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The Next Step For The FPS - Advergames?
simoniker writes "The CEO of Vancouver company Threewave, famous for creating Capture The Flag, has been explaining their current project — multiple versions of a free, ad-supported FPS: 'We'd like to provide sponsored content that also supports the brand of the FPS, allowing it to have a whole stream of maps that are available month after month, featuring different product placement each time. Maybe in a Jeep-Chrysler level you'll be able to drive their vehicles. Maybe a Pepsi branded level where you jump through a Pepsi logo to materialise somewhere else.' He also noted: 'For example, one of the projects that we completed recently... features terrorists taking over the Alienware computer factory.'"
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By the time I get finished playing one of these product placement FPS level, I'm might be incline not to buy anything from the company. Or worst, tell my friends to avoid playing the level and the products.
I had no idea that Threewave invented Capture the Flag. I could have sworn I was playing it years before Quake even existed.
It's like sex, except I'm having it!
I can level up if I shoot someone
The VCs that paid for that spiffy receptionist's desk in the pictures of the article own Threewave's ass. It's clear their business model is diven by those that control the funds, not the developers or the extremely talented founders.
"Is terrorist the right word?"
Capitalist rhymes with it.
BTW Advergaming is old hat. Remember the red spot for sprite? How about those Lego games for kids?
Wasn't there a cereal-themed FPS that used to come in boxes of Chex or something? Am I the only one who remembers this?
As I read the article.... the embedded ad is for "Grand theft auto: Vice city"...
I could go for some hot coffee right about now...
Anyhow on another note, Ads can be placed in games, where appropriate. The first time I jump through a 'pepsi' logo to warp, I'd be on google to find a 'patch' for this distraction in suspending my disbelief.
I would have loved to see a Coke or Pepsi machine in Sin episode 1, but no... the had to be benign and put in 'Hammer cola...Get Hammered!' Great but it's a missed opportunity. The best ad placement I can remember to date is Bawls, in Fallout for the Xbox. not intrusive, it had nice billboards, where billboards should be, and to boot the caps were worth something in-game.
If done correctly this could be a big thing... if done as a spinning pepsi logo i need to jump through, well... there are alot of other developers out there.
THE WORLD IS GOING TO END!!!! eventually.
can't forget the Noid!
The only thing I can think of that would be fun in a in-game-ad FPS would be blasting large chunks in the game ads themselves.
If that's a feature, sign me up.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
"Advergames" are not really that new. Think back to Tapper, in which you served thirsty patrons mugs of (gasp!) Budweiser beer. (http://www.basementarcade.com/arcade/tapper/index .html)
I thought it was Dell that took over Alienware.
This is old news. Quite a few games have blatant product placements (and some games are virtual ads all by themselves... I know of more than one cereal that has their own labeled game in specially-marked boxes). In one relatively recent example, Anarchy Online has rotating ad billboards all over the place, although if you are a subscriber then you can turn them off... it's a great way to subsidize the "fr00bs", or the free-to-play accounts. America's Army is one big PR ad for the US military. I'm sure the /.ers can come up with many other examples.
If I'm not paying for something, I'm happy to support a game through slightly-obtrusive ads (The price of "free"-dom, hah). If I am paying for something, though, then there had better be a good reason that the ads are there.
puma shoes has sponsored some tracks on wipeout for psp. they're great! even better than most of the original
I can see it now.
You're in a Wal-Mart on Dec 24th. On one side it's the blue team protecting a Nintendo Wii in the electronics dept. On the other side, it's the Red team with a 10th Anniversary Tickle Me Elmo in the Toy Isle. In the middle is the Sporting Goods dept full of Remington's, Leathermans, Louisville sluggers and other vaious brand name, potentially leathal objects. First team to get the Wii, the TMX and escape to the checkout counter wins. Bonus points if you Collect all 5 Coca Cola Santa 24 can packs scattered through the store.
Hell i'd play it. Especially for free.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
These are my thoughts. What's worse, intrusive advertising (like the pepsi example) doesn't do anyone any favours. The players hate it, and I don't think it actually works. However, with all the realism we're sticking in games, you'll _have_ to put ads in eventually, exactly where they'd realistically be... why not make it all the more real and use real ads. No one will mind.
My favourite ad-heavy game is DefJam fight for NY. It's a pretty terrible fighter (it queues moves, and doesn't let you cancel them, and auto-completes slow combos), but it's such a great idea, in many ways. The advertising (in the way of all the branded swag you can buy) is unobtrusive, and they actually had a decent not-too-contrived system for getting you to pay attention. I.e. dressing up is good for your game.
This story reminds me of the time when a random FPS (i think it was one of the Rogue Spear games) featured a website adress on one of the posters in a level and the guy who owned the domain noticed a serious amount of traffic start hitting it, which I guess can tell you that if anything it will expose people to your brand. Project Gotham 3 and games like Fifa 06 used all of the advertising boards to make extra cash and this wasn't picked up so much because players were so used to adverts being there in real life, but I think it will be definitely harder for different genres of games to start making inroads into advertising in game, sure you could see Solid Snake walk past a Coke machine but I doubt we will see Sonic eating some butterfingers anytime in the near future.
Business Voyeur
No, you guys aren't cynical enough. They will stuff in ads and raise prices.. and people will pay.
Go to your friendly neighborhood Walmart (or Target, K-Mart, etc) sometime and look around. Especially in the stuff aimed at kids. You almost can't avoid buying co-marketed merchandise. I was commenting on just that last week while in Wallyworld. They still have a few copies of Memory(tm) in the original flavor... but you can see the way the wind blows with the much larger stack of Dora the Explorer and Disney co-branded copies of Memory, selling at $2 more. Yup, people pay more to get the ad for the TV shows. Try to buy a kid a puzzle with a generic picture on it. No can do, all they have is stuff enblazoned with some franchise character or another. Almost half of the toy aisle is stuff co-branded with a TV show or movie. Now go to the clothing dept and find a childrens shirt without a franchise character or an outright product ad on it. If you look you can still find un branded stuff, but that isn't what is selling, just look at the other customers.
The question of advertising in games isn't when is it coming, the only question I have is why hasn't it happened yet? Best guess is because games get played long enough most ads would 'date' the game too much. That and they could get really burned if events hammers em between a game going gold and release. Imagine the PR nightmare if Nike inserts a set of ads with some sports star who gets busted for dope, accused of rape or overdoses yet millions of games are heading to stores too late to recall and repress.
Give em a network connection to update the ads to the current crappy movie being hyped to death or the current ad campaign and watch out.
Democrat delenda est
Smoka-Bowla Soft Drinks Inc. puts addictive drugs in their products, and only a lowly Pepsi delivery man can stop them with the new Pepsi-based detox.
But why just FPS? Gatorade Sports could give EA's NFL monopoly a run for its money - toss the league and sign the players independently through Gatorade.
Or a Red Bull brand bullfighting game. (See Mike Tyson's Punch Out)
It's not all fun and games, though. FTS players are up in arms with the release of new Folgers Crystals mod for Age of Empires. "I thought I was paying to avoid banner ads - but now the enemies go so much faster than my guys" cried one gamer who foolishly paid full price for the decaffeinated version.
But this is a political goldmine too! We could instantaneously stop the debate about games by just calling them commercials instead. No way the government is going to agree to ban commercials.
I seem to remember Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3 having some ads in it. They put them in just the right spots so they weren't obtrusive at all, they even added a little sense of realism to it. One of the few I can remember is there was a poster with a Jeep on it at the bottom of the stairs in the airport.
90 percent proof
So, I like the EA - Burnout series. the billboards have ads on them. It is done in good taste, and really ads(HA!) to the game... Anyhow, I also have Swat 4, where they have downloadable content. There was something REALLY bizzare about walking around a RAVE, with posters advertising William Shatner on the History channel!!! And, not like 1 or two posters, we are talking about a ton, spread all around the building, and something like 4 spots on 2 short wall segments. That is advertising screwed up. The BIGGEST problem, is this was all added as a patch... and I already had bought the frigging game. I don't mind ads if they add to ambience. I find hammer-head cola, or a generic "cola" vending machine much worse than a coke or pepsi machine in a game. If I have billboards, I want to see advertisements. Especially if they are not spammed. I DON'T want to see nearly every wall having posters in a game, unless I am getting a GOOD discount on that title.
The purpose is to shoot the people wearing Coca cola t-shirts?
The map was Coke vs Pepsi. I think I might even have played a McDs vs BK map.
Boinger: Open Source is good for some things, but you can't do it in all industries, like the gaming industry.
Jack9: Open Source developed games are the future. It's one of the industries that will actually work better.
Boinger: How do those guys expect to be paid?
Jack9: Ads on a racetrack, billboards, on the backs of their avatars. Welcome to capitalism.
Boinger: huh...I guess that might work.
Hey Boinger, remember that?
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
America's Army has already done this. If its free games I surely wont complain, I'm really surprised it has taken so long. I have always thought that online content could be better deeper and more immersive if it took a sponsored approach rather than just use banner advertising. Back in the early tv and radio days entire programs were sponsored by a single advertiser, that advertiser then became synonymous with the content, sometimes the programs outlived the sponsor itself (king biscuit time).
It has also been with commercial games and failed miserably. (see Darkened Skyes) Good avertising and sponsorship doesnt have to be annyoing or overbearing for instance a offroad style game sponsored by Hummer or a new version of tapper sponsored by Budweiser. Subtle is better, it can create brand awareness that people generally appreciate rather than just irritate.
DinoHunters is a FPS built on the Valve Source engine that's full on advergaming for Schick razors. Production quality isn't that hot in place (except for Candy, and she's hot) but the writing is pretty funny. They also have a Total Hunting Channel companion site that is a pretty good bit of marketing. You can even "accidentally" get into some of the intranet pages.
As long as they don't install any spyware/crapware on my machine, that would be alright..
But somehow I think that this type of software would be abused by some companies. This doesn't really sit well with me.
. . .how long til an adblock plugin? Will I just see a black screen?
Klingon Software is not released, it escapes, inflicting terrible damage onto the enemy as it does
Nothings says immersion as jumping through a Pepsi logo to materialize somewhere else. Maybe at the enemy headquarters sponsored by Coca-Cola, while Tony the Tiger is shooting you with Cheerios and Mr. T is getting funky with his new Super Soaker 2000.
in the arcade games for the kiddes. Also it sounds better then "Tapper" to my ear....
Ben
'For example, one of the projects that we completed recently... features terrorists taking over the Alienware computer factory.
I'm not the biggest Dell fan, but that seems needlessly harsh :)
Doesn't anyone remember cool spot. Heck, I know people who actually liked the game.
It wouldn't be hard to put a little low-level advertising in the games: posters on the walls, drinking Pepsi to regain life, or some other things of the like that wouldn't distract much from actual gameplay.
I'd buy that for a dollar!
My only regret... is that I have... bonitis..