PressCoverage
01-06-2006, 08:54 AM
For anyone who loathes corporate advertising, which has finally caught on that people escape to video game consoles and, in turn, are escaping their slave-enducing ad blitz on TV, this was an interesting read.
From an essay by Clayton Dach on Adbusters.org’s year end issue:
The Medium of the Century
With video games shaping up to dominate the entertainment industry for decades to come, it’s not really so crazy for vigilant parents to fret about their broods getting porkified and warped by endless hours of war-mongering button-mashing. Now, thanks to technologies like those being pushed by US advertising company Massive Inc., they can add one more worry to the pile. Massive has been busily convincing developers to insert pre-defined “ad areas” into new games. Every time a network-enabled game console or computer connects to the internet, Massive’s servers off up a fresh round of ads to fill these areas, which can be anything from a billboard on a virtual highway, to a 15-second full-video commercial on an expanse of wall, to a stretch of sponsored dialogue issuing from a character’s mouth. Clients already on board include Coca-Cola, Warner Bros., and…. The US Navy. …
Massive has tried to assuage the misgivings of developers and gamers alike by claiming that actual ads will make game worlds feel more authentic. … In the end, all that will matter is the insatiable logic of the ad industry, its fevered need for self-propagation through sheer volume… And so instead of the elegant, slick, emotional, and insidiously manipulative high-integration advertising we may have been fearing, we are more likely to get the stupid, brutish, obtrusive and profoundly annoying ads we’ve most definitely been dreading.
To the credit of gamers, despite some rather half-assed attempts to convince them that all ad profits will end up back in their pockets, it looks as if the backlash is well underway. This past July, players of law-enforcement game SWAT4 – one of the early adopters of Massive’s system – posted instructions for permanently blocking the ads. Expect players of other games to follow suit.
Mute all commercials.
From an essay by Clayton Dach on Adbusters.org’s year end issue:
The Medium of the Century
With video games shaping up to dominate the entertainment industry for decades to come, it’s not really so crazy for vigilant parents to fret about their broods getting porkified and warped by endless hours of war-mongering button-mashing. Now, thanks to technologies like those being pushed by US advertising company Massive Inc., they can add one more worry to the pile. Massive has been busily convincing developers to insert pre-defined “ad areas” into new games. Every time a network-enabled game console or computer connects to the internet, Massive’s servers off up a fresh round of ads to fill these areas, which can be anything from a billboard on a virtual highway, to a 15-second full-video commercial on an expanse of wall, to a stretch of sponsored dialogue issuing from a character’s mouth. Clients already on board include Coca-Cola, Warner Bros., and…. The US Navy. …
Massive has tried to assuage the misgivings of developers and gamers alike by claiming that actual ads will make game worlds feel more authentic. … In the end, all that will matter is the insatiable logic of the ad industry, its fevered need for self-propagation through sheer volume… And so instead of the elegant, slick, emotional, and insidiously manipulative high-integration advertising we may have been fearing, we are more likely to get the stupid, brutish, obtrusive and profoundly annoying ads we’ve most definitely been dreading.
To the credit of gamers, despite some rather half-assed attempts to convince them that all ad profits will end up back in their pockets, it looks as if the backlash is well underway. This past July, players of law-enforcement game SWAT4 – one of the early adopters of Massive’s system – posted instructions for permanently blocking the ads. Expect players of other games to follow suit.
Mute all commercials.