Britian Recuiting Spies Through Video Games

[Guard Dog]

LONDON

[metadigital]

I guess the use of Need for Speed: Carbon and Quake are just to make up a large catchment ... otherwise I can't see the relevance. Though I don't mind the advertising, which I foresee some local teacup meteorologists might have some qualms about ...

[Tale]

If I were to become a spy for Britain would this qualify as treason even though they're an ally?

Edited October 18, 2007 by Tale

[metadigital]

You would have difficulty in any subsequent applications for other countries, and they would expect you to be a citizen (or able to become one ... not sure about the popularity of US citizens for roles that require the people to blend in ... "

[Walsingham]

Hell, if you think that's bad, they recruited most people of my generation through Bubble Bobble

[Enoch]

I don't know about Britian, per se, but I do know that very few of the job openings at places like the CIA in the U.S. are for anything close to covert ops. Most of their employees either do computer-based stuff (running satellites, monitoring business transactions, etc.), intelligence analysis (combing through information from all over the world and writing memos to their bosses with their summaries and conclusions), or support activities (accounting, IT, legal support, etc.).

 

I'd guess that the advertising in video games is mostly to get employees who know how to keep their computer systems running and safe from hackers. They recruit on the "we do super-cool spy stuff" angle because they have too-- it pays less than a comparable private sector job and comes with some ridiculously thorough background checks.

[Guard Dog]

Does in game advertising and product placement detract form the experience? Or make it more realistic? I could ask the same about movies too. Opinions?

[Musopticon?]

Well, it depends. In Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory for example, the advertisements were part of a milieu, like a large Pepsi ad in New York cityscape. Some games have modeled real world products into objects in the game, like certain movies or candies and the like. Those are not distracting, rather they actually fit very well in the context and don't detract from the game immersion or visual flair.

 

But then there's horrible bull**** like the recent ad-releases of Prince of Persia and Raving Rabbids were the loading screens have been converted to advertisements for anything but contextually relevant(like other games in the series) products. Or Planetside(IIRC) where there's Mountain Dew advertisements in reactor core hallway.

[Walsingham]

True. GCHQ are number boffins. I think the point is not the context. The point is to reach computer nerds.

[Deraldin]

Well, it depends. In Splinter Cell:Chaos Theory for example, the advertisements were part of a milieu, like a large Pepsi ad in New York cityscape. Some games have modeled real world products into objects in the game, like certain movies or candies and the like. Those are not distracting, rather they actually fit very well in the context and don't detract from the game immersion or visual flair.

 

But then there's horrible bull**** like the recent ad-releases of Prince of Persia and Raving Rabbids were the loading screens have been converted to advertisements for anything but contextually relevant(like other games in the series) products. Or Planetside(IIRC) where there's Mountain Dew advertisements in reactor core hallway.

 

The ad-releases of PoP and RR can be given some slack though. Sure they have horrible ads on the loading screens, but they are free.