Girl Gamer

There's no escaping them, but this is getting ridiculous.

Alan Wake is a good game but it breaks its continuity with a rather blatant advertisement in the middle of an insane asylum when players should be on the edge of their seats. I could let it slide if it wasn't for the fact that it's worth an achievement, 'boob tube', for sitting through the whole thing.

What's next? Commercials during load screens? Pepsi logos on health packs? Protagonists dressed up as Chester Cheetah the cheeto mascot?

Hmmm.

Yeah I'm thinking that they're really trying to make games more like movies. Realistically, it doesn't work. We enjoy games without advertisments and product placements, which is what tv and movies bombard us with. I haven't played Alan Wake yet, but I'm rather annoyed about the point you made here.

I agree. At least in movies, they have the decency to kind of be subtle about it. Maybe the badass protagonist is drinking a coke, with its logo conveniently pointed at the camera. But she never stops right in the middle of a big scene to settle down and watch a commercial for the newest episode of Sex in the City (or whatever..) or read an article in a magazine.

In a lot of ways, this definitely crosses the line.

Ads are a great way to make money I guess. They're everywhere.

Y'know, I've been wondering what of Alan Wake's in-game advertising people were bitching about. Haven't passed episode three yet, but the Energizer battery packs I found to be amusing and a nice touch.

I guess it depends on how it is handled, because to me, in-game advertisements would be a fantastic way to boost game revenue without having to resort to stuff like Project Ten Dollar.

For my full thoughts I may as well post what I put in a column I wrote a few weeks ago. Sorry for the length:

There’s a little something implemented in television and film called “product placement”. You get paid by companies like Coca-Cola or General Motors to include their product in your film. It won’t be blatantly advertised like “Wow, a bottle of Coke is really refreshing and only a few bucks a bottle!” Instead characters will walk past vending machines, maybe even stopping at them, dropping change in and grabbing a can of soda.

The genius of this sort of advertisement isn’t that it convinces the viewer to buy the product, it gets them thinking about consuming it. When you see a character drinking that soda it reminds you of what it is like to drink it, and therefore creates an urge. If you’ve ever seen a film like Around the Bend which features Kentucky Fried Chicken prominently then you’ve probably walked out hankering for that very same food. In terms of cars or computers, when you next see that product in real life you’re going to remember its (completely unrealistic) performance in the film and think “hey, maybe I should buy that”. Even if you don’t realize that you’re thinking about what you saw in the film, it has been stuck in your head.

This could work so well in video games. The trick isn’t to interrupt the experience, but to make it part of the game. How many video games have you seen with vending machines in them? Were any of those vending machines selling Mountain Dew or Coke? Of course not. That’s a missed opportunity, and when a gamer walks by they aren’t going to think it is a cheap trick. It’s going to immerse them further into the world, making it more believable and even get them thinking about consuming your product somewhere in the back of their mind.

Not every game can take advantage of this option. Modern games can easily implement advertising and placement while science-fiction can make use of it with a little creativity (such as The Fifth Element placing a McDonald’s of the future with very…pleasant uniforms into the middle of a chase scene). Fantasy games can’t take advantage of this possibility, but one game should be enough to generate a steady stream of revenue over time. Using the Internet those advertisements or textures can be streamed from a web server and you can be getting a steady flow of revenue just as websites get. Those statistics on how many players have logged into your game every week are suddenly capable of convincing companies to throw money at you.

Of course, the down side is publishers will likely start to ask “how can we earn ad revenue with this game?” As stated, not every game can grant such opportunities. Not without breaking the immersion at least. Who wants to see an ad for Firestone Tires in the middle of an Elder Scrolls loading screen?

Real life is pack full of advertisements. Almost every article of clothing has a logo in one place other another. Its only a matter of time before games get in on the advertising bonanza.

A good point that the proponents of in-game advertisement will probably be ," with in game advertisements it will enhance the illusion of the real world, which the game is trying to create."

something asinine like that, which doesn't really make anyone happy but eh.

I can see the logic in some of those statements... but... ughh.
I guess it's like trying to fight a hurricane with fisticuffs. No one wants it to happen, but one day I suppose it'll be perfectly natural for Solid Snake to get out from beneath his box and hit a Burger King drive thru.

I weep for future generations.

What's next is some mother fucker selling us stuff in our dreams! Just imagine your "flying through the city dream! Sponsored by Microsoft"
.-. I swear I'll start killing people randomly when that happens

"I swear I'll start killing people randomly when that happens"
Let me know when and where and maybe we can work out a pay-per-view deal sponsored by Band-Aid brands (;

Not to wax nostalgic here but I remember the days before all the ads in games but some devs actually made their own to try and make the game more authentic. Sega Genesis had a racing game called Monaco GP where on the back fin of the car you saw an ad for "Marlbaco" and they were almost sued. When Madden was still young, I sat on the phone with people from Park Place (EA Sports devs) for hours talking to them about getting a hockey game out there and how they could even fund it partially through in game ad's along the boards and under the ice, which you saw in real rinks. Theres no turning back now. Ads are everywhere and will just sprout up in more and more places. People even pay to be an advertisement now.
I better stop before I go into a full rant...

"A good point that the proponents of in-game advertisement will probably be ," with in game advertisements it will enhance the illusion of the real world, which the game is trying to create."

something asinine like that, which doesn't really make anyone happy but eh."

It doesn't enhance the illusion but makes it slightly more believable and immersive (though can also break the immersion). Of course, one of the reasons it will break the immersion is the simple fact that we, as gamers, aren't used to in-game ads yet. So seeing a real brand name will stand out, just as seeing the batteries in Alan Wake say "Energizer" stood out.

However, having real locations in Crazy Taxi didn't hurt it at all. In fact, it enhanced the gameplay. The passenger asked to be taken to KFC, and already in your head the familiar logo, mascot and building structure stand out in your mind. You hear Pizza Hut and you search out the red roof.

Modern Warfare 2 probably could have gotten some money if you were in a TGI Friday's rather than a knock-off. Of course, at this point in time a TGI Friday's (or any restaurant) may not be too keen on their restaurant being represented in such a manner.

Games are expensive to make, and I'd rather game prices go down to $30 or $40, or more risky concepts be allowed. So Hell yeah I'm on board for in-game advertisements. I just want there to be some intelligence used in the implementation.

Hmm, but would game prices really go down? I have the feeling that developers would take the advertisement money and then charge us the same as always. Though I feel, as the years go on, that price tag just keep getting higher and higher...

Though I will admit that that was one of my most favorite levels in MW2. It was novel, and it definitely added something to the game.

Honestly, though, I find it strange that ads haven't made their way into books. Think of all the teenage girls who'd pad their stomachs with McDonalds if Edward and Bella had? It might be one of the purest, oldest mediums of entertainment left.

Chances are prices wouldn't go down, but it's one of those naive little ideas I have that, one day, someone will start experimenting with games at the $30 price range, and find that not only do sales double, but overall profit goes up because now people are suddenly buying TWO games on release day instead of just one.

At the very least it could get them to stop trying to be such martyrs of used game sales and piracy.