MTV Multiplayer: Would you let Coke buy you a virtual sword? Dave Perry's latest wild idea
This entry was posted on 4/3/2007 7:45 PM and is filed under MTV News Multiplayer,Possible adver-gaming,Virtual world craziness.
The headline sums up the proposition I share via Edge magazine in today's edition of Multiplayer. Big-dreaming designer Dave Perry told the British gaming publication about his great new idea for in-game advertising in pay-per-item MMOs. The gist is that once the game notices you really want a $10 sword but aren't buying it, a sponsor such as Coca-Cola may send you a message an offer to buy it for you, with no strings attached. The sword would not bear a Coke logo. Your friends would never know you took the offer.
I wanted to hate this idea, but, as I wrote....
Then I thought about it and put myself in his scenario. I'd want the sword. I'd have been wanting that sword for a month. And I'd have considered a worse alternative than letting a soda company buy me a sword, and that is paying my own money for the fake thing or grinding through bad guys for 10 monotonous hours of gameplay to earn the fake gold to get it. To get around this, all I'd have to do was let Coke make the offer? And then -- get this -- I could actually not buy Coke products. That would be the -- note the next word -- game of it. Coke would be playing me. But I'd play Coke. I hope someone else would buy a can of Coke or two so Coke kept on offering free swords. Otherwise, I'd be set. Coke would be my hookup.
There's plenty more anguished confusion in the actual entry. If that sounds like your thing, or if you want to read my extended quote from Perry laying out the plan, click the link and read up.
