Mr. Popiel, I'm in trouble...

[jackofallgeeks]

This sort of in-game advertising sounds like a bad idea to me. As per the MMO bit, call me a geek but if I'm buying a sword and the game asks "do you want Coke to buy this for you?" not only am I going to be upset with the game studio and Coke, I'm probably not going to play the game any more. They just killed any kind of emersion they had. I find it hard to conceive of any way that this could work out happily; the closest I get is some kind of a modern-day MMO or something, and I can't see "do you want Burger King to buy this Sawed-off Shotgun for you?" as going over well.

"Well, the bad news is we're being over-run by a hoard of zombies. The good news is that Pepsi has offered to outfit you with the latest in zombie-fighting gear..."

Yeah. I'm not feeling it.

Comments

[bsgnome.livejournal.com]

In the past, I would have call'd myself an advocate of in-game advertisement, but this is a lot more involved and saturated than I would have ever suggested. Alright, put a billboard here or there, have the protagonist drink a real-world soda, or some-such, where the brand gets exposure, but the player doesn't feel like his gaming experience is being invaded by the company. But making a company's brand an integral part of gameplay?

As far as "Would you like Pepsi-Cola to buy this railgun for you?" goes. Eh, it's a game, and as long as it doesn't tag the player as having had a positive or negative reaction to the offer (thus marking him for further exploitation, and more and more invasive advertisment tactics), I don't see where the real problem is. Most people are smart enough to realize that it's a game, and the company's aren't actually condoning violence. If it becomes a huge concern, than it will be shot down (so to speak).

But that's another thing. The first idea, sprinkling real-world references into the game, makes the experience more real. But this, "Would you like Walmart to buy this halberd for you?", is just going to be jarring. You'll be happily wandering about through the mediaeval frontier, killing monsters and discovering treasure, when, suddenly, a rip in the space-time continuum opens up, and the manager of the local retail store decides to hand you a wad of cash, which is then accepted by the wandering tinker in exchange for the potion of restoration ... ri-ight. It will do nothing but make the experience less real. Suddenly, the player will realize "this is just a game," and, for a moment, he won't be enjoying himself quite as much. It completely maculates the video-game as an art form.

Remember Choose Your Own Adventure books. Think of it like this. You're reading through, making your choices. One of them is (A)Go to McDonald's [pg 5]; (B)Go to Burger King [pg 6]. Now there are two possibilities: either page 5 describes you walking into McDonald's with your friends and ordering a Big Mac, and page 6 describes you walking into Burger King and ordering a Wopper, and both then tell you to turn to page 7, which describes the conversation had over lunch; or page 5 and 6 are unadulterated advertisements. The first case is uninvasive, and doesn't affect the story. The second is just downright annoying.

But, I need to get going now. Mor to come ... maybe ...