Slashdot Mirror
'Misleading' COD2 Ads Pulled From UK
GamesIndustry.biz reports that Activision has been ordered not to air Call of Duty 2 ads in the U.K. that use pre-rendered imagery to sell the game. Three Television viewers apparently complained to that country's Advertising Standards Authority that the imagery constituted misleading advertising. From the article: "The adjudication is likely to send shockwaves through the industry as it focuses on the question of whether pre-rendered footage is an acceptable representation of a computer game - in its defence, Activision didn't argue that it was, but rather that using pre-rendered footage was "common practice"."
Who hasn't played a game that features photos or footage that is not representative of actual gameplay? I feel like only the most inexperienced of people could be so easily fooled by such "deceptive" advertising. There are playable demos for just about every game, as well as images and/or disclaimers on the box.
NINJA SPIRIT - The Ancient Art of Insanity
Bloody right an' all. For ages I've been cursing ad's for not showing what the game actually looks like. Even the use of in-game cutscenes is misleading to the uninitiated as they might believe that all the game was that pretty. What's to stop me producing a game that's text-only and then including a 20-minute MPEG cutscene halfway through it which was made by some major CGI studio? The cutscenes are NOT representative of the game as a whole and therefore should not be allowed to be used in a 30-second advert.
I actually noticed the initial adverts for Call of Duty 2 and had this exact concern. I don't buy games any more (nothing worth buying, nothing decent enough to play them on, no way I'm paying that amount just for a game) but it was obvious to me that there was no way the game could be anything like the adverts showed, even though they looked like they *could* be to the average parent/new gamer.
I'm glad this has been upheld and hopefully this will make companies spend more time making the entire game look and play better rather than just spending the money on pre-rendered cutscenes.
So wait... When McDonalds shoots photos of their giant delicious burgers, they don't just grab the next big mac off the line and snap a shot? They grill a prime patty to perfection with delicately sliced tomatos and onions and put it together like it was "staged" or something!? BOO!
We're fast reaching a point in gaming where real-time rendering can feasably match the quality of pre-rendered graphics. It's not like the days of the Playstation, where characters in FFVII have a few polygons in-game, but are smooth and (somewhat) realistic in the FMV's.
I'm sure most people here have seen trailers for Killzone 2 on the PS3. Even knowledgable people could be led to believe that this can be replicated on a PC game, and it's quite possible on the current-gen XBox 360.
be honest and represent it 'as is'. I'm sick and tired of hearing hype (e.g. "NextGame consoles will deliver cinematic gaming") that I as a technology user know industry cannot deliver on.
Also, how do you honestly expect them to accurately show the benefits of HDTV on a non-HD TV commercial?
</offtopic>
Video games however, differ greatly in that they are easily reproduced pixel-for-pixel on a TV because they were meant to be played on a TV. There is no reason that actual game footage can't be used. If anything, good in-game eyecandy (like COD2 has an commendable amount of) should be seen as perfect for the commercial.
If you aren't going to show actual game play, why not use actors and sets? It will inevitably cost less and look better than CG (unless you're Blizzard or SquareEnix, in which case it will only look better). Look at the SOCOM commercials: they show, with actors and sets, a rendition of SEAL missions that won't be possible for several more years with CG. The SOCOM games aren't about graphics, they're about gameplay (or at least 1 and 2 were, haven't played 3). Good graphics are nice, but if your game is about fun, build an aura in your commercial, not a straw man.
><));>
It appears as though the journalist is not exactly clear on the meaning of "pre-rendered footage" and, as such, it is difficult to discern the actual implications of the article. Is the issue here the pre-rendered footage or the fact that it was pre-rendered footage not present in the game?
From the article:
"The ASA noted that the ads did not include any indication that the images shown did not reflect the quality of graphics of the games. While the scenes used communicated the themes of the game, they were not accurate representations of the graphics in the games themselves. We considered that this was misleading."
It has been common practice to use FMV footage as cut scenes for years now and, more often than not, the ads contain a disproportionate amount of such. Despite being annoying, it was never really much of an issue before. I somehow doubt that these particular ads are being pulled now for something that has been going on for years.
It seems to me that the actual issue here is using new scenes created separately from the game for the sole purpose of advertising. If so, this is an entirely different animal than the article would lead you to believe.
I agree completely, and I found the ads to be misleading as well. Not only was the footage from the CoD2 commercials prerendered, but it not exist at all in the game (that I noticed), even as a cutscene. Personally, I thought it was actual gameplay footage before I saw and played the game firsthand, and I agree that the commercials are misleading. That may sound naive, but games such as HL2 and Q4 have pushed the limits so far that the sequence shown in the commercial didn't seem like much of a stretch. What's worse is that CoD2 is a pretty good game on its own merits, and I don't think there was a real need to resort to an "artist's impression" of the game. Of course, marketers will always flirt with the line between hype and misleading because it works, and they don't get paid to keep products on shelves.
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
I've seen that COD2 commercial thats constantly on the air in North America and I keep asking myself if its actual gameplay or not. They kind of make it ambiguous. And really, how should I know? I don't own a 360. It just came out and it's supposedly got amazing graphics right? So who would know if the commercial is showing actual gameplay or not? Looks like it.