First, you wrote “It has no business being in my games.”

My question is, why not? Just because you don’t want to see it? Ads are ads; somebody pays somebody else to put an image on a billboard in the game. Are you now arguing against all advertising in video-games? That’s a completely different argument; one worthy of its own post, discussing whether or not we actually own these games once they’re purchased and, if ads are inevitable, whether or not we should have some say about what is advertised.

Second, Obama’s comment is not implying that video games are underachievement, pure and simple. His point was that some parents use video games to do their parenting for them. He’s not saying that “videogames are ruining our children;” he’s saying “bad/lax parenting is ruining our children, no matter how good the education system is or isn’t.” As far as I know he’s never said anything about “violence in video games,” or what-have-you. Furthermore, there’s nothing in his platform about video games at all.

http://www.deanforamericagame.com/

Yes. The Howard Dean for Iowa game.

Oh, and there was also this really political game too:

http://www.americasarmy.com/

I agree that these overt political ads are annoying, distracting, condescending, and tacked on. If anything, it just reveals a level of hypocrisy in Obama (although I do still think he’s necessary for this country right now) in that he’s selling himself and his campaign like a product; that’s not change that’s more of the same. That’s essentially the problem with American Politics right now, that presidents are treated as this weird movie-star/commodity that are purchased with “votes”, that their image gets disconnected from the actual issues at hand. The random video game billboard ad is such a commercial thing to do (trying to stick advertisements everywhere in every experience, from walking down the street to browsing the web), and it’s something I’d expect from an economically driven industry.

*sigh*

On the other hand, political ads, no thanks.

To kick a dead horse a bit more until the maggots come out.

It’s all about the money and most of the big time development/ producer houses don’t really care what they are advertising, as long as it brings in another revenue stream. The company realizes that while some customers will grumble, a bulk of their target audience will still purchase the game if it is quality. In their mind an ad is an ad and it really doesn’t matter who is paying the bill. So you get Obama advertisements this time, just wait until the next election. I guarantee it will be worse.

Politicians are always keen to get their message out to new audiences and venues and the rise of video gaming provides a relatively untouched campaigning platform. I don’t agree with ads in games in the first place, but it is capitalism at its finest and I have to give props for a political team to have the smarts to get into a new venue to reach more of the electorate.

Now for the other side of the coin. Is it hypocritical? Probably, but I think that is mainly because there is a lack of political understanding of the burgeoning gaming industry. Video games need their own lobbying arm, a pure one dedicated to the video game industry alone. Gaming is big business now and deserves to be represented in that fashion. (That big business thing is a whole other can of worms) Until the people in the dome understand the complex nature of the industry it will continue to be villified by political opportunists.

Politicians pander to fear and the unknown, and video games to most Federal elected officials are still an unknown to them. It is an easy bogeyman to play to the masses. Fortunately right now is a golden opportunity for the gaming industry to develop an effective lobbying arm. There are too many other big issues, mainly the crumbling economy, that politicians have no time to chase after ridiculous video game conspiracies.

My apologies for getting of tangent and preaching on a soapbox. I blame it on the fact that I live inside the Beltway.

Well, on the other hand, look at the amount of downloadable content there’s been for Burnout Paradise (like the recent Bike Pack), all of it available free: no $2 Rock Band track nonsense here. Sure, advertising is a Faustian pact, but at least in this case, the gamer does seem to be getting something for it.

On the larger point, once you allow ads in games (and that happened a decade ago- doesn’t anyone else remember Red Bull plastered all over Wipeout 2097?) then you shouldn’t really be surprised that any sort of advertising that’s allowed shows up.

(Locational point: I live in the UK, where both politicians and prescription pharmaceuticals cannot be advertised. This probably means I’m a bit more sanguine about what adverts I see than Americans are.)