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a forum for the uses of videogames in advertising, politics, education, and other everyday activities, outside the sphere of entertainment



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Turning the Tables on In-Game Ad Design
April 3, 2007 - by Ian Bogost

Gamasutra has published my latest column, Turning the Tables on In-Game Ad Design. The column takes a new branded edition of Monopoly as an introduction to how designers might consider moderated use of in-game ads design tools rather than just colonizing forces.

In addition to promotion, in-game ads and product placements also have the potential to carry the cultural payload of the brands that mark them. Such inclusion signals a design strategy different from visual authenticity—after all, it doesn’t really matter much whether billboards and sports arenas carry real ads or fake ones. Instead, brands might be used in the service of the authenticity of practice. Brands are built around values, aspirations, experiences, history, and ideas. Consumers make associations with brands when both are put together in particular contexts.

Read the whole thing over at Gamasutra.



Comment from Patrick Dugan on April 3, 2007

I'm with you, as you know, and have been thinking along these lines for interactive drama. The big question is, can you subvert a brand to serve a design and still have that placement generate revenue?

Obviously, its not a yes or no answer, and my hope is that more blatant anti-advergames will pave the way for balanced stuff that walks the line between drawing positive attention to brands and using them as cigarette ash supporting the crack rock of content on the perforated beer can of whatever the drama engine is.

Damn, that crack analogy is really useful.


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