product placement and ads in games

product placement in games has had a positive and negative effect on games. the placement of different cars in racing games has improved the games and help in making the more realistic ones even more realistic. if the game companies hadn't gone out and asked for the specifics for the cars and gotten the permission from the car companies to use their cars in the games then the games themselves wouldn't have been quite as realistic as they are now. the games themselves might not have changed the physics of how the car moves and how it handles on the road but you also get the ability to see how a car that you can go out and buy would be like. in this fashion the car being used int he game enters into the demonstrative aspect of product placement because the game is actually in a way selling the car. some of the cars in the racing games players wont be purchasing but however there are the lower end cars in some games like Gran Turismo where the player is forced to use the lower performance cars before they can use the higher end performance cars. in this fashion the product placement has made it so that the racing games have become even more realistic to our time thus the product placement has a positive effect on the games.

However in the games like Fight Night Round 3 the placement of the Burger King mascot in the game seems to take away from the game play. in the game using the King as your personal trainer increases your "heart" attribute. the fact that Burger king is being placed in a good setting with your heart is ironic since eating at Burger King is not going to help your heart in the least bit. also in Sims there are McDonald's kiosks that when your character eats there his hunger is quenched but also his fun attribute is increased. this seems to be just another way in which the product placement is taking away from the game play. the food you are eating should and does quench your hunger but adding the increased fun attribute to the outcome of eating at this kiosk is unnecessary and seems to lessen the game play a little. the Burger King mascot and the McDonald's kiosk are two examples of product placement taking away from the game play of the game.

so with these two things in mind the new consumer products are going to keep appearing in games and TV but there needs to be a line drawn as to how far they can go. in cases where in increases the realism of the game they do indeed work and are useful to the game but in cases where they just don't make sense are times when they are taking away form the game and should not be allowed to go that far.