Thursday, May 27, 2010

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I hear the discussion every now and then.  Well, OK, I actually hear someone talk about hearing the discussion.  That person is usually Jeff Gerstmann, and the discussion is about in-game advertising.  When I hear Jeff talk about it (on the Bombcast.  I'm not trying to claim he and I are tight buds or anything), he mentions that apparently there are people who are offended whenever they see some form of in-game ad.  Since I've never really waded into the debate or looked it up, I can't say I really know all the arguments about why.  Maybe that's why I don't really understand why some people think in-game ads are such a big deal.

Two recent games really stick out in my mind regarding this topic: Splinter Cell Conviction and Alan Wake.  During a few of the Bombcasts, I've heard the crew laugh about and deride the Dr. Pepper ads in Splinter Cell, which I guess is just a big wall texture or something.  Honestly, I've never seen this ad.  And I've played Conviction.  I've played a lot of Conviction.  And yet somehow I missed these ads.  I have no idea what the Dr. Pepper ads look like in Splinter Cell Conviction.  So I guess the ad failed in my case.  Or maybe it worked TOO well.  Maybe it just blended into the game world like a normal ad in the real world would.  And like one of those ads, I just ignored it.  Either way, can you complain about an ad that can somehow go unnoticed?

The ads in Alan Wake are a bit more obvious, at least to me.  When Alan first picks up a flashlight, you see Energizer written down the side.  And supposedly you keep picking up Energizer batteries during the game.  But those battery packs are so small, I honestly couldn't tell if they were branded or not.  The only time I ever recall seeing the Energizer brand was in the moment I described above.  It's not like Alan runs around proclaiming, "God Bless the Energizer Bunny!  I'd be doomed without the ability to harness the power of lithium!"  Then there are the Verizon ads.  Late in the game, there is a large billboard out by the street that is pretty much just the Verizon logo.  You know what?  I didn't care.  There are billboards out there in the world, and some of them are for Verizon.  Seeing something like that in this game didn't ruin the atmosphere for me.  It seemed feasible.

OK, so there is apparently an actual TV ad for Verizon in the game as well.  I say apparently, because I never found it when I played through the game.  I just saw it for the first time today on YouTube.  And you get an achievement for watching the ad.  That's pretty lame.  But as I said before, I never saw this ad when I played the game.  You aren't forced to watch it.  The game doesn't halt and play the ad, keeping you from moving forward until you acknowledge that you can indeed hear him now.  So I can't really complain about this ad.  Tycho of Penny Arcade fame discusses this stuff in his newspost for a comic on this topicand I basically agree with his point of view.  The TV ad is annoying, but I don't think it really has an impact on the game.

I guess I just don't really get what's so offensive about in-game ads.  Again, it's not like they're TV commercials, where the action is brought to a screeching halt while you watch the Sham-Wow guy hock his wares.  Alan Wake's TV ad may come close, but I maintain that since you don't have to watch it, it doesn't count.  I think product placement sometimes makes a game feel more grounded in reality.  Seeing a Coke machine instead of a "Cola" machine, or seeing someone use a branded phone just makes it seem like the game relates to our world just a little bit more.  Sure, if this stuff shows up in a game like Mass Effectthat's kind of reaching.  And it would be really offensive if it was in a fantasy world, like in Star Wars or a Mario game.  But I haven't come across a situation yet in a game where I come across an ad or product placement, twisted my face, and said, "Oh come on!"  What is it about ads and product placement that bothers some people?  Is it the belief that corporations are evil, soulless machines that produce nothing but death and decay?  Guess what?  If you bought a big budget game, you have supported at least one of those corporations with that purchase.  If you refuse to buy those kinds of games and only get indie titles?  Well why are you complaining?!  You've already dealt with the situation.  And if you pirated the game?  Well, without getting into the debate about the morality of piracy, do you really think you have the right to complain about the content of a game you didn't have to pay any money for?  The only thing it cost you was bandwidth.  Heck, you're probably stealing that too.

Of course, there are games made by companies that are purely ads within themselves.  Remember those Burger King games they made for the Xbox?  I would say those are offensive not because they were ads in game form, but because they're pretty bad games.  Plus, I don't think they really cost anything.  Weren't they packed in with a value meal or something as a promotional item?  Maybe they were a couple of bucks.  I don't remember.  Then there was Darkened Skye, the infamous game about Skittles.  You know what?  I actually kind of liked that game.  I never got very far, and yeah, the controls weren't all that great, but I actually found it to be kind of entertaining.  Maybe that makes me a bad person.  And I have to mention Chex Quest.  It was a game about a character who was a piece of Chex who went around fighting aliens, and it was built using the Doom engine.  Come on, that sounds kind of awesome, doesn't it?  And it was actually fun to play, again because it used the Doom engine.  Plus it was free.  OK, so you had to buy the cereal, but I'm not going to complain about having a bowl of Chex to eat while I'm playing a Doom clone.  Heck, make some Chex Mix with it.   My point is that a game built around a product isn't necessarily a horrible thing.  It's only bad if the game is bad and you had to pay some extra cash for it.  Which most people have the good sense not to do.

So yeah, I'm OK with ads and product placement in video games.  I'm not saying I'd be OK with it in any form and any situation. I've already mentioned some scenarios where I think this stuff would be unwelcome.  If I saw stuff like that in my games (or like this comic), I'd join those who raise their voices against the advertising machine.  But right now, I don't see the problem.  Video games are pretty expensive to make.  I don't mind letting the game developers cover those costs in the form of the occasional product placement.  If I have to use an Energizer flashlight in order to experience a game like Alan Wake , I don't think that's such a bad deal. 

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Who Reviews the Reviewers?

We live in a very interesting time.  There is no doubt that the widespread access of the internet coupled with high-speed connections has really changed things.  Remember when Time magazine declared all of us to be the "Person of the Year"?  It was because with the rise in popularity of social networks and user generated content, the face of entertainment and global interactions shifted.  It seemed like we all could be a little more connected with others around the globe, even if it was just via a computer screen.  I'm using some lofty language here, but I'm not convinced this all was a good thing.  Now any yahoo with a webcam can post some nonsense on YouTube and pretend that they're now a celebrity.  Anyone with a keyboard can start a blog and act like their opinions matter.  Heck, I'm doing that right now!  See?  Yet those things don't really bug me.  You want to write a blog about cucumbers or post your crappy cover of a Green Day song on YouTube?  God bless you, you go right on ahead and do it.  Someone somewhere might get some enjoyment out of it.  No, the real problem comes with user reviews.

I understand and support the concept of user ratings and reviews.  It could be useful to gather information on whether or not people enjoyed a product or found it useful.  And if something is just plain junk, well you would want to know that too.  I admit that once in a while I will turn to the user reviews to try and glean some sort of info on whether or not a product is worth my money.  But opinions are so subjective on many things, so that most of these reviews end up being useless.  iTunes tends to suffer the most from this, as music is one of the most subjective items out there.  How can you know if a review is helpful if you don't know the musical tastes of the reviewer?  For example, you have people who hate country music who decide they're going to give a Tim McGraw album one or zero stars.  Well of course they're going to rate it low!  They hate country!  That review is worthless to anyone who wants to gauge if this is a quality country album.  If the reviewer straight up says, 'this is crap and all country is crap rap is the only legit art form 2pac lives1!!!!!!!11', well you know you can throw that out the window, but it's still a waste of time for the buyer. 

Video games have their own blend of insanity as well.  All too often, fanboys will use user reviews as a weapon in the "console wars".  360 or PS3 fanboys will overhype the merits of their console exclusives and wag them in the face of their foes, as if that makes the other system somehow weakened.  Or even worse, they will review games that they don't even own just to try and skew the ratings one way or another, and hope that they impact sales in some way.  Yeah, these people are childish jerks.  But rather than sit here and complain, how about I roll with it.  I mean, you can already review the reviews (which is silly enough if you think about it) by saying if they're helpful or not.  I'm going to take it one step further an analyze these reviews and see just how unhelpful they can be.  It's kind of similar to the Mr. Period strips on Penny Arcade, if you're familiar with those at all.  And no, I don't harbor any illusions that this might fix or change anything.  I just figure this will be more fun than whining about this stupid stuff.

So let's start with the world of movies.  Specifically with the highest grossing film of all time: Avatar.  This is a film that some people are very opinionated about.  One such person is Nick "THE CHAMP".  Let's see what he had to say on Amazon.com:
I'll keep this short and sweet. Dont buy this movie. It is incredibly overhyped. I rushed out and bought it on the release date influenced by reviews and word of mouth. Lets just say i didnt even finish the movie. I suffered through about 2 hours of horrible acting and corny storytelling. Sigorney Weaver chain smoking in every scene and acting like an old hag?! I mean common, please! Pathetic I was extremely disappointed and its clear to me that Jim Cameron has some very powerful influential friends. Most of the reviews ive watched raved about how great this movie is. It just goes to show ya that money talks as Cameron clearly hired marketing agencys to provide positive reviews in order to increase sales. If your going to suffer through the 3 hours of uninteresting plot and horrible acting at least dont fork out 20+ to buy this garbage. Rent it and see for yourself

OK, "THE CHAMP", you start out well enough there.  "Don't buy this movie" is definitely a strong start, so continue on and tell us why this is a bad deal for the money.  And you start to do so!  You thought the acting was horrible and the story was corny.  Fair enough.  Please go on and give some examples of why.  "Sigorney Weaver chain smoking in every scene and acting like an old hag?! I mean common, please!"  Wait, what?  "I mean common, please"?  What does that mean?  Do you mean "come on"?  Maybe he was reviewing this on his iPhone or something?  Or are you saying that it is too common to be smoking, and therefore is an uninspired method?  Nah, that's giving this guy too much credit.  From having seen the movie three time now, I can say his complaints about miss Weaver strike me as odd.  Yeah, she smokes a lot.  That's bad acting?  How?  Do you watch Casablanca and just go off when Bogart lights up?  "God, he's smoking again!  What a hack!!"  And you must hang around some interesting old hags if her performance evoked that reaction, Nick.  So all the old hags you know are scientists who are bitter at their corporate overlords who overlook their research in favor of rocks in the ground.

Ah, but his true colors come out next, as he abandons any pretence of a review and instead delves into conspiracy theories.  Pathetic I was extremely disappointed and its clear to me that Jim Cameron has some very powerful influential friends.  Ooh, burn! He called him Jim instead of James!  Take that Mr. Hollywood!  It just goes to show ya that money talks as Cameron clearly hired marketing agencys to provide positive reviews in order to increase sales.  Yes, this is a classic tactic by bitter people.  They claim that money must have changed hands, cause that's the only way someone could have an opinion other than their own.  This is an easy indicator of whether or not you can disregard a review.  In this case, you can throw The Champ's opinion right out the door.

Well, that's a negative view.  How about we look at someone who loved it?  Like Amazon user Dan Dezio "drummer21290":
This storyline is much like what the government is really doing, also I wouldn't doubt technology like this actually exist because they have similar things. Being someone who meditates and has Outer body experiences I can tell that much of this movie is actually possible. Consciousness has a major roll in everything. This place the Avatars live in could have been where we are now if we took our gifts and used them to there potential. This truly is an amazing movie. And I don't even watch tv anymore at all because everything is totally irrelevant. But I'd spend countless dollars on the best sound system and tv just to watch this one movie. AMAZING!!!


...Do I even need to say anything? Really? I'd say this one speaks for itself.

Well let's leap over to the world of video games. God of War III has been one of the highest profile console exclusives for the PS3 this year, so we're bound to get some real gems out of this one. First on the positive side, here's Adventure Fan:
BEST GOD OF WAR GAME / BEST PS3 GAME

SONY, we who are about to play, Salute You. For taking a legendary amount of badassedness, and cramming it all in one game. No one else in the market is giving us naked 1080p nipples, just because it's sexy funny. Another game maker would have taken the Greek Mythology idea and given us a PG-13 experience with casual puzzles and no blood. But GOD OF WAR became HARDCORE. You could have dumbed it down like Halo to get super mass market sales... But you stayed true to your Ambition. Because you made this game with your balls, I'm buying it NEW, at LAUNCH, with MONEY. Please accept my cold hard cash, and my thanks. GOD3 is another reason why I'm a Playstation fan-for-life.  
HARDCORE FANTASTIC ONE-OF-A-KIND EXPERIENCE!
OK, aside from the overall ridiculous tone of this one, there are a couple of key things we can draw from this to reach a pretty clear conclusion about Adventure Fan. The biggest clue is of course: GOD3 is another reason why I'm a Playstation fan-for-life. And then of course there's this great sentence: You could have dumbed it down like Halo to get super mass market sales. Get it yet? Yup, PS3 fanboy. Another great lead is: No one else in the market is giving us naked 1080p nipples. Yes, it is high def nipples that will win your precious console war. And he's going to buy it with MONEY! Finally, we can move away from the barter system! Yes, I know he's referring to the fact that video game developers hate the used game market (and piracy of course), but he still sounds like an idiot. So based on this review, Adventure Fan, you apparently love this game because it has nipples and is HARDCORE. Sold! Seriously, at least explain why you think it is a HARDCORE FANTASTIC ONE-OF-A-KIND EXPERIENCE! Oh, and good point about game developers backing away from Mature rated games. Yeah, nobody is making those today. And those who are aren't making any money...

Let's get away from that nonsense and look at the people who hated the game. I actually loved it, so I'm interested in seeing what people would find to gripe about. Well here's gerald "bird" to help me out:
I was among the first to pick up this game, went @ it with Titan difficulty, but there's a guitar hero puzzle that pple like us feel decieved by. i mean there's no work around. santa monica release an update to remove this stupid puzzle that belongs in another game, otherwise its one star from me.
...Really? That one puzzle? That lasts for like, maybe three minutes? That ruined it for you, huh? Wow. Well, if you despise rythym games that much, then old gerald's review might just help you out. No work around. Good Lord. B. Knight "kanighit" please tell me you've got some better criticism than that. Hook a brother up!
This game would be great if it were playable. When pressing R1 to open chests it acts like it isn't being held. The double jump doesn't work. I initially thought it was my controller, tried another. Same result and looked online, a plethora of people are having this issue. Playstation had no answers. When I called they said that the number to contact God of War III, was their number but it wasn't anything they had a solution to. Ridiculous and disapointing. I recommend against buying this until that is fixed.

Latest patch has fixed my glitch, I still drop a star due to this initial problem combined with it being not as good as Uncharted 2 in my opinion
Man...OK, not being able to play the game properly sucks. I would be mad too. But look at that last sentence. Latest patch has fixed my glitch, I still drop a star due to this initial problem combined with it being not as good as Uncharted 2 in my opinion. He gave it one star. Did he mean to change the score when he updated to review and not tell us? Cause if not being as good as Uncharted 2 is worthy of a one star rating, then the entirety of the video game market must be just god awful for "kanighit". I mean, Uncharted 2 is pretty good, you know? And they are completely different types of games! You cannot compare a brawling action game to a thrid person shooter/platformer. It doesn't work like that. Not for review purposes, at least.

Man, these people are nuts. Yet I feel like this exercise has been cathartic. I may have to do more of these. After all, we are in the age of user ratings and reviews, so why not review the reviewers? It just means I'm being progressive. Maybe Time magazine will even declare me Man of the Year. Again. You know, cause technically I already won it back when we all did. Boy, that still seems like a cop out...