In Game Advertising: How Do You Feel?
by drrandle
Do Bigger Production Costs Excuse In-Game Advertising? Yes, they absolutely do. The cost of games in recent years have sky-rocketed, for the most part, and to keep up with it, publishers and developers need to turn somewhere. Of course this doesn't give developers free reign to push the advertising in our face, as there are ways to get around being pervasive. Simple stats are always a great way...
Do Bigger Production Costs Excuse In-Game Advertising?
Yes, they absolutely do. The cost of games in recent years have sky-rocketed, for the most part, and to keep up with it, publishers and developers need to turn somewhere. Of course this doesn't give developers free reign to push the advertising in our face, as there are ways to get around being pervasive.Simple stats are always a great way to get a point across, so here's a couple, thanks to this Joystiq article: Pac-Man, with inflation, cost around $200,000 to make. Heavenly Sword, which wasn't even that long of a game (or good), cost upwards of $15 million. Ridiculous, isn't it? But that's the cost of higher-end graphics, stronger computer processing, more dudes on screen at a time, longer development times, more folks needed to make a game, etc. etc. That's not even including the media blitz a game needs to pull off in order to be considered a financial success.
I have two opinions on this matter. The first one follows that in game advertising is totally cool with me, so long as it is non-pervasive. I play , City of Villains and the game has always featured giant billboards that feature fake advertisements, like for a giant hamburger for $3.99, though no food-place is ever mentioned, so it's obviously just space-filler, flavor, if you will. Well the other day I was wandering around and found an ad for a Tony Hawk brand T-Mobile phone-a-majiger. Was I offended by this? How could I be? It's a picture on a wall that shows me that there is a product that I may or may not be interested in. I said no and moved about my business. The picture was on a billboard, like in real life, so what's wrong with this? Honestly? If a development team feels they need some extra cash to help put on a continuously good product, how is it a problem? (As a side note, you can turn it off in the menu system, so quit bitching on the boards.) Another interesting application of this feature is that in-game guilds could fork up some cash to advertise themselves to other players, which I think is nifty. Now if this same thing happened in WoW, I would be suspect and all outcry would be warranted, because, what the hell, there's no such thing as a Tony Hawk T-Mobile gizmo in Azeroth or Azeroth-like settings. Likewise, if you're playing, a game that asks you to deliver some Burger King to a Best Buy on the other side of town, and while your driving, every other building is either a Burger King or a Best Buy... well we have a fucking problem. City of Villains does it for immersion. I don't know what freakish, Demolition Man world they expect me to believe exists where the only stores and restaurants are Best Buy and Burger King, respectively.
My other opinion is that if you are upset at in-game advertising, or advertising in any given medium, it's essentially your fault. (or more accurately our collective faults.) Obviously we pay for the things that are chock-full over advertising, telling our sellers that "Sure, we're ok with it, because we still buy it." I don't have cable so I don't watch TV. I buy DVD's or download it onto my X-Box 360, because I enjoy directly supporting the people who bring me my favorite shows and movies. Now, I don't mind the way cable is set up, you can enjoy these shows for free (paying for cable = paying for the cable company to bring you some wires and maintain them, not for the actual production of the shows), but you have to "suffer" the advertising. As shows still get ratings, we, as consumers and people, are obviously stating to the studios that we enjoy free TV, and don't mind the presence of ad's, because we can always just mute the TV or go take a piss anyhow. I feel the same applies for video games. We want bigger and better games, well somebody has to pay for it, and I don't blame the developers if they don't want it to be them that has to foot the entire increased bill.
Certainly games like Mega Man 9 and Braid get away with lower-budgets and a lack of advertising. I could even argue that games like this prove that we can still have enjoyable video games without all that extra cost. Well, yes and no. We don't need the fancy tech and graphics to have a wonderful game, but we apparently want them. Many gamers won't play a game if it doesn't have top-notch presentation, and older games are laughable entirely because they look old. I've heard many people call Mega Man 9 a stupid idea, because it's using the old 8-bit graphics instead of some new flashy stuff. I say they're fucking crazy. Anybody who judges a game simply by it's graphics and not as a whole experience is a fool, but that's a whole 'nother argument. My point is, the demand is apparently grater for larger budget games. Braid sold under 100,000 last I checked, which may be grrrrreat for them, but is considered more or less a complete failure by any big-budget title. (Also, Braid creators, it must be nice to make your own game without having to rely on other sources of income, but we don't all have $200,000, so some of us need extra help, and sometimes advertising is the only way to logically go if a publisher is too controlling.)
I have some other thoughts on advertising in general, if you don't mind...
Earlier I mentioned that product placement can help to promote immersion, and I stand by that statement. Sure, I always enjoy watching people parody general products with their own made-up stuff. If we're going for more serious tones, having a car just be a Toyota, or having somebody refer to it as such, is normal. It's natural, it's what people can relate to. It's an immediate connection for the person being entertained. That being said, I also enjoy product-placement that is either satirizing product placement (like Mike Myers in Wayne's World turning to the camera to advertise blatantly. It's funny, regardless if he got paid to do it or not) or something similar to the Mountain Dew Transformer in last summers blockbuster of the same name. (Transformers, not Mountain Dew: The Movie.) Essentially, if it's clever or organic, I am for it. If it's more money for the producer/developer, so what? It's not like it's money out of my pocket.
Some people (like these pretentious fucks over at the Braid blog (scroll down to the little audio file)) would have you believe that advertisements are these giant, intrusive, mind-control devices that are used by giant, evil corporations in order to make you worship them as gods. They say that you have no will of your own and are wholly influenced by every advertisement you see. They, apparently, believe that all media must be made by the blood, sweat, and tears of the individuals who want to make them, and in no way be financially successful. In that audio clip, they break down some crazy moon-logic into equating TV advertising as child-labor, if kids watch commercials. Are you FUCKING INSANE?! I just wanted to get that out there and iIf I have to explain why, do us all a favor and wear tin-foil on your head so we know who you are. (Thank you, Lewis Black.)
I even think that advertisements can be forms of art themselves. I will admit that, because I am not a pretentious son of a bitch, my definition of art is about as loose as Bill Clinton's belt buckle. I prefer to examine each individual piece and decide what I think about it. Like all art, I remember good advertisements and forget about bad ones.
Advertising isn't Satan forcing his cock down your throat. In principal, it is somebody trying to inform you that a product exists. If they want to pay somebody else to help relay the message, in order to hopefully make more money than they spent (which is the whole point of advertising), well I don't see the problem. If you're going to bitch about in-game advertisement, than I want you, right now, to never watch another TV show, never read another magazine, stay off of any major websites, and pretty much live a disconnected life for the rest of your existence. Those all have advertising in them, somewhere, so you obviously are enraged about those, too. I'll admit, I try to avoid IGN more often these days because their method of advertising has gotten pervasive and has actually caused their site to run less fluidly, but as long as people keep going there, it's not going to change.
As a side note to those Braid guys, I wonder if they could have done better if they advertised on a video game site, or something, about their game... And wonder more if they have any objections to their game costing more than most other XBLA titles... oh and what do they think about Microsoft promoting their game on the X-Box advertising on the home menus... Just some random musings.
But what of your random musings, dear reader(s)? I am truly, honestly concerned to know what your thoughts are. Please, PLEASE leave a comment. I'm so lonely out here by myself.
This is a song for the lonely.
Can you hear me tonight?
For the broken hearted,
battle-scarred
I'll be by your side.
Cher - Song for the Lonely