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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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.