Wake up and smell the Nescafé. There's a revolution at our door. And about time too.
We all know the clichés: gaming is big and getting bigger; gaming accounts for a significant proportion of the disposable income of a significant number of people; gamers are a consumer group to be reckoned with. And it's all true.
So it stands to reason that the owners of the world's leading brands view gaming as the next 'big thing'. The subtle product placement we've already seen is just the tip of the iceberg - when they really get going the face of gaming will never be the same again. And it will be all the better for it.
For starters, a large, albeit misguided, portion of the world still sees us as obese, socially inept, light-averse objects of pity. If global brands take an interest, even endorse gaming through sponsorship and promotional tie-ins, gaming will instantly take an enormous stride towards mainstream credibility.
It will be pushed centre stage and the average non-gaming Joe will, at last, begin to understand what it's really all about. After all, the likes of Nike and Coca Cola wouldn't back a small and niche pastime, would they? So it stands to reason - gaming must be big, and it must be cool.
Also, games will become better. Product placement could lead to character development (Lara Croft becomes a Smirnoff-swilling alcoholic), attract girl gamers (Gordon Freeman becomes an Armani-clad snappy dresser), and encourage more imaginative levels (Sam Fisher shoots it out in a Heinz factory with baddies falling into giant vats of baked beans).
Gaming will also become cheaper. Big brands would willingly subsidise our passion through promotional tie-ups with the big publishers: gamers buy brand X and use on-pack codes to redeem vouchers for cheaper - or even free - games.
Games publishers ship more units and gain exposure in otherwise inaccessible locations (high street shops with no other gaming presence, small newsagents and corner shops, supermarket food aisles etc). Big brands get to shift more units while gaining some rub-off from gaming's cool. We get cheaper games. Everyone's a winner.
Better yet, global brands have marketing budgets that the biggest games publishers can only dream of, so the brand owners are in a position to provide us with gaming experiences we could never otherwise realise.
Imagine a mass gaming party in one of London's parks with 100,000-plus gamers all playing simultaneously, out and proud, in the sunshine and in public, epic battles played out on super-sized screens, with tomorrow's technology and software today - all while being plied with freebies by the sponsors.
And the good news is that this is not just a pipe-dream. It's waiting to happen. The global brand owners are simply waiting for the green light from us, the gaming community. They need to be assured that they'll get a warm reception, and provided they play by our rules why shouldn't they?
So what are we waiting for? We should be grateful to the Carlsbergs, Nikes & General Motors of this world for their interest, not rail against their perceived 'intrusion'. We don't own gaming, after all. Nobody does. Yet.
you endure adverts in TV because the Broadcasters need the revenue to pay for their existence.
you don't suffer adverts in purchased DVD movies which are what? 12quid on average?
so why should we have in game sponsorship and advertisement in a product that we pay for that costs between 30-40quid on average?
i and many many others would most probably ONLY be willing to suffer adverts within games as long as their revenue they're giving to the developer / publisher is directly passed onto the consumer with lower priced products. and even then, i don't want to see Tampax adverts in the middle of a bloody FPS battle of Unreal Torunament
Gaming is all about escaping from the world around us....getting away from the constant 'humdrum' of reality, and immersing ourselves in a world that is free from mundane normality. Advertising is everywhere....brainwashing us into buying the newest latest product...and brainwashing is exactly what it is - greedy corporate leeches sucking copious amounts of money from the debilitated hide of society - tempting, seducing and misinforming us into parting with our hard earned money for stuff we don't need! Advertisers are like a cancer spreading across all aspects of our lives....our gaming world is the only safe place, the only place free from their disease. Let's keep gaming separate from our reality....an escape from our everyday lives!
you don't suffer adverts in purchased DVD movies which are what? 12quid on average?
Yes you do. Anti-piracy messages and trailers for other films by the same company often appear. And tampax ads in UT? Why do you think that would happen? Like Gillette ads during breaks in the football, and shampoo ads during Friends breaks, these things are targeted.
I think gamers protest too much out of sheer reflex. I remember the furore about Hellgate: London's poster ads. "Seeing ads will break the realism, even if they are faded, battered and old looking!" people shouted, before cooing "Ooh, look! They're showing posters of biggest guilds/richest players. Cool!" (Mind you, I think terms like "immersion" and "realism" are overrated in gaming anyway).
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
