The Media Guardian - And why it is WRONG about adverts.

I was reading through Mondays advertising themed 'Media Guardian', when I spotted an interesting article about video games. "My field of expertise" I thought, unaware of the horrors I was about to read. The article begins by explaining how the popular online game 'Second Life', has been swamped with ads, critising the game with every turn "...rather than reaching out to the residents of Second Life, who are anonymous, immeasurable, and increasingly only interested in buying digital genitalia and indulging in cyber-sex". "Fine" I thought to myself, not exactly a fan of the game anyway, living a second life seems like avoiding the first one. The article goes on to explain that the revenue for games is starting to rise above that of that even Hollywood blockbusters, and that companies are starting to look at video games for a new media to suck dry. "What!?" I thought to myself, "My games, filled with cheap advertising campaigns!?" Ok, so, maybe the topic is worth discussion, (even if just so I can prove myself right) it is true that games have been carefully invaded with ads for some years now; I haven't seen a football game without Nike or Coca Cola adverts on the edge of the pitch for some time. Some, more realistic games already have billboards and adverts as a part of them, and if they're there for a reason, then fine, real life ads, relevant to the game, are a welcome. The same goes for actually using the products as a part of the game. I am a big fan of snowboarding games, and while playing 'SSX On Tour', Its hard not to notice the sets of clothing and snowboards mainly come with a tag with the logo of a popular brand, "Burton", or "Foursquare". After some research, I found out that the items were in fact, real life items, digitalised for the game. This is a good idea, it saves the game designers a lot of time, meaning an earlier release, or more items get to be in the game, which is always welcome.What I can't stand however, is that EA's cash cow, the Sims 2, recently realised two expansion packs, 'IKEA Home Stuff', and 'The Sims 2 H&M® Fashion Stuff Pack'. There are currently 15 expansion packs for the Sims 2, ignoring the various spin-offs for console systems, which I'd rather not think about. Ever. So, a game with adverts in it, well, that can be ok, but an advert which I have to pay for? No thank you. "But Tom!” I hear you cry “surely the revenue created by the udder of 'IKEA Home Stuff', and even more popular 'The Sims 2 H&M® Fashion Stuff Pack', will give EA the chance to create unique and exiting games!". Wrong. Games have been just fine without advertising scams, and the only thing EA does with its money is buy out other companies and re-release the same Fifa games with a different title each year. The Guardian goes on to explain the newest ideas for distracting our gameplay with ads. "Now that consoles like the Xbox 360 are web-connected, it's easy for advertisers to place ads dynamically" Think about it. Every time you connect to the internet, your console stops whatever it is doing and greets you with a pop-up. "Downloading adverts". Or maybe when ever you turn on your game, adverts from all the brands used flash up. I can't think of anyone who wants that.To me, it seems like everyone knows about what adverts did to second life, but see no reason to stop swamping games with ads until the technique stops working. Maybe one day this will all be normal, and adverts in games will be just as inevitable as the ones in second life, or the real one.I leave you with a quote from Futurama.

"Didn't you have ads in the twentieth century?"

"Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio...and in magazines...and movies, and at ballgames, and on buses, and milk cartons, and T-shirts, and bananas, and written in the sky. But not in dreams, no sirree.

http://blog.wired.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/06/04/legendad.jpg