To most people that play games, in game advertising evokes a bad feelings, Mario using Craftsman tools, Sonic using Dr. Scholl's to give him the endurance to complete a level. Whatever the mental image, most people are under the impression that in game advertising is bad. But is it really? I spent some of my time at E3 2006 talking to those who see the ads, and those that put the ads in the games gamers play. The impression I came away with was different than I expected...

What is it?

So what does in game advertising mean to both sides? I talked with Adam Leroux, Concept Artist for Revolving Door Games and his cohort Corey Dean, Artistic Director and co-owner. To them, in game advertising involves billboards, or characters drinking a Coca-Cola soft drink, ads that are seen while playing a game. But can they name one example of in game advertising they've actually seen? Not really.

"There are spoof ads in the Grand Theft Auto series," says Corey. "But you can't go buy those products, so it's more about entertaining the player than trying to get them to purchase something." One of them mentions that there are trophies in Smash Brothers: Melee of characters from Animal Crossing. "That maybe an ad, but when you get the trophy there's no real advertisement saying you should go buy Animal Crossing, it's more of a tie-in from a related game. I doubt anyone bought Animal Crossing due to those trophies, so if it is an ad, it's probably not a very good one."

Andy Choi, CTO and founder of Greystripe, a company that provides an ad network for mobile games, sees game ads as simple advertisements that are in some way attached to the game. Ads need not be present during the actual game play. They can be shown before and/or after the game has been played. Greystripe provides two ways of attaching ads to games: Brand Wrapping and Ad Wrapping. A Brand Wrap is what most gamers think of, which is where an image or texture (like that on a billboard) is replaced with an ad for some product. This ad will of course be shown as long as the image is visible in the course of normal game play. Ad Wrapping, on the other hand, is when ads are placed before and after the game is played. Typically these ads are 10-15 seconds in length, and require the user to click a button to close the ad after the time has passed.

Mr. Choi showed me an Ad wrap, and it looked exactly like what I expected. There was an ad for an Oil Change service, and after a few seconds two buttons became available to close the ad or get more information. When he closed the ad, the game started and allowed him to play without interruption. Upon completion, another ad was shown, and after closing it, the phone returned to normal operation. I asked if he could show me a Brand Wrap, but he was a little hesitant. I asked how many games to they have that use Brand Wrapping, and he had to say "actually, none at this time." This is because no publisher has chosen to use Brand Wrapping in their game. He was able to pull up a demo game, but it was just an example, and did not indicate a real game that was available. The example showed where an image in a Bejeweled-type game was being replaced by a soda can.

Public Reaction

I asked Adam and Corey what they thought about a 10 second delay at the beginning of their game while an advertisement was shown. "No big deal," said Andy, "10 seconds isn't really that long, so it probably wouldn't matter." But what about the soda can in the simple puzzle game? They both agreed that it didn't matter much, anyone playing would just get used to matching blue soda cans instead of blue diamonds.

So where's the problem then? Adam and Corey could both agree that if characters in the game start talking about the ads, it's going too far. "Hey, let's drink a Coke, then we can talk about this hit you have to make." Not words anyone wants to hear in the next version of GTA. But what about billboards in the in-game city your character runs around in?

When I asked Jerry Holkins, better known as Tycho at the online comic Penny Arcade, about in game advertising, he was pretty vocal. "In general, I'm against it, unless it's in a modern urban setting." He specifically mentioned Ghost Recon, and how he learned there were ads in the game after he had already been playing. They hadn't stuck out enough for him to notice in his first time through the game. An amazing concept, especially for someone who is very familiar with the idea of in game ads.