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Chris

Gamers Hate In Game Advertising

posted by Chris on October 3, 2006 10:11 AM in Games

WoW! I sure do love Coke (tm) A recent video game survey sponsored by Activision came to the conclusion that gamers actually liked in-game advertising, saying that it added to the immersion and made video games more realistic. Now, Ars Technica is saying that is not the case, taking a deeper look from a newer survey not sponsored by someone with a vested interest in the subject. comScore Media Metrix actually found that the majority of gamers do not agree that in-game advertising makes it more realistic, and Ars Technica does a good job of pushing past the bull and taking an objective look at how much revenue in-game advertising actually brings in.

Personally, I don't mind in-game advertising as long as it is believable. If I am meant to think that I am in a real city or something, I fully expect there to be Coca-Cola billboards and a Starbucks on the corner. That is immersion. On the other hand, it would be completely out of place in, say, World of Warcraft. While I don't think we should be forced to collect Mountain Dew cans in all snowboarding games, I think that a little bit of believable advertising is great. As long as it fits. What do you think? Have you seen some horrible advertising in games in completely innapropriate places? Post in the comments!

Link to the full article (Ars Technica, via Digg)

comments (3) | permalink

Charlie says:

posted October 3, 2006 8:52 PM

Don't care either way, the only ingame advertising I can think of are the sport games (most of em anyway) and Oddworld Munch's Oddysee (which you have to admit was a good thing).

The Geek says:

posted October 4, 2006 8:45 AM

I don't mind advertising in games at all if it's not glaringly in your face. In sports or racing games, having banners or whatever hanging on the sides of the field/court/course is totally cool. You see stuff like that in a real sporting event.

Having Pizza Hut being a location to reach in Crazy Taxi is also fine, because it's just there. It's not like the dude gets into your cab and says "Hey! I need to get to Pizza Hut right away so I can enjoy there awesome new Stuffed Crust pizza loaded with fresh cheese and toppings!"

Even if there's a cinema scene in a non fantasy or sci-fi game like GTA or something where the character happens to be sipping on a soda, I don't care if it's actually a bottle of Coke instead of generic Soder.

But if it is over the top or completely out of place in a game, that's when it bugs me. If the object of a game is indeed to collect Mt. Dew can, then yeah, that would bother me.

As long as it's non-obtrusive and appropriate to the game setting, I find absolutely nothing wrong with advertising in games.

frodo says:

posted October 4, 2006 8:56 AM

Except that you, Geek, are no longer a hardcore gamer! Neither am I, really. So does that mean that there is a cutoff point? If you play games more than, say 15 hours a week does that make you resent in-game advertising more?

What say you?!

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