any way.
Of course, once they see how much money can be made it will be abused.
Why does TV suck? Commercials, and inane programming
Why does radio suck? Commercials, and inane disk jockeys
Why will mainstream high-budget games suck? Commercials, and inane copy protection schemes.
The counter strike ad's would have worked in a setting that warrants such ad's. for example, if the map was called CS_shoppingmall, and the object is to rescue hostages from the mall, The Subway ad's would have been OK by me as long as they were located in the food court of the mall map, and attached to a subway restaurant in the food court. The way they were doing it was randomly putting the ad's over various maps in awkward locations. I expect a lot of things at a shipping depot or train depot, but a Subway ad is not one of them.
I've said it before that ad's are fine by me as long as they follow similar rules to real life and fit in the world's timeline, setting, and are not overpowering. Replacing billboards in City of Heroes/Villians with static real ad's would be fine as long as they follow simple billboard rules. Ad's in a futuristic game better have a futuristic theme and look like they came from the time period or it will never work. The same goes with any other game out there. It shouldn't blink or need clicked or be interactive or anything like that. basically, If you look at the ad and think to yourself almost immediately, "That doesn't belong here" than it's not going to work.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
I work for a promotion company that deals with movies, video games, and music, and they recently sent us a message asking for our opinions on this sort of "in-game advertising," just to see how we felt. In the end, they emailed us and said that 8 out of 11 of the projects we're working with right now are going to have in-game advertising at a maximum level... so, seems like ya might have to get used to it. :-/
I don't see any scope for advertising in the current games market simply because we already pay a premium for games anyway. When I shell out £30 or £40 for a game I simply don't want to see adverts. If the game was of the same quality and £10 then maybe I would accept it. The same sort of thing has happened in the film industry but at least the price of most films has dropped.
I used to have a better sig but it broke.
Red Bull had banner ads scattered around the futurist race tracks of Wipeout XL for the PlayStation... and it totally destroyed my brain. I would close my eyes and see that Red Bull taunting me.. "Yea, I got your wings right here."
Perhaps for companies that would like to advertise in games like Counter-Strike they can do things such as:
Create their own maps which incorporate their advertising [Of course it would still have to be a good map or no one will play it]. That way the consumer gets something of 'value', a good map to play, and the company gets to advertise.
And they can even run their own server which runs the maps they created to incorporate their product. Then we also get a stable, low-latency server to play on out of the deal. I guess I wouldn't mind that so much.
Of course, they would never go for it, since they'd have to hire people to create decent maps, and perhaps a full-time admin staff to monitor the servers. And I'm sure the legal department wouldn't be up for it since people can do/say just about anything in the server, etc etc...
Nothing to see here
Putting in a Pepsi machine in the office break room and having Pepsi products dump out when someone blasts the thing is probably far more effective.
I would say that using Pepsiman as a selectable character in your fighting game would be even more effective (and fun). Heck, maybe you could have an entire game devoted to Pepsiman... Now that would be amazing.
Nah, no one would ever do that...
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is an excellent game that I enjoyed very much, but the in-game advertising in it was horrible. Most of it was for Brothers in Arms, a game that I was considering playing until I was bombarded by advertising in Chaos Theory. Practically every computer screen showed it as a screensaver, there were posters in rooms throughout the game, and two guards even chatted about what a cool game it was. Result? I will *never* (1) play Brothers in Arms ever, which seems like the direct opposite of what they were trying to achieve.
(1) Well, maybe not never. If someone paid me $1000 to play it, I'd probably play it. If the Swedish Bikini Team offered their bodies to me to play the game, I'd probably do it too. If someone gave it to me as a present though, I'd probably smile and trade it in for store credit somewhere.
If they were as easy to ignore as some inpage banner adds maybe I wouldn't notice them. Wouldn't care but if they're a delay or an interruption I won't be spending 50-30 dollars on a game.
The other problem I have with advertising is the way the add dollars drive editorial content. I'd like to think that Rockstar would still let me shoot whores but if they're taking add revenue in from NOW and Cosmo magazine I somehow doubt that feature would stay in. Imagine GUN if it was sponsored by Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun.
I've hit Karma 50 and gotten a Score:5, Troll... I win!
I'm still debating whether your posts deserves "troll" or "flamebait" status, because as far as I'm concerned it easily qualifies for both.
... (because it helps to keep us employed.) An in-house request for opinions is far and away one of the most biased actions that your management could have done, which is probably exactly why they did it. See if they have the balls to do that on the Internet where anyone can freely voice their opinion about in-game advertising. I guarantee you'll get a very different answer.
In the end, they emailed us and said that 8 out of 11 of the projects we're working with right now are going to have in-game advertising at a maximum level.
Oh, there's a shock. No, we like lots of advertising in games
So, seems like ya might have to get used to it.
That is one of the most arrogant statements I have seen and is the epitome of why people do NOT like advertisers! Why not just come out directly and say, "F*ck you, gamers! We're shoving this in your face whether you f*cking like it or not!"
You apparently underestimate the gaming community and the connectivity/news source that is the Internet. If in-game advertising gets too intrusive, gamers will not buy the game or they will develop hacks that will overwrite the ads, even if that's in violation of EULAs. And thank to the Internet, information like advertising content within a game and how disruptive it can be in a game can be known immediately throughout the world. Our ability to prevent people from buying the game because of intrusive advertisements is greater than your ability to force us to buy a game that has too much or inappropriate advertisements.
So, kindly keep your "here's your KY jelly/bend over and grab your ankles" attitude to yourself.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
How is there anything good for consumers when it comes to ingame advertising? It doesn't lower price of the product and it (normally) detracts from the experience. Take the TV show Smallville for example. Last night, they did an extremely obvious product placement. It hurt the flow of the program, made the actors break character and didn't reduce the amount of comercials shown. So who is this good for?
Do you watch Cable or Satellite TV? Remember when cable tv first came out and it was promised to be ad-free? Then 'relatively' ad-free. Now, no company can remember making those claims? Same with Satellite Radio... same with in-game ads.
You'd be lucky if the ad's were in just games like Enemy Terroritory or America's Army that were actually free. But STEAM has already shown us the way. Don't you get it? It's not a method of providing the consumer with content, it's a method of providing an additional revenue stream for the company because they can not only sell fixed ads to their audience, they can continually re-sell the ads to new companies because you have to update via steam if you want to play any of their games online.
We're used to ads everywhere else we look, did we riot when they started showing us commercials before we got to see the $12 movie we just paid for?
Advertising is everywhere, movies tv newspapers, websites, Gaming was the last refuge where I could leave all of that and ejoy my entertainment, seeing as how gamers will not benefit AT ALL from this added advertising (no price break in games, no added content for the games in terms of maps, guns, characters) how can this be a good thing and why are people so accepting of it?
I can see the point of "adding realism" to games such as bill boards, but we already had that with "fake advertising" in games, and the reason it doesn't bug me when it is fake is because it doesn't remind me of the real world I am trying to escape, instead it helps immerse me in the game world (look at billboards in postal 2).
The more we accept this the more watered down our games will become to the point that they will be games built around opportunites to advertise to their "key demographic".. come on people..
Take a look at a lot of racing games... the reason that my personal favorite racing game (Gran Turismo 3) did not have damage in it was almost completely due to the car manufacturers' requests that they only present the cars in pristine, shiny condition. No body damage, no engine failure. Only worn tires... which are made by other companies.
Bury me in mashed potatoes.
While not exactly the intended topic, this is also related to Alternate Reality Gaming which is quite often financed by large corporations with the intent of pushing a specific product, or increasing general the general "buzzworthiness" of their corporate image.
These games are constantly producing high-quality entertainment, without sacrificing immersion. Yet, the product/company behind the project is always in the player's mind.
It's a quite unique and persistent form of advertising in gaming that's starting just now, to really grab the notice of ad agencies and companies.
For examples, check out this new agency that did that www.ilovebees.com thing for Halo 2, or This one that recently did a game called "Art of the Heist" for Audi last year.
I already wasted karma on this discussion, but I need to reply since the marketroids and clones are dominating this discussion.
In game advertising is fucking evil. Why the fuck would anyone want to see ads in a game. Urban setting - need billboards to give it that gritty hopeless edge? Racing game player needs something to look at while turning left? You dont need fucking bullshit advertising to make a game. Games are played for entertainment, for relaxation, to get away from all of the bullshit in real life. Advertising is all about generating and cultivating desire, turning simple gimmicks into wants and wants into needs. You dont need some ad to suddenly popup and tell you that your life is shit because you dont have some shiny new fucking product, you are too fat and smelly, you have too much hair or not enough, maybe you need a date or a mail order bride. Graphics card too slow to move at all when this 500MB texture is loaded - time for an upgrade.
Anything portrayed as advertising in games should be value added content. Show me something original, something enjoyable, a satirical billboard ala the onion or like the 50's style government propaganda in fallout or doom3's Super Turbo Turkey Puncher.
Anyone who says that real advertisements make a game more enjoyable are probably the same people who pay for fucking cable tv and watch the home shopping network.
I wont play any fucking games with ads. I wont play if you give the game away for free. My spare time is worth way too much.
Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pissing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life.
We have the best government that money can buy.
I love gaming. I've got a launch-day Dreamcast, PS2, XBox, Gamecube, and 360. I play the hell out of them. I spend over $5000 a year on videogames, but if this advertising trend continues, that number will drop to $0.
I hate advertising, especially captive audience advertising. I refuse to pay for the privilege of receiving someone's brand message. I don't go to the movies anymore, because I can't stand the advertising in front of films. I bought a TiVO when I subscribed to pay television, so I could skip ads. I stopped watching series on HBO when I found out that they received paid product placement for shows like The Sopranos and Six Feet Under. I use adblock and other proxy tools to block banner advertising, and if a site finds a way to put a banner on my screen anyway, I never return to the site.
To get to the topic at hand, I should say that I have no problem paying $60 for a game, or even $50. Only the written word gives me better entertainment value. At even 10 hours (a short game), I'm paying $6 / hour for entertainment (well, plus the amortized cost of the console, but over 5 years of hard play time this is basically negligible). That's a fine bargain.
I should amend this statement: I have no problem paying $10 extra for a new game if the costs of development are recouped through consumer purchases. Paying $10 more for Tony Hawk American Wasteland on the 360, a game that is so buggy that some of the in-game missions cannot completed, is an insult. Finding the game stuffed full of advertising for cell phones and energy drinks is such an affront that I am left feeling violated.
This trend continues across other games. Need For Speed: Most Wanted is an EA game, and everyone knows EA would whore their own mothers if they thought it increased the bottom line, so it's not totally unexpected that the game features branding for cell phones and other various non-automotive sponsorship at every turn. I got this one from a friend for $20, and even then I feel a little used after I finish a play session. Even Microsoft gets in on the act. Travelodge advertises in Project Gotham Racing 3. The Samsung logo is emblazoned on the menu system for Perfect Dark Zero. What do shitty motels have to do with road racing? What do cheap Korean electronics have to do with cyberpunk mercenary spies? Not a goddamn thing, that's what, and I resent their presence in the game.
I wouldn't mind the advertising barrage in gaming so much if it helped keep the cost of the product down. I know that development costs are skyrocketing and I'm not unsympathetic, but charging $10 more for a game while stuffing it full of advertising is a naked cash grab, and I resent it. It's tempting to say that publishers can't have it both ways, but that's not true. They can have it both ways, because I'm a fairly typical high-income gamer, and I'm nowhere near pissed enough to stop buying their products. Yet. I'm still playing every game I've listed in this post, and odds are good I'll be playing their sequels in a year or two.
So let's say this: I don't want publishers to have it both ways, but I still bend over, hold my ass open, and take it. I resent them for it, and it builds ill will in me toward them, and over time it disenfranchises me with the hobby as a whole. I'm a lifetime gamer with lots of disposable income, and this commodification and packaging of my eyeballs is slowly turning me off on the entire experience. I can't be the only one.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
don't forget to avoid the noid - he destroys pizzas!
Wave upon wave of demented avengers March cheerfully out of obscurity into the dream
"Advertising that draws the player out of the experience of their game rather than immerses them further into it walks a thin line and the benefits start to get outweighed by the detractions."
There is never a time where advertising in a game "immerses me further" that is the biggest load of B.S. I've ever read. The only exceptions would be team names in sports, car brands on cars, and that sort of "advertising."
Game makers need to resort to advertising because of the huge costs associated with development for the 360/PC/PS3 these days. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy, though, and they are the ones who created the need and now the solution.
Games need to return to the fun and the small dedicated teams designing them, not big faceless corporations churning out games like Nike shoes in a sweatshop (almost an exact analogy for EA). It is a shame that gaming has come to this. There have always been licenses, tie-ins, and blatant advertising (Avoid the Noid, anyone?) but it was never so subversive and underhanded. I truly hope Sony and MS lose their collective shirts this round of consoles and gaming gets back to its roots of creativity and fun, the money will follow naturally not by forcing artificial "needs" and then "solving" them.
- Word to your mother.
http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
A correction: $5000 should have been $1500. I'm high on crack. Please excuse me.
Even Jesus hates listening to Creed.
Seems to me that the more the gaming industry tries to force in-game advertising on their customers, the more mods and hacks will become the norm. After all, advertisers are successfully killing TV as we speak, having already killed radio and newsprint. People have fled those media for the internet, because they can control their mindspace. All over the world, everyone's breaking free of information control with blogs, video iPods, file-sharing, OSS, etc. I dunno if we'll ever see an OSS model arise with game development (that is, beyond mods and hacks layered on top of a corporate game), but it's not entirely outside the realm of possibility.
But at any rate, the gaming industry will probably wake up too late to the fact that in-game advertising will kill the goose that laid the golden egg.
On a more speculative note, I wonder if advertisers will eventually chase people out of all media and into the real world. Maybe then everyone will blink, look at each other, and realize that there's plenty of storylines, challenges, and problems to solve in the real world to keep everyone busy/entertained for a lifetime.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
...like pouring rubbing alcohol on an open sore (most of the time). I agree with many posters that it is on the increase and the tide is likely to rise, however, I also agree that we can withold our dollars and not purchase a game. I personally feel that in-game advertising if done correctly AND in the right genre does not detract from game play and will actually enhance the experience making it more realistic. However, placing advertising in a game for the sake of advertising not only detracts from the game but from the advertising product as well. Throwning in a random Pepsi logo in a game like World of Warcraft is way out place, but throwing in a pepsi logo in a NASCAR game ( since the sport is riddled with advertising ) is totally acceptable and appropriate.Also in the case of games where there is advertising I would think that the savings should also be passed back to the consumer through a slightly lower price. I am not saying that the company devalue its software but man I personally would be more apt to spend money with a company that gave the illusion they actually cared about the person laying out the cash to buy they product. It could be a win-win for industry as well as the consumer. Then again I am a realist and know that the companies greed will far outweigh there care and passion for their customer.
nt
If you don't mod this Insightful, I will come to your houses and shower you with stuffed bears. Oh yes, I'm that serious.
All I'm hoping (may be a bit naive) is that the internet and this technology we're working with now, is known well enough by outsiders (or hackers, whatever you want to call them) that no matter what is thrown at us, we will find away around, or a way to create what we feel is right. How long will we remain in control of these things? Are we loosing it already?
Fractured Element
Craxy Taxi on the PS2 had the worst in game advertising i've ever seen... "Take me to Pizza Hut", "Take me to the LEVIs store"... etc..
And billboard posters as well, the whole thing made for quite an uncomfortable gaming experience. In fact, I really felt that I was being ripped-off, I literally felt like I should have been being paid to play the game rather than paying £20 for it at the time!
That it probably contributed alot to the fact that I only purchased two more games and the PS2 gathered dust before I sold it on EBay years later. Perhaps I would have used it more if I had been presented with an enjoyable initial gaming experience?
Here are a few facts on in game advertising
With 250 million computer and video game units sold in 2004, and over $25 billion in revenues, the electronic gaming sector is now the fastest growing sector in the entertainment industry. The average age of a console game is now 29, with an above-average education and income. It's no longer about kids in their bedrooms, games are taking media time and awareness directly from TV viewership. In 2004, TV viewership declined by 12% in the target group of males 18-34 years old while, at the same time, this group spent 20% more time playing games. Nielsen The fastest growing media segments in 2006 will be videogame advertising (40%), online advertising (27%), movie screen advertising (25%), branded entertainment (18%), local/regional cable television (12.8%) and custom publishing (10%), whereas TV ad spend will actually decline. Jack Myers Media Business Report 3/4 of households with a male age 8-34 own at least one videogames console. Nielsen Independent tests by companies such as Nielsen Entertainment show that recall of ads in games is as high as 60% thanks to the immersive and interactive game environments they are placed in.
People are really, really pissed about this apparently.
I just buy games to have fun. If there are ads, I ignore them -- I'm not so damn uptight that seeing a graphic is going to ruin my enjoyment.
Sometimes, ads make me feel a little more into the game. Not often, no. But it happens. I'm not playing games as an escape, I'm playing games as simple recreation.
If you let something like that get you as incredibly upset as some people here are, I really think you might want to step away from games altogether for a little while. Seriously, if an ad for shaving cream is enough to make you think about the real world and how much you hate it, figure out a way to make that better.
Lighten up. Petty shit can't bother you unless you let it.
It's pretty interesting at first, but gets annoying later. Surprisingly (for me) it's annoying because of the lack of variety -- you don't see a Verizon ad, only Cingular, you don't see MickeyD's, only Burger King ...
Somehow it might be worth seeing Darth Vader and Luke sit down at the Tatooine Sports Bar and get into a fight over whether Miller Lite Tastes Great or is Less Filling...
Cthulhu Barata Nikto
Or make it where you have to buy enough of a particular product so you can trade in points for a free game based on that product. Kool-Aid Man
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
Game developer's world:
The good: More money for the developer!
The bad: How is more money bad?
The player's world:
The good: More ads being shoved in your face everywhere you look? Does someone out there like that?
The bad: More ads being shoved in your face everywhere you look! Seriously, just when you think theyve run out of ideas, they find a new way to make money off of your existance.
Its just like paying for premium cable channels didnt get you but a few commercial-free channels, no one is going to benefit from this except for the content provider -and when they feel they arent making enough money, they'll find another way to sell your audience.
I do NOT work for an advertising company.
I still hold that a marketing department that asks advice of a promotional department, which is just a variant of a marketing department, is still the equivalent of asking in-house and therefore still gives an insanely biased point-of-view. Marketing and promotion do the same thing: try to get visibility of their product out in front of the public. You work for the adversiting section of your company. They're not dissimilar.
I was just posting this here so you can get an inside on what the opinions are of the game-developers who this company works for are
You admitted that you are in promotions, not development. Just because you work in the same company does not mean that you automatically can categorize yourself as knowing what developers think. You can't tell me that the developers want that stuff in there. I'm sure that management does because it helps to reduce their costs, but developers are our brothers and sisters in that they're geeks, too. They know VERY WELL how we will respond to things like blatant advertisements, but I'm sure that they dare not bring it up to the non-geek managers because they know it will be ignored, given a guilt trip, or probably put their job at risk.
The Overrated mod is for reversing inappropriate, positive mods, not for voicing disagreement with a post.
I can't let this post go by without mentioning the hilarious April Fool's day prank in A Tale in the Desert. Have a look at: http://wiki.atitd.net/tale2/April_Fools
Of course you would enjoy them better if you knew the game.
It didn't bother me to see the Burger King product placement in Back to the Future, but for some reason it pissed me off to see that same thing (to a lesser degree, even) in Minority Report. The strange thing is that both of these movies were set either in real or pseudo-real locations where you'd expect to see "real life" ads. Maybe if you're sufficiently enjoying the experience, a little ad whoring doesn't bother you too much.
Don't worry. So was whoever modded you "insightful" for that, and ignored the parent post that was actually insightful.
Sam only chews gum when he's not kicking ass. Since he's always kicking ass in the PC version...
...I only play Nethack and Slash'Em in tty mode.
When I get something for "free" like regular TV, I expect there to be advertising so the TV producers can make a profit and pay their actors. However, when I pay for something like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, etc. I expect the movies to be uninterrupted. I even expect there to be no 3rd party advertising between shows.
How is this any different from a video game? It's not like I downloaded a free trial-version of the 1st level. I purchased the game. I don't want to see crap in the game that ruins my fantasy-escape-from-reality time. We are bombarded by commercials to consume, consume, consume every waking moment (radio, TV, internet, magazines, newspapers, etc.). I don't wany any of that in my games.
Even in-game ads that mimic real-life ads (billboards in GTA, logos on racing cars, etc.) are annoying. I don't want to be reminded of, say, Jared @ Subway on a billboard, or Pennzoil motor oil on a racing car. That's a cop-out for the developers to not be creative. IIRC, there were some humourous billboards in GTA, or at least some that were relevant to locations in the game. i.e. "Shop at ZIP", etc.
But then couldn't someone create a mod to just remove all of those ads? If they are just images, can they be changed? And you can bet that having advertising in games will not lower the cost of the games.
Insightful, perhaps. But also blissfully ignorant of reality.
:-)
People need money to live. Advertisers will pay you to pimp their stuff. Smart advertisers will actually listen to people complaining about all the crass and crappy ads, and get wise, and be more subtle, more humourous, and less invasive. I'm betting most people will be willing to tolerate well-executed ads in games, if it means spending less (or no) money up front. Or even better, if it means a shot at some sort of shiny prize for them.
"This secret level brought to you by Pepsi. Here's your iTunes download code. Have a nice day."
Resistance is futile
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