Buy [Insert product name here] now! (ads in games)

[Velocirapture07]

I was just wondering what fellow escapists think of advertising in games. I still remember playing Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and coming across some gigantic ads in-game. While eluding capture by the national guard on the top of an apartment complex I climbed silently onto the rickety railing of a brightly lit billboard, the soft neon glow bathing me in an unwelcome reddish hue. Emblazoned on the aforementioned sign was the word Axe (body spray). I believe there was also a large proportion of Cadillacs within the games parking lots as well.

Do these kind of promotions and ads bother you, or do you just ignore them? Do they actually make you want to buy the product featured in such a way? Or does it just make you hate the game developers and companies for selling out to the "damn consumerist vices" so prevalent in today's society. I won't exactly say where I fall on the issue, but it's somewhere in the middle. Just wondering what you guys think.

Are there any other games you can think of who were blatantly advertising products within the game?

 

[Souplex]

I would actually like in game advertising if it meant lower game prices, unfortunately it does not.

 

[Zallest]

Somewhere in the middle i guess, seeing a brightly lit CocaCola sign in the middle of a Stealth based game would be disappointing but in some games like Racing cars or Sandbox games that make you wonder through the city, it is understandable to but in some ads i guess.

 

[ElephantGuts]

Ah, I remember the first Rainbow Six: Vegas. At first it was just those advertising things on the sidewalk (whatever they are) advertising Axe, which I enjoyed because they had beautiful women on them to look at while I was killing people. But then (after that mission I think it was), you're flying in the helicopter and outside right in your face are a bunch of huge billboards advertising Axe, with absolutely nothing else to look at. Sort of ridiculous.

Also, I like how GTA4 didn't have any real-world advertising, and then to make up for it Rockstar put shitloads of advertising in Midnight Club: LA. Which was cool advertising because instead of just signs or whatever they had the actual stores.

 

[Space Spoons]

I don't really have any qualms with in game advertising. For the most part, they're little more than background elements that help ease the cost of production, and in this day and age when producing a game of next-gen quality is more expensive than ever, I can't say I oppose the concept. As long as they stay unobtrusive (looking at you, Target Mountain), I say let the advertising continue.

As far as games with blatant advertising, Mario Golf springs to mind as the first example I ever saw of such a thing. I recall when I rented it from Blockbuster Video, it came with a code I could use in the game to enter some kind of Blockbuster Video tournament. It wasn't much more than an extra tournament to play with a slightly higher level of difficulty and Blockbuster ads everywhere.

 

[Grand_Poohbah]

I like ads for humorous fictional products.

 

[Zac_Dai]

I'm actually proud that I've never bought a game with targeted in-game advertising.

Ads in games is like having ad breaks on during a DVD film or glossy ads after every chapter in a novel.

The only games that ads are acceptable in are sports games.

 

[Jinx_Dragon]

It is called lynx down here, I believe we got the better name. Ha. For some reason my cans of lynx amuse you Americans so much. Still, on the subject of ads if they are tactfully done I have no problem with them. Like others I would wish they would lower the prices of the game, but I won't hold my breath. By tactfully I mean your above billboard example, where it would be equally possible to see such an ad in real life. It makes no sense to have a 'realistic' world in which there is no advertising, because the damn stuff is everywhere!

Now when they pop up for no reason, say your running along and the game starts to load a new section and there is an advertisement while you wait... that is going to far! We are already blasted with ads every moment of the waking day, particularly if you go to an online community... any online community. We don't need any ads in computer games, unless somehow their removal may lower the depth in a game. Say, having that billboard just blank for no reason is less depth creating then having something on it, even a fictional ad or better yet an ad a person can relate too.

I too have thought on this: If I have virtual billboard space to spare on my ultra mmo idea then I will, WILL, rent it out for advertisement space. I'm a honourable person though, the money generated through advertisement would be funnelled back into the project to help the players in some way. I would have to already have found some magical way to get rich to build the damn game so at that point I won't have to worry about extra pocket money.

Ads can generate good revenue when in a game, where you can assure they will be seen by a large viewer base more then a real world equivalent. The problem comes not with the ads themselves, in my opinion, but with how the raised revenue is spent. It is raised AFTER the game has been produced, which means a good deal of the time it is not used in a creative manor to help that game development process.

 

[Avatar Roku]

I was just wondering what fellow escapists think of advertising in games. I still remember playing Splinter Cell Chaos Theory and coming across some gigantic ads in-game. While eluding capture by the national guard on the top of an apartment complex I climbed silently onto the rickety railing of a brightly lit billboard, the soft neon glow bathing me in an unwelcome reddish hue. Emblazoned on the aforementioned sign was the word Axe (body spray). I believe there was also a large proportion of Cadillacs within the games parking lots as well.

Do these kind of promotions and ads bother you, or do you just ignore them? Do they actually make you want to buy the product featured in such a way? Or does it just make you hate the game developers and companies for selling out to the "damn consumerist vices" so prevalent in today's society. I won't exactly say where I fall on the issue, but it's somewhere in the middle. Just wondering what you guys think.

Are there any other games you can think of who were blatantly advertising products within the game?

I know the part you're talking about. That was alright, since they were probably going to force you near a light source so you'd time your moves with the guards' patrol anyway. They might as well make a few bucks off it.

I like it when it's instituted in a cool way, like the TVs with footage from the original Splinter Cell playing in Chaos Theory, or the Chaos Theory arcade game in Rainbow Six:Vegas. Otherwise, I'm indifferent.

 

[Velocirapture07]

Ah, I remember the first Rainbow Six: Vegas. At first it was just those advertising things on the sidewalk (whatever they are) advertising Axe, which I enjoyed because they had beautiful women on them to look at while I was killing people. But then (after that mission I think it was), you're flying in the helicopter and outside right in your face are a bunch of huge billboards advertising Axe, with absolutely nothing else to look at. Sort of ridiculous.

Also, I like how GTA4 didn't have any real-world advertising, and then to make up for it Rockstar put shitloads of advertising in Midnight Club: LA. Which was cool advertising because instead of just signs or whatever they had the actual stores.

Haha, I remember the axe ads in vegas too now that you mention it. They were good cover too until the damned terrorists shredded them with their mac-11's.

 

[willard3]

Skate had some pretty obnoxious advertising. You could excuse it a little, because skateboarding without ads is like NASCAR without ads. But Skate really rubbed it in your face, because every time you met a pro, you would get super-sexy closeups of their board, trucks, wheels, and shoe brands, with the brand name displayed rather largely on the screen.

Skate 2 still has boatloads of advertising, but the in-your-face aspect is toned way down.

 

[samsprinkle]

I think it's cool. Like how Battlefield Badcompany has the billboard in the foggy village map that updates. Like one time it had Tropic Thunder on it. It doesn't bother me.

 

[Donbett1974]

I wouldn't mind advertising in games if it lowered the price of the game or offered bonus content but they never do. So I say they should use fake products.

 

[squid5580]

If done correctly it is not a problem. Having a Nascar game without ads for example would be a bit offputting. On the other hand crawling through some abandoned space station with "Bawls" vending machines in every stinkin hall offering a product that heals 1hp is ridiculous.

They should update them on a regular basis for online capable games. It just makes sense and can offer the devs extra loot if done correctly to hopefully offset the cost for DLC for us.

 

[DirkGently]

So long as the ads actually fit it makes sense. I mean it's slightly odd the there were so many Axe billboards and street signs in Vegas, but I didn't really mind. Plus Vegas 2 had that cool little scavenger hunt thing.

 

[Eldritch Warlord]

I think it's cool. Like how Battlefield Badcompany has the billboard in the foggy village map that updates. Like one time it had Tropic Thunder on it. It doesn't bother me.

They had that in Rainbow Six: Vegas too. Ads that they changed in updates. I also thought that was cool.

On the flip-side, anyone here seen The Fifth Element? Remember the McDonald's? That was just weird.

 

[Raven28256]

I hate it only when it takes my sense of immersion and throws it out the window. For example, they had ads for the DVD release of Ghost Rider in Battlefield 2142. The game is set about 133 years from now. Why would a movie from 2007 be JUST NOW released on DVD in 2142? Hell, they wouldn't even HAVE DVDs in 2142, it would be some new format. I've also seen ads for new Intel processors and other video games by EA. Why would someone be advertising an Intel processor series that was outdated over 130 years ago?

Ads like that are the ones that really get me because it breaks my immersion.

 

[Cinder Block of Oppression]

Guitar Hero 3 was ridiculous. An Axe Guitar? Out of place, bad looking Windows posters everywhere? Sometimes the advertising on levels would change, so it was even consistent garbage.