What they don’t get about in game advertising..

There’s a lot of fuss about in-game advertising right now in the gamer community. And for good reason, being bombarded with in-game adds is annoying. I mean, who wants to play Guitar Hero and see adds for major corporations all over the game, right? In-game advertising turns people off, or so the rhetoric goes; and as development costs rise, so will the use of additional revenue streams to reduce the risks involved with such expensive products.

I haven’t heard one mention of all the in-game advertising we’re doing with Guitar Hero. Not one. Wait, you did see those in-game adds, right? Gibson, Krank, Vox, Mesa Boogie, Line 6 – the list goes on.

It doesn’t bother you because it’s contextual, and only really brought to the users attention in a few key places in the campaign. But in nearly every moment of the game, there’s some form of in-game advertising staring you in the face. In my mind, it’s not that advertising is inherently bad – it’s that the way it’s being done in most games breaks the very context of being ‘in’ the game. And because games are about interaction, this break in context is far more offensive than it is in other mediums, like radio and TV.

Advertising is going to have to adjust to games, not the other way around. If you want to successfully advertise a product in a game, you’re going to need to allow the developers to contextualize your product into their world. That means your precious logo, brand, or look will have to fundamentally change to fit in with the world around it. The equipment present in Guitar Hero’s scenes doesn’t look like its real world counterparts – it’s heavily stylized to be part of our world. We literally wouldn’t accept any sponsors who were not willing to relinquish this control, as doing so would essentially compromise our brand – the very vehicle they wish to ride on.

As such, the ‘add space for rent’ model of traditional advertising isn’t going to work for this space. Instead, adds will have to be contextualized, and carefully chosen to enrich a product, not detract from it. Having actual Gibson guitar’s in Guitar Hero is cool; having Krank and Vox amps in the game adds some level of street credibility. Having a ‘Coke Black’ add in there? That reduces credibility and screams sell-out.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that smaller, more niche brands, carefully screened and contextualized for the game can actually make for a better game and be a good thing for the consumer. They can provide street credibility, additional development dollars, and add instead of subtract from the overall experience. But to do this, people at the top will have to understand far more about the space than in other forms of media.

Rant On: The VGA awards..

The VGA’s – what a load of crap. Why is Hollywood doing game awards anyway? Are there not enough outlets for bad rappers, alternative rockers, and B level celebs who don’t even play games? I never realized that the mocap actors are the people “in the trenches – the “working class hero’s” of our industry, the “blood and guts” of what we do. Then, of course, that wasn’t really a mo-cap actor anyway.


Given Hollywood’s repeated, horrific, and failed inroads to our industry over the years, it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve resorted to essentially slapping their product onto the face of our industry in an attempt to steal credit for what we do. It’s not as if there aren’t extremely interesting, talented, and presentable people in our industry who they could covet and eventually exploit – but that would require them to get to know and understand the industry a bit better; something they clearly failed to do when they, you know, tried to make games themselves.


Real updates soon, I swear – I’ve been insanely busy..