As a big fan of the legendary Sim City I could’t resist giving it’s recent launch of a Facebook version a try. I spent a bit of time but it was rather disappointing, nothing really innovative, just a FarmVille copycat.
What made me think was the integration of advertising. Basically you get a Mercedes factory and more branded items for free to build in your city plus a couple of related quests. We’ve seen that in various Facebook games in the past.
My first thought always was “Makes perfect sense – if there are real world objects in a real world simulation why not sell the slots?”. And the history of selling banners in racing games goes back 30 years already. And thinking about movies it’s not that big a deal isn’t it? Well, if you disregard that many people feel uncomfortable with this there is still one invisible line that differentiates fiction movies from documentaries.
I find the simulation genre within the game segment fairly similar to documentaries. Specifically games with the “Sim” prefix pretend to be world simulations (or life simulations) modelling reality and like all modelling they get better and better doing so over the years. Quoting from the The Sims website: ”The Sims is the award-winning series that started the Life Simulation genre”
So this means if you sell slots in the model of the world you build and sell you fake it for money and you can throw your credibility straight into the bin. Sure, you can’t compare Sim City Social and FarmVille with a serious documentary. But if you label something “simulation” and change the model for money something is wrong.
Should a simulation genre leave out any product placement advertising or will it be left to the makers of indie games?
Having ads in a simulation makes it even more like real life. Product placement is here to stay, and we see it all around us. Do we complain if we send an e-mail and it adds a tag line that says what communication device we are using? We want people to know that we have the latest and coolest device. The maker of the device gets a product placement opportunity at no cost. In fact we are the ones that paid for it by purchasing their product in the first place. Just like all that logo wear we buy :-).
I would never want my type of phone to be advertised to someone I’m talking to- though I know it happens. You’re the perfect example of a corporate citizen, the type they create and propagate. You want the world to know you have the coolest and newest phone? You’re an idiot. Do you even realize that the only reason you want people to know what you have is so that they envy you? That’s a terrible way to live your life. Why on earth would I want to advertise something that I paid good money for? If I buy a pair of pants, I don’t want them shouting to the world “Hey, everyone, look how cool we are. Go to Sears and grab a pair today!” I want my own damn pants. And yes, my pants are from Sears, so you probably have lost all respect for me because I choose comfy, durable, cheap clothing instead of designer bullshit that doesn’t fit and won’t last more than a day of good use.
If more people bought my pants, the price would go up and I wouldn’t be able to afford them any more. Why do you think you paid $200-400 for your phone? Because it’s worth that much? That’s laughable. It’s because there are people like you, millions of them, buying shit they don’t need and driving the prices up- and worse, shrinking the market for people who want anything practical instead of fashionable.
Just for the record, what I wrote was tongue in cheek? I have long ago removed the auto generated tags from e-mail messages and do not wear logo wear except in rare occasions. The post was meant to be a commentary on our current marketplace where product placement and brand awareness are major contributors to gaining market share.
I don’t know why people get worked up about in game advertising. I wonder if these people drive down highways raging at the fact that there are billboards.
I think some gamers forget that while companies are very into “the gaming culture” they also have to consider the bottom line.
Seriously, would you want your games to be designed and coded by people who worked for free?
Interesting. Personally, I would like to reduce advertizing everywhere. I don’t play games on Facebook, but if I did, I wouldn’t want ads to be a part of the experience.
@vanbranam so what if a simulation would not let all the cool kids have iPhones but – because RIM paid for it – Blackberries? Could have an effect from simulated back to real world?
Of course, and RIM would have spent their advertising dollars well and would have gained market share. The company who made the simulation would then possibly receive offers from other phone companies and the cycle would continue.
I complete understand the need for product placement and the fact of the existence of bottom line, however I do think in game advertising can be done obvious and sometimes takes the player out of the gaming experience. I don’t mind in game advertising if the games are free because I am creating apps that would most likely to feature ads to fund my projects. Unless the ads serves some purpose to the game play, they aren’t part of a game designing process. They are funding mechanism. In regards to email and such, ads do bother me personally only because it slows the browser down. I’ve only exeperience this with Hotmail, though. Gmail’s ads are just text so they don’t require a lot of memory to load so no problem there. In regards to billboards, I’m not in rage, but it is an intruding element and distracting too. The in-game benz factory is okay because it contributes in some way or form to the game play experience.
@davidrothbauer @athomewithgod I personally think in “fiction games” ads are very unproblematic. A billboard in a racing game – why not? People never want ads if you ask them but if you ask if they’d prefer to pay instead they normally go for the ads.
My question was more about the simulation genre and its similarity to documentaries which I thought might have a very different angle on things.
I’m big on having ingame ads of the sort shown off above. I feel that it enhances the immersion. Personally I’d love to be roaming around a city in Grand Theft Auto and seeing billboards for real life products. I can relate to them, but I can’t relate to fictional products that some games shove down our throats.
I was very surprised about the poll. I thought that more people would go for one then for the other but it as well balanced.
I completely understand where you are coming from. I play quite a few social simulation games and the advertising that appears can often be annoying and disruptive. (Especially if pop ups continually appear.)
However, to me it doesn’t take away from the gaming experience. When it comes down to it, all gaming studios are a business, as someone already mentioned, and they need to meet their bottom line. EA is no different. As long as the game doesn’t FORCE you to pay money to progress or bombards you with advertisements and online polls then I’m sure we can all handle a bit of advertising.