End Summary

During the months that we were posting I was able to see in-game advertising really evolve and come into its own as a viable medium for advertising. The in-game advertising audience is also very special because they really a captive audience. On television the channel can be changed, the programs can be recorded, and the viewer can leave the room. Ads can usually be avoided whether they are on TV or on the internet, but the for in-game ads the ad can be either part of the game or a product placement. When playing a game with ads in it, the gamer will not turn off the game just because he sees several ads, while he has the option of looking away and not coming back the audience has already been exposed to the ad. For other advertising mediums the ads can be ignored and the message lost, in-game advertising at least will get the impression from the gamer before he looks away where as in the other mediums the ads were never seen. The reason the impression is counted is because during the game the audience is paying direct attention to what they are doing and that is where the ad becomes effective. The in-game audience is just more captive then any of the other mediums giving it the potential to be very effective per viewing. However with new mediums to advertise in comes the potential to abuse and overexpose the audience with large numbers of ads at one time or constantly. The internet is an example of this, ads are so frequent on the internet the viewers don’t even see the ads anymore and have learned how to ignore them. It may be harder to ignore ads in-game because they can happen to be on a wall you are looking at or appear in front of you with game information on them liked a sponsored half time report. While the ads are harder to overlook it is not impossible for gamers learn or adapt to ignoring them completely. The key is not forcing gamers to do that because of overexposure or abuse of placements in games.

The main difference between in-game adverting and all of the other mediums is that ads featured in games are actually part of the game, the gamer does not stop playing when they are looking at an ad in-game. They could be shooting someone standing in front of a coke machine, get hit in the face with a boxing glove that says Everlast on it, or see an Under Armor banner hanging from the ceiling in the background of a gym; they are exposed to the brand name leaving an impression without leaving the game or taking the attention off of the media. This is the only medium where that is possible for a traditional advertising. It is possible to do to an extent with sponsored information for sporting events and with product placement. When the audiences of the other mediums view featured ads they are being interrupted. When a commercial comes on TV the audience is no longer watching the game, when readers turn the magazine page to a full page ad they are no longer reading the article, when the audience hears an ad on the radio they are not playing music, when web surfers get a popup they are no longer on the site page they were viewing. All of the mediums except games interrupt the audience the ads, while in games the ads are part of the game.

The advertisements can provide a unique effect for the games they are featured in that no other type of medium’s ads can provide for the media they are placed in. The effect is that the advertisements if designed properly, and put in the proper context, can add to the game’s realism positively enhancing the audience’s experience in the game and with the ad. This means the players will have a positive view of the brand instead of just general awareness. The results of ads having a positive impact on the games they are featured in means it is good advertising that is effective while not being hated by the players. Another thing in-game advertising has going for it is that the gamers lack a negative opinion for it that most of the other mediums have a problem with, especially TV. The audience for in-game advertising is not opposed to the idea in fact they support it in some cases. The majority of gamers are in favor of in-game advertising if it means cheaper games while around a third of them would like it if the ads were in context with the game and realistically placed in the setting.

The months that we posted during saw in-game advertising come into its own as a medium. Large companies start to get in on the newest way to advertise. Also critical technology was being developed and released during the period that revolutionizes the way that the ads are placed. The new technology allows in-game advertising to begin to reach its full potential. The technology that I watched be developed and released was called fusion.runtime. The program was a big step forward for the industry now that it is commercially available. It has the ability to place and change ads in games even after they have been coded and released, this includes previously released titles. With this technology there is a new flexibility for the industry that was not previously available. Having the advertising placement and development separate from the design and coding of the games allows ads to be placed and changed at anytime including over the internet making changing in-game ads after an advertising campaign is over easy and simple. Before the development of this program there was no way to change the ads in a game after the release. Fusion.runtime, which was created by Double Fusion an in-game advertising company, is unique because of its ability to place ads in places in game that there were no ads previously. This program really did revolutionize the industry giving it near the same flexibility of television advertising, having the ability to change, add, and remove ads whenever it is necessary. With the release of the program commercially many large companies began to purchase or sign with in-game advertising companies sparking growth in the industry that is projected to continue.