There's also an article on it here.

Quote: According to the survey, heavy gamers are particularly enthusiastic about product integration with more than half (52%) liking games to contain real products, and a huge majority (70%) feeling that real products make a game more "genuine."

I think I've had the same impression of games with ads for real products, but I guess I have problems with the idea of "genuiness" in games. I mean, what's "authentic" about the Powerade machines in Enter the Matrix? They were made after the game (right?) Partly a simulacra-like gesture to the Baudrillardian premise of the first movie, I guess.

Anyway, my point is just that I don't think authenticity is much of a gauge of a game's quality (as the survey implies) except in sports games. Nielsen's research would be more interesting if they divided it into game types. I mean, most of my friends who play the Madden variety of games are rather different from my friends who play Jedi Knight or Halo.

So the fact that 70% of those surveyed apparently wanted authenticity in their games might suggest that most of these are Sports-gamers, and I think (unscientifically, of course) that the brand impressions created in Madden 2004 are pretty much the same as you get from watching a game on TV.

Zach -- initially I was ready to agree with your point about sports games, but I wonder... are we subject to the same phenomenal impressions when working to convert a pass versus just watching someone else do it? Is there a pathology of distance (pace Nietzsche) that makes us more receptive to secondary images in third-person media, or rather less so in first-person media?

That said, I know there are a lot of broadcast-style replays in games like Madden 2004, and I do agree that those probably serve up the same impressions as TV, mostly because they are built purely for mimesis.

I admit I don't often play Sports Games, but it seems that--taking the first-person/third-person route--the advertising still works only in third-person mode whether your playing a game or watching a game.

The act of working out a pass requires concentration, involvement, etc. and any advertising that appears in that will be distracting and work against the possibility of success. Seeing the fruition of ones efforts, then -- creating a successful, seamless sequence--one can relax and enjoy the "smoothness" of the moment in which advertising can again appear unobtrusive or, as the survey suggested, enriching to that "smooth" moment.

Also, most sports gamers I know tend to play in large groups of which only 2 are playing at a time. So most of the people there are still spectators.

Again, I'm not a sports gamer, so some of my resistance to this is territorial. I would hate to see an ad for Corn Pops in Halo, for example.

zach> Also, most sports gamers I know tend to play in large groups of which only 2 are playing at a time. So most of the people there are still spectators.

This is a really good point. I suspect the sports game market is big enough that it alone would justify this opportunity for advertisers.

zach> I would hate to see an ad for Corn Pops in Halo.

I don't think your fear is unfounded. It's probably not Corn Pops, but Red Bull, but still...

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