In-game ads: who scores?

Massive, the in-game advertising arm of Microsoft, claims to have evidence that in-game ads not only sell stuff; players think they’re “cool.” But game forum discussions all over reveal plenty of resistance. While many gamers don’t mind seeing ads in natural contexts, that’s hardly an endorsement of ads in games in general. Accustomed as we are to getting software free in exchange for ad exposure, we know the value of our brand awareness. So if we expose ourselves to ads, we want something back.

The Microsoft press release paints a rosy picture, claiming to show that “the gaming audience has a consistently positive opinion of the ads and how the ads affect their game experience.” However, the kicker is a little farther in, where we read “Across all game genres and advertisers studied, the research revealed that an average of 70 percent of gamers agreed with statements that the dynamic in-game ads ‘contributed to realism,’ ‘fit the games’ in which they were served and looked ‘cool.’”

But the range of genres studied was evidently narrow. The examples cited are almost all sports games (Need for Speed Carbon, NASCAR 08, and Major League Baseball 2K7), and in the case of the one non-sports game mentioned (Rainbow Six: Vegas), there was no evidence given that players liked the ads — only that the ads worked. Given the degree to which advertising permeates sports — and Las Vegas, for that matter — it is certainly true that ads enhance realism in these particular games. But this hardly applies to the large majority of games. Games in past or future or fantasy settings can’t accomodate natural-looking ads.

There’s another context in which gamers accept ads: sites where the game is free to play if you look at the ad, as on the hugely popular Pogo.com. Typically such sites give you a choice of paying for an ad-free version. Unfortunately for this business model, the folks who can’t afford to pay to avoid ads are the least likely to have the cash to buy the product.

Thanks to Pogo, though, at least I know the value of my eyeballs: ad-free Chuzzle is twenty bucks, so it must be worth twenty bucks for me to look at ads while playing. If I buy a game and it has ads in it, I want to know where that 20 bucks went. Convince me it lowered the price or bought me more features, and I might not feel ripped off. But I’m not gonna just donate my valuable eyeballs to line the pockets of an industry exec.

Some gamers argue that ads in games simply don’t affect them, and indeed, earlier research suggests that gamers have little attention to spare for ads. The Massive study does at least challenge that idea. The evidence that in-game ads influence purchasing decisions is a lot more compelling than the evidence that players like the ads.