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Misleading TV ads face UK ban
Game ads have been showing pre-rendered CGI images, rather than in-game footage, for a while -- but the UK advertising industry has only just caught on. After complaints that Call of Duty 2's graphics didn't match up to the advertising, games ads have been hastily slapping a disclaimer on and hoping the advertising authorities will look the other way.The Broadcast Advertising Clearing Centre and Advertising Standards Authority are investigating, but something seems fishy, with the BACC claiming that advertisers aren't revealing the CGI nature of the footage. It's a well-entrenched advertising trick, but now that the authorities are aware of it, they might try and stop it. Actual in-game footage would give commercials a credible touch, but since TV advertising is only one of many channels used to promote games, advertisers don't seem too worried about the potential ban of CGI yet.
The antidote for in-game advertising
Over at the Guardian Games Blog they're pretty fond of a game development company called Persuasive Games. Apparently the company has created some rather thought provoking titles in the past, ranging from games that are based upon the "inconvenience and the tradeoffs between security and rights in American airports" and political titles such as the Howard Dean for Iowa game. With their next title earning the name of Disaffected, it's not hard to guess that it'll have a similar premise to the company's earlier efforts.Disaffected is aimed at challenging the view that games and advertising are perfect for each other. The press release mentions that primitive advergaming goes all the way back to the Atari 2600, but also highlights the increasing popularity of advertising in games within the last ten years. The main questions which the creators hope this game will provoke are: "Are games only capable of carrying positive advertising messages? Or can they also enact dissatisfaction and criticism against corporations?". It's not the first time that someone has made a game with a distinct anti-corporate streak, but it treads new ground in that the subject specifically relates to a problem that gamers will have to face. Whether you find it fun or not isn't relevant, since it's more about making a statement than entertaining players. In fact, since you play a disaffected employee of a photocopying shop, the boredom you experience actually lends more credence to its anti-corporate stance. We're happy to see that somone within the "games industry" is expressing another opinion on the inevitability of in-game ads.
