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Running Over Virtual Pedestrians Helps In-Game Ad Recall
neuroworld writes to point out a study which found a correlation between in-game violence and a player's ability to recall advertisements seen while playing. The test subjects were given two versions of a driving game, which included "unobtrusive" billboard ads, and their eye movements were recorded by a camera. One version had players hitting targets for points, and the other version had them running down pedestrians. "[The researchers] found ads displayed along with violent scenes to be more memorable to players than those shown with nonviolent content, even though players spent less time looking at them. The results are contrary to expectations stemming from research on television, where violence has been shown to decrease attention to advertisements."
Remember the Grand Theft Auto hack which allowed people to have sex with prostitutes? I bet if they tattooed "Buy Duff Beer" across her stomach, everyone would remember that ad too. Even people who never played the game!
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
If they made the billboards destructable like in Red Faction, I bet you they'd remember the exact slogan you put on there.
Why try to "Sneak" these adverts into games, and find the best way to make people remember without thinking about it, when the only thing you REALLY have to worry about is getting people to remember it. Ads in games have already come around... so... why the illusion?
While I agree and any help in the fight against "oh my god video games with blood, think of the children!" would be welcome. I'm just thinking the whole "violence in games is ok since it helps us sell our wares" isn't going to further the cause too far =P
A game where I pick up an assault rifle or something and it has a Coke logo on the side. Im gonna make all those vivid dreams people have about video gamers going nuts for no apparent reason come true. Seriously sick of this. Im paying $$ for the game allready. Not only have they cut down on the length of games, but the overall quality. Apparently graphics are a good substitue for story and play. They dont really make any games that are original anymore. And now after all these god damn shortcuts the game companies are taking they want to advertise to me in game as well? Fuck that noise.
And this has been another installament of Captain Obvious!
How bout we just not put ads in games and call it a day?
Is 50 bucks a pop not enough? Really?
Or if you are going to put ads in I have the perfect spot....level loading. Give me a stupid orbitz game to play why it loads.
Money is money whether it is dirty advertising money, or money raised by charity groups. With enough money you can put a positive spin on anything.
"But this one goes to 11!"
It seems to me that it's fairly well accepted that long term memories tend to form more strongly when accompanied by a strong emotional response.
I think that in the case of TV advertising the ads are "in-between" the violence, so you may remember the violence from the program, which tends to suppress the ad since it's not displayed during the program.
This experiment makes the ad coincident with the violence.
Absolute statements are never true
The brain stores the *differences* of *associations*. And violence is more extreme. So it is a bigger difference. Which means the storing is stronger. Which means you remember it, and everything you associate with at, best.
Or did nobody here understand how brains (or other neural nets) work?? (I see that all the time :/)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Well, if they plan to put ads in games, they better lower the damn price. No one wants to pay $50-60 to see ads.
- From a PC.
I bet you, if you ran over real pedestrians you would remember what was on the billboards.
(actually you would have years in prison with only that to think of.)
As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
While I agree and any help in the fight against "oh my god video games with blood, think of the children!"
Unfortunately they have a giant gaping hole in their testing.
Test 1) Drivers ran over virtual targets
Test 2) Drivers ran over virtual people AND blood was splattered on the virtual windshield obscuring the player's vision.
Could the difference in what the drivers looked at and recalled have anything to do with the shit splattered on the screen?
Do you drive at the same level of alertness when your windshield is clear as opposed to when you are driving half-blind? It seems to me that vision degradation would be a bigger source of agitation than video violence.
Perhaps they should redo the first test using virtual barrels of mud to hit instead of "targets"
So bring it on advertisers ... the more you greedy advertisers try to find ever more ways to manipulate people, the more hatred you'll generate
Why so much hate?
I think I know. The messages in advertising is designed to pass around your conscious censors and end up smack in the lizard brain, and that's something to resent. Read "The Hidden Persuaders" if you can find a copy, it's old.
Remember the old Ford advertisement for the Mustang II? Billboards read "Mustang II - Boredom 0". Of course, people didn't read or remember numbers, but they did remember the rest of the message. The car was pulled from production a few months later. Didn't sell for some reason.
-- Aged Marketing Flack
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear