Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising

Very few stories ever acurately capture the way hard core gamers feel about in game advertisements. Sure there are surveys and statistics about attitudes towards adsthat are often reported, but as most people know, any statistics can be manipulated. It would be impossible to precisely measure every gamers opinion about in game advertisments, and it would differ for different games. That being said, gamespot.com, a site for game industry news, recently featured it's best of 2007 year end awards. Among the awards handed out was the award for Most Despicable Use of In-Game Advertising. Visitors to the site participated in the vote which decided which game would take home the (dis)honor. In addition, editors of the site chose their own "winner" of this award.

The description of the award describes videogame advertising as "one of the worst trends to appear in the world of videogames". It recognized the need for advertising in video games in order to cout costs, but describes a point where the ads go from being acceptable to ruinin gthe video game experience. Gamers voted on 5 titles :Guitar Hero III, Need For Speed: Pro Street, Skate, Tabula Rasa, and All Pro Football 2K8. Gamers voted with a majority 56% that Guitar Hero III should take the award. Editors of the site differed choosing Need for Speed as their winner.

Which ever game truly deserves the award is irrelvant to the idea behind this award category. Having this as an award implys something about the way gamers, notably hardcore gamers, may truly feel about in game advertising. There is a line that many game developers should be aware of when making their games, that gamers perceive that there is a point where in game advertisements can go to far.

Having not played any of these games i cannot say whether i agree or disagree with the voters or the editors, but i can say i have had similar experiences. Playing Fight Night Round 3 for the first time i realized that this game may have taken the advertisements a little too far. Logos were plastered everywhere from the loading screens to the boxing ring itself. Even the announcers in the game mentioned products and slogans. I would argue that it definately took away from the game experience and that is something developers need to be aware of.