View Full Version : Play? (Need your feedback!)
portnoyd
08-13-2003, 01:32 PM
http://www.smvgroup.com/play/index.htm
Hey kids, need your help with this one. These guys are going to be at my work tomorrow. (For those of you who don't know, I work for Nabisco/Kraft/...*shudder*... Phillip Morris). Personally, I see these guys as whoring out our hobby as a means to shove more advertising in our faces than usual. What do you think? I'd like to relay as much as I can to these guys, and I know that a lot of you here could come up with some excellent points that I wouldn't normally have come up with. Thanks...
dave
Scoots
08-13-2003, 01:38 PM
I'd say you hit the nail on the head. Like we really need more media/video game synergy? I know you all can't wait for the next Kool Aid Man game and the sequel to the Super Mario Bros movie. Looks to me like just another marketing firm trying to fool us into thinking they're "x-treme" by wearing their baseball caps backwards and growing a goatee.
Half Japanese
08-13-2003, 01:51 PM
Meh, all of the games that have interesting storylines that lend themselves well to movies are already licensed out.....AS ANIME. They sound like money-grubbing assholes to me, give 'em an earful.
WiseSalesman
08-13-2003, 01:55 PM
"Hey, everyone like to pay to watch commercials on cable TV, right? Let's put them in videogames too! That'll make everybody really happy!"
Half Japanese
08-13-2003, 02:13 PM
Upon a second readthrough of that site, the whole thing makes me sick. The site (which features not one, but about 8 non-working links) reeks of bullshit marketing terms. They're basically wanting to whore out gaming properties into any sort of commercial properties they can. Just imagine if these guys got big, we'd have...GTA FRUIT ROLL UPS! WITH PULL-OUT 9MM AND WHORES! Here's hoping they both die.
As I understand it, this company means to insert ads into video games, not to develop new video game related products or product related video games.
I think that this is going to happen whether gamers like it or not, and it will just become accepted that games have ads in them the same way people accept ads on TV and radio. I rarely watch TV or listen to commercial radio but when I do I get so frustrated at the amount of time spent on advertising. I can't understand how people put up with it, but people who watch TV everyday just accept it.
Personally, I think the whole advertising industry is a big sham but I'm really in no position to argue with the psychologists who spend millions researching this stuff. Advertising works. If Phillip Morris needs to move more product, they would probably do well to pursue video games as a new advertising medium.
Half Japanese
08-13-2003, 03:05 PM
Your argument is flawed in one substantial area: network tv and am/fm radio are FREE, something video games are NOT. Sure we've already had some games that are glorified ads and many try to hawk products within the games, but if games ever start inserting ads, I'll resort to tactics I use now for radio and tv (tv, I only watch premium channels like HBO, radio I don't listen to at all). I realize that there is money to be made there, but that doesn't mean it will be done, it will lead to consumer backlash and that's something no company wants (ask Acclaim or 3DO).
Arcade Antics
08-13-2003, 03:11 PM
As I understand it, this company means to insert ads into video games, not to develop new video game related products or product related video games.
I think that this is going to happen whether gamers like it or not, and it will just become accepted that games have ads in them the same way people accept ads on TV and radio.
Uh-oh... I sure hope not.
I have no problems with commercials on TV and radio. TV and radio offer free programming. The commercials balance out the "can't get somethin' for nothin'" conundrum - shows are free, but you get interrupted every so often with offers to buy some company's burgers or cars.
But I do have problems with, say, movies that show fifteen minutes worth of commercials after you've PAID to see the show. OVERpaid no less. "We'll get to the previews in just second folks, but first a few words from American Express..." Ugh.
Commercials in a game will suck even more. Especially at $50 a pop.
Jorpho
08-13-2003, 03:46 PM
I thought a lot of sports games already had unobtrusive ads.
________
Gay black (http://www.fucktube.com/categories/614/black/videos/1)
Chunky
08-13-2003, 04:43 PM
put a commercial every load up screen if the game is good and only costs $20, then well i can stand it.
but otherwise this is a stupid idea, but it will make money, and money is the bottom line.
crazy taxi i think was done very well, but i don't see what nabisco would mix into gaming.
portnoyd
08-14-2003, 12:50 PM
God only knows what their plans truly are. But I'll find out in 10 minutes. Report to come. Thanks guys.
dave
ManekiNeko
08-14-2003, 02:34 PM
Tell them that ACCLAIM is a really promising business opportunity. Then, when they go out of business, they'll think twice about putting advertising in video games.
Apparently, the only reason they're considering this insanity is because video games are now in the mainstream. That's all the more reason to hope for a crash, I say. It'll flush out the idiots who buy games with a cheesy license attached and leave us with companies and players who are more interested in the quality of the games themselves.
JR
Pantechnicon
08-14-2003, 02:58 PM
As I understand it, this company means to insert ads into video games, not to develop new video game related products or product related video games.
I think that this is going to happen whether gamers like it or not, and it will just become accepted that games have ads in them the same way people accept ads on TV and radio.
Uh-oh... I sure hope not.
I have no problems with commercials on TV and radio. TV and radio offer free programming. The commercials balance out the "can't get somethin' for nothin'" conundrum - shows are free, but you get interrupted every so often with offers to buy some company's burgers or cars.
But I do have problems with, say, movies that show fifteen minutes worth of commercials after you've PAID to see the show. OVERpaid no less. "We'll get to the previews in just second folks, but first a few words from American Express..." Ugh.
Commercials in a game will suck even more. Especially at $50 a pop.
Keir...I sure hope you're wrong. But if you're not, that's one more reason to stick with the classics. Ain't nobody tryin' to sell me no Black Flag when I'm playing Centipede :D
Antics...I'm in complete agreement with you on this. Why would anybody want to pay for advertising bundled in a game is beyond me. I understand the occasional product placement or tie-in. But I think these Play guys might have something more invasive in mind.
I'm actually pretty sensitive about this kind of thing. Everytime I put gas in my car I go nuts when I see the little sign wrapped around the pump nozzle trying to get me to go inside to but Coca-Cola or whatever. Somewhere in some ad agency there's this bright-boy asshole who thought, "Well, they have to look down at the gas nozzle, right? Let's take that half-second to throw an advertisement at them.. :angry: "
Gaming is my escape time from the world. And I'll be damned if I'm going to let these Play guys or like-minded ghouls invade that area of my life.
Kid Fenris
08-14-2003, 03:43 PM
That's all the more reason to hope for a crash, I say. It'll flush out the idiots who buy games with a cheesy license attached and leave us with companies and players who are more interested in the quality of the games themselves.
JR
Yes, and it'll also kill the less-than-profitable niche genres, encourage companies to stick with tired, dependable properties, reduce the number of Japanese games to be localized, and force smaller developers to disband. Woo hoo! I can't wait!
WiseSalesman
08-14-2003, 03:56 PM
Your argument is flawed in one substantial area: network tv and am/fm radio are FREE, something video games are NOT.
Ever watch cable? Sci-Fi, Fx, TechTV, AMC, et al. are all channels that one must pay for basic or digital cable to enjoy, yet they are all LITTERED with commercials. That's one of the reasons I don't watch TV anymore (the other reason being the utter lack of quality programming).
Arcade Antics
08-14-2003, 04:10 PM
Your argument is flawed in one substantial area: network tv and am/fm radio are FREE, something video games are NOT.
Ever watch cable? Sci-Fi, Fx, TechTV, AMC, et al. are all channels that one must pay for basic or digital cable to enjoy, yet they are all LITTERED with commercials. That's one of the reasons I don't watch TV anymore (the other reason being the utter lack of quality programming).
But with cable, you're not paying for the shows. You're paying for the cable service and maintenance.
ManekiNeko
08-14-2003, 05:18 PM
"Yes, and it'll also kill the less-than-profitable niche genres, encourage companies to stick with tired, dependable properties, reduce the number of Japanese games to be localized, and force smaller developers to disband. Woo hoo! I can't wait!"
Thanks for the sarcasm, but I think the crash of 1984 and subsequent rebirth of the video game industry some years later was the best thing that happened to it. The crash hardly squashed innovation... if anything, Nintendo's revival of the market completely changed the face of gaming as we know it. It might be time for that to happen again.
JR
ubikuberalles
08-14-2003, 11:04 PM
I think the irony here is too hilarious to ignore! First we have movies with product placement (Atari billboards on movies like Blade Runner). Now we are going to have video games (by Atari maybe?) that'll have product placement for movies like Blade Runner! Talk about a Philip K. Dick universe where you don't know which is real! The ads don't have to be intrusive (like in a splash screen or intro to the game) but could be nothing more than product placement in the play of the game. I can imagine a version of Grand Theft Auto where you see a truck drive by that has a Coca Cola ad painted on the side.
Now if I buy a game and the ad placement is intrusive then I'm going to return the game. Too annoying. However, if it's product placement and it's subtle, I might not even notice that the ads were even there.
So I think it boils down to how good these guys are in putting the ads in the games. If they do a poor job then people are not going to play the games and they'll fail miserably. But, they may suceed if they do a good job of placing the ads to the point that we don't notice - much.
Then again maybe we'll have Chase the Chuck Wagon released for the X-box. LOL That'll be cool!
Kid Fenris
08-14-2003, 11:42 PM
"Yes, and it'll also kill the less-than-profitable niche genres, encourage companies to stick with tired, dependable properties, reduce the number of Japanese games to be localized, and force smaller developers to disband. Woo hoo! I can't wait!"
Thanks for the sarcasm, but I think the crash of 1984 and subsequent rebirth of the video game industry some years later was the best thing that happened to it. The crash hardly squashed innovation... if anything, Nintendo's revival of the market completely changed the face of gaming as we know it. It might be time for that to happen again.
JR
Yet Nintendo didn't exactly save the gaming world overnight. It took several years for the NES to revive it, and several more years before it became anything other than Nintendo's monopoly. The crash proves beneficial only in hindsight, and it was of little help to the developers it damaged.
Sorry, but I just don't see the value of destroying the game industry in order to save it, if saving it needs. A crash would do more harm than good. It'd be far better if the undesirable trends of today just died off gradually, without taking the industry with them. And if past fads are any indication, they'll do just that.