Can Marketing Fund Creativity?
Hill asked, “What does the games industry have to gain or lose from advertising getting involved in the industry? Can it fund creativity?” Bogost wasn’t completely convinced. “From the perspective of the large commercial game industry, the sorts of companies that the in-game adverts want to get (to get in-game billboards in front of adolescent boys) it’s not that big a revenue generator, and it can detract from the experience.” However, “at the lower end there’s a lot of space for inspiration when the idea comes from a product or services. There’s a lot of stagnation in the industry when it comes to design, so anything that comes from real life that can be made playable is something that is very valuable to me,” he said, recounting positive and creative titles such as Yoshinoya – a PS2 title that allowed players to run a Yoshinoya (a popular chain of restaurants in Japan), and the recent Burger King/Xbox 360 collaboration. “They took the character of ‘The King’ and made three very smal
