Real life ads in a virtual universe

By Anna V.

 

I don’t play a lot of video games.  I can count on one hand the number of games I have played and truly loved.  Beginning with arcade games and moving on to the MMORPG that my friends were playing was the way things progressed, but it was never something that took over all my spare time.  Immersing myself in a video game to relax for a while was fun, and a way to still spend time with my friends. This week’s lecture touched on ads in video games and really made me think about if I had encountered any.  The games I played on my phone may have included ads, but I can't remember what they were for. 

I read a bit further about ads in video games, and found Kevuru Games article about it here: https://kevurugames.com/blog/advertising-in-video-games-how-to-use-it/

It felt strange to think about ads in video games at first.  They seem like they would be out of place because video games are an entirely separate universe filled with new characters, environments, and rules.   Suddenly, you have this familiar thing you have seen countless times in real life. Imagine being in the middle of fighting a dragon, or a zombie…and you see an ad for something you like.  While your brain takes a second to process this familiar image, the dragon/zombie roars for reinforcements, and you’re up to your neck in problems. (The takeaway here is that playing a game in a group of friends can be handy.)

On the other hand, the ads we tend to see while online are increasingly tailored to us and can lead us to products we find useful. 

Have you encountered ads in video games? Which ones were the most memorable?  What impact do you feel they have on gameplay? 

Comments

  1. Samantha MatherneSeptember 23, 2023 at 7:56 PM

    I don't play games much anymore. Currently, my phone holds zero games on it, which strays from years past, but I read a lot more books these days than I did before working at a library. The biggest impact ads had on my during gameplay was forcing me to watch an ad to continue to another level like I think candy crush did at a certain point or watching an ad to get hints for text twist. In this sense, ads can be used as game incentives and encourage users to interact with them to further gameplay. Everyone wins? That's the goal, I assume.

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    Replies
    1. Anna V.September 26, 2023 at 2:37 PM

      I briefly played candy crush and similar games and I remember having to watch an ad to go to the next level in the game. I wonder how much attention people actually give to an ad in this context, when they are just waiting to progress to the next level of the game. If watching the ad leads to a hint for better gameplay, the level of attention might be different. I would be interested to find out more about this. It seems like some would get 'tuned out', but I guess it's still getting the name of the product out there, even if the advertiser doesn't always have the person's full attention.

      Delete
  2. Natalie StansburySeptember 24, 2023 at 11:37 AM

    Also a key takeaway from all of this, including what we saw in this article, is that advertisers really do their research and know what they are doing! And the internet has really made their jobs easier. Between Google's ability to track our searches and share them with advertisers and the psychology of understanding users to create ads that cater to them, there is no avoiding it! They know we can not move on with games without watching the ads. Even Hulu and other entertainment channels have discovered this. What I think bothers me the most is that at least in my old TV watching days there seemed to be more of a variety of ads. Now I feel like I have seen the Poise mermaid ad more than I can tolerate! In games, on Facebook and Instagram, and on TV/movie platforms the same ads seem to play over and over. At least the Superbowl provides some kind of relief!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Samantha MatherneSeptember 24, 2023 at 2:09 PM

      Thanks for mentioning ads in streaming services. With the cost of living constantly rising, more people are opting back in with ad-supported services across the board to save a little money. Even our economy's inflation is helping advertisers, along with, of course, Google Analytics steadily telling companies who should promote their products are services to us across the internet based on our online activity.

      Delete

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