Dave's Place The internet home of David Hinkle, a guy who plays way too many video games

EA’s in-game ads: Where’s the line?

I've been playing a couple of EA's latest recently,Madden 10 and Fight Night Round 4. I usually cave and get Madden every year because A) I like sports B) I'm weak. Fight Night Round 4 came courtesy of Gamefly and, upon booting up the game and stepping into the ring, I was bombarded with ads for The Final Destination. I'm not just talking a simple banner ad on the canvas here. The ad was shown during loading screens, it was on every turnbuckle and was shoved in my face during the healing minigame that takes place between rounds (Note: In my disgust, I sent back Fight Night Round 4 before I could capture any evidence of the over-advertising, but, those of you who own the game, I'm sure you can corroborate with me here). [continued]

As for Madden, it's been taken over by Snickers. During loading screens, I enjoyed "Statisfying," a brief summary of key players' stats, among other things. However, what really threw me for a loop was the game's fantasy draft mode, which literally had a player named Patrick Chewing. You know, from the Snickers commercials.

Don't get me wrong: I'm all for in-game ads. I think they can make a game world more real and I certainly applaud their ability to offset development costs, but where's the line? I have no problem when you make me watch a 15 second clip during 1 vs 100, but I think it's kind of rotten that advertising can go so far. Who am I going to draft next, The Noid? What if Patrick Chewing is, like, the best player ever? Then I HAVE to draft him and use him for 6 damn seasons.

Oh, you tricky advertisers.

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