Download Technical Design Assignment 1

Critical Game Analysis - Assignment 3
Advergaming:
Buckle In For a New Era
Rick Davidson - GD02
[email protected]
Critical Game Analysis Assignment 3
13 August 2005
Advergaming - Rick Davidson
1. Introduction
Let us commence by indulging in a spot of philosophical fantasizing (whilst no one is
watching). For the sake of edutainment, let’s say that as of today you have been
awarded the newly created position of Emperor of all Game Designers. This is more
than a token position as it comes with the responsibility of making decisions about
issues that are debated within the development community and instructing your
followers on the right way to advance the gaming industry. Tomorrow you will be asked
to proclaim a number of personal stances. One such stance will relate to your opinion
on how, if at all, the relationship between product advertising and game development –
an area you know as Advergaming – should work. This topic must be concluded by
tomorrow as you are booked solid all next week for Grand Theft Auto-related
discussions.
Priding yourself on being a well-informed and considered Emperor you will listen to the
input of a number of your advisors. Perhaps you will be persuaded by those amongst
your disciples who argue that games must remain pure, that they are entertainment first
and foremost and shall not be tainted by the greedy marketer’s advertising budget.
They would tell you that advertising does not belong in games. Conversely you may be
swayed by other factions that press upon you how Advergaming represents great
opportunities to bolster your treasury. Others may attract your attention with their
complaints that Advergaming to date has mostly been implemented in a crude and
inappropriate manner, ruining an opportunity before it gets started.
Before declaring your opinion and recommendations you will ask your minions to
document the thoughts of leading intellectuals, to outline the situation as it stands today
and to theorize over the way in which the game development industry can effectively
use Advergaming for good and not evil. As Emperor you would have access to the
information presented in the following pages.
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2. What Is Advergaming?
At its broadest, Advergaming refers to the practice of using games, particularly
video games, to advertise or promote a product, organization or viewpoint1. At first
glance one might be forgiven for thinking that Advergaming is no more than in-game
product placement or cheesy Flash games with some token logos slapped on. There is
more to Advergaming, however, than this account represents.
A number of industry professionals have categorized the various stypes of Advergaming
in different ways. In an interview in Mobile Entertainment magazine, Ashu Mathura, the
MD of Overload Games outlined three methods for implementing Advergaming in a
mobile context:
•
Games which create awareness for a brand;
•
Games which introduce a new product or service that consumers can
interact directly with; and
•
Games which allow a product to be placed inside an existing game.
A different form of categorization is given by Patrick Gardner2 when considering
Advergaming effort and creativeness in a PC context. In his Gamasutra article, Gardner
said that games intended to market something fall into two camps – giveaways and
integral games. Giveaways, he posits, are the interactive equivalent of the oldfashioned yo-yo with a company logo on it. He suggests that up to 99% of all
“marketing games” are giveaways.
The more stimulating of the two game types, integral games, are built around the
premise of the dual objectives of being both fun and delivering a targeted and effective
marketing message. In many cases, the message is the game.
1
2
Absolute Astronomy Encyclopedia
Games with a Day Job, Gamasutra. June 2001.
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Gardner gives the example of Ericsson’s Ground Zero game as an example of a well
executed “integral” game. In Ground Zero, the player uses an Ericsson mobile
telephone loaded with mobile Internet tools to compete in a futuristic citywide scavenger
hunt. With only their phone to help them they must follow three clues to learn the secret
location of Ground Zero. The game integrates the purpose of the game with the product
in a way that is natural and logical – the definition of successful Advergame
development.
In a Gamasutra article by Nich Maragos, Ian Bogost from the Watercooler Games site
outlines four ways in which a company can make a connection between its brand and a
video game3. Each of these options will come with a different price tag, timeline,
creative input and effort required on the part of the product’s marketing team.
1. Standard main-stream video games as a platform for advertising or product
placement (eg. The Sims, Tony Hawk, SSX3, Pikmin 2, Super Monkey Ball).
Big titles bring high levels of
exposure for products.
3
This information comes via Nick Maragos’ August 2005 Gamasutra article but is also reiterated
in part at www.watercoolergames.com.
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2. Games that are part of a larger cross-media strategy (eg. Spiderman 2);
More than just a licensed product, the release of the
Spiderman 2 game was part of a cross-media campaign.
3. Custom-built Advergames (eg. America’s Army, McDonald’s delivery, White House
Joust); and
Custom-built Advergames are used for a range of
purposes from promoting products, recruiting new
cadets and delivery political commentary.
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4. Games that participate in advertising but don’t really participate (eg. Pepsi-branded
Nintendo DS).
Logically, “brought to you by…” sponsorship would fall into the final category. In this
case a more traditional style of advertising such as pre- or post-game credits, banner
advertising or “a word from our sponsors” style advertisements help fund the game but
have no relevance or impact upon the game experience itself.
Also falling into the final category is the Pizza Hut – EverQuest II example. Sony
recently struck a deal which allows EverQuest II role-playing gamers to order from Pizza
Hut by simply typing “/pizza”4. This drives the EverQuest engine to open up a browser
window where gamers can order their favorite snack. This relationship may be an
indicator of a future which contains not just product placement but interactive product
purchasing and delivery.
Out-of-game sponsorship is an easy way for
marketers to link their brand with a game.
Bogost further differentiates games used for advertising by stating that they can have
one of two types of relationship with the game itself – demonstrative or associative.
4
From “R-U-Game” by Joyce Schwarz, March, 2005.
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Demonstrative relationships are those in which the game provides direct information
and reveals the use of a product or service. Associative games provide indirect
information and correlate the product with an activity or lifestyle. The latter, he argues,
represent a major trap in which the logical relation between product and game is not
considered as fully as it should be with an unappealing game being the result.
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3. Why Advergaming? Why Advertising?
The purpose of the current discussion is not to expound the merits and virtues of
advertising. The fact that advertising is a good thing for a product shall be considered a
given. The reason for advertising, however, is potentially misunderstood by many
outside of the advertising and marketing industries. To the layperson the purpose of
advertising is to sell more product. This is mostly correct but it over-simplifies and
under-represents the purpose of advertising.
To fully appreciate Advergaming it is useful to consider the benefits of advertising. It is
quite logical that creating awareness for a brand or product will help sway a consumer
when he or she is at the point of purchase (LeClaire, 2002). If a person has recently
seen a bus stop with a large picture of a particular chocolate bar they are more likely to
select that particular product as a snack. On top of this, they are more likely to choose
a chocolate bar over a bag of chips and even more likely to stop for a chocolate bar
than heading home and waiting for dinner.
The value of brand building is less understood than awareness-purchase association.
Many critiques of Advergaming identify problems in this area. The problem is that game
designers don’t understand brand management and at the same time brand managers
don’t understand game design5. Designers of Advergames who do understand both
worlds are creating well executed games whilst those who do not, one can argue, are
making a mess (for example, the questionable BlizzardBlast game found on the Pepsi
website which uses the “get the Pepsi to get points” approach)6.
5
6
Maragos, 2005.
http://pepsi.com/pepsi_cafe/games/blizzard.php
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Pepsi BlizzardBlast – not much fun for anyone over the age of 5.
The true value in Advergaming is its ability to create greater brand equity because of the
intensity of the relationship between consumer (gamer) and brand. Brand equity refers
to how much your “brand” is worth, not in the value of sales but in the pulling power of
your brand’s symbols, name, imagery and associations (Temporal, 2002). The concept
of brand equity is easily summed up by considering the ability of something as simple
as the Nike swoosh to influence the thoughts, opinions and behaviors of consumers
because of its long legacy and associations.
Paul Temporal (2002)7 touches on a number of the intangible aspects associated with a
brand’s equity including:
7
•
Price premium – the willingness to pay more for your brand;
•
Satisfaction and loyalty – continuing to purchase over time;
From his book Advanced Brand Management.
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•
Perceived brand personality – for example, owning a personality trait such
as “refreshing” can be critical to a beverage’s success;
•
Mental associations – perceptions of trust and reliability are better than
perceptions of cheapness;
•
Brand recognition – how easily you can remind consumers of your brand.
McDonald’s is an excellent example of a product with very strong brand equity. Upon
seeing the golden arches many consumers are reminded of happy experiences,
reliability and generally positive imagery. Far fewer individuals would have this same
reaction upon seeing a local café whilst out for a stroll.
The trap that many fall into is attempting to quantify brand equity in monetary terms. It
is difficult to put a number against the Nike swoosh and compare that to the number for
the Adidas stripes. It should be clear, though, that each is powerful and worth an
enormous amount of money.
Ashu Mathura in his role of mobile phone game developer argues that the strength of
Advergaming over contemporary advertising methods (for example, radio, television,
and the internet) is the level of interaction between player and product. A viewer
watching television is passive; however when playing a gamer the player is active. This
active behavior creates stronger ownership over the brand by the consumers. In
addition, Mathura states that Advergames (in the mobile context) pull in consumers as
opposed to mass marketing, which is pushed and force-fed onto the consumer.
During a recent Advertising in Games conference8, Yankee Group representative
Michael Goodman cited Radio Shack’s Zip Zap game as an example of the power of
Advergaming in influencing consumer sentiment. The game, as cited by Jim Ostroff
(2004), cost around $300,000 to develop three iterations and reached the same number
of customers that would have required a television budget of several million dollars. Of
8
Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh in his August 2005 Gamasutra article.
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those who played the game, the conversion ratio was drastically larger than a television
campaign, resulting in a fifty-percent purchase rate for those who played the game with
more than a quarter of all buyers citing the game as a significant influence on their
purchasing decisions9.
Zip Zap helped Radio
Shack sell their remote
control cars.
The Zip Zap game10 involves players racing representations of a real remote control car
and successfully creates the feeling that the real-life experience of racing the cars would
be even more enjoyable. The relationship between player and product in this instance
is strong and positive.
9
These figures are from Jim Ostroff’s Kiplinger Business Forecasts article.
The Zip Zap game can be found at http://www.funnygames.nl/spelletjes/2012.html.
10
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Although the focus of the current discussion is predominantly on advertising of products,
Advergaming is also finding momentum as a vehicle for social debate and political
satire. Kewl Games11 has developed a funny political game which uses the mechanic of
Joust to allow the player to control either George Bush or John Kerry. Because of the
level of interaction the potential to leave a lasting political or social message is quite
strong.
White House Joust – a good example of interactive political satire.
11
http://www.kewlbox.com/.
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Market Value / Statistics
The previous section helps support marketers in the decision to use games as an
advertising vehicle, but what is the motivation for game developers to enter the realm of
Advergaming? The most obvious answer is money. By transferring the responsibility of
payment from the consumer to the company developers have the ability to tap into new
and exciting revenue streams.
In an article this month discussing the marketing giant Coca Cola12, Ian Bogost states
that the annual spend for Coke on its advertising and marketing is upwards of 1.5 billion
dollars. This same level of spending would be comparable to many of the global FMCG
(Fast Moving Consumer Goods) leaders and helps paint the picture of an extraordinarily
large pie from which Advergaming can cut a slice.
Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh13 cites some interesting and up-to-date statistics garnered from
industry professionals. Amongst these numbers is the prediction that video game
marketing would increase from last year’s $118 million to $1.05 billion within five years.
Other statistics challenge these predictions but all agree that the growth will be large
and rapid. One can be quite confident that if progressive multi-national companies such
as McDonald’s, Adidas and Suzuki are using Advergames as a key element of their
campaigns then trend-followers will not be far behind.
An example of a trend-setter, and an encouraging sign that Advergaming is not just for
the advertising juggernauts, is that of The Boiler Game, developed for UK energy
company Powergen14. Gonzalo Frasca15 lists The Boiler Game (a simple 2D platformer
with a similar feel to that of an early Mario title) as an example of a brand recognition
creation tool that is simple, fun and a good example of the potential of Advergames.
12
Sugar Water Games, August 2005.
Waugh’s articles is discussing points raised by speakers at the Advertising in Games
conference, August 2005.
14
The Boiler Game can be played at http://www.oldestboiler.co.uk/game/game.htm.
15
Gonzalo Frasco is one of the contributors at the Watercooler Games website.
13
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The rise of Advergaming coincides directly with the decline of television viewing and
the associated ineffectiveness of television advertising. It is popular sentiment that
video games are replacing television as the leisure activity of choice for today’s youth16.
Citing Nielsen ratings, at the end of last year Jim Ostroff17 stated that TV viewership
amongst 18- to 24-year old males dropped by 7%, which was attributed to an increase
in video game playing. Considering that an individual will play a game for many hours
with full concentration you can see why advertisers are considering moving part of the
budget to explore Advergaming.
The need has arisen to quantify the benefit of in-game advertising so that developers
and publishers can charge accordingly. AC Nielsen is in the process of developing a
ratings system similar to that of its television viewing ratings. The rationale behind the
ratings is to convert the time that a gamer plays a title (and therefore has opportunities
to see advertising) into an hour points value.
Whilst the rating system promises to be incredibly valuable for developers, the industry
is still lacking hard data on the impact on brand equity and imagery of playing a game
compared with watching an advertisement. If examples such as Radio Shack’s Zip Zap
game are to believed, game developers are in a position to charge advertisers more per
viewing than television because of the high conversion rate and stronger opportunity for
relationship building with consumers. At the same time, however, advertisers will need
to see that Advergaming is a safe alternative to the tried and tested media they are
accustomed to using.
A number of companies are beginning to emerge with the mission of facilitating the
relationship between developers / publishers and marketers (a few examples include
WildTangent, Massive and IGN). The Massive Network makes the claim to publishers
and developers on its website that:
16
Amongst many others to make this claim, Alex St. John of WildTangent recently made this
point at the Casual Games Conference as quoted by Gamespot.
17
As part of Kiplinger Business Forecasts, December 2004.
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“By aggregating the largest audience of gamers and providing real time delivery
of advertising across top-selling video games, we can provide publishers and
developers $1–$2 profit per unit shipped for their titles.”
For very little extra effort on the part of developers and publishers this represents a
tangible and valuable addition to revenue. The well known game site, IGN.com
provides a similar service to advertisers and publishers as well as the additional benefit
of providing backend technology (built on the GameSpy infrastructure) which tracks
impressions, time spent viewing items and type of each interaction in order to provide
feedback on the efficacy of product placement18. Because of the infancy of this line of
revenue many publishers still only see it as the cream on top as opposed to a
mechanism for offsetting development costs19. If popular sentiment is to be believed
this attitude may change as the value of advertising contributions increases –
development funding may come less from publishers and more from advertisers. In
many regards this is a good thing for independent game developers.
Negative consumer sentiment, however, is already starting to bubble. By placing
advertising within games (not just in-game product placement but actual in-game
advertising) Massive has ruffled many feathers20. Although gamers are not yet revolting
in the streets it is only a matter of time before someone oversteps the mark and causes
a wide scale boycott of a game. For many people the philosophy is: if you pay for it,
you shouldn’t have to be exposed to advertising.
18
From an article by Kevin Hawkins, posted on GameDev.net, April 2005.
In his XXX 2005 Gamasutra article, BBBB writes that Julie Shumaker of EA states that in-game
advertising revenues for EA are currently around $30 million. This she comments does not
represent an amount that is sizeable enough to offset development costs but instead is purely
seen as profit generating.
20
Ian Bogost of the Watercooler Games web site is one commentator who has questioned
Massive’s lack of subtlety.
19
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4. Design Issues, Problems and Rules
As with most new fields of marketing and communication consumers will be drawn to
efforts by companies simply out of curiosity. Eric-Jon Rössel Waugh (2005) cites an
example of in-game advertising within Anarchy Online organized by placement
specialists Massive in which players have been observed loitering around and
discussing the advertising. Overwhelming anecdotal sentiment indicates that all the low
hanging fruit has already been well and truly picked with gamers becoming more
skeptical about advertising trickery. A scan through the debate on Advergaming-related
websites shows many postings by gamers who claim that they would “never play a
game which had in-game advertisements”.
The most common complaint within the industry is how the relationship between brand
and game is completely ignored with generic, sloppy and boring games created by
slapping a company logo on top of an existing arcade game (Waugh, 2005). As
previously mentioned, Ian Bogost separates Advergames based on whether they are
demonstrative or associative. It is the associative games, he argues, which are poorly
designed with the thought process going something along the lines of “we want to get
young kids; young kids like sports; extreme sports are cool; let's make a snowboard
game.” This, he asserts, is the reason for the glut of diluted snowboarding games.
A quick spin around the internet will illustrate that the world of poorly designed,
implemented or budgeted Advergames is vast. For the most part the best word to
describe these games is boring! A number of games (such as the aforementioned
Pepsi snowflake game) use single screen Flash games with repetitive avoidance or
collection mechanics. Other games such as those by beer company Pilsner Urquell are
blatant clones of tired classics such as Tetris, Space Invaders and Pacman. These
games look and feel as if they cost very little money to produce.
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A Space Invaders clone by Pilsner Urquell.
This is particularly the case when purpose-built Advergames are held up against a
professionally developed multi-million dollar console game. The consumer doesn’t care
about the cost of development when turning their nose up at a poorly developed Flash
game.
Easily the biggest complaint for Advergames is clumsy use of branding. The tactics that
work for television commercials aren’t necessarily the same ones that work for games.
For example, it is logical to have the star of a TV commercial drink the can of [insert
product here], grow powerful and win the day. When this same tactic is used within
games it looks clumsy and shallow. This is possibly due to the popular perception of
each media. Most consumers would agree that the purpose of commercials is to
advertise and inform, however, very few would agree that this is the purpose of a video
game.
Poorly conceived Advergames have the potential to make consumers cynical even
before the industry has a chance to establish itself. Likewise, poorly executed
campaigns have the potential to leave a bad taste in the mouth of advertisers, making
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them wary of future investment. The underlying message is that although marketers are
new to this avenue of advertising, consumers are not new to gaming and have had
many years to foster a healthy cynicism towards big businesses. The industry is taking
note that rules, norms and guidelines are required to protect future opportunities with
the establishment of organizations such as Interactive Advertising Bureau21.
Similarly, the overflowing marketing sections of libraries and book stores could use a
few no-nonsense books that outline a few of the dos and don’ts on developing an
Advergame. The opportunities for budding game designers will bloom exponentially as
the demand for higher quality and more strategically designed games increases.
21
Interactive Advertising Bureau can be found at www.iab.net.
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5. Recipe For Success
After considering what is being done poorly, all good Emperors should familiarize
themselves with how to fix these problems. Below are some key suggestions for game
developers and publishers who are interested in making Advergames. The list draws
upon industry sentiment and published research but is mostly based upon this author’s
ideas and opinion.
•
Make sure the relationship between brand and game is relevant. The
objectives, mechanics, visuals and tone of the game should match the
brand’s target imagery and user profile.
•
Make the branding subtle. A game, unlike a television commercial, is
played by a captive audience therefore there is no need to bombard the
player with constant references to the brand.
•
Where possible avoid working with advertising agencies and deal directly
with brand managers (Maragos, 2005).
•
Don’t ruin it for everyone else. As the concept of Advergaming takes off
the opportunity for consumers to become skeptical and annoyed will
increase. It could spell doom for a game if the advertising interferes with
game play or makes the player feel cheated for spending their money just
to watch advertising.
•
Be creative and avoid the temptation to use cookie cutter approaches.
Space Invaders was cool 25 years ago but not anymore (except to a
handful of reminiscing retro gamers who probably wouldn’t appreciate the
fizzy drink bottle shooting the hamburgers).
•
Employ a variety of techniques for enhancing the gaming experience such
as multiplayer modes, online scoreboards, differentiated levels / modes
and character advancement.
•
Link the game to out-of-game activities such as prizes, promotions, and
traditional media. For example, make reference to the game during a
television commercial, ask the player to visit the website to check their
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position on the scoreboard and reward the top players with productrelevant prizes.
•
Track the success of the game using market research. Indicators that will
resonate with marketers include pre- and post-implementation
comparisons of brand awareness, reach, brand disposition as well as
conversion ratios. The best way to sell the success of Advergaming is by
measuring it.
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6. A Final Word From Our Sponsors
The potential of Advergaming is large and exciting. If you were miraculously promoted
to Emperor of Game Development you would no doubt recognize that Advergaming
opens new doors and new budgets for game developers and publishers. Even though
there are so many examples of poorly executed Advergames today they are easily
offset by the success stories (for example America’s Army’s recruitment success, Tony
Hawk’s seamless product placement, Spiderman 2’s cross-media leveraging and Radio
Shack’s purchase conversion rate).
Industry professionals speculate that the future revenue opportunities for Advergaming
range from hundreds of millions to billions. It is commonly agreed that Advergaming is
on the brink of exploding in similar proportions to mobile phone ring tone downloading
or online gambling. As consumers spend less time in front of the television and more
time in front of their computer, consol and mobile phone the opportunities for
communicating advertising or socio-political messages will shift accordingly.
The rapid explosion of in-game advertising could hurt the gaming experience for
players. As players becoming savvier about relevant product-game relationships so too
will publishers become more choosy about the type of game they endorse.
Doomsayers would have the Emperor believe that in five years time no game will be
developed that does not lend itself easily to in-game advertising, sponsorship, product
placement / purchasing and that this in turn will decrease the quality of games for
gamers.
Although it is difficult to predict the gaming experience in five or ten year’s time, it is
clear that in the short term Advergaming will grow and provide additional opportunities
for budding game designers. For all intents and purposes this is all the Emperor of
Game Development need know when making an informed decision about Advergaming.
As for what stance to take with Grand Theft Auto, that is another matter entirely.
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7. References
Gardner, P., 2001. “Games with a day job: Putting the power of games to work.”
Gamasutra, June 1, 2001. http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20010601/
gardner_01.htm.
Green, T., 2005. “Played any good Adverts?” Mobile Entertainment, April, 2005. pp.
30-31.
Hawkins, K., 2005. “IGN Entertainment launches in-game advertising and marketing
service.” Posted on GameDev.net, April 12, 2005. http://www.gamedev.net/
community/ forums/topic.asp?topic_id=312987.
Keefe, B., 2005. “Video Game Makers Look for Ways To Profit After Sale.” Newsfactor
Web site, May 19, 2005. http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Game-Makers-Look-forWays-To-Profit/story.xhtml?story_id=10300BOT2PMK.
LeClaire, J., 2002. “Benefits of Advertising in Any Economy.” Signindustry.com,
October 31, 2002. http://www.signindustry.com/management/articles/2002-10-31-JLAdvertInDownEconomy.php3
Maragos, N., 2005. “Serious Games Summit: Advergaming for private and public
interests.” Gamasutra, March 7, 2005. http://www.gamasutra.com/gdc2005/features/
20050307/postcard-maragos2.htm.
Ostroff, J., 2004. “Direct Mail Advertising Is On A Roll”. Kiplinger Business Forecasts,
Vol 5, week of Dec 24, 2004. http://www.compassweb.com/cob/kiplinger/
200501/direct_mail_advertising.html.
Palley, S., 2005. “Industry gets serious at casual games conference.” Gamespot, July
19, 2005. http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/19/news_6129459.html.
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Reader Review. Review of Monkey Ball on GameFAQs.com.
http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/gamecube/review/R31717.html.
Rossignol, J. & Carless, S., 2005. “The Esoteric Beat: Quantum Gaming, Advergaming,
Science Gaming.” Gamasutra, July 19, 2005. http://www.gamasutra.com/phpbin/news_index.php?story=5968.
Schwartz, J., 2005. “R-U-GAME?” Mediaconnection.com, March 28, 2005.
http://imediaconnection.com/content/5354.asp.
Temporal, P., 2002. “Advanced brand management: From revision to valuation.” John
Wiley & Sons, Singapore.
Waugh, E. R., 2005. “Event wrap-up: Advertising in games west.” Gamasutra, August
1, 2005. http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20050801/waugh_01.shtml.
Whalen, Z., 2003. “Product Placement and Virtual Branding in Video Games”.
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/~zwhalen/consumer/productsingames.html.
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8. Websites and resources
McDonald’s game can be found at: http://www.imlovinitlate.com/racetothelights/.
Absolute Astronomy: http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/A/Ad/
Advergaming.htm.
Water Cooler Games website by Ian Bogost.
http://www.watercoolergames.org/archives/cat_advergames.shtml.
America’s Army website: www.americasarmy.com.
The Massive Corporation Network website: http://www.massiveincorporated.com/
index.htm.
WildTangent’s website: www.wildtangent.com.
Kewl Games website: http://www.kewlbox.com.
Gamasutra website: www.gamasutra.com.
Radio Shack’s Zip Zap game can be found at:
http://www.funnygames.nl/spelletjes/2012.html
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