More Awesome Than You!

http://www.xgpgaming.com/news/news.php?id=3905

Advertising is not a stranger to some of their games, Need for Speed Underground 2 had Cingular as your cellphone provider.  If they do implement this feature into PC games, no doubt The Sims 2 will be affected.  Probably most of the objects coming with a new expansion would be advertisements for other products such as a Pepsi Machine or McDonalds stand.

Maybe in the next EP (or stuff pack) we'll see ads for Depends pop up while our elders watch the tube.  Or name brand condom machines located in the bathrooms downtown. 

The possibilities are endless.  :D

I dont think it will bother me very much if its been well tied into the game :)

I personally wouldn't be to happy about advertisement in the Sims. My hoods are my little dream worlds and the less it looks like RL the better. I really like that everything is 'simized' in the game, like the custom alphabet, and all the logos. Really don't know how to express this, it's just, meh, not my cup of tea.

Depends on how you play, some people made Walmarts when NL came out... so you know... Eye of the Beholder and all that.

If sims did have Starbucks in the game, it would explain why the baristas suck.

Remember the TS1 Pepsi machine?

yup. If its items like the coke machine, or a brand of coffee with its little advert on the paper cup ... then i'll be fine with it. But huge and blatent advertising .... un-uh!

Shouldn't be too much of a problem. People mod everything about this game. What is stopping them from taking away the ads?

That's what recolors and default replacements are for!

Exactly! And how in the world could they advertise in our games. Everyone has a different setup. Will all custom neighborhoods come pre-advertised? Doubtful. The worst they could do is change the food and drink brands,  maybe make a billboard or two, and the rest would have to be bought through buy mode which, ultimately, leaves it up to the player. I don't give a damn either way, I like realism...

I'll tell you one more thing...whenever I'm lost in need for speed, I usually find my way whenever I see a best buy.  ::)

I sure can't wait for my Sims to use the Botox Plastic Surgery Station, or drink the Rejuvaskin Anti-Aging Elixer of Life--now with the sweet taste of Coke!

I actually like it in most games. It's more realistic for a person in a game to drink a coke insted of cola. It would be different in sims games because they ain't supposed to be people they are sims. I admit that sims playing The Sims: Busting Out was funny the first time I saw it but it gets old fast. I really don't think that EA would be that stupid and add licenced products into the Sims.

But as people have pointed out, they already did--with TS1.  Adding such content in TS2 isn't that far of a stretch.

If they're smart, EA will let the fans come to the advertisers.  Remember the McDonalds campaign where you could get a CD with a few bits of sims1 furniture?  Once word hits the BBS that site X or promotion X can get new objects for their sims, fans will gleefully load such ads all on their own.

The only other product placement possible in the sims really seems like it would be a waste of money for the advertisers.  Usually in a movie/game the camera can be held just so to showcase the product without making it blatantly (and annoyingly) obtrusive.  In the sims, if it's not obtrusive it can easily be overlooked.  So while I wouldn't object to a real-world corporate symbol on, say, a sims billboard, I don't think advertisers would see it as worth their time.

I think it would be funny if sims got junk mail in their mailboxes. Then someone could make a "no junk mail" hack. :D

I kind of wish they'd make a deal with Konami so that my sims could play DDR.

Hey, I want that for real life!

Would it really be that different than it is now? Janna made a Starbucks set for sims, a Bodyworks, and some other stuff. I've seen various different McDonalds set ups from different places. People eat that stuff up. Some people would be super excited if we could get real life branding in our games.

Let's not forget that FIAT already released a FIAT car for TS2 on the UK site. So, the tie-ins are already working.

I'm honestly uncertain why some companies feel the need to advertise at all, really. I mean, is anyone seriously unaware of what McDonalds is or what they sell? Do they really benefit from general advertisements? Some product placement would be amusing and harmless, though.

lol, me to!!! I got 5 letter's today, 4 were crap :-\

Back here we have free stickers that you can stick on your mailbox. Yes/Yes for people wo want all the crap they can get, Yes/No for people who don't want flyers and crap but do want the local papers, and No/No for people who only want stuff with their specific adress on it.

They must be, they keep on going there....  ;)

I have never eaten from a MacDonald's in my life. I'd like to say that this is because of my disapproval of their reckless growth and globalisation or because of a deep understanding of the dreadful mixture of dodgy meat that goes in to ground beef or the conditions in which the animals are raised and slaughtered.

I'd like to say this but the truth is that the first time I saw that hideous, creepy, fucking clown, grinning inanely out at me from the idiot box, I swore on all that is dear to me that I would never give him a single penny of my ill-gotten wealth.

I hate McDonalds and Burger King here in the states, but when I lived in Germany, yum! I used to have mozzarella sticks, poppers, or shrimp as a lunch-time snack.

The point of advertising a McDonalds is simple. A 12 year old is playing a game and passes a McDonalds every 25 feet. His mom yells, whats-your-name, what do you want for lunch? And he yells back, McDonalds. There you have it, advertising at work!

I remember that in Barcelona, Burger King has hot dogs! :D

www.spamfighter.com

...then he wonders why Mommy never remembers his name and ponders running away! Mom, meanwhile, tries to sort through the orders of her other 12 children and wishes to all she holds holy that she'd named all of her thirteen sons "Bob".
 ;D

"McDonalds" is a dirty word at my house.  It's only brought up when my mom is trying to convince us to eat something, i.e. "I don't wanna eat leftover meatloaf!"  "It's either this, or McDonalds."  The threat usually works.

In Douglas Coupland's book jPod, all the characters refer to the smell of McDonalds as "the taint". So appropriate.