Study Indicates In-Game Ads Actually Work

News Reader · Post by **News Reader** » July 24th, 2007, 7:00

Study Indicates In-Game Ads Actually Work
The Next Generation site is running a piece discussing new findings about in-game advertising. The results of collaboration between an ad firm and a research company show that ads in games are actually having an effect on players. Double Fusion's involvement in the study throws the results into question. Take these statistics with a grain of salt: "75% of gamers engage with at least one ad per minute across most, but not all, game types; 81% of gamers engage at least every other minute. Less-cluttered ads are three times as effective at garnering gamer notice than ads that are either cluttered or within cluttered environments. While both contribute positively to ad engagement, placement of the ad in the primary camera plane (eye-level) is more important than large size ads. Not all ads are created equal - dynamic billboards, around-game interstitials, sponsorships, and interactive product placements all offer different levels of user engagement and pervasiveness in the game" Eidos certainly thinks so; Kotaku notes that they've signed up with the same company featured in this study.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Author: Zonk
Category: games
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Source: Slashdot: Games
Description: News for nerds, stuff that matters

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » July 24th, 2007, 10:34

...work at giving you unequalled RAGE.

Post by **FatherJack** » July 24th, 2007, 10:46

The most effective form of ads are destructible ones.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » July 24th, 2007, 10:52

FatherJack wrote:The most effective form of ads are destructible ones.

Even so, you'd have to look at it to shoot it, and it is therefore likely to be more memorable than just a static ad. I fear that it is the start of a slippery slope.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » July 24th, 2007, 11:17

I don't buy this entirely.

For a start people looking towards ingame ads and getting the rage != ads working.

Also, in the case of 2142, seeing adverts for a cpu moderately slower than the one i already have? yeah, that really fucks the immersion for me.

Post by **FatherJack** » July 24th, 2007, 12:49

Lateralus wrote:Even so, you'd have to look at it to shoot it, and it is therefore likely to be more memorable than just a static ad. I fear that it is the start of a slippery slope.

No, I meant they really would be more effective - imagine being able to topple an advertising hoarding from a building only to crush people beneath, but I bet it would confuse the advertising people.

They can plaster the loading screens, the box, manual and menus with their stupid logos, but why do they have to smear their excrement across the games, too?

These advertising folks aren't stupid - I fondly remember booze and fags commercials being better than the programs when I was a kid - so it's entirely possible that they could make adverts which don't look incongruous depending on the setting, like a rusted Coke sign in the language of the supposed location, or humourous ones in a fantasy setting which don't mention the product directly but make it obvious what they are - like they do with the tobacco adverts in F1. So they're not stupid, and probably not lazy, I can only guess that they don't fully understand gamers' objections.

They usually get it right in sports games, having adverts of the type you'd normally see, although usually a little heavy on the games manufacturer, but in something like (say) STALKER - they'd have to be very careful. One non-russian ad and they've fucked the whole atmosphere.

I'm guessing there won't be a massive queue of companies wanting their names in games, or at least it won't be so long as to give the publishers the option to only select ads which fit, should they choose to. As result, a fair few games will have ads as clumsy and obvious as Trackmania Nations.

Post by **TezzRexx** » July 24th, 2007, 12:56

What do they mean by "work"? Does it mean somebody looking in the general direction of an advert?

If so, it doesn't necessarily mean the player is -looking- and -noticing- the ads.

I also believe this is the start of a slippery slope, with no reward to gamers at all.

Gunslinger42 · Post by **Gunslinger42** » July 24th, 2007, 14:51

I'm sick of ads being everywhere.

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » July 24th, 2007, 14:54

Gunslinger42 wrote:I'm sick of ads being everywhere.

This, harder than Chicken when he improves his 3DMark scores. Ads in general offend me, even more so when they're unescapable and especially when tailored to me based on personal information.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » July 24th, 2007, 15:45

Then there's also the fact games are escapism.

Why on earth would you want real world ads in it?*

*Eve is one previous exception, as they've got Quafe ads in game, which is an in-game trade item, AND they were also for sale in the real world. It was EvE and CCP's equivilant of coke/pepsi*

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » July 25th, 2007, 9:21

Gunslinger42 wrote:I'm sick of ads being everywhere.

If you say that the Communists have won!!!

We can't have our increasingly capitalist society without advertising, it's an unfortunate and unavoidable side effect. Stop buying things and the adverts will eventually go away.

Chickenz · Post by **Chickenz** » July 25th, 2007, 10:06

Lateralus wrote:This, harder than Chicken when he improves his 3DMark scores.

buzzmong · Post by **buzzmong** » July 25th, 2007, 10:41

Gunslinger42 wrote:I'm sick of aids being everywhere.

Fix'd

Lateralus · Post by **Lateralus** » July 25th, 2007, 10:42

Hehe, just having a little dig at you there mate - ISTR previous comments about you not watching porn but using 3DMark instead.