Zynga Introduces “Advergames” To The Freemium Market
Just when you thought psychologically manipulative phone games couldn’t sink any lower, life found a way. Polygon reported today that Zynga, the company that struck it rich in Facebook games before those died out, has introduced a new method of generating money through its freemium titles: “advergames,” or short minigames meant to sell you something. You play a game shamelessly hawking a product, and in exchange you get a few extra items in Farmville — items you’d normally have to wait or pay for.
One of the early adopters is the insurance company Progressive, whose item-catching minigames are currently running in the newest version of Farmville. Get a decent score and you’ll be rewarded with a prize, as well as a sales pitch and a pat on the head. Given the casino-like tactics these types of games are using already, the idea of corporations getting “whales” to purchase their products over and over through becoming hooked on a game (“Want five more lives? Follow this link and buy a box of Wheat Thins!”) is a frightening prospect.
You might be thinking this isn’t something to worry about because Farmville is so far removed from your own gaming tastes that it’ll never affect you. Well, crooked tactics in phone games have a way of trickling into AAA console games eventually. If they’re successful in one area of the market, they’ll be tried in another. Imagine in three years a special gun in Call of Duty that can only be unlocked by shooting a Space Invaders-like marching line of Doritos with blasting streams from Mountain Dew cans.
Anyway, they’re missing the real gold mine here. Notice that third screen. If there was an advergame that gave me cupcakes, like real physical CUPCAKES, I would play the everloving crap out of it. You play the game, a drone comes down from the sky with a cupcake. Who cares what it’s selling you? CUPCAKES! I would willingly put up with so many ads if they gave me cupcakes….