Alan Wake: Worst case of product placement in history of videogames?

[Doobie_wop]

richardhutnik said:

Doobie_wop said:

kowenicki said:

http://blogs.ocweekly.com/heardmentality/video-games---humor/product-placement-in-video-games-is-getting-ridiculous/

 

2. Metal Gear Solid Series (PS2/PS3)

Product Placement Includes:

• Playboy Magazine
• CalorieMate cheese block
• Sony Ericsson W62S cellular phone
• iPod
• Six Axis Controller
• Mountain Dew
• Pepsi
• Doritos
• Axe Deodorant (again, seriously?)

The Metal Gear Solid Series is infamous for having a ridiculous amount of product placement, often in very humorous situations. In Metal Gear Solid 4, for example, Snake can equip an iPod to listen to music in order to regain health. Playboy Magazines can be used to distract guards. Whenever Snake is wandering around in the jungle during the 1970s, he can even find a bag of Doritos lying around for nourishment.

I think your missing the point some people are trying to make, Metal Gear isn't really a serious game, sure it has serious cutscenes and the storey overall is serious, but the game has always been kinda wacky on purpose. Alan Wake is different because it's a different style of game, if Bioshock, Dead Space or Siren did the same thing I'd also be a little annoyed. It's not a game breaking thing and Alan Wake isn't the only game that does it, it's a small con among a huge list of pro's.

 

If Metal Gear isn't meant to be a serious game, then why does the series get praised as being "the bestest storytelling eva".  Is it meant to be a spoof of big action movies and not to be taken series?  That would then explain a lot, and it should be treated as being campy, and explain how transferring the arm of a character another one creates a new character.  It would also explain why the game is as long as convoluted as it is.  However, have individuals who end up saying how it is an awesome drama, and how Kojima is brilliant at making commentary on the nature of war, and we need to take his work serious.  People have, on here, even said his games were better than the best of movies.  Ok, if we go down the Metal Gear route, then we stop discussing Alan Wake or how product placement works.

I do believe that it is VERY important to have the product placement fit the context and the mood of the game.  If you are saying it is dark in the game, the mood is dark.  Don't throw in sudden peppy ads anywhere, as they don't fit the mood of the game.

I wasn't saying that the product placement directly impacted the story though, it doesn't impact the story in Alan Wake either. The point I was making was that Metal Gear has always opened up and taken jabs at itself for it's wackiness and inside jokes. The playboy, the doritos, the Ipod are used as optional element's of the gameplay. What Alan Wake does differently is creating this serious, complex storey, with a dark and moody environment and as your getting into the game, the camera pan's back and you notice this huge Verizon billboard and it's annoying