Second up, the announcement of the inaugural Advertising in Games Forum is attracting some attention. Game Girl Advance is not crazy about what this means for the future of games.
Like I said in the previous post, I haven't thought enough about this question yet to have a good response to GGA, but I do have some underformed impressions. First, if nothing else the existence of this conference has got to be a indication that games (and especially MMOGs) have passed a certain inflection point. Advertisers and marketers are starting to take notice, and this leads to a particular type of capital influx, and therefore certain value propositions in the long term. Which means that games will start to resemble the real world more and more: there is already a strong marketing overtone to most modern-era games, and no doubt soon we will see billboards the size of skyscrapers gracing MMOGs. I wonder if I can get a patent on a means of putting "Your Advertisement Here" on my chainmail breastplate? Ah, I smell lawsuits...
I guess it doesn't have to be like this. You don't have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Marxist to lament the passing of a simpler, less commodified age within these worlds. But another blog entry made me feel positive about this trend: the street art of Banksy and Blek le Rat have found their way into Counterstrike. I don't know what this presages, but I suspect that we can anticipate vandalism and civil disobediance within worlds that get the balance wrong.
I would imagine that we can also expect a cross-flow towards more traditional advertising platforms with the rising popularity of gaming cultures. Here, for example, are a couple of TV ads from asia which clearly use RPG/gaming themes to promote, respectively:
Mastercard:
http://217.153.29.18/%7Emichal/nin/game_250.mpg
and Coke:
http://217.153.29.18/%7Emichal/pliki/psxjap_ff9.mpg
Posted by: Peter Edelmann | Jan 29, 2005 at 16:58
We've already seen a good deal of advertising in game intros, and those don't really bother me at all. I think the main problem with advertising products in a game world is that it could be immersion-breaking. As long as the advertising is kept within games that deal with the modern day (and possibly the future) and don't mess with suspension of disbelief, it won't bother me.
Posted by: Grouchy Gnome | Jan 29, 2005 at 21:31
jeez how can the intro ads not bother you? some new PC retail games take longer to cycle through their logo crap on startup than they do to play. Once you hand over cash for a product, ANY product, including DVDs, you should be allowed to enjoy it without further marketing.
If the people who make a game insist of unskippable logo screens and ads, I'll just download a hacked version and keep my money. Its an insult to your customers to bombard them with ads, AFTER you have their money.
Posted by: bob smith | Jan 30, 2005 at 18:23