For years, every Christmas I have been concerned with finding the best present for my partner. A few years back “Santa” got unambiguously guided to the computer store and directed toward the special offer on a USB-gamepad with a computer game attached to it – or so I thought. Never before had Santa’s bag been raided so keenly at the store exit and to my big disappointment I was advised that it was not the gamepad but the attached GTA III game that had to be there and he was really after. A few days after Christmas the game ended up on my laptop as my partner was still busy with GTA Vice City and I wanted to know what the big fuss was all about. And that was my introduction to the world of computer games.
Thus Ilya Vedrashko's thesis on advertising and merchandising in computer games from MIT was a really interesting article that got me thinking on Grant Theft Auto games that at first glance seem to be full of advertising but there are actually no real brands present at the GTA fictional universe. On the contrary there are some GTA “fake brands” present in the real world.
I would call the marketing of those fictional brands the back-merchandising. The fabulous web sites of in-game top brands such as Cluckin’ Bell – the proud sponsor of Beat the Cock challenge, the web page and hotline of counselor Darius Fontaine, and a working hotline for Crimson Executive Wife Removal (to be used at your own discretion) all serve as the appetizers for the GTA fictional universe. Thus in-game and real life merchandising works both ways.
In fact, Rockstar Games believed in it so much that GTA San Andreas was first advertised through the introduction of a new religion- Epsilon program.
Thus Ilya Vedrashko's thesis on advertising and merchandising in computer games from MIT was a really interesting article that got me thinking on Grant Theft Auto games that at first glance seem to be full of advertising but there are actually no real brands present at the GTA fictional universe. On the contrary there are some GTA “fake brands” present in the real world.
I would call the marketing of those fictional brands the back-merchandising. The fabulous web sites of in-game top brands such as Cluckin’ Bell – the proud sponsor of Beat the Cock challenge, the web page and hotline of counselor Darius Fontaine, and a working hotline for Crimson Executive Wife Removal (to be used at your own discretion) all serve as the appetizers for the GTA fictional universe. Thus in-game and real life merchandising works both ways.
In fact, Rockstar Games believed in it so much that GTA San Andreas was first advertised through the introduction of a new religion- Epsilon program.
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I am currently playing some Facebook games like Playfish's "Pet Society", "Country Story" and "Crazy Planets", and also some other games like "Farm Pals", "Animal Ranch", and the like.
ReplyDeleteWell, The first three games I mentioned are really alike. You have to play either with pets, with veggies or destroy robots. If you get impatient and want to buy more lively and beautiful accessories to the game environment, you have to pay a small fee and get a few "extra points" to buy the items. The last two games on my list, and the games similar to those depend on the player's impatience as well. If you do not like to proceed very slowly you can earn credits either by buying stuff from different affiliate services or buying credits via PayPal.
This is the hidden strategy behind the games where the game developers depend on the players' impatience and also on the competitiveness - you have to invite friends to this game in order to play the game more fruitfully and earn virtual points. If you wish to compete and perhaps win your friends you may decide to buy the credits and have more stuff. And another secret is perhaps that those friends want to get competitive and buy more interesting stuff in the games, thus they spend money on it.
For me personally that has not come into mind, because I know that when I play the game up to a certain extent (e.g. I collect all the things there are to offer, the game will turn out to be boring, there is nothing new in it). I actually got a little bit bored when I discovered that the games from another game provider Rawr Gamer are so similar that there is no point in playing them all - one game is enough. Playfish's games are too similar in concept that they also bore at some point. So for me it is not important to compete with someone nor to collect too many "things" in the game. Otherwise I get bored and lose the interest in Facebook gaming.
To MK,
ReplyDeleteActually there will be a blog post here on those business solutions that pose as a game or social environment but instead are developed in my opinion to milk the user out of money as soon as I get through with the appropriate scientific articles to back me up on them.
So I assume that you are interested in gaming or in the business plans below gaming itself?
ReplyDeleteTo MK,
ReplyDeleteI am interested in business/forces behind the new media, games etc that make them tick.
Nice. I've been a fan of the GTA series ever since GTA 1 came out. I learned how to use CG programs because I wanted to modify textures in that. And I actually bought a Playstation 2 because I didn't want to wait until San Andreas was ported to the PC.
ReplyDeleteYeah, all of that fictional content in those games serves a certain counter-cultural purpose, as well as the purpose of being a device to enforce the story line of the games and immerse the player into their violent little worlds.
And on top of that they've made these bogus sites to enable this world to transcend beyond the confines of the game and clash with reality, provoking a lot of buzz.