Scratchpad: Ad Tracking Helps Game Design

"In December, Massive signed THQ in Calabasas Hills, Calif., to its stable. Dave Miller, senior global brand manager at THQ, says although in-game ads promise to be a source of revenue, he and his colleagues are careful to avoid overloading games with ads. To their surprise, they found Massive's ad-tracking system to be a useful design tool. "Because ad units can be tracked immediately, we can determine how many times a character walks past or interacts with an ad," explains Miller. "So if the character is stuck in front of a brick wall with an ad poster on it, we know that the level might be too hard. We now see the ad-tracking system as a way to find ways to improve on a game's design." While THQ can't disclose which forthcoming title will be the first to feature Massive's dynamic ads, Miller says it will debut this year."

Contacts:

• Dave Miller, senior global brand manager at THQ.
• Julie Shumaker, EA's director of video-game ad sales.
• Chicago's Play, a division of media buyer and planner Starcom MediaVest Group, helps match in-game advertisers with developers. Contacts: Tim Harris and PJ MacGregor (press release, June 13, 2003)
  
• Ogilvy Interactive, a division of international agency Ogilvy Worldwide, is currently working with in-game ad companies to research how to best target the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male market.

Reena Jana, Business Week, Jan.25, 2006, "Is That a Video Game -- or an Ad?"

Future: Motion Stimulation Hardware

image source: Post-Gazette, Aug.23, 1998

In 1998, Virtual Motion (the company that later was renamed Adaboy and that patented ad insertion in games) patented MotionWare, a "system uses a scaled-down version of widely-used medical technology to create the sensation of actual movement by stimulating the neurological system" (Gamasutra, 20.01.2000). Apparently, this technology was demoed to game execs, but was found too advanced for its time.

Scratchpad: Speaking In The Appropriate Voice

This article is related to the recommendation for any advertising messages to stay in-character: "When gaming online with Xbox Live (XBL) or with a PC/Mac it’s important to choose the correct “voice” when talking with the online community within your genre." The article looks at how game genres influence players' choice of language.

Scratchpad: Spam in Games

I've already written elsewhere about the inevitability of in-game spam. Here are some supporting links (I'll be adding more as I discover them):

"Mmospam-bots: "Bots" created for the specific purpose of harvesting user data (via 'who is online' or 'what characters to is active on a given server') to then send spam (using the same bot or another bot) via in game messages (aka "tells") and/or via the in game mail system to advertise products for sale for real world currency." (EQ2-Daily)

"There is nothing that will kill the immersion factor of a game faster than an advertisement selling something in real world dollars (this also applies to "code authorities" who advertise real world products or service in a game but that is for another post). The scary part is that this is just now becoming something that is feasible, both financially, and to a point technologically, to companies. The total MMORPG player base has increased exponentially in the last 8 years, with that comes a.) more people playing a certain game (that might have the potential to purchase in game currency using real world cash) and b.) As games get more popular, more people will try to figure out third party APIs to hack the games, thus making the availability of a programming interface to a game more susceptible to scrupulous people trying to write code to create mmospam-bots.

These bots would harvest player information using multiple methods (for EQ2 what comes to mind is just doing /who commands in a zone to see who is online to send tells too, or crawling eq2players.com for an x day period looking for people who have advanced their character and sending them in game mail) and distribute advertisements via communication channels in a game." (EQ2-Daily).


"At 10:33 EST this evening, in World of Warcraft, I received the following 'tell' (direct person-to-person message): 'Adifdkd whispers: Hi, pls visit www.itembay.ca The low Price: $8.99=100G, $16.99=200G $40.99=500G $75.99=1000G. First Come, First Serve.'" (Edward Castranova at Terra Nova).

Flashback: Adaboy Patents Targeted In-Game Ads Method

(image source: Ghost Sites)

US Patent 6036601, filed on Feb. 24, 1999 by William Heckel, the CTO of Adaboy (now gone, read story), approved on March 14, 2000: "Method for advertising over a computer network utilizing virtual environments of games."

Abstract:
A method is provided for advertising within the virtual environments of games. Default images of games are replaced by alternative textures having advertisements implemented therein. An ad server coordinates the matching of ads to demographic data of the game player and properly accommodates ads in formats from game information provided by game sources. The game player is visually influenced by advertisements as he or she views the virtual world of the game, as plug-in software replaces the default images with virtual pictures and figures utilizing an advertisement. View statistics are retrieved from the game player's computer or console to rate viewing effectiveness for ad placement confirmation and billing purposes.

News coverage:
PGTech.org, Oct.2000: "Adaboy Inc. is carefully surveying the competitive landscape, watching for any infringements on its patent on the business method and the technology for scattering ads throughout online computer games. Campbell is convinced he’s cornered what could be a very big market. The number of people playing games on the Internet has jumped from thousands to millions in just a few years, and Adaboy’s technology could create revenue streams that would encourage game developers to produce still more games, and distribute them for free. Campbell has already inked deals with several game providers, and companies including H.J. Heinz Co., General Nutrition Centers, and Stargate Industries LLC are now placing ads via Adaboy. Problem is, Adaboy isn’t the only company taking aim at the gaming market."

Bizjournals.com, Sept.29, 2000: Adaboy Founders Depart Fledgling Sofware Firm


Other Players:
An article published in Clickz in 2000 lists players in the game advertising space: Adaboy (site dead, see archive), Radiate (site dead, see archive), Games Advertising.

Seems like late dot-com years saw the first in-game ads bubble. Questions: do existing in-game companies infringe the patent? Would be interesting to talk to the people who worked at Adaboy (William Heckel (CTO, bill at billheckel.com), Craig Campbell (CEO), Scott Campbell (VP Sales).

News: IAB Adds Game Ad Companies as Members

Interactive Advertising Bureau added IGA Partners as a member (see full list). Massive has been a member already. One of the IAB's objectives is "to organize the industry to set standards and guidelines that make Interactive an easier medium for agencies and marketers to buy and capture value."

To do: find out whether IAB will work towards creating guidelines for in-game ads.

Report: In-Game Advertising Revenues Five Years Away

Game industry market research firm DFC Intelligence issued a report estimating the opportunities of games to capture a share of overall online advertising (see DFC's brief, Game Daily's commentary, Gamasutra's piece). Major points:

• Online games are attracting an increasing amount of consumer time, but they attract a comparatively low rate of advertising spending.


• Product placement in video games has been hyped for years, but the biggest growth in advertising has been with online games, and most specifically casual online games.


• Search ads are not germane to games, so that source of growth has passed games by.


• Games are uniquely unsuited for contextual ads as well. Text can be parsed by computers far easier than game content. At best the targeting is of a certain demographic, such as fans of football games. However, game content is attracting an increasingly diverse audience and therefore game advertising revenue is highly dependent on the growth in display ads.


• It is important to remember that most game consumers still play games offline.


• With a constantly connected system, this audience can be finally be reached by dynamic advertising that reaches the entire connected installed base. This is entirely different from the past where in-game advertising was limited to pre-launch product placement in individual game titles.


• Truly significant revenue from in-game advertising is likely to be five years or more away, just because it will probably take that long to build the installed base and test business models.