Running Over Virtual Pedestrians Helps In-Game Ad Recall 144
neuroworld writes to point out a study which found a correlation between in-game violence and a player's ability to recall advertisements seen while playing. The test subjects were given two versions of a driving game, which included "unobtrusive" billboard ads, and their eye movements were recorded by a camera. One version had players hitting targets for points, and the other version had them running down pedestrians. "[The researchers] found ads displayed along with violent scenes to be more memorable to players than those shown with nonviolent content, even though players spent less time looking at them. The results are contrary to expectations stemming from research on television, where violence has been shown to decrease attention to advertisements."
Re:I'm Sold (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember the Grand Theft Auto hack which allowed people to have sex with prostitutes? I bet if they tattooed "Buy Duff Beer" across her stomach, everyone would remember that ad too. Even people who never played the game!
Why be subtle? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they made the billboards destructable like in Red Faction, I bet you they'd remember the exact slogan you put on there.
Why try to "Sneak" these adverts into games, and find the best way to make people remember without thinking about it, when the only thing you REALLY have to worry about is getting people to remember it. Ads in games have already come around... so... why the illusion?
Re:Advertiser should defend "violent" games then (Score:5, Insightful)
If I ever see (Score:5, Insightful)
Heres an idea (Score:5, Insightful)
How bout we just not put ads in games and call it a day?
Is 50 bucks a pop not enough? Really?
Or if you are going to put ads in I have the perfect spot....level loading. Give me a stupid orbitz game to play why it loads.
Re:Advertiser should defend "violent" games then (Score:5, Insightful)
memory vs advertising (Score:3, Insightful)
It seems to me that it's fairly well accepted that long term memories tend to form more strongly when accompanied by a strong emotional response.
I think that in the case of TV advertising the ads are "in-between" the violence, so you may remember the violence from the program, which tends to suppress the ad since it's not displayed during the program.
This experiment makes the ad coincident with the violence.
How is that not completely obvious? (Score:4, Insightful)
The brain stores the *differences* of *associations*. And violence is more extreme. So it is a bigger difference. Which means the storing is stronger. Which means you remember it, and everything you associate with at, best.
Or did nobody here understand how brains (or other neural nets) work?? (I see that all the time :/)
Re:Heres an idea (Score:3, Insightful)
50 bucks isn't a ridiculous price for a video game. Inflation adjusted, we're paying less for games now than we did a decade ago. This despite the fact that games today require waayyyy more people and waaaayyyy more money to make than they did back then. The market has grown to a huge extent, so publishers have been able to continue to make money just by volume, but it's still a risky proposition. The fact that many games now retail for $60 was outrageous to some people, but really we should all be surprised that it didn't happen sooner.
I'm not particularly offended by the general idea of advertising in games. It can certainly be done in ways that significantly damage a game, but it can also be done in a reasonable manner. If that helps keep a decent game company in business, or keeps them from raising their game prices for a couple more years, then I'm ok with that.
Ads in games (Score:1, Insightful)
Well, if they plan to put ads in games, they better lower the damn price. No one wants to pay $50-60 to see ads.
- From a PC.
That's nothing (Score:3, Insightful)
I bet you, if you ran over real pedestrians you would remember what was on the billboards.
(actually you would have years in prison with only that to think of.)
Re:Advertiser should defend "violent" games then (Score:5, Insightful)
While I agree and any help in the fight against "oh my god video games with blood, think of the children!"
Unfortunately they have a giant gaping hole in their testing.
Test 1) Drivers ran over virtual targets
Test 2) Drivers ran over virtual people AND blood was splattered on the virtual windshield obscuring the player's vision.
Could the difference in what the drivers looked at and recalled have anything to do with the shit splattered on the screen?
Do you drive at the same level of alertness when your windshield is clear as opposed to when you are driving half-blind? It seems to me that vision degradation would be a bigger source of agitation than video violence.
Perhaps they should redo the first test using virtual barrels of mud to hit instead of "targets"
Re:If I ever see (Score:3, Insightful)
I never said that I see the ads (I am well aware of Adblocker and NoScript), just that they were there.
Yes, and on many pay sites you can disable those. Heck, /. gives me the option on the front page just for having good karma.
If you are using a public terminal, or someone else's system, you may not have the option to install such things.
...but those systems aren't under my control, and I didn't pay for them. Apples to oranges here.
If the majority of the population starts using AdBlocker, believe me the advertisers will come up with ways around it.
...and we'll find ways around them, just like many Chinese are finding ways around that firewall they've got. Doesn't make their behavior any less obnoxious, nor is it an excuse for them to do this. To turn one of the Ferengi rules of acquisition on its ear: Profit is NOT its own reward.
Re:I'm Sold (Score:3, Insightful)
So bring it on advertisers ... the more you greedy advertisers try to find ever more ways to manipulate people, the more hatred you'll generate
Why so much hate?
I think I know. The messages in advertising is designed to pass around your conscious censors and end up smack in the lizard brain, and that's something to resent. Read "The Hidden Persuaders" if you can find a copy, it's old.
Remember the old Ford advertisement for the Mustang II? Billboards read "Mustang II - Boredom 0". Of course, people didn't read or remember numbers, but they did remember the rest of the message. The car was pulled from production a few months later. Didn't sell for some reason.
-- Aged Marketing Flack