How to advertise in-game...the RIGHT way

EA learned the hard way that using the burger king "king" in Fight Night was a stupid mistake

By Kristin

In-game advertising is not something that's terribly new, nor is it something that's terribly well done.

The first instance that I can remember of in-game advertising that I saw with my own eyes was in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. These ads were all for fictional companies and spoofs on current advertising at the time. Along with the radio commercials. Who didn't love to drive around in the car and listen to the various stations? Heck, I even had an entire GTA:VC loop on in my winamp at one point in time!

The next well executed in-game advertising was in Crackdown. Again, all fictional companies, it was fun to jump around the city and see the billboards, trying to figure out what real life life company they were spoofing.

Then came Guitar Hero 3 with the blatant, over the top, real life company ads. Who REALLY wants to see that huge McDonald's logo? When I started playing and noticing the advertising in the game and how utterly OBNOXIOUS it was, it made me want to boycott those companies that paid to have their ads inserted into the game. Your advertising is on the radio (why I listen to CDs), the television (why I play games and watch movies, I catch my tv shows online), and on billboards (why I watch the cars tail lights in front of me), don't invade my private zone of "my gametime". This is where I go to escape mainstream and life.

However, I do think mainstream advertising can be done well in games. This generation hates anything that smells of marketing unless it's VERY well done, edgy, comical, and memorable.

Cat herding anyone? Yes, you remember that super bowl commercial. It was funny, it's different, it was completely unexpected. Those weird little troll-like-things that quizno did a couple years ago that sang about the moon? Yeah you remember what I'm talking about.

In game marketing can be done successfully, the best way to do it would be to make up a fictions company that is a spoof of your real life company. It makes the gamer see the ad, go oh! That's XYZ company in real life they're spoofing, and they appreciate the company poking fun at itself (although the gamer may not realize the company paid for a spoofed ad - they may think it's the game designer spoofing a company).

You get brand recognition (McDonalds could have flipped their arches to spoof themselves, and shrunk the ad, Gamers LOVE to find easter eggs in games), you get the consumer thinking about your brand, and as they go by your establishment/product on the road/in the store it'll trigger a memory of the game -> trigger memory of your brand -> if executed correctly brand loyalty and a purchase.

I saw some concept art at one point for a blackbird campaign that had in game advertising. It was AWFUL. I'm so thankful everyone that saw the concepts reacted with the same visceral distaste and disgust that I did. Guess why it sucked so bad - it wasn't designed by gamers. Notice the Voodoo laptops in Call of Duty 4? Very understated, very subtle, very sexy. Why use 1 million words when 1 will do?

It can be done people. Just don't let suits design the ads. When your designing for your demographic, ASK your demographic or even better yet; have YOUR demographic design it.



Kristin Reilly

LANs, LANs, and MORE LANs!

From Kristin:

Phew, I've had a whirlwind couple of week(ends)! In the past 3 weeks I've been to 3 different LAN's in 3 different states with our Blackbird computer. Go airline miles!

So it all started in Portland, Oregon (go Ducks!) in mid-Feburary with PDXLAN 11. It was a 4 day LAN that I only as able to attend 3 days of due to the Game Developers Conference overlapping. I had a blast after a small melt down when I realized my LCI Blackbird had been shipped to LA for the mall tour and I got the mall tours AC model. Thankfully my personal gaming computer is a Blackbird LC so I ran home and snagged that. It's nice having your own profiles and levels to play on instead of getting a fresh machine with no data on it! I didn't compete at PDXLAN but had fun running around in COD4 with friends and TF2.

I'm not sure which LAN I liked the best honestly. PDXLAN was awesome because I was in my home town and I was able to take friends from out of town to really cool restaurants and they got to see where I live.

The following weekend I went straight from San Francisco to Arkansas for a day long LAN put on by NWALan. After we finally got the power issues figured out after we tripped a circuit every 8 minutes for several games (I still hear yells of BATGIRL! in my sleep), the LAN was awesome! Everyone kept coming over to look at the Blackbird and play on it and I was consistantly a top scorer every game we played. Yay! I will say Arkansas gets a LOT colder than I thought or was expecting.

Mental note, next time pack thermals..... Everyone was so NICE in Arkansas I was pretty blown away. There were even a few other girls that were in attendance! Not once did anyone say anything negative to me or about me being a female at a LAN. I actually love playing at LAN's a lot more than playing online. Everyone is much nicer and respectable when they're not anonymous!

Finally this past weekend I was in Yspilanti, Michigan (it sounds like ip-sill-aunty) for the first annual Gamers for Giving LAN and Halo3 tournament put on by the Gamers Outreach Foundation. I was blown away by the size (250 BYOC machines and roughly 250 people on sat for the Halo3 tournament) and the efficiency of this LAN.

On top of it just being an awesome event, the proceeds all go to charity! The foundation that was chosen to be the recipient of this LAN's proceeds was a local chapter of the MS society. I honestly have never been to a tournament that ran as smoothly as this one did. And it being their first tournament, I can only wait to see what they bring to the table next year!

Michigan was fun especially Sunday night I was invited to be a guest on PWND radio. The guys over there are fun and know their games! So that's a quick recap of the crazy 3 weeks I've had and where I've been. This weekend we'll be setting up at SXSW in Austin, Texas. I for one, am looking forward to finally thawing out!!

- Kristin Reilly

Trash Talking As An Art Form?

From Kristin:

Every one's heard it. Trash talking. Be it friends ribbing each other, someone screaming racial obscenities over Ventrilo/XBoxLIVE/TeamSpeak, or a colorful expression of exasperation at some one's skill, trash talking wont be going away any time soon. That being said, there are some rules that go along with trash talking. I know what you're thinking - rules? How can there be rules for trash talking? Its just a bunch of kids screaming four letter words at each other.

Not exactly.

Trash talking has evolved into something that your either adept at or not. There will always be someone who is better at it than you, just like playing a game or a sport, but to put yourself into the elite category you need to be able to do more than spout off the same 3 four-letter words in a row. It requires having a robust vocabulary (you need to know what's being said to you!) as well as imagination and a VERY quick wit. The most satisfying feeling is being able to best someone in a trash talking exchange by not resorting to cussing.

There are 3 main types of trash talkers and kinds of trash talking.

There's the omni-present simpleton trash talking. This user has exactly 3 words in his vocabulary, 4 if a girl is in the room and loves to display their middle school education. They tend to find that they're talking to themselves because everyone mutes them the first chance they get. Tends to use four letter words and whatever a lot. They'll still talk trash even if they're in last place on the leader board. They can't take a joke and will close down the server if anything negative is said at them. Usually found wandering servers solo and get banned consistently.

Then there's the I-made-it-through-school-and-know-when-to-keep-my-trap-shut (but not how to pull the mic out of my mouth so everyone has to hear my mouth breathing). These are the people you'll hear start telling everyone in the server how awesome they are and how amazing they are and OHMYGOSHDIDYOUSEETHATSHOT?! DIDYOUSEEIT?! I'M UNTOUCHABLE!

They don't care if they're in last place or first place. Every shot is "amazing". If a simpleton comes into their server there tends to be a lot of your mom jokes, whatevers, cursing, questions about genitalia size, and yelling. If jokes are made about this person, they'll laugh but secretly fume and engage in team killing to make them feel better about themselves. Tend to roam in packs with a few simpletons thrown in for good measure. Likes to be the pack leader.

Lastly we have the 1337 trash talkers. These are the people that can talk circles around a person and will use eloquence and intelligence to own someone. These are the people you'll hear in servers who can keep a person running after their own shadow and they wont realize it. They are the dangerous people to get into a verbal sparring match with. They'll rarely use curse words, will take a genitalia question and run with it (talking about how they have an INVERSE of organs), wont always mute simpletons and mouth breathers but instead chose to ignore them until they say something completely asinine and rip them apart. They know how to take a joke and will crack jokes about themselves. Most dangerous in packs, should not be crossed. Can be found either in packs or solo. They have no preference as they make friends wherever they go.

Now what the average Joe doesn't realize is there is a time and a place for trash talking. Trash talking is usually reserved for online matches. Due to the anonymity the Internet affords people, they tend to be much more critical and harsh and use language that they never would use in real life to another person. When you are at an event and seeing people face to face, you don't talk the same way you would if you were playing them online. I've already talked about the biggest burn I have ever received, I usually reserve my trash talking for online matches. At LAN's I tend to be involved in friendly banter with people back and forth, but no insults being thrown. Like everyone though, I am human and do slip up. The biggest burn I've ever thrown someones way was, sadly, to a group of kids about 14.

I was at the Penny Arcade Expo 2006 competing in the Halo2 tournament with 3 friends. We had an even split in our guy/girl ratio on our team, one of the few mixed teams there.

Seed 1 was a team we rolled with no problem.

Seed 2 was the team from Bungie studios. They put up a good fight being the spamming grenade whores they are but we prevailed. And unwittingly lost out on the pink master chief figurines (dang it!).

Seed 3 was a team of 14 year old boys in matching white t-shirts with their gamertags on the back. Now the appearance that these kids gave off is that they had never been to a LAN before, had only played online on Xbox Live, and thus acted accordingly. They were saying very inappropriate things and ended up irritating most of the people in the room through the course of the tournament.

When it came time to play against a team that had two girls on it, the bantering began and quickly escalated into full on trash talking. At one point one of the kids on the other team finally resorted to calling my girlfriend and I that-other-name-for-female-dogs when I snapped.

I stood up from my chair, turned my back on the game, and told the kids to sit down, shut up, and come back when their reproductive organs had dropped. Now I'm not proud of this, but it did put an end to the slurs they were slinging (along with our rolling of their team). Everyone has their breaking point and that was mine. Sadly we lost seed 4 and took home a fourth place finish.

The moral of this story though is - no matter where your playing be it online or in person with someone. You should always treat the person with respect. No matter who they are or what level their skill at the game is acting like I acted is never okay and shouldn't be condoned.

Kristin Reilly

In search of immersive gaming

From Kristin:

Checking this out during this year’s GDC really made me think about how far display technology has come in delivering that truly immersive entertainment experience – where gaming is more intense than reality.

Playing the proverbial Devil’s Advocate here, will we ever truly get to the stage where our PC games feature the ultimate in immersion and interactive game control? Or will the technology always be met with the same “meh” reception that this did:

Ah, Virtual Boy. Cool, awkward and headache-inducing all at the same time. Ahead of its time or a relic of the past? Discuss amongst yourselves.

Currently, high-end, kick ass gaming rigs like Blackbird are leading the way in providing a platform for tighter game mechanics, 3-D modelling and supremely immersive environment.

But how much further away is technology that allows us to play our favourite console and PC-based games in a fully immersive, virtual reality environment?

Kristin Reilly

Functional Not Just Decorative

From Kristin:

I love attending LANs. I also hate attending LANs.

No matter how many girls there are are a LAN there is always someone who decides they need to be an ass and make some condescending comment regarding my sex and either gaming or my rig. I love being a girl. Really I do.

Last weekend at PDXLAN for instance I sat down with my blackbird and began installing a few updates I needed and the young man sitting next to me inquired about my computer. I was telling him about it and showing off the innards, while he's looking at my dual SLI'd 8800 Ultras he goes on to say, "Oh all this just for surfing the web and checking email?" Wow, way to completely piss me off and make sure that I begin to hunt you down in-game.

The WORST burn I've ever recieved was from a mom interestingly enough. I was attending my first LAN ever at the University of Oregon waiting for the doors to open. I was sitting on a table playing lumines, watching a couple rigs while friends went and got food, and generally just hanging out. This guy walked up with his mom (he carrying the monitor and she carrying the case), she sets the case on the floor and asks me, can I leave this right here? I told her sure, I didn't care where she left his machine. She then continues on to say, "Oh so your functional and not just decorative?" Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah....I have never been rendered *that* speechless my entire life. It was impressive. Although it makes for a great story so now several of my signatures now bear the words "functional, not just decorative" because of this encounter.

Next time you attend a LAN, if you see a girl, don't be a jerk. Really it's not that hard. Instead of going up to her and saying something completely condescending - try something nice. Especially if your sitting there having to reformat your hard drive.

Kristin's Temporary Home

Welcome to Rah's blog aka my-temporary-home-for-now! I’m sure you’re wondering who is this chick and WHERE did she come from?

Well, I’m Kristin and my official title is HP Community Lead. What does that mean for you? It means that I’m going to be bringing you new, fresh content, not only in the form of blog posts, but through other mediums designed to tickle all 5 senses! Okay fine, maybe only 2 or 3. I easily have the coolest job in the world. I get to travel around and check out the newest stuff before it launches, meet and interview interesting people…oh, and I get to play games.

I suppose this is where I should give you a little back story as to who I am and what planet I came from.

I’ve been gaming since I was little. I actually started on the Kings Quest series when I was young. My family has always used video games as family time. Ever gather 4 people around an 18 inch CRT? Yeah it’s fun. After frequent groundings because I spent too much time on the Prodigy ISP, I made the move to the NES and consoles. From there I went to GoldenEye on the 64 (still the BEST shooter on the consoles), then to Halo and beyond. I’m a gamer; just don’t call me a girl gamer.

So, why HP? When I was initially asked to look at Blackbird, it took a lot of fast talking by my friend to get me in the door. As soon as I saw the machine and its 1 million billion gawk factor, I knew this was a group I wanted to work with. They GET it. Everyone you see here loves games and the community. We want to build this into a place that people frequent for news, info, and the occasional laugh at my expense. And I really want to continue to shame Rahul at Guitar Hero.

Kristin Reilly