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In Game Ads - The worst offenders.
Lord Jezo
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I don't mind ads inside of games if they make sense. Sporting games are fine because it's just like it is out on real life. Games made for the sole purpose of advertising, like those Burger King things, are fine because you know what you are getting in to.
The next level are ads that are a bit out of place but could still make sense. The example that comes to mind right now is Enter the Matrix. Yeah, there were Powerade machines all over the place but the game / movie were set in present day so I could at least overlook them with out feeling pulled completely out of the game. It would have been nicer to not have them but it wasn't too stupid.
Then comes the ads that are so out of place and in your face you wonder what the hell is going on and they pull you completely out of the game illusion. Last night I was hit in the face with such a thing harder than any other game has before.
While in a firefight in Battlefield 2142 (which is supposed to take place 135 years from now) I look up and see the following billboard right next to a high traffic area, right next to a critical flag point that our team was working hard to defend.
What the hell.
Yeah, I know Sony is going to be pushing it's products, movies, and formats hard and they are talking about how the PS3 is supposed to last for 15 years or some garbage, but I'll be damned if people are still watching PSP movies in the next century. All around me are people cloaked, hover crafts, floating tanks, and futuristic war stuffs, but for some reason Nick Cage managed to get a billboard up in the middle of it all.
Hey EA,
Fuck you. Let me live in my game for a little while with out forcing me to think about how it's just a big money making machine for you.
The next level are ads that are a bit out of place but could still make sense. The example that comes to mind right now is Enter the Matrix. Yeah, there were Powerade machines all over the place but the game / movie were set in present day so I could at least overlook them with out feeling pulled completely out of the game. It would have been nicer to not have them but it wasn't too stupid.
Then comes the ads that are so out of place and in your face you wonder what the hell is going on and they pull you completely out of the game illusion. Last night I was hit in the face with such a thing harder than any other game has before.
While in a firefight in Battlefield 2142 (which is supposed to take place 135 years from now) I look up and see the following billboard right next to a high traffic area, right next to a critical flag point that our team was working hard to defend.
What the hell.
Yeah, I know Sony is going to be pushing it's products, movies, and formats hard and they are talking about how the PS3 is supposed to last for 15 years or some garbage, but I'll be damned if people are still watching PSP movies in the next century. All around me are people cloaked, hover crafts, floating tanks, and futuristic war stuffs, but for some reason Nick Cage managed to get a billboard up in the middle of it all.
Hey EA,
Fuck you. Let me live in my game for a little while with out forcing me to think about how it's just a big money making machine for you.
I KISS YOU!
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They also tried to pay to use Coka-cola in Shenmue, but the deal fell through, so we were treated to Generic brand Cola.
Maybe it's a regional thing?
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What made them want to pay in order to use them? I, for one, couldn't give two shits if the fried chicken in my game is KFC or not.
Because they wanted the games to be realistic. Especially since both took place in the real world.
Crazy Taxi also paid to use other franchises.
If Crazy Taxi is an accurate representation of being a taxi driver, sign me up
Things have changed so much that I guess you guys just don't get it. Back in the day, seeing KFC in a game was pretty fucking neat. I remember magazines like EGM made a big deal out of it.
I remember my friend coming over to my house one day with Crazy Taxi (the first time I ever played it) and telling me "Dude, they have real stores in the game, like, KFC"
It was pretty unique.
It was during an era when Sega had money to burn.
Oh don't get me wrong, I remember when it was still a neat thing, take PGR2 for instance, driving through Scotland and having GAME stores etc, and ads that have there place are awsome, such as in car games. Having Ads for Castrol or whatever are all part of the realism.
Even the billboards in GRAW (AXE, which isnt even called AXE in the UK) I can put up with. It's the blatent out of place stuff like in the OP that draws you out of the experience is what bothers me. Although the way things are going, we shouldnt be suprised that there are billboards all over a war zone
Plus paying a company to use there brand in your game is crazy, companys should WANT to have there brand in the game (unless its tenitclerape6 or something :P).
Out of curiousity, when does that occur? I played through the whole game, and didn't see it. I was even kind of watching for it, since it's always brought up in these conversations.
I know I could google but what is AXE in the UK?
In-Game ads have been there for a long time. They're not going anywhere it's like every music video you see. Sellin' you something. Games are just the same as movies and videos. Ads are forcefed to us in the most devious of ways. You look around your room and you've probably got more than 100. Logos on shirts yadda yadda I could go on. I do think it's pretty ridiculous at times to see the Ghost Rider in 2142 but hey thats business.
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it's not said, that was just me emphasizing the point they make, but right at the start he's on a helicopter, pulls out a packet of Airwaves (held up to the camera), and pops one into his mouth. It just needs a voiceover or something.
edit: i think it's on the way to the first mission.
Yeah, I didn't know Airwaves was an actual product, 'cause we don't have them over here. But then I watched it again, and it totally reminds me of that Seinfeld episode with the guy who can import Chinese chewing gum, and he gives some to Jerry and Kramer, and they have that really awkward situation where they're sitting in the couch.
"Now see, this is what the holidays are all about. Three buddies, sitting around, chewing gum, huh?"
Edit: It's in the intro cinematic, I think.
Or I can say fuck you EA I'm not playing your game or any others with retarded adds like this. Its just so out of place. The billboards have always existed, but they usually show tanks/guns/ships from the game. They fit within the context, and are gritty and neutral colored. They add to the atmosphere instead of taking away from it.
Also Nick Cage sucks balls, seriously, fuck that guy.
People would be up in arms if they put these kind of adds in a WWII game. Its basically the same thing here.
Imagine, you're fighting for a capture point in BF2142. Finally, the overwhelming enemy presence gets to be too much, and as you take your last breath, you cry out...
'What I wouldn't do.. for.. a Red Bulllll...'
Also, it's nice that we're discussing products advertised in games, in a thread complaining about products advertised in games. I find it necessary, but amusing.
AXE is called Lynx in the UK
I remember Wipeout having those Red Bull loading screens. But, in America, my friends and I had no idea what the hell Red Bull was. So we just assumed it was some sort of super-future racing drink.
Be sure to have some fuzzy dice for your cab
Anyways for me the worse was the king in Fight night round 3. As a rule I never buy EA games but when I saw this in a video the only think I could think is "this is going way too far.
The Ads for Red Bull During the loading screens in one of the wipe out games. The loading takes a while so it is just sitting there beating you in the face while you wait.
The "ads" between levels in Head Hunter.. Sure they were fake and supposed to be funny but they came off as very stupid.
What? No. The Duracell battery was awesome. Pikmin is supposed to be the miniature secret world in your backyard, so you'd have real objects there, and the fact that it's a real brand just makes it more awesome.
Actually the point was to have destinations you'd recognize. So when someone hops in your cab and says "Take me to KFC" you know what you're looking for. But if someone hops in your cab and says "Take me to the chicken place" you have no idea what that looks like.
I thought it actually lent a bit to the playability.
Especially when they think it's a power core or something.
I found that to be one of the few times EA used adds properly. In my opinion, the biggest problem with ad-placement is that it rarely saves the player any money. If the adds allowed for free content (like the downloadable brand-name cars in Burnout Revenge), I wouldn't have a problem with it.
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It's plainly obvious that the only people this saves money for is the game developer itself. Ad revenue directly finances the game, which directly translates into profit margin because there's no way they'll ever pass that on to customers.
People are just getting uppity now because the ads can update themselves. Personally, that's preferable to having a game indefinitely advertise a product that may not even exist in a couple of years' time (I can't find Fizzy Chewitts anywhere these days).
Yeah, those were sweet.
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I bought that game, new and sealed, in 1999.
It came with a coupon for a free pizza from Pizzahut that expired in, like, 1990.
In game ads can be ok, but it just seems that companies aren't being very tactful or artistic with it, and that's what has us upset. It's not so much the ads, it's the blatant "We saved money by displaying the ad you have to look at - and you are paying to see it - HAHA".
Your missing the point. If you buy Cool Spot you know your getting a advertisment disguised as a game. It also happend to be a pretty good platformer, which goes against all logic.
BF2142 is a shooter in the future with a cool atmosphere that has nothing to do with Ghost Rider, and presumably it won't be being released on DVD, PSP, and Blu-ray in a hundred years. You can't see how this new trend in in-game ads is different when it ruins the immersion?
In all honestly, a bloody great big billboard like that would only bother me if it occurred during the Story Mode or Singleplayer Campaign, because yeah, it could ruin the immersion. But I can't honestly say that the environment is my pressing concern in multiplayer modes.
Sure it is. Well to me at least. BF has made their infantry combat more realistic and with squads and commanders and whatnot it is pretty engrossing when your moving together and working as a team. The enviroment helps add to this, but then BF has never had a single player mode. I guess I just get into it a bit more then some.