Video games used to be an escape. Now not even they are safe from ads Poor disclosure and intrusive advertising are becoming a bête noire for gamers who increasingly find themselves getting fragged by promos. Adverts in gaming or advergaming systems are becoming more complex as marketeers resort to techniques that embed advertising deep enough so that earlier ad-blocking attempts no longer work …
and they want their game ads back.
This was big news in the late 80s, when the graphics in games got good enough that they started carrying adverts (Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and PC). ISTR that racing games were the first, with the roadside billboards having adverts for real products that had been placed for financial compensation.
A couple of MMORPGs that I played back in the mid-2000s also had in-game advertising for real products, as well as in-game products.
To me, those kind of ads were actually a plus - they made it more realistic. Likewise if you're in a game set in London/NY/Tokyo, huge advertising bill-boards advertising real stuff is kind of cool. Is it Blade Runner or Total Recall or something else where they beam holo-ads right in your face as you walk around - that could also be a designed game feature to set the atmosphere.
"Is it Blade Runner or Total Recall or something else where they beam holo-ads right in your face as you walk around"
Sounds like Minority Report, where having them recognise you by your eyeballs is an important plot point. Blade Runner is the one which is famous for having every company that advertised in it (lots of neon billboards) subsequently go bust.
"be a designed game feature to set the atmosphere"
Exactly. There's nothing inherently wrong with advertising in games, any more than it's inherently wrong anywhere else. People generally dislike adverts because they insist on getting in the way of whatever you're trying to do. Interrupting a film every ten minutes to show five minutes of adverts is extremely annoying; having a person in a film walk past some billboards while drinking a coke much less so. Similarly, crouching behind a piece of cover in a game that happens to have some posters advertising real products is much better than having something pop up and tell me I have to watch an advert in order to continue playing. Product placement can be done badly, but it can also be done well; pop-ups and interruptions can never be done well.
A survey for game engine developer Unity Industries found that 62 per cent of gamers would regularly interact with ads for an in-game reward
I had a zombie game on my phone. Some times you were forced to watch ads but it was quicker to quit the game and reload than waiting for the ads to end. Other times, you could choose to watch an ad and get in game rewards. What I'd do is hit the watch ad button, turn the phone face down and then a minute later I'd rinse and repeat. Got a lot of rewards and watched not a single ad.
" Other times, you could choose to watch an ad and get in game rewards. What I'd do is hit the watch ad button, turn the phone face down and then a minute later I'd rinse and repeat. Got a lot of rewards and watched not a single ad."
The current Futurama game does this, I use the same method as you
You're lucky. For some reason I've "watched" hundred times the same two ads.
I wonder if the criminals that does this kind of "watch this video to get to the next level" ad had ever watched them. Even if the ad worked on the first time and I rushed to buy the "product", seeing the same damn video afterwards for forty times in a row is sort of annoying.
In what situation would your life depend on recalling a video ad?
Your <enemy> interrogator is having a bad day, his wife is upset with him. He looks at you and says 'tell me a funny advert or I will cut off your balls".
I, personally, would probably go with the John West 'oh look, an eagle!' advert myself, but there are others :) (you asked)
Compared to not only turning every game into a "skinning/milking" exercises of the target user base, but <b?turning every game into a real money casino</b>.
"Crates" and other prize boxes drop in the game, given to players. But these need "keys" to unlock. To get the keys you spend real money, for one use. Boxes are "random" and thus you are entirely at the mercy of random results, presuming you trust the company to even be "fair" in that regard.
Add to that, you may need multiple prize pieces to even get a full prize released to you.
The mechanism is less a concern, it could be done a million different ways, but it is gambling either way. So much so, some countries have restricted or banned the practice. The main way they get around the laws here in the UK, is the "no monetary value", which is kind of mute, considering the things in games now sell for around £250 per digital item (for access to it as a service, because it's not physical ;) ).
""Crates" and other prize boxes drop in the game, given to players. But these need "keys" to unlock. To get the keys you spend real money, for one use. Boxes are "random" and thus you are entirely at the mercy of random results, presuming you trust the company to even be "fair" in that regard."
This is what I found the most annoying in Team Fortress 2 (which is free BTW). I once went into unlocking a couple of the (many) chests I had discovered, only to find out, after 10 bucks spent, I hadn't found anything worth it !
It's actually better to purchase objects directly ...
"It's actually better to purchase objects directly ..."
They do "crates" in free-to-play FPS "Warface" , which they give you the odds for getting anything good, and they are horrific*. I've never bought one . You cant cant purchase directly anymore though.
*Horriffic dosent stop idiots getting 2000% payday loans , or playing the eurolottery , or fixed odds betting machines on the high street, or , presumably , gambling $100 to get a new rifle in a computer game.
I used to play a MMORPG on my first tablet, so much so that if you look at the light reflecting off the screen at the right angle you can see the smooth patches where I've worn away the screen protector.
I did once spend real money to open crates and lucked out with a top level weapon, then farmed more & sold items in the in-game market place to spend millions of 'gold' to get the same top level armour.
Then one day I fired it up only to be presented with a screen telling me I'd been permanently banned on all devices I'd used to play the game. The reason? They mistakenly thought I had tried to sell my account for real money, something I'd never do given the amount of time I'd spent playing it and still wanted to. So after getting nowhere with their 'support' email service I tried asking what the hell is going on on their forums but received an instant ban there too.
Never going to pay real money for in-game purchases ever again, thanks to those arseholes at Spacetime Studios.
There already is a very large amount of advertising in the gaming industry. Can't play CoDMW without getting adverts for Messrs Heckler & Koch, Avtomat Kalashnikov, Colt etc.
"Takes cover behind car .. car explodes .. 'Warning vehicles may explode'.. YOU JUST GOT KILLED BY THE NEW VOLVO XC90 Click for more!"
And you can rest assured that it's how the adslingers will weasel their way out of trouble.
See, excessive gaming and stressful in-game situations can lead to serious disorders, so we NEED to track gamers and suggest they have a break from time to time. Now it can't be our fault if the break involves buying something from us, surely, can it?
Theme Park's sponsor was the now-defunct Midland Bank.
While we're on the subject, James Pond 2: Robocod (1991) on the Amiga had sponsorship from Penguin biscuits.
Though the Midland Bank live on in the form of interbank transfers.
I was due a refund from D Bahn as my train was delayed at Frankfurt on a Journey from Berlin to Bruxelles. I took the form to my Nationwide Branch as I needed the IBAN or BIC and they said they still use the Midland Bank code.
I may be wrong. but the first game to had an advertisement was Arctic Computing's Inca Curse.
I AM IN THE TEMPLE
EXITS ARE NORTH
I CAN ALSO SEE :
A ROCK
A DOOR WITH A LARGE LOCK
A WINDOW
TELL ME WHAT TO DO
LOOK WINDOW
I SEE AN ADVERT SAYING:
FOR HIGH QUALITY SOFTWARE FOR
THE ZX80 AND ZX81
INCLUDING ADVENTURES, CHESS AND
MANY MORE YOU SHOULD GO TO
ACTIC COMPUTING
396 JAMES RECKITT AVENUE
HULL HU8 0JA
TELL ME WHAT TO DO
Battlefield 2142 once had a full street side billboard advertising a bank, with the tag student loans and being equipped or something. I was in a massive gun fight in a robot at the time and got a screenshot of the billboard. That was a blatant advert but kind of made sense being a billboard if you ignored the fact it was 2142 and earth had run our of resources so no one wanted a bank. I think if it makes sense and doesn't stop game play, like hiding behind a vending machine which advertises drinks..
HOWEVER if they interfere, pop up or require me to watch I actively ignore the game and never go near them as a brand, so they are counter productive in my case.
I agree with you on this. However, this applies to games I have actually bought.
If it's a "free to play" game then the person who bought it wants (and usually deserves) to earn a living. Personally while I don't like advertising i'd prefer it to Google style invasion of privacy for free games.
I remember when that game came out all the BF2 fans were up in arms about it (aka torches and pitchforks). The amount of discussion was really impressive in the forums.
I didn't like the idea at all, but BF2142 was just too interesting to pass on. Then the interesting thing happened : I cannot for the life of me remember any of the billboards. When you're in that game, you don't have time to check them out, you're looking for targets or trying to avoid being one.
So, all in all, if they do adgaming like in BF2142, I say bring it on, I can easily ignore them.
However, the day they make an ad mandatory viewing for whatever reason is the day I stop playing that game. In-game awards ala TF2* ? Please. I'm past 50, I know what grinding is. If you have skewed your game so that awards are the only way to progress, I'm out anyway.
* that said, the awards in TF2 are cosmetic only, so I quickly ignored all that because the game is fun.
The hero turns left and into a dead end.
The hero heads back.
The hero turns right.
The twists of the passage remind the hero of the delicious twisting Turkey Twizzlers from Bernard Matthews - available at your local supermarket for just £2 a pack. Prices include VAT and are subject to change. The Bernard Matthews company reserves the right to change the pricing or terms of the sale at any time and may preclude a new contract between you, the customer, and the Bernard Matthews company.
We're doomed.
I quit watching TV several years ago, but find video advertising catching my attention more now that I'm not exposed to it every 15 minutes.
Too much of anything dulls the senses.
Advertising is a drug media has become addicted to - an easy fix. It's overuse pushed beyond the realms of medication to aid sales into meaningless background noise that's mostly ignored requiring larger and larger doses for similar effect.
Don't mind ads.
Just don't interfere with the game.
E.g. in GTA V - feel free to sell the billboard space, and even radio ad space. Same in movies - Bladerunner can advertise whatever it likes, as an advertisement itself within the movie world.
But don't make it so that I have to listen to / watch it. That's game over.
And don't make it like "I, Robot" with the Nike/whatever shoes - where I just cringe at the blatant and unapologetic product placement for no reason whatsoever.
Racing and football games have often had ads on the billboards around the arenas. Fine.
As people say, things like Robocod had sponsorship from Penguin. Fine. There were levels of penguins (not unlike any other level in the game) where the penguin bars were part of the scenery. No problem. If you don't know what a penguin bar is, you wouldn't even notice.
But make me sit through an interstitial, break through the fourth wall with it, or make it so horrendously blatant - IN A PRODUCT I'VE ALREADY PAID FOR - and I'll not touch it.
Hey, Amazon. How about NOT giving me a trailer for something I couldn't care less about every time I open the Amazon Prime Instant Video app on my phone - a service that I already pay you for? A Skip button is not the same as just NOT showing me that junk by default. In fact, a Skip button is like an "opt-out" button on a piece of spam, as far as I'm concerned. I shouldn't have to opt-out, as I never opted in to the damn email in the first place.
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