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• Where's the In-game Advertising?

  Reuters reports that marketing types aren't quite as enthusiastic about the prospects of in-game advertising as they have been in the past. This new marketing channel has been hyped for over a decade now, but it's shown little growth, certainly not the explosion that was predicted around the time that Munch started drinking SoBe.  Read More... Posted Dec 05 2008, 06:26 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: guitar hero, cole stryker, advertising, sports, oddworld

• The "Bike Hero" Viral Video is a Fake...But Should You Love It Any Less?

  For a brief and beautiful 24 hours, a guy on a bike gave us a reason to keep living. It's since been revealed that the Bike Hero is a fake; he is not in fact a Guitar Hero/physical fitness guru who's come to Earth to show us all the way. Instead, he's a viral creation of an ad agency called Droga5. But Gamecyte asks us: should that matter? If a company produces a legitimately awesome piece of art in the vein of user generated content, does its less-than-humble origin detract from its value? Are any of you angry or disappointed that there isn’t really a part-time McDonalds employee and his friends behind the production — or perhaps that Droga5 tried to make you think that there were? I am personally at peace with Droga5. I think a little piece of my heart knew the Bike Hero did not actually exist in this paranoid era. Really, if Old Man Macphearson saw a bunch of punk teenagers applying giant coloured tiddlywinks to the suburban sidewalk and street, what would stop him from calling the cops? And what would stop the police from busting up the project? Looking at it rationally (boo, hiss), turning a neighbourhood into a giant Guitar Hero song would be a dangerous endevour. Drivers and pedestrians would be distracted and confused and someone might end up as pate at the end of it all. Read More... Posted Nov 20 2008, 05:42 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: guitar hero, advertising, nadia oxford, meme, viral video, dupe, bike hero

• WTFriday: Play it Loud

  Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week. Once upon a time, video games weren't cool; sure, everybody played them, but from the Nintendo era until the mid-90s, they were regarded as toys for children, manchildren, and the unemployable. But with the debut of the Playstation, Sony changed all that; suddenly, video games were remade as this hip, new product that fit in well with all of the flannel and alterna-rock that dotted the landscape of our country like so many Taco Bell wrappers.  It was around this time that Nintendo began to look significantly less cool--and some would say they never regained their cred until the recent wave of Wii-mania.  So how would Nintendo try to shape its own image to fit in with whatever those damn kids were into?  Why, the "Play It Loud" campaign, of course. I'm not sure how much good this campaign did for Nintendo, because it certainly ruined the credibility of at least a few games; magazine readers of 1995 may remember the scratch and sniff Earthbound advertisements that did nothing but piss people off--and let's not forget the slogan "this game stinks," built completely around one of Earthbound's minor bosses. Ideas like these had to be fueled by cocaine or at least some mild hallucinogens. Thankfully, everything that was ever aired on TV is now on YouTube, so I can show you Nintendo's tragic mistakes through the power of streaming video. Ain't life grand? Read More... Posted Oct 03 2008, 09:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: nintendo, advertising, retro, bob mackey, wtfriday, 1990s, play it loud

• Street Fighter II in Your Financial Times

  This advertisement is full of win. The puzzling pop culture parody features the world leaders who comprise the G8 all dressed up as Street Fighter II characters. The ad ends with, "For millions of the world's poorest, this is not a game." Har har. Your average gamer is not likely to page through the Financial Times, so most people who see this ad are going to be very confused. Time to get a new brand manager, Avaaz. Read More... Posted Jul 15 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: street fighter, cole stryker, advertising

• In Defense of In-game Advertising

  In-game advertising is nothing new, but it appears that Sony plans to ramp up advertising in their PS3 games. CNET's Don Reisinger thinks this "ruins the experience of playing games". Let's talk about benefits. Pushing in-game advertising will most likely lead to lower game prices. I recently had the pleasure of playing through a new ad-supported downloadable version of Farcry for free. Farcry's a few years old, but putting up with a few interstitial ads during download screens was well worth it. Advertisers want to be as unobtrusive as possible with their advertising. What do I care if Solid Snake knocks over a can of Coke rather than a can of nondescript 'Cola'? He already smokes Luckies. Doesn't this hypothetical instance of advertising make for an even more immersive experience? Same goes for in-game billboard advertising in sports games.  Read More... Posted Jun 05 2008, 12:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: playstation 3, sony, advertising, cnet

• Kotaku Endorses Products Unaware

  Yesterday Kotaku published a post regarding how Figure Prints, a company that creates 3D models of WoW avatars, ran an ad in a comic book with a testimonial from Axel at Kotaku. The compelling testimonial reads, "Wow... I NEED ONE!!!" Problem is, no one who writes for Kotaku goes by the name of Axel. It turns out that the company snagged the gushing prose of one of Kotaku's bleating commenters, attributing the quote to Kotaku.com, where it technically appeared. And the commenters are all slapping Axel on the back with hearty shouts of, "Kotaku commenters FTW!!" Read More... Posted Jun 04 2008, 02:00 PM by Cole Stryker with | with no comments Filed under: kotaku, world of warcraft, advertising, journalism, ethics