Video game survey for Masters Thesis - Brands & adverts in games

Nutmeg

Afternoon all!

I’ve been in contact with the mods over the last few days to see if starting this thread was OK and it's been approved by Mr. E, r3nu4l and Silverfish Thanks to the mods for the go ahead.

Just a little background about myself and why I’m making this thread; I'm currently in WIT completing my Masters Degree in Business and Marketing. Over the course of this summer I'm working away on finishing my Masters Thesis which is titled "A Study into the Effectiveness of Brand Placement and Advertising in Video Games". To help me reach my research objectives, I'm carrying out a large survey to investigate gamer's perceptions and attitudes towards brand placements and advertising in video games.

Is there any chance you could possibly spare around 5 minutes and click on the web link attached and complete my questionnaire? The questionnaire is all about brands and real world products being advertised and promoted through video games and there are a number of questions based around specific games. If you haven't played them or don't know the answer, that's fine, just skip it and don't worry about it. Responses are fully anonymous and no IP data or any other details will be taken from your participation.

The questionnaire is aimed at anyone who currently plays video games. It doesn't matter if you only play them every now and again, your input is still highly valued! The mods also said that a discussion on the subject of brands and advertising in video games in this thread would be fine so if anyone has any opinions or feelings on the subject, please post them as it would also be a great help to my research.

I'd really appreciate your time and help!

Regards,

Danny. (Nutmeg)

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DHXN93M

Kiith

Done and done. Though i skipped a few of the sports questions.

RolandIRL

done, skipped the sports games questions as i haven't played any of them

good luck in your masters

Sabre0001

Done.

Decent survey and I may actually be interested in reading the final product.

An issue: When asked if I felt that real world branding was appropriate in certain settings I would have to say it depends on the ad. For example: If Final Fantasy XIII was being advertised in the future (2020) it would be terrible; but if that ad read Final Fantasy XVI, it might be more interesting. Q20 / 21 were a bit hit and miss for me

Didn't play the full World Cup game so had to skip but the theory behind it is interesting. Think the American Football game can get away with it (again in theory because I haven't played it) because American Sports coverage is all about the branding / sponsorship.

As I progress I'm finding I haven't played enough of these games

To expand on your last question because I touched on it above, the Splinter Cell approach should be more subtle...Taking out chewing gum doesn't add anything - why doesn't he just say, "ah Airwaves" altogether! Brand placement is in TV but at this stage, it's more subtle and sometimes subtlety works even better.

Whereas The A-Team poster could fit in (I can't find what year Prototype is actually based in - which would alter my answer...as stated above)

Nehaxak

Done. Lied at every opportunity and/or chose answers I thought you'd want to hear.... Or did I ?

tman

Done... I also had to skip the sports related ones though

Tallon

Done, skipped the sports.

good luck with it Danny

folan

Done. Good luck. Almost there now!

Aldebaran

Done and done... and I mean done.

Vegeta

Done and skipped the sports games

Done

Some very interesting questions there

Burgo

Done.

Mr E

Done. Very interesting survey.

Nutmeg

Cheers guys!

Don't worry about the sports ones if you didn't answer, I'll only be using data from those questions out of anyone who did answer. I'm using those as a type of bonus question to help gauge the level of recall out of anyone who has played those particular games.

Sabre0001, thanks for the input. I agree, it does ultimately depend on the game timeline and setting for where advertisements should be placed but I just wanted to investigate whether people would want to see any type of real world brand or advert placed in a fictitious or futuristic world; e.g. World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy type games.

Interesting point on the Splinter Cell brand placement as it is a hugely obvious placement. With regards to the question about Prototype, I believe it's set in current day New York City (2009/2010). Very enjoyable game too I thought.

grizzly

On the last question I'd have like a third option – sponsored content. I think this is a win/win for gamers/advertisers. They get their brand advertised, while I can have the playing experience free of adverts and more importantly, I feel more positively towards the product as it's given me something rather then just pulled me out of the game.

johnny_ultimate

Done! Have used boards in the past for such things so best of luck with it!

I must say, that Splinter Cell product placement is disgusting. I expanded more in my answer, but I much prefer 'actual ads' like billboards - which are in the background, and clearly advertisements, as opposed to such crass, painfully forced placement.

Also, you might have spotted it already, but Metal Gear: Peace Walker attracted some controversy a while ago for having some truly bizarre and blatant product placement. Link to some of it. As I said, you probably know about it already, but definitely a fascinating one on the topic

Otacon

Just completed it myself; answered one of the sports questions. If possible, I think a few people, me included, would be interested in reading the thesis when its finished.

BeansBeans

Had to skip all the sports ones myself too
The splinter cell video was tragic. god.
Interesting stuff though.

Silverfish

Done. Skipped the sports ones

RedXIV

Done, again, would be very interested to read results on this

eddhorse

Done and done, impressed by dynamic advertising if you have an internet connection. Didn't know it existed. Also never played any of the sports games.
Is it only sports games that have the most advertising? billboards etc?
I would be more aware if you had dynamic advertising in all games really not just sports games.

VenomIreland

done, skipped the sports.

calex71

Who remembers all those eircom ads in Skate 2? So bad it wasn't funny , wasn't just bad the things were everywhere, like it was the only ad no variety just eircom all over the place in certain places

Agricola

Done.

Of the sports games, I could only answer for PES. Given that it has an authentic champions league mode, the fact that I knew which companies were on the adboards was probably more down to watching real football than playing the game!

Shiminay

Done - not sure if some of my answers to the "what product sponsored this" type questions were correct, but I guess that's part of the object of the exercise - to see if the brand sunk in or not.

Interesting and pretty well thought out survey too. Like Sabre, I'd love to see a summary of the results if it's possible or maybe you could post a link to your thesis for a read when you finish it later this summer.

Good luck with it!

seithon

Done also, I have to say if i saw that in splinter cell (if i had it) i'd have returned the game for a refund.

Nutmeg

Thanks for all the responses guys. Received a much bigger response level than I thought I would so I really appreciate all the help.

I've closed off the survey link now so I can get to work on analysing the results and putting together the rest of the thesis. I'll do my best to make a copy of the finished thesis available for any of you who expressed an interest in it by posting a PDF of it here after it's been completed and submitted to the college on August 13th.

Thanks again all!