Topic

Totally theoretical discussion: How would "small" product placement make you feel?

Now, to be clear, I have seen NO WHERE that Tiny Speck is thinking about this. But it seems like one of those ideas that will come up if (1) Glitch is struggling or (2) Glitch does really well.*

I'm going to present two examples of small product placement ideas (not proposals, just examples) and I'm curious to how people would feel about them.

EXAMPLE A: So the new Batman movie comes out next Summer. And Warner Bro/DC cross promotes with Tiny Speck with clothes. You can buy a Batman suit! Or a Catwoman suit (yes, yes, we have a cat lady's suit now... but this would be official!)! Or Bane! They are one pricey range but, hey, you can dress up like Batman!

EXAMPLE B: This one is potentially feels slightly more sinister. Pepsi is launching a new type of Mountain Dew (i don't know, let's call it Dew3D, since 3D is all the rage). In partnership with Glitch, vendors now sell tiny cans of the stuff for a limited time. Maybe it makes it so you can surf on the backs of pigs.

How do these make you feel?

*(edit - When I say "that will come up," I don't really mean from anyone in Tiny Speck. I mostly mean from outside forces.)
(edit - just realized I wrote "product" as "protect")

Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

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  • Icky.
    Posted 17 months ago by larky lion Subscriber! | Permalink
  • like throwing up a little inside my mouth and a whole lot on my computer screen.
    Posted 17 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • like biting into a buttercream cake only to find out it was oozing out maggots and spider hair?
    Posted 17 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • p.s. FWIW i fervently believe that stoot would pawn his own laptop and phone, and then burn his book collection to stay warm, before he would ever, ever, consider such a thing <edit: i think? right? OH GOD STOOT PLEASE CHIME IN HERE>
    Posted 17 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I really don't mind having product placement in game...but I definitely wouldn't want to have to put up with product advertisement in game.
    The difference to me being - the first would be something my little Glitcher could use/interact with...the 2nd being some flashing billboard advertisement bugging the hell out of me and probably getting info from my computer (maybe?) to advertise a product directly at me.

    Did I make any sense? lol
    Posted 17 months ago by sgjo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Product placement doesn't really bother me too much. If it wasn't intrusive, I would just tune it out, ignore it. If I liked the item, I would use it. Like when McDonald's offers those nice coca cola glasses. I always get those. But I ignore the other crap I just don't care about.

    @Eglantine, I liked your post before you changed it about being in hell with no grapes to crush and an Apocalypse party going on.
    Posted 17 months ago by Crucial Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah product placement would be cool if its not ALL over. Like if there was a berverage labeled pepsi cola, but like, if there was a pepsi co factory & ads I would be upset. (using pepsi as an example)
    Posted 17 months ago by Taylor Swift Subscriber! | Permalink
  • World of fantasy and wonder. I don't want it cluttered with reality and product placement.
    Posted 17 months ago by g33kgurrl Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I play games to get away from all this "real world" crap.

    A platinum subscription to Glitch is WAY cheaper than the heroin and marajuana I would be imbibing in otherwise to escape this planet's daily crap... 

    (Just kidding... mostly.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Vicereine Linnæa Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @Crucial thanks. I kept on changing it trying to escalate the rhetoric because the initial topic has me pretty unsettled.
    Posted 17 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • sgio, that was exactly the way I felt when I thought about this. 

    (Slight background: It all occurred to me a couple of weeks ago. I was in a sketch show where I played various Marvel characters (Cyclops, Mr. Fantastic, Loki and Hawkeye, if you care). It was also around the time X-Men: First Class came out. I was playing Glitch at the same time I got back some of the ridiculous photos of me in costume. And I thought, "Man, part of me would like to dress up mu avatar like Cyclops.")

    AGAIN, purely hypothetical. I'm am just curious to folks gut reactions. I am not proposing ANYTHING. (I may later suggest other examples that potentially stretch the concept.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No.  Just no.
    Posted 17 months ago by jasbo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd feel like it's a business making business decisions.
    I also drink Mountain Dew and Pepsi and watch Warner Bros movies and read the Daily Mail and eat at McDonald's.
    But I'm also a liberal Democrat lesbian multi-cat-owning vegetarian Atheist.
    All those things are just parts of who I am. Glitch isn't my life, it's just a part of it. I wouldn't take it as a personal blow if they 'sold out'.
    Posted 17 months ago by serfer0 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Stoot said that he would "die a little inside" if he was forced to put any form of advertising into the game. So, no, this will not happen.
    Posted 17 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Noooooooo!
    Posted 17 months ago by Joni Mitchell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • shepherdmoon is correct and i believe stoot has also specifically addressed product placement in an interview and said they weren't planning on it.

    i can't actually find said interview, of course, but i'm at least 80% sure i am remembering it correctly.
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ah yes .. here it is!

    http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6233/creating_a_glitch_in_the_industry.php?print=1

    "I think There [did] just because they spent too much money, because otherwise a lot of it had really nice polish and nice feel. When you were talking to someone, they had a great way of doing eye contact and spreading people out in a group, so it was a good social experience.

    But again there wasn't any game there, and it was all about these brands. I don't want to go into a virtual world and look at Gap shit, American Eagle T-shirts... It's just... I don't know, it seems kind of gross.

    I'm sure you could write a psychology thesis on it or something like that, but you can't really role-play in that context. If you have real world brands in front of you, you can't... You can't invent a persona because you can make yourself look different and you can fly and stuff like that. I don't know, it definitely breaks the magic circle. There's no real opportunity for playing."
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I don't think the advertisers could stand all of our slight of mouth comments.
    Posted 17 months ago by xoxJulie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • whew thank you striatic *clingy hug*
    Posted 17 months ago by EgIantine Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Thank you, striatic. Great quotes. (And I agree.) And that started to get closer to where I actually was some of the "danger zone." I don't really want an answer from TS on the subject, but I wonder where the line is. What is the difference between, say a Dracula outfit and say, Spike from Buffy? Okay, not great examples.

     (I could expand on how there actually seems to be not that much "roleplaying" at this point... but that is a WHOLE other kettle of fish.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Actually...I feel less barfy about it if:
    1. The product images were glitchified and their appearance made familiar but not identical.
    2. No brand names ever appear
    3. The sponsors were willing to have their products potentially spoofed in service of the game world.
    But that would be pretty rare to see.
    Posted 17 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I DO NOT want real life infiltrating my Glitch utopia. Ads for gitchizen-related things like a Glitch's "Big Bags Moving Service" = cool! Robert Mondavi sponsored hell wine = UNCOOL. However, I think there's a happy middle ground, where companies could sponsor SPOOFS of their products (behind the scenes), and that would be really cool. Like if Mott's shelled out $ for the creation of Crabato Juice (without changing the name to an icky "Mott's Crabato").

    Saddly, few companies are cool enough to get this sort of warped product placement (though I believe it could be incredibly effective), so I doubt it would ever happen.

    Back to the question and straightforward product placement, especially happy meal style limited promotion for new releases, I say ick! Keep my Glitch free of dull, humorless, real world items.

    ETA: What Nanookie said. lol, I think we are sharing a brain on this one.
    Posted 17 months ago by Eureka Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Nanookie.
    Posted 17 months ago by jasbo Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I figured most here would be opposed to it, but as usually, I'll be a bit of the contrarian and say, it wouldn't bother me too much if done well.  

    If it was an option between icky products ads, or product placement that I could either embrace or ignore...I'd much rather have product placement. And in general, you sort of have it without the sponsoring benefits in some of the game wear anyway...the domo-like hats, the cat woman outfits, etc.   I like Nanookie's suggestions that they should be glitchified if used...

    I personally would rather sip on a nice Corona lite with lime (yep, still want limes) than that icky blue labeled beer we have now...if only I could get a hammock on a sandy beach that my glitch could lie in too...
    Posted 17 months ago by b3achy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I wouldn't care. Some of you thinking it's like eating maggots? Wow... or you'd vomit? Jeeeeeze. 

    Gosh.

    Yeah, I am not saying it *should* happen, but it's not like it would reverse my world. I wouldn't *want* it to happen. 

    Good thread idea though, Lord Bacon-o. 
    Posted 17 months ago by Mr. Dawgg Subscriber! | Permalink
  • We already have a Mike Tyson grill, that is a real product form a real guy.

    If we had videos at like on youtube that try to get me to drink, buy their internet, phone or convert me to Mormonism (I get them) before we played I would also hate it.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ani Laurel Subscriber! | Permalink
  • ROFL Aniloverl - the real product is the George Foreman Grill! The Mike Tyson Grill is a spoofy version of that. It's not product placement, but if it was, I'm TOTALLY down with product placement that maintains the wit of the game (as I mentioned in my comments above).
    Posted 17 months ago by Eureka Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Hey, yeah, the Mike Tyson grill!
    How do you feel about a product named after a convicted rapist being in the game?
    Posted 17 months ago by serfer0 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • LOL, Aniloverl, I think you're thinking of the George Foreman Grill--Mike Tyson does have a grill on "Mad TV", though.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONLmmk6EQCw
    Posted 17 months ago by Shepherdmoon Subscriber! | Permalink
  • "(I could expand on how there actually seems to be not that much "roleplaying" at this point... but that is a WHOLE other kettle of fish.)"

    there hasn't been, and that interview is 8 months old, but more recently in the forums [i'm at least 80% sure of this as well] stoot has said that one of the primary purposes for glitch is to create a platform where players can tell stories .. so while it would be an understatement to say that few storytelling supporting attributes are currently visible, roleplaying/storytelling is at the very least something that is on the radar.

    also, personally i prefer the words "storytelling" and "performance" to "role playing" .. coz the latter term conjures up images of bondage gear and other kinky outfits and ..

    wait .. you're telling me that glitch already has straightjackets and french maid uniforms? hmm ..
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @serfer0 - It's just a spoof, using the name of another former, well-known boxer. I don't see a real need to think that much about it. I'm also a vegetarian who doesn't object to pigs in the game, nibbling pigs in the game, or cooking with pig meat on my convicted rapist grill in the game. It's just a game. I don't expect political correctness, and by george, I'd be darn disappointed if Glitch adopted a PC-first approach to creativity.
    Posted 17 months ago by Eureka Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No ads please, but +1 for piggy back surfing.
    Posted 17 months ago by Ida Keen Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Recently, Stewart Butterfield wrote in the forums about how Tiny Speck think they should get revenue from the game. For example, selling "some physical "stuff" (merchandise/schwag) and in-game ads (only by players, for players, advertising stuff in the game — e.g., ad spots on the subway or literal billboards in busy transit locations." (Whatever that means.)

    Read it all here: http://beta.glitch.com/forum/general/5090/#reply-45170
    Posted 17 months ago by Ximenez Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The idea of companies self-spoofing on Glitch was the next thing I was going to bring up. Yes, most companies are VERY careful about that sort of thing but you see more and more of it these days.

    If I understood Stoot's recent comments about ads in subways and the like, I believe he was referring to ads for PLAYER in game companies: Moving services, banking, tour services, Lord Bacon-o's Meat Bricks, etc.. I think it is a wonderful idea that I can't even conceive of how one would run it. (Would the art have to be created by TS design staff to keep in in the right style? How expensive would that be? And regulations of what would be a possible copyright infringement to real world products and companies? Ooof.)

    @stri, I am going to have start a whole other thread on the storytelling aspect one of these days as that is a concept that fascinates me (and something that has intrigued me about EVE but has not intrigued me about many other MMOs). I also agree with the term storytelling over roleplaying, but for different reasons that are extremely nerdy/borderline obnoxious. (Similar reasons that I use the term "speculative fiction"... which I know is obnoxious.)
    Posted 17 months ago by Lord Bacon-o Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Eureka, still same brain.
    Posted 17 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Are you kidding?!? I would love to be able to make my own Diet Coke in game. I don't think I'd care as long as it accented the game. Of course the people who play for free have to deal with the annoying pop up ads :)
    Posted 17 months ago by Peep Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I wouldn't feel bad about it if the product placement benefited the players directly. I don't think the pig-surfing idea would be much fun after the first time; I'd rather see something that you could keep doing and get actual benefits each time. For example, suppose drinking a Pepsi gave you a credit - it would make a new level of interaction with the Glitch economy. The Batman suit might attract batterflies. Amazon could sponsor teleportation scripts or potions that made learning faster. McDonalds could sponsor a randomly-appearing stall that gave out free hamburgers.
    Posted 17 months ago by Tanga Subscriber! | Permalink
  • No offense meant to you, Tanga, but that would put me right off. And it wouldn't stop there, that's the thin end of the wedge.  Mobile apps that have me checking in at Chipotle's and scanning some barcode on my receipt for currants wouldn't be far behind that.  I just don't find that even remotely appealing.  
    Posted 17 months ago by Nanookie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • -1
    Posted 17 months ago by Milolin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • tanga, i would not play the game if any of that was in there.

    product placement ruins stories and imagined worlds.

    i mean, imagine if Luke Skywalker drank a Red Bull before swooping in to blow up the Death Star?

    hm .. actually, maybe referencing Star Wars, one of the most heavily cross marketed creative franchises of all time, isn't a good example to go with .. or maybe it is perfect, seeing as that the more cross-marketed the franchise has become, the less creatively compelling it has grown to be.
    Posted 17 months ago by striatic Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Nanookie. and Striatic.
    Posted 17 months ago by Millie Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +100 Nanookie

    Tanga - I know we all have different thresholds for product placement, and I'm not mocking yours at all. To me, all that product placement integration sounds like my least favorite part of being at Disney World.

    I guess it could be worse: goo.gl/clMRw
    Posted 17 months ago by Eureka Subscriber! | Permalink
  • WTF?? No.
    Posted 17 months ago by Lilypad Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Like a commercial! Again! (thumb down)
    Posted 17 months ago by Joy Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I do think Tiny Speck should merchandise, sell tshirts etc. Awesome!
    Posted 17 months ago by Lilypad Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Protect placement? Are you offering protection services? For a small fee? I knew it! I knew the Glitch mafia was in with the Rooks!
    Posted 17 months ago by Violet Faulds Subscriber! | Permalink
  • +1 Lilypad. I want merch. I want a food vendor action figure (with cart), and I want a crab with musicblock and headphones. I'll settle for mini-plush versions.
    Posted 17 months ago by Eureka Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Ok, I didn't read far enough before responding. In-game ads would be awesome if they are from and for the Glitch community.
    Posted 17 months ago by Lilypad Subscriber! | Permalink
  • would be totally happy to see them
    Posted 17 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • but Bacon-O, Spike the Vampire is already here!
    Posted 17 months ago by katlazam Subscriber! | Permalink
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