Uploaded Text: Introduction - 1.The War

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"The war is on, and we are losing it. And this is one war we don’t even need to be fighting.

We love our audience, but it is only our fault if no one can tell. Instead of being a gentle and loyal lover, a prince charming always ready to help, never a nuisance, we collectively act like a paranoid stalker, obsessively collecting and fetishizing every little thing our audience leaves behind. We call our audience at nights and breathe heavily into the phone, or read a sloppily written script."

Uploaded Text: Thesis Proposal

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"This paper is designed to address the latter problem by compiling, arranging and analyzing the existing body of academic and industry knowledge to distill a set of guidelines for advertising in computer games. The main question it seeks to answer is how to design and place in-game advertising in a way that would recognize and respect the limitations of the medium while taking advantage of the unique opportunities it offers."

Scratchpad: Washington Post on In-Game Advertising

image: Washington Post / Electronic Arts

Mike Musgrove, "Advertisers Are Getting Into the Game", Washington Post, Thursday, March 2, 2006; Page D01.

Highlights:

"The '80s-era Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles once promoted a pizza chain in an arcade game."

"Sometimes, game fans embrace marketing if it's entertainingly weird. In EA's new boxing game, Fight Night Round 3, the Burger King mascot -- the retro one with the oversized head and the burgundy robes -- becomes part of a player's in-game entourage if players complete a side-mission challenge. On game Web sites, some fans have posted comments that the feature makes them more likely to pick up the game."

"Julie Shumaker, director of in-game advertising at EA, said she wasn't worried that players would react negatively to the Burger King placement in Fight Night. "We knew it was so over-the-top that the consumer would get it," she said. "It worked because we didn't pretend that it wasn't an ad." EA will put some form of advertising or product placement in about a third of its games this year, she said."

"In the upcoming Burnout Revenge, players will be able to drive and crash a delivery truck for the Carl's Jr. burger chain. But most advertisers are too squeamish to see their logos in a fiery crash. Need for Speed players can crash through a generic doughnut shop, but they can't crash through a Burger King."

"Massive can broadcast ads based on where players are located."

"Massive chief executive Mitch Davis said he got the idea for the company while playing a Grand Theft Auto title years ago. He saw a store that was a parody of the Gap and he thought it would be cooler if the game's Vice City had real companies lining the streets instead of the game's satiric, Mad Magazine alternatives."

People:

• Monika Madrid, director of strategic sales and partnerships at Ubisoft.
• Michael Dowling, general manager of Nielsen Interactive Entertainment.
• Dave Anderson, senior director of business management at Activision.

Illustrations: Fight Night Round 3
Source: GameSpot










Update [April 14, 2006]: More reactions to ad placements on Fight Night Round 3:
"I find deporable is how they put the freakin' car right next to the ringside and the laser lights in the background are projecting Dodge logos on the audience. I don't think I've seen either of these at any sports venues."
-- GC_Chi on GameCritics.com forum

In Fight Night Rd. 3 (EA) you can "hire" the Burger King as your fighter's cornerman (he gives your stat ratings a heart boost, making it easier to get up from knockdowns). And every time I put an opponent on the canvas, the announcer tells me that this particular knockdown is "brought to you by Dodge."
-- GC_Scott on Gamecritics.com forum

Scratchpad: Social Networking Applications for Virtual Worlds

Two blog posts in one day about virtual worlds being ripe for the social networking applications: Csven's on Linked-In avatars and Wonderland's on MySpace-like MyMMOG. The wish list so far:

• A LinkedIn group for avatars or have "Second Life" as a choice of country.
• SMS (text messaging) to avatar inboxes
• In-world browser (EVE seems to have one, SL is working on theirs)
  
• Inter-world instant messaging
• Virtual world to real world instant messaging (Pearbook is working on it)
• One from me: a Craigslist section for virtual worlds.

News: World of Warcraft Hits Six Million Subscribers

"World of Warcraft's European customer base is currently at more than 1 million players, with the worldwide total now at more than 6 million players."
-- press release, Feb. 28, 2006

Second Life: Celebrity Avatars

The recent in-game U2 fan concert and the discussion on the SL forums prompted me to look for other celebrity-based avatars, and it turns there's quite a supply and a growing range of available designs. IP issues aside, building and making available avatars based on a media property seems like an intriguing way to encourage fan involvement and ultimately to promote the real-world media product and the associated merchandise. The avatars could also be scripted to deliver automated in-game performances in 3D, a more interesting way to promote, say, a movie than running trailers on the in-game TVs. A virtual Michael Jordan could walk door to door peddling virtual Nike shoes (a hypothetical scenario, of course).

The big question, of course, is whether and how to control the use of the avatars in what is a very flexible and often risque environment. What happens if a player wearing the Pippi Longstocking or Hermione Granger avatar decides to pursue a career of an escort or an exotic dancer? (See a story about Mattel suing an artist behind Barbie erotica.)

UPDATE: Csven asks more questions on his blog.

I found three different stores devoted nearly exclusively to skins, body parts and costumes designed after real and fictional celebrities, although my search wasn't exhaustive. There are also a few places that sell celeb avatars as part of an unrelated line-up, such as the shop that sold me the Stewie Griffin's likeness for 50$L (~$0.18) but that also carried other fan parafernalia (the MIT shirt is my first stab at creating clothes in SL). Some of these businesses offered custom designs. Many avatars also come equipped with a set of sounds and appropriate movie quotes.


Not all avatars bear close resemblance to their real-world counterparts.



You can choose to be the glamorous but civilian version of Johnny Depp...


... or a pirate one.


For 300-800$L (~$1-3) each, you can buy famous stand-alone personalities...


... or entire casts from movies...


... or even cartoons.



If you don't want to be a Harry Potter for the rest of your virtual life, you can rent the outfit for a period of time at a fraction of the cost.

News: Study Shows Long-Term Interest in In-Game Ads

Nich Maragos, "Study Shows In-Game Advertising Long-Term Bet", Gamasutra.com, Feb. 27, 2006

"[MarketingSherpa's] January survey of marketers showed that only 10% of respondents planned to spend on product placements within video games during the next twelve months, the lowest response compared to other new forms of advertising such as ads on RSS feeds (40%), blog networks (30%), and sponsoring podcasts (14%).

However, when asked which advertising schemes the marketers planned on investing in more than a year out, in-game advertising gained the biggest response, with 36% of respondents saying they intend to do placement within the games."