Persuasive games in advertising

In this chapter, Ian Bogost continues to advance his theory of how video games make arguments and influence players. he manages to exemplify that even in games, advertisers take advantage of that genre that allows for a simulation of the real and imagined. In embedding product placement within games, advertisers invite players to interact with those products that they may not have known before and form judgments about them. And so, in the spirit of Althusser, they are interpolated.

Building on the theme that advertisers colonise media, Bogost bases his claim on Baudrilliard's notion of simulacra, and the signifier(d) to build the case for the strategies employed here. Basically. Ads are signifiers of other ads rather than of the choices and lifestyles of the users. As such advertising relies on the meaning we assign to consumption as exemplified by the blurring lines between needs and wants.

In the BMW game above, this role is neatly blended between aesthetics and functionality to an even higher level of social status. It's thrilling, the user begins to feel, to be behind one of those wheels. The imagery and visual representation in this game, as in others, is used persuasively.

The thing is consumers know they are being aggressively pursued and so they have become cynical. Cynicism means we are not paying attention to their message and so they have to rethink their strategies. The solution is what Bogost calls "permission marketing (150). With the help of technology, permission marketing can permeate our every media source. If you wish toe scape TV, t play video games, you will find it. It's like the omniscient presence from whose presence you cannot flee. But therein lies the procedural rhetoric. Before long you are 'consuming" something you didn't want to. You will be watching the movie Oceans 12 and in it you see features The Oprah Show, or Jay Leno in Juwanna Man, an addition that draws your attention to these real life shows. In this way, persuasive games turn the game over to the consumer by focusing on niche markets, on social cultural contexts of the products, and on product utility.

This is how brand awareness is built, and how consumers invariably become aware of certain products.