Ban game advertising?

    this is an interesting, if not hideously flawed thread. you´ve seen an advert for a game which wasnt that good, yet people go out and buy it, and they think "hmm, this game is bad" they dont really then say "all games must equal bad". the same way i dont think all tv is crap because i´ve seen big-brother or that all movies are dross because i accidentally saw "the core" you know? people take games very seriously, the problem is that not all games are mainstream enough to be marketed at joe public on the large screen. having games like half life 2, a game which requires a reasonably high-spec pc to run is SUCH a smaller market than for GTA 5 which every playstation owner can buy and play. plus, the audience for GTA is much wider than for Half Life 2. PS2 is more mainstream and socially accepted. Sticking an advert on for a wider audience and for a more accepted game (not that GTA is acceptable if John Thompson is to be believed (google his name)) makes far more sense. Many of these mainstream games are a pile of crap though and so they litter the mainstream press with ads for it so people have gotten their money over the till before they know about it. If a game is good, like hl2, it will be a massive hit without anywhere near the amount of exposure. making more overall profits for the companies involved who DIDNT have to spend millions on blanket coverage. If a game is good, it will sell on its own merits and word will spread of how good it is through magazines, websites, word of mouth. If a game is bad, expect a lot of press coverage. If its good AND its being advertised, then assume that the companies are riding that baby all the way to the bank. -arc

    and no-one force you to buy them. moaning about games advertsing being overdone is like moaning about ALL advertsisng, but we live in a commerical capitalistic world; what the hell do you expect? course sh*te games are gonna be sold as the best thing since sliced bread even when they arent, but then EVERYTHING is sold as being the best must-have. its not as if the adverts are gonna say *this games cr*p but has a nice box so buy it* - and most game adverts are aimed at kids who´ll just whine until their parents get it for them anyway.

    @ff So far I´ve seen &quot;The Punisher&quot;, whatever that is. Maybe they advertise other games too, if so, what? Arcon <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>you´ve seen an advert for a game which wasnt that good, yet pe

    <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Well, of course not. That´s not the point though. If someone did buy a game and come away with a bad experience, the market just strunk by one person, along with our credibility in some people´s eyes (like Jack Thompson... gosh, I want to throttle him). <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Yes...but that´s going to happen with or without game advertising. It sounds to me like you´d rather ban crap games, not just the adverts. As Taw said, what else are they going to say on the advert? &quot;Please buy our game, but...well...to be honest, that Half Life 2 game is far better. You´d be better off going for that instead.&quot; Once a publisher has a finished game all they´re interested in is turning a profit, even if that means selling a crap game to gullible 12 year-olds. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

    &quot;If someone did buy a game and come away with a bad experience, the market just strunk by one person&quot; there are many many below average games and the market never seems to shrink, rather the opposite in fact.

    The gaming market is like a sewer system, a bunch of crap goes in but occasionally something good pops up, like something flushed down a toilet by accident. Agreed, you can´t try and sell Half-Life 2 to the mainstream, because the mainstream isn´t going to spend $1,000+ dollars on a new computer, internet access, and peripherals just to play the game. The few that do are going to be the ones screaming loudest when they can´t get Steam´s registration to work. (I have heard the screaming... it is painful). But for the few that would say &quot;Hey, PC games look good, I should get a new computer&quot;, it would help all types of technology markets. Hey, we can´t sell PC games to the masses as such. Besides, do you really want more n00bs?

    [img=http://www.sloganizer.net/en/image,Eh-unl-Steve,black,lgreen.png]

    Fl was a good game and i never seen an advert for it i only picked it up because i couldn´t find the game i was actually looking for and fl was the closest thing to it (the game i was looking for was tachyon which turned out to stink anyway)

    <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>It sounds to me like you´d rather ban crap games, not just the adverts <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Damn right I would, but I´m a little willing to compromise on that <img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>what else are they going to say on the advert? &quot;Please buy our game, but...well...to be honest, that Half Life 2 game is far better. You´d be better off going for that instead.&quot; Once a publisher has a finished game all they´re interested in is turning a profit, even if that means selling a crap game to gullible 12 year-olds. <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Precisely my point. Ban the whole bally lot of ´em <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Agreed, you can´t try and sell Half-Life 2 to the mainstream, because the mainstream isn´t going to spend $1,000+ dollars on a new computer <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> I just found the system specs for HL2: 1.2Ghz CPU 256MB RAM Dx 7 Gfx Card 4.5 HD Space 98/Me/2000/XP Not as bad as I thought. It even runs on my mum´s computer <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> <font size=1 face="trebuchet ms"><BLOCKQUOTE><hr size=1 noshade>Besides, do you really want more n00bs? <hr size=1 noshade></BLOCKQUOTE></font><font face=´trebuchet ms, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica´ size=2> Shhh, that´s the title for my next thread? <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle><img src=smilies/icon_smile_tongue.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

    There are always exceptions to everything, of course. I´ll grant you that, but surely you see more adverts for bad games than good ones. Edited by - The Evil Thing on 6/10/2005 12:21:10 AM

    I would that is is becuase, goods games sell themselves, although some allways break the pattern.

    "I cannot help but notice that there is no problem between us that cannot be solved by your departure." Perment departure. Is it Bravery or Stupidity? Dropping the hammer, hopefully not on my toe.

    I agree on some games that are good and never get seen. Alot of them get bought on reputation, and alot of them are good. But how did they get that reputation? Half-Life 2; I bought it and loved it. I´m going to play through the story once again very soon. But Half-Life 1? I´ve never played it, but I have a positive view of it. Why? Cause of the reputation implied by word-of-mouth and by my view of Half-Life 2. Startopia? I had never even heard of the game until my friend showed me it. We dug it up from the room we call the Swimming Pool, a room that has been filled with the most random stuff for a close approaching 8 years. We plugged it in and played it and played it for hours. Some of the games a developer makes are often overshadowed by their more prominent titles. Startopia was made by Eidos, but Eidos isn´t remembered for that game, it´s remembered for Tomb Raider, if remembered at all. But I never remember any advertising for Startopia. Ultimately, it´s up to the developer to advertise. Sometimes it is a wise choice and other times there just advertising the same cookie cutter games that get mixed and milled in with the others that you find in the bargain bin a month later. I think that Arc was right. Just because one title was bad doesn´t mean they all are or the general public will think they all are. Let me put together 3 games. Diablo II, Guild Wars, and World of Warcraft. 2 are made by Blizzard, and 1 is made by ArenaNet, Which is composed of people who were laidoff from Blizzard. These 3 games are unique in all aspects almost. You could play all 3 simultaneously and not get bored of 1 cause you played another too much. Diablo II is the most unique of these, for its gameplay style. But lets say you played Diablo II and didnt like it, that doesnt mean they won´t like all and any more RPGs. They could hate Diablo II and love Guild Wars / World of Warcraft.Or vice versa. I talked to one of my friends and I got out of him, &quot;That´s not true, just because one person made a crappy game does not make it a bad genre, look at about half the racing games.&quot; And I´ll stop right there. I´m sorry if this is a grave dig, but this forum is kinda slow right now, so I picked one at random and started writing a response without checking the date. Sorry, but its only 15 days and didn´t feel like wasting all that typing... ________________________ Watch the head humpers Gordon!