Found this great article at Gamasutra, reporting on an ICE08 panel done by Ian Bogost and Jim McNiven. Can advergaming spur creativity? McNiven says advertisers are still doing it wrong, by treating advergames as animated bundles of pop-ups and logos.
“You have to create games that people want to seek out and play. Build an experience around a brand. Once players have experienced the brand’s message, they will click through.”
Damn right, mr. McNiven!
And, still in the 'damn right' category, there's this quote, by Bogost:
“Unfortunately the advertising-based games on the web are very repetitive. How many games are made from Bejeweled, replacing the jewels with M&Ms or whatever?”
Yeah, it's true, people just LOVE Bejeweled. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone will try to remember your clone, seeing how there are about 2000 more out there, with or without logos slapped on them. Sure, it sounds like a 'tried and true' recipe, I mean "just look at this study - people bloody LOVE Bejeweled", right?
Wrong. If you're a frequent StumbleUpon user (read: maniac) and have games listed under your hobbies, chances are you stumbled into at least 4-5 versions of any flash game concept, over time. And say you really like the game. Are you playing all versions? Why not?
It's not that hard to figure out and, as I write this, I realize that there's absolutely no reason for anyone to jump on any kind of bandwagon when it comes to casual games. Big budget games are a subject for another time, just addressing casual ones now. Think about the time and budget needed to make one. In 99% of the cases, you're not losing anything if you simply experiment a bit more. And somehow, trying to integrate a brand's message in the game makes the creative challenge even bigger, doesn't it? And it'll sure push you to explore new ideas, if you want to do more than just slap logos everywhere. Right?
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