User blog:Duskey/Ingame advertising, where will it end?

You may or may not have noticed, but the latest patch for The Sims 3 added functionality for EA to place dynamic advertisements in the game. There are no ingame ads at the time of writing, but the technology for them being put there, is now implemented. Movie theater posters and billboards have been mentioned as examples of where to place the ads Vice President Steve Seabolt of the 'Global Brand Development' of the Sims label, even mentioned over-the-counter meds for a Sim who had been having a rough day for potential advertising. A news article on this subject states that potential clients would have time to see the Sims 3 figures before implementation and with The Sims 3 having celebrated its 1-year anniversary not long ago, the activation of dynamic ads may be close.

This is far from the first endaveour EA has undertaken into brand advertising, boasting titles such as The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff, The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff and free downloadable content such as a wide arrangement of Ford cars.

Dynamic advertising has been successfully implemented in other games for consoles in Guitar Hero World Tour on the Playstation 3 and on the PC in Counterstrike: Source. EA already developed a platform for such a similar system in collaboration with Microsoft for dynamic ads which is the one we're seeing implemented now.

All this is old news, in fact the first mention of this is from 2008 when The Sims 3 wasn't even released yet and with the recent change to the EULA along with the newest patch, there is very little the player can do to stop this. But how far are EA willing to take it? Movie theater posters for real world movies, McDonalds ads on billboards and Ibuprofen items your sim can eat for +10 mood may not sound that bad in the beginning, but where does it stop? Real life commercials on the Sims TV complete with sound? Radio jingles for actual products?

How do you feel about ingame advertising in The Sims 3. Cast your vote and add a comment below.

| Duskey | 13:04, June 15, 2010 (UTC)

Poll
How do you feel about dynamic ingame advertising in The Sims 3? I think it'll actually be fun. I don't care either way. I do not like it one bit. Capitalism suck. Better red than dead!