Splinter Cell: Dynamic Advertising Agent
by Richard Mitchell 
{ Oct 30th 2006 at 11:30AM }
Concerned reader and avid Splinter Cell fan, Carlos Birdsong, shares some interesting info about Double Agent.
"I was playing SCDA with some friends as a Merc and I saw a spy run under a truck that had a Comcast ad on it. I was out of grenades and told one of my teammates to toss a grenade under the comcast truck, only he didn't see it. Why? He saw what was by default a Hong Kong truck instead of the Comcast truck.
While I think in game ads are cool when in context, I saw some Comcast signage as well, but this dynamic ad rendering can affect gameplay--subtle but interesting side effect."
Dynamic ad placement in games is starting to become commonplace, and situations like this could be an unfortunate byproduct. Have any of you experienced similar problems? Do you think dynamic ads should be removed from multiplayer games where positioning is important, or at least made so every player sees the same thing?
[Image via Mega64]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
KineticOnline @ Oct 30th 2006 11:50AM
Dynamic ad's are ok, but in multiplayer everyone not seeing the same adverts can be a problem if people are using the adverts as landmarks.
"hey, meet me at the burger king billboard"
5 minutes later.....
"man i cant see it anywhere, i have 3 nike ad's and one for BT broadband, but no burger king's"
Dracula Jones @ Oct 30th 2006 11:51AM
Just in case you haven't seen it... Penny Arcade did a comic about this exact thing last week: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/10/19
JKrahn @ Oct 30th 2006 12:26PM
I think that (most) dynamic in game ads are fine, and actually help add a level of realism. As long as it doesn't get in the way of gameplay, I have no problems with my fav developers (read: not EA) making some extra scratch back. But I can see the issue with different ads for different players affecting gameplay. So make all the ads the same, even if it means going for more universal advertisers and less localized results.
Tim @ Oct 30th 2006 12:20PM
Solution is pretty simple, just colour code these things. Example could be the billboard at location X always has a red border, or a red tinge, or a red stand, etc.
Toss a nade under that red truck.
JKrahn @ Oct 30th 2006 5:07PM
Re #3: I wish I had saw your post before I commented. A very good idea, that colour coding.