[arg_discuss] Advertising in games

[Dan Carver]

As far as the Beast went, if we had had the time and weren't trying to sneak
in under two separate marketing departments, we would have been happy to use
product placement (we also thought about selling t-shirts but the players
beat us to it).  It was certainly discussed during development and had the
project been extended further we probably would have explored it and other
marketing and revenue generating ploys.  In point of fact the original plan
was to bridge the time required to produce games (based on the movie) with
the Beast.  Had the games reached fruition there would almost certainly have
been many marketing tie-ins.  

Our team's commitment was to make a great game, but I don't think there were
any illusions that eventually the piper would have to be paid and we'd be
dancing to marketing's tune (we'd still have been committed to making a
great game, though). The game was, after all, a marketing effort (just not
one run by the respective marketing departments). As it was the movie was
not all that successful so the Beast was cut short and we never had to worry
about getting our dance card filled.   

Ours was a special case, though, and most commercial games have to
incorporate marketing from day one so I don't think it's fair to expect them
to forgo advertising.  Having said that, it behooves the marketing and
design teams to properly judge their audience's tolerance. Like Andrea, I
suspect that it will err on the overkill side to begin with and thrash
around a lot before finding the proper level.

--Dan Carver

> -----Original Message-----
> From: arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org [mailto:arg_discuss-bounces at igda.org]
> On Behalf Of Andrea Phillips
> Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 7:54 AM
> To: Discussion list of the IGDA ARG SIG
> Subject: Re: [arg_discuss] Advertising in games
> 
> On May 26, 2006, at 1:55 AM, Colin Gehrig wrote:
> 
> > It will be interesting to see how it plays out and what the player and
> > media reaction is to it. Will this see a whole new generation of ARGs?
> > More integration between TV shows and web content? Or just a bunch of
> > second rate copies?
> >
> >   -colin
> 
> Well, looking back at the Beast, to I Love Bees, and on to Art of the
> Heist, nobody should be shocked that a game is being used as *gasp*
> an ADVERTISING VEHICLE! We've got some strong roots in advertising,
> and I think gained a lot from it, too. I think what we're starting to
> see here, though, is a similar evolution as TV went though; we used
> to have Wild Kingdom, sponsored by Mutual of Omaha. Now we have
> product placements (good guys use Apple; bad guys use Alienware...)
> 
> As with any other product placement, though, I suspect the outcome
> will be a need for subtlety, or risk offending your playerbase. I
> don't really see this, though, as a separate generation of ARGs, so
> much as a continuing growth of the same basic idea (that's my
> 'massively multi-player participatory storytelling.') You could make
> a pretty decent case for something like American Idol or Big Brother
> being an ARG, I think, albeit very limited in scope. Reality TV and
> alternate reality gaming have, deep down inside, an awful lot in common.
> 
> --
> Andrea Phillips
> http://www.perplexcity.com
> http://www.deusexmachinatio.com
> 
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