Video Games and Advertising: The Doritos Effect

You may or may not know this but I consider myself a fan of advertising and marketing. I want to share that interest with you every so often by letting you in on what goes on in my head when I approach in-game advertising, advergames and just standard advertising fodder on websites and in magazines.

Today I wanted to talk about 'The Doritos Effect'.

If you are a gamer in this day and age chances are you have run into some sort of Doritos advertising in your games, game videos, print ads, etc. The Doritos advertisements have been so numerous as of late that I has had me thinking that the guys and gals over at Frito Lay might be trying to make Doritos the official chip of gamers. Personally I am all for this seeing as I love Doritos but for some it may be possible that these advertisements can be seen as insulting? Can this be seen as a stereotype that all gamers prefer fatty, cheesy snacks or are in fact fat already and that because of these ads they will not be able to restrain themselves and will be coerced into buying just one more bag of Doritos. Okay, so maybe I am taking this a little far but I digress that we are talking about people on the internet here.

A form of Doritos advertising has been sprouting up everywhere in the realm of video games. In a progression from normal to full blown advertising extravaganza these are the particular ones that I have noticed:

1. Advertising before Inside Xbox videos on Xbox LIVE (the standard for web video, etc.)
   
2. Advertising in Ghostbusters: The Video Game (becoming the standard for racing games, etc.)
   
3. The advergame Dash of Destruction, available FREE on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace (perhaps a still untapped realm of advertising that most companies do not care to invest in (ie too pricey))
   

The advertisements before the Inside Xbox videos are accepted as normal and probably would never have phased you if I had never mentioned them. The average web video is synonomous with advertising and the average person who surfs the internet is probably fairly good at tuning the ads out.

The advertising in Ghostbusters was clever but was only placed (that I noticed) in the first two levels. In the hotel level there were 1991 style Doritos vending machines and what I mean by 1991 style is that is how the bags were designed back then. There was also a crashed Doritos truck at the very beginning of the Times Square level (I felt that if I shot it Doritos should come pouring out; Doritos did not in fact pour out).

Lastly you have the Ninja Bee designed Dash of Destruction Doritos advergame that was quite charming in the way that it told you that its reason for existing was to give you easy Gamerscore. I am proud to say that I own all 200 points for that 20 minutes worth of Nacho Cheesy (see what I did there) gameplay.

In the end what I am trying to say is that Doritos have their act together when it comes to advertising and none of it has ruined my gaming experiences. I am always interested in the world of advertising and if I had never been aware of Doritos in my life before (how would that even be possible; what kind of rock would that be?) I would most certainly be aware now.

Dangerously cheesy (whoops, wrong product).

Game Diary: July 6, 2009: Firecrack This! Edition

For the past week or so I have been addicted to the multiplayer of Ghostbusters. It is the same bustin' action that the main campaign gives you but with friends (and you can play as the main cast). Alas, the levels are only scenarios pulled from the main game, assets and all, but it is still quite delightful in its simplicity. Perhaps this is how more companies need to do things when they develop a multiplayer portion to their game. If you do not know what exactly I am talking about let me enlighten you. Terminal Reality did not develop the multiplayer, Three Wave did. I think by devoting a team to doing multiplayer exclusively they were able to have a lag free multiplayer environment that extends the legs of the game as opposed to a game like The Darkness (random, I know, but it was the first decent game with this problem that came to mind) whose muliplayer ideas worked on paper but since they did not have proper QA (quality assurance) it ended up being unplayable because of the lag.

Other than that, I played some Scene It! BOS (Box Office Smash) with friends that visited over the weekend. Since my wife was not playing I actually won! My wife decimates me when we play and since I am such a bad sport about it she refuses to play with me.

That is about it for what I have been playing although I was on another podcast this past weekend and if you want to hear our thoughts on mail ladies, Project Natal, and what extends the legs of a game you should go listen to that here.

I am also installing Fable II to the hard drive as I finish up this post so be prepared to hear all about that.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game REVIEW

It is just another night in New York City when a paranormal pulse sweeps across the city starting you (the Rookie) off on a brand new Ghostbusters adventure. You play the role of the rookie (who never gets a name because Venkman does not want to get too attached) who gets to test all of the new proton pack equipment. Ghostbusters: The Video Game starts off two years after the events of Ghostbusters 2 so for all intents and purposes, this is the sequel Ghostbusters fans have been looking forward to. The question is, “Does it live up to the Ghostbusters reputation?”

From the opening cinematic one can get an idea of how well written (in the GB sense) this game is. It is witty, well acted, and it will probably charm you right into a Ghostbusters suit.

The story is straightforward enough but without giving too much away, the city is in trouble again and this time you get to help in the rescue. In the first level the rookie is tracking down Slimer at the Hotel Sedgwick and it is there that the Ghostbusters discover that something bigger is abound. From there you are taken on a romp through Times Square, the museum, the library, alternate dimensions (of course), and even Central Park.

None of the story ever feels forced or out of place (except for the last scene between Peter and the love interest) and it is all held together by the glue that is classic GB humor. You could not write this stuff better yourself.

When it comes to game play it is nothing new or innovative. It is your somewhat ordinary, run of the mill, slightly modified, third person shooter. None of that matters though because it still manages to feel fun and fresh. The combat is changed up only slightly throughout the game and it (the combat) never failed to satisfy.

The biggest problem with the game was with some of the combat; it was riddled with intense difficulty spikes (keep in mind that I was playing it through on the Professional difficulty though I imagine that it would spike in all of the same places) that were numerous enough that it almost ended with the controller in/on the wall/floor. In these moments it almost felt as though the game mechanics were broken and that you were relying on luck to get through. I would try a section of a level a ton of times and I would only pass through after what seemed like an eternity. I considered a restart of the game on a different difficulty level on more than one occasion. The last thing is that the load times became annoying when forced to something in the game more than twice.

There are a few other things that were wrong with the game but nothing quite at erroneous as the difficulty spikes. For example during some of the cut scenes there was awkward motion capture based on what was going on in the game. It seemed as though the characters body was telling a different story than the voice acting and it just felt unpolished. There was also some minor slowdown during times of intense ectoplasmic action but nothing that broke or spoiled the game.

On quite the opposite end of the spectrum, it never got old smashing headstones with the proton stream. The destructible items/environment in the game were a nice touch that definitely added to the aesthetic.

I would play the game again if only to nab some missing achievements but even without them I would be able to see myself playing it at least once more. The game was not too long or short; it ended right where it felt like it should have.

In the end the game stands out as though it could easily be the third part of the Ghostbusters canon. From the cut scenes to the random in game dialogue the game feels like a piece of the mythos. In the level that I will not spoil for you, Winston says, “So this is where all of the slime that was running under the city came from.”

Bustin’ made me feel sooo good.

Game Diary: June 29, 2009: Ghostbustin' Edition

In the past week I have played through Mass Effect Galaxy to completion and have been struggling with beating Ghostbusters on Professional mode.

At this very moment I am stuck trying to fling or pull Stone Angels into a gate. It is annoying. I imagine that these difficulty spikes are not just in the Professional mode though they are definitely heightened on this harder difficulty. These spikes will factor into my review but that is all I really want to say about it for now. Keep an eye out for that very soon (hopefully).

MASS EFFECT GALAXY comes to iPhone... right now!

So as far as I know there was no release date for this game and if there was I missed it but it is here regardless and that fateful game is Mass Effect Galaxy for iPhone and iPod touch. It cost five dollars (that I will not have until Friday... at least I think so) and I want it now. Sorry for the lack of tack in this post but I was just enjoying myself playing Ghostbusters (and passing 20,000 gamerscore in the process) when I decided that it would be time for a break. I clicked on over to my TweetDeck window and... BAM... there it was. Now I must have it. These are the days of announcing things on Twitter apparently... or at least for Bioware.

And apparently you can unlock something for Mass Effect 2 at the end...

Expect a review as soon as I get it/beat it.

Game Diary - April 27, 2009: The World Ends With Me

In terms of news as of late there is not a lot going on other than this awesome Ghostbusters intro video. Why have intro videos become the new thing? I look forward to seeing them for the first time when I first boot up the game but I cannot resist watching them if I am anticipating the game. Faults of the internet perhaps?

Anyway I have not been playing much on the 360 lately other than some Peggle here and there but I have been playing The World Ends With You (DS) on my commute. For people who follow this blog, you know that I have been playing this game for over a month (and I have had it longer than that). It is an awesome game though it is beginning to get really difficult. One can control the level of difficulty but truthfully if you do not play on the harder difficulty levels you are doing your character a disservice. The story is finally starting to make sense and I really am looking forward to seeing where it is going. It is bad in a way - that I am looking forward to seeing the direction of the story - because you have to devote a certain amount of time to 'grinding' and you have to know that it is not a good idea to rush through the combat to see the story parts.

I think that I have talked about the unique combat so I will talk about what I have been wondering. When you save the game you have a rating for everything in the game. As of the time of this entry my ratings aren't all that great and it has me wondering how good my ratings are going to be at the end of the game. I hope that if they aren't that great I will be able to go back to parts of the game and change that for myself.

That is all for now, I think I am going to go play some COD4 on Veteran.