Google Files Patent to Monitor Gaming For Ads 101
Tookis writes "In a recent patent filing, Google has proposed a real time profiling of players of online games such as World of Warcraft. Soon players of such games may see in game ads directly designed to appeal to their persona. Last month Google filed a patent in both Europe and the US which outlined plans to psychologically profile people simply by their style of play in popular online games. 'From the patent; "User dialogue (e.g., from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterize the user (e.g., literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterize the user (e.g., cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)." Taking this a step further, Google also believe if a player likes to explore their new virtual world, that they would be interested in the real world, as such would target the player with travel ads.'"
Skewed results (Score:5, Insightful)
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Unless of course they're some sort of emo non-comformist who gets turne
Re:Skewed results (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Skewed results (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't think they understand the concept of role playing games. While many people have virtual traits that parallel their personality it still isn't enough to determine a target audience. This is just plain silly and intrusive. When i pay for a service like that i don't want to see ads. However, if they made a subscription MMO for free, but with adverts. Why not?
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I think you underestimate the game part as well. I play World of Warcraft because I play a game. And my behavior between the two are not the far apart. If I wanna play a role, I can as well, and then those results won't be accurate anymore, but much of the time I wanna play a game and if someone piss me in the game, there is a good chance he'd piss me in real life. I don't take the time to change my behavior just for the sake of it.
I understand the game aspect of it all, but you're immersed in a virtual world. You may respond to stimuli the same, but your reaction is quite different. If someone pisses you off in game do you cuss them out? Do you proceed to beat them? Will you react the same in real life? I'm more of a diplomat and a pacifist than i am a fighter, but when i play games (including MMOs) i become ravenous and i'm not even trying to roleplay. I use sly tactics in games when in real life i'm rather honest. Gaming (esp on
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However, they don't reflect it directly, they don't reflect it for all people, and they certainly don't reflect it short-term.
And it's a sad thing if "the ad servers" would take everything you do in a game literally, as you do it.
Like, for instance, if you explore the virtual world a lot, it certainly does NOT mean you like to travel in real-life.
Sure, if the expl
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heh, that's true. The only games I play online are first-person shooters...and it's pretty rare that I play capture the flag with live ammunition in real life
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But if nothing else, they can monitor what kind of shopper you are. Do you hoard your money like I do, trying to accumulate everything for that one large purchase; or are you a spender, expending your on-hand cash every time you see something you want then and there. To know this is to know what kind of ads to show you.
Even better (Score:2)
Not that i want them cataloging my chat,movements, and attacks in the first place. Oh well, when worse comes to worse make a game of seeing if i could change the type of ad by altering my playstyle.
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It's not NLP. (Score:2)
But if you're google, you are going to turn everything into an attribute, and you have the luxury of running your classifiers over gigantico training sets to pick out minute details and correlations. And you can settle for low support values; all that matters is that some profitable subset of people targeted by a campaign respond to it. So if that target is to "reach" 1% of the market, and 10% of the people in the training set have a correlated action and responded to a survey a c
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I find myself constantly exploring, hence the travel advertisements, however I also find myself intentionally going out to find the biggest baddest thing I can in the area and see how long it takes for me to get killed. I suppose I'll see advertisements for "happy pills" soon.
While I can understand in SOME circumstances the need for additional revenue, the fact that the possibility of seeing it pop up in a game like World of Warcra
Hi, this is Google GameAds... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hi, this is Google GameAds... (Score:5, Funny)
Other ads (Score:3, Funny)
"You've been playing for 13 hours straight, click here to see free information on pressure sore care and heart disease."
"Wow, your reflexes really suck! How about some Red Bull?"
"We've noticed you always play the Axis in BF1942. Could we interest you in some Nazi memoriabilia?"
"GTA fan, click on this ad for a special offer from Glock firearms."
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Got Milk?
In soviet russia... (Score:4, Funny)
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I think Google is officially a typical corporation now. Profiling its users etc... Also WTF is up with that god damn google toolbar? Its practiaclly impossible to install anything now days without being prompted to install it. Just wondering if anyone else is annoyed with this stuff.
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Now? Perhaps you missed that whole gmail add thing they have going on? Or the fact that they purchased DoubleClick, etc etc.
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I personally find advertising in games extremely detrimental to my enjoyment of them. Advertising detracts from my leisure gaming activities, breaks immersion and attempts to brainwash me into purchasing things I don't want by playing off my fear
rpgs -- dialogue inaccurate for targeting? (Score:3, Funny)
Awesome.
Seriously, though, this makes me wonder if people who truly roleplay are going to be served ads based on their in-character dialogue -- could lead to some interesting (and profitless for the company being advertised) ads being served.
Not that there's much roleplaying in most popular games anymore, other than the above-mentioned example.
Better yet... (Score:2)
- calling each other gay, faggot, cock-sucker, and the like,
- calling each other "fucking camper" and/or "fucking cheater", (remember the keyword "fucking)
- telling each other how good their mom was in bed,
- trying the most underhanded sexist pickup lines on anyone whose name sounded, no matter how improbably, like it might be female. (And to some people even Chtulhu sounds feminine.)
Etc.
I shudder to think w
Obligatory PA comic (Score:5, Funny)
One has to wonder (Score:2)
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Prior Art right here. (Score:2)
Dynamic types (Score:4, Funny)
I will then become "profane" for a short period of time.
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Honestly... I don't think I care. I'm sure it'll be annoying at times, but aren't some advertisements annoying? If advertisement agencies would just learn to make interesting/funny/informative ads instead of the drivel they produce, they wouldn't have so many people trying so hard to ignore them.
Need for Speed is a good exam
blargh (Score:5, Interesting)
a) being advertised at during things I ALREADY FUCKING PAID OUT THE NOSE FOR?!?! (Movies, games, etc)
b) yet more additions to the Patent Minefield. I seriously fear that if I ever try to be innovative, I'm going to wake up in the (proverbial) hospital with my (proverbial) bits and legs blown off and a couple million dollars in "doctor's" fees.
Re:blargh (Score:4, Interesting)
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While I like a good bout online as much as the next guy, sometimes it's nice to just play on your terms [and not put up with other players, net lag, retarded hacked servers, etc].
Plus I'd play party games if I'm with peeps. Wii Smoothmoves y0!
Tom
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your comment really highlight the fact that ads are there, no matter what the hell they tell us.
From a free content point of view, i would understand, but from a service we already pay for, it just frustrates me. Didnt they used to say that the paying service was there to compensate for the lack of revenue from ads.
and about the patent minefield, you're so right. you can be innovative all you want, but dont you dare being successful, or that is, have money, because someon
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But I guess that's why I buy the DVD s
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Cable TV used to be commercial free.
Music used to be DRM free.
So are you going to just complain about it or fight back?
Personally I don't watch TV, but I watch shows on DVD.
I also listen to commercial free radio.
I only buy CDs from concerts, where the band profits most, and from Indie bands with out DRM
It's not much, but it's a start to fight back.
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I rarely watch TV. I also watch the shows on DVD that I like. I don't listen to the radio, except occasionally the student radio, which has no commercials (but mostly because nobody plays industrial...I suppose I could just listen to streaming radio too...but that's what my vast collection of completely legitimate mp3 files are for). NPR and the local classical stati
Re:blargh (Score:5, Funny)
Proposed solution: Get a job.
Solution benefits: Money, possible health and retirement plans.
Solution detriments: Doesn't do anything about ads in video games the GP paid for.
Conclusion: Proposed solution is completely irrelevant to the problem.
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BTW, you could probably fix that by some sort of ad in your sig.
RPGs (Score:1)
Valve I could doing this, they sell their soul for any form of revenue.
Client (Score:2)
"As someone who likes shooting people... (Score:2, Funny)
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Why God Why? (Score:1)
Annoying ADS!!! (Score:2, Insightful)
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Also they put them in the weirdest places. A map like Office would suit it yet Dust doesn't, so which has ads again?
Finally a use for mental illness! (Score:2)
Seriously WTF though. How the hell can profiling like this even be legal when you consider all the info Google already has? These guys know more about people that the government does.
personality profile (Score:1)
Too bad I'm a terrible creative writer, this sounds like an interesting story. Yeah...story...
heres a question (Score:1)
Bad patents (Score:2)
This patent is just taking existing knowledge and technology and applying it "in video games" much the same as the "...on the internet" patents.
-Rick
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I don't watch tv or listen to radio (Score:3, Insightful)
It ain't because I do not like tv. Well I don't, the recent drive to reality tv is one I could do without, but mostly it is because I just don't have time for the ads. Since tv programs are interrupted by them and I just don't have the patience to wait the 5+ minutes before the program resumes I just don't watch anymore.
Radio? The same story. Apart from the fact that I just don't like a lot of modern music, I also just don't want to have 5+ minutes of ads before the news and 5+ minutes after and that is if you don't count the station jingles as ads. Just how much ads do you need to play some music?
I run an ad-filter on my pc to filter ads, google including.
I have a NO-NO sticker on my door wich in the netherlands is the legal way to force ad companies to not post ads in your physical mail box.
GET THE FUCKING PICTURE! I DO NOT WANT YOUR GODDAMNED ADS!
It ain't even the principles of ads that upsets me but that the majority of them are so damned annoying. I suppose an annoying ad you notice you work better, I am probably the only person in the world who absolutly refuses to buy products related to annoying ads (or so ad-companies seem to think), but they annoy me.
And now they want ads in games. Right.
Google has the motto "do no evil". Am I the only one who realizes that the slogan of an ad company is not worth a goddamn thing?
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Maybe I'm just weird, but I like my time to be used "efficiently". What I mean by that is, if I want to be doing X activity for some about of time T, I'd like to be able to do X for the entirity of T without interruptions I myself choose to make.
I do not watch TV because the ads interrupt the activity without me wanting them.
I do not listen to anything but public radio, and only during non-pledge periods because everything else interrupts my activity with ads.
I do not buy games with
Google just gave me an idea. (Score:1)
I was against this... (Score:4, Funny)
Could take the fun out (Score:1)
WOW Already Has In-Games Ads (Score:2)
Fortunately it's still trivial to block these ads, though I think it's about time to escalate the arms race with a mod to prohibit people who are not on your friends list or in your guild from whispering you. If a game company wants me to pay $15 a month
Kind of out of place for many games (Score:2)
I could see in-game ads for games in contemporary settings, like GTA, but in World of Warcraft, they'd just look silly.
This is an issue for Hollywood - advertisers can't do product placement in historicals, which makes them unpopular. (Although if you look very closely at Marie Antoinette's closet, you'll see a pair of Converse All-Stars.)
Where to put the adds (Score:1)
To take it a step further, they could associate the IP address you login from with your user account. Then combine your in game behavior profile with other data related to your IP address. Then sell the data to other companies that might use IP address to target banner adds.
Patent Thieves (Score:2)
New definition of the term googley ie. "something is just not quite as it appears and more research needs to be done ie. that work contract is all a bit googley, I'll need to get a lawyer to check it", "the product is a bit googley, I'll need to do a bit more research so I don't get stuck with a dud.", "that patent is all a bit googley and check around and see w
Spyware! (Score:2)