In-game advertisement

Hello everyone! I am currently investigating the game developers reaction to in-game advertisement. I was hoping to get some anwsers and discussion feeds from you, the developer. My questions are little and general, because it is mostly to get a feel of your reaction. I am using this for an idea that I currently have. Any help/suggestions/ideas is appreciated! I would be very pleased to start discussing anything about it as well in this topic to reveal any potential interesting information not covered by the survey!

I have made a google form for this survey, it can be found here!

 

Is there really no one that would be interested in discussing this subject?

 

Well I can tell you from the stand point of one who plays games mostly RPG and MMORPG I dislike in game ads. I play a game to escape from the real world.

 

in-game ads are fine so long as they are:
1) can make go away with a premium account
2) adds to the immersion of the game i.e. coke ads on coke machines
3) non-intrusive

 

I don't think I would have any problems if an add filled in a blank spot on non-gameplay UI (character selection, loading, ectect) if it didn't use animations, vibrant colors, or sounds.

 

In general, I don't care for it, but I am willing to consider it for some certain uses in my personal projects.

 

I dislike them a lot, especially in the bigger games that don't really need them because they would make enough money from the sales off the game its self. It just shows to me that the developers are greedy and are trying to make as much money as possible, when it isn't needed and usually just annoys the player.
I first realised this when I was younger and was playing the Need For Speed: Underground series. Those games were just caked in advertisements, and it truly ruined it for me. Like ssgtsgt said, I play games to get away from the real world.

 

I hate them. It's ok if there's a coke can lying on the floor, but if it decides to crawl onto the GUI, I uninstall the game and never come back

 

To build on what BRIK said, when I pay $60 for a game, I don't want ads. If it's free-to-play, I can understand that it has be financed somehow.

 

Thank you guys for these most interesting reactions, this was truly what I was hoping for. To give a better view of what I personally would mean with in-game advertisement, I will name a view:

- Billboards aside road(s) with static or video advertisement
- Cloths with a real brand on them
- Radio sounds with advertisement
- Coke cans or bottles
- Vending machines or cars that look and act like the original

I make a distinct difference between in-game ads and on-game ads. I have no clue if the term on-game ads exists, but this is something I'd like to make a difference for. On-game would be advertisement that comes during loading time, on the gui, in your menu etc. In-game advertisement would be a type that is (hopefully) as immersive as possible and not obstructive in a way that you can sort of avoid them by not looking/listening to it

I dislike on-game advertisement. In-game advertisement on the other hand would possibly be a method for developers to lower their prices and offer free longer demo's with ads or premium packages without ads as mentioned before.

Hope to get some more reactions, this truly gives me good insight and feedback! If you feel like expressing yourself through images or videos by all means do so!

 

Ads to support the game are perfectly fine in free games, like others have said. But Coke cans in a fantasy MMO are right out

Look at the uproar caused by suddenly adding ads to disc-based console games. They're bloody $100 here, so if they also push Axe ads I'm off to get a trade-in.

 

Yeah if it does something like make a demo longer or bring down the overall price, I have no reason to complain.
I just hate the games being overwhelmed by them.

I'm guessing you're from Australia as well? Game prices here are ridiculous.

 

I think it largely depends on how tastefully it's done. I know that's not a clear answer, and is up to enterpretation, but that's kind of the point. Personally I don't care if the developers are greedy. They could all be complete arseholes for all I care, so long as the game I buy from them is fun and well made. With that in mind, I would say it's tasteful if it adds to the emersion(1), is functionally realistic or neutral(2) and does not draw excessive attention to itself(3). All these points are obviously quite closely related to each other though.

(1) In an apocalyptic setting I wouldn't want to go into a burnt down supermarket and find that everything was black and charred except the shiney new coke cans. It'd just make it seem like a joke.
(2) My potion of sexual attractiveness provides me with a personality boost of 10 points, but my branded deodorant provides me with 4.34x10^489 points, wins me the game and plays a lengthy cutscene in which every female NPC strips naked and runs at you in slow motion. What?!
(3) If you find yourself driving into billboards all the time because they obscure too much of your view, then something is probably wrong with the world. Similarly, if characters in the aforementioned apocalyptic example won't shut up about how much they loved a certain brand of fast food before the hellfire and screaming and gnashing of teeth ruined it all, then it's a good sign that someone's been trying much too hard to force it on you.

Tolerable advertising should be almost undetectabe unless you're looking for it, and that extends even to free games. Let's face it, jumping off of skyscrapers is free too, but I don't fancy doing it for that reason alone. If they want to advertise, put it before and after the actual gameplay, or on the borders of their website, just don't make me have to deal with it when I'm actually playing.

 

I think I get your point, in a summary you simply don't want them to be obstructive and you don't want to feel as if they are pushed up your *ss all the time.

Simply be there but not to obvious, at least, not all the time?

 

I think that if you aim to make the ads improve the game - then you have a winner. The problem is doing this effectively (because it presumably requires a lot of work to do well),

 

That's about the long and short of it. I just wanted to add some colourful examples for my own amusement.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that I doubt an advertising platform would be able to meet such criteria, as it's fundamentally a generalist system which needs to operate within a very specific context of each game's world, whilst maintaining that all important sense of emersion. However I reckon that individually tailoring adverts for each game could yeild some good results in a lot of cases, and for some games it could even add to the experience - like in sports games, with authentic team sponsors and boards along the sidelines.

 

Well that depends on how you create your system of course, cause instead of the platform / advertiser choosing the location of the ad you could also let the developer choose the locations...

 

Of course an advertiser would want some input on placement if they are paying for it.

Back in the thread, Jan, you said "In-game advertisement on the other hand would possibly be a method for developers to lower their prices and offer free longer demo's with ads or premium packages without ads as mentioned before." Nobody believes ads are about lowering prices, they are about increasing revenue and offsetting costs. If they were about lowering prices then people wouldn't be expected to pay $60 for a commercial.

 

That is true I guess, but I often compare it to say, television. At some point if we want to keep having high quality (I know, not all tv is high ) we are going to need to accept some level of advertisement I think, because else development costs become to high. And yes it doesn't mean developers will do that, but it does allow them to do that

If you think advertisers need influence you can also consider the google approach. Do they or their advertisers influence where we place our ads?

 

The problem is that none of the current crop of in-game advertising systems such as Google's work with Unity. They're all tailored especially for flash.

 

Unity games can't get invaded by Google adverts? Where is this problem you speak of?
Just kidding of course.

 

No that is true and that is why I am currently doing research..... The last thing developers want are adwords in their game in my opinion... you'd want high res images etc

 

No, Scandinavia. But we have taxes+greed increasing the costs, rather than just distance to blame
(No, seriously, every insider I've spoken to claims the game stores are just greedy when it comes to console game prices!)

I think website ads have some leeway with content. Links to cool products on a webpage are more likely to be followed than product placements inside a game where you have no browser. Do YOU remember what you looked at two minutes ago, while busily trying to get rid of some enemies?

Getting the advertiser to tailor some products with your game's theme (if it's popular enough) might also be received well. Shirts, mousepads, mugs etc. at the very least.

 

Coca cola did an experiment that showed a coke bottle just 1 frame of a movie. The coke sales in the pause raised with something like 50%. Studies (have no ref atm sorry) I read show that people remember brands within games, movies etc better then you might think. You think your experience in games is different from that of watching a movie, which indeed is, but the way you take up the whole graphical part of the game in comparison to a movie, is somewhat the same. If a product is placed within a movie you will notice it to. Same goes for games. If a banner of Coca Cola, Pepsi, Mac Donalds or whatever is placed somewhere you will notice. If a car is branded "Ferrari" instead of "Ferazi" (fake) you will notice.

All that noticing is important cause that creates brand exposure, which is not as good as conversion with clicks, but certainly not as bad as tv commercials. TV commercials are skippable (TiVo etc) and you can walk away from them. In-game advertisement and movie product placement are not skippable and are thus more effective by nature... (depending on your expected result of course)

 

Those movie tricks don't work on me, though - I'm notoriously hard to sell anything to

 

I would like to blame distance, but then again New Zealand don't have to pay as much as us. So yeah, something is going on there.

 

I really don't know where you are going with this other than promoting in-game advertising. At some point, would you just state your point?

 

Oh no I am not here to promote in-game advertisement I am just trying to propose a secondary view to how others see the subject/problem...

I am really sorry if I seem as purely encouraging it. I am just trying to figure out what is the problem on the subject and see if the problem is really a problem or something else. I will try to have a more neutral position in this.

I myself hate advertisement that is forced on me. For example:

- TV commercials. I hate them.
- To obvious product placement. I hate them (having a beers name beeing called 10 times, or having the beer bottle exactly right positioned for a camera)
- To much of everything

I myself would not mind the following:
Advertisement that you can choose to ignore. In comparison to movies for example, if there's a beer bottle you cannot look away from it, someone else filmed it for you. I do like the point that a gamer can simply walk away in many cases.

Anyways my motivation was to simply discuss the subject. If I showed that differently then I am sorry for that.

 

It's all good, I get where you're coming from. If nobody played devil's advocate then discussion wouldn't be nearly as useful. Also, you've asked for our opinions, we've given them, and I see nothing wrong with you adding your own to the list.

But yeah, sibliminal advertising is another interesting point. As now you mention it a lot of people don't like that either, on account of it feeling like they're being manipulated. I guess that as with most things a happy medium is optimal if you choose to use adverts.

 

I don't think you are doing a good job of playing the Devil's Advocate as your talking points have mostly been speculation and you have't actually addressed any of the business concerns that were mentioned earlier in the thread about the justifications for in-game advertising. You're just repeating yourself more than countering arguments put forward; it appears you are merely writing your thoughts rather than actually debating.

 

alright I guess that is a fair comment and feedback. I am sorry for giving my own point of view more then often, never realized I was repeating myself.

I am not really one that has all the knowledge about in-game advertisement. In my opinion on a business base larger companies will indeed simply earn more money or add a secondary revenue line in their total benefits/costs structure, but for smaller companies it could be a way to actually make (more) money to invest into making more and better games. It might encourage companies to lower their prices or anything of such.

On the other hand the fictional company/platform that would create this distribution/storage or whatever would also be able to encourage games to lower prices or whatever by supplying benefits if they do so. But that is all of course rather relative cause when do you know if someone actually lowered it's price or extended it's demo in the name of benefits?