News Google buys in-game ad firm

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/02/19/Google_buys_in-game_ad_firm/

 

Google is an advertising company first. Everything else is secondary.

I hope they do get this right.

 

I can see it now. a childrens game where they have to build blocks ontop of eachother. One character ingame says "this block is too heavy, I cant get it up" then suddenly google decides that this is a good opportunity to place a viagra related advertisement on the side of the building blocks. quality

 

Oooooh an 'uber' fast advertising bill board machine, whatever next, perhaps some kind of 'uber' display in the living room that pumps in advertising 24/7 ?

 

as long as games get a nice discount with ad's built in, I'm all for in game advertising

But i don't think (like with BF2142) you should pay full price and have ads in your face too - or CS1.6 where their just going to add in game ad's even though no-one receives any benefit whatsoever (considering they don't update 1.6)

Although, its pretty easy to block stuff like that, most of the "keep you safe while you bittorrent" programs can easily block those ad IP's, or you can do it at the firewall level if you prefer

 

Indeed. An entire niche of programs is going to grow around blocking IGA's. Personally I see no problem with people pirating ad filled games, but for those who actually buy their games I think the idea that they should block ads is completely reasonable.

 

It's interesting to compare in-game ads to product placement in movies. Often in a movie, the director has a lot of control over what products are on view and how they are used in the scene. This is because the director has a lot of artistic resposibility over the film. Too much advertising would ruin the feel of the film. Even so, producers make a hell of a lot from product placement probably because the advertising medium is so effective and widespread.

I don't think gamers will be as responsive to in-game ads and so I imagine ads will have to be a lot more prominent in order to be effective. Will game producers prevent adverts that affect the artistic quality of their games? Somehow I doubt it. It seems there are very few game producers that are really passionate about the games they create any more. I'm certain that we'll see the most adverts in sequels rather than original titles.

 

No doubt. I was just playing through a splinter cell game. Not only are the phones all clearly lablled as Sony Ericsons but..get this, while you're in the middle of rescueing a CIA deskworker from the clutches of evil terrorists who've been torturing and murdering her colleagues, what does she comment on? Why she says "nice PDA" when you hand it to her. Because that's really the first thing that comes to your mind when you're faced with an armed and possibly non-friendly ninja while being held captive by men who're going to kill you.

Adverts are already making games less good. It's only going to get worse.

 

As much as I love all of googles services that I use daily, such as Gmail, Googlemaps, google desktop, hell just plain old google search, my game time is my game time.

I will not support any game that contains commercials of any kind, unless that game is given to the consumer, me and you, for free.

 

someday they will stamp ads in our underwear...

I mean... Isn't enough the bombardment of ads you see in every corner? The ones that block our vision in the streets and roads? At least the mayor here in Sao Paulo have prohibited 90% of the outdoor ads.. It's a start...

 

As long as the advertising doesnt detract from the game its self, or is so invasive as to make the game unplesent to play I dont see what the problem would be. I'm sure that add-free versions will be available at a little extra cost, and that the underground community will post patches and hacks to remove them in short time.
Besides, advertising IRL is only a moderate pain in the arse, and without advert breaks, when would people use the toilet and refil their drinks.
Only downside is that advertising IRL can actually be dangerous in some circumstances. How many people have been distracted from driving by the latest WonderBra poster of some scantily clad model?? Yeah it looks good, but when you end up in the back of the car in front you wont be finding it so good. Worst that happens in the game world is you wait to re-spawn.
Jaz_knos