Marketing of Video Games - The Video Game Industry: Formation, Present State, and Future - page 55

A last use of video games that seems to be growing is to defi ne the medium
itself as a tool for promotion. Unlike the commercial games described earlier,
these types of games are developed in order to communicate one specifi c mes-
sage. As the medium itself is neutral, the message can be just about anything:
from commercial to political. The impact of these games is in the interactivity
they of er. Instead of being a receiver of a message, the gamer is the co-creator
of that message in his/her acts and his/her interaction with the game.
One could call these types of games “Serious Games” (e.g. Bogost 2007),
games that have other purposes than pure entertainment. This description
is an umbrella term that includes a number of subcategories of games with
dif erent characteristics. For example: advergames, edutainment, persua-
sive games and art games. Although the games have dif erent goals, be it
the communication of knowledge or art, they all share the use of doing
things with games other than entertaining. But to draw the line between
entertainment and its counterpart here is sometimes a delicate issue.
One of the most popular Serious Games, although it might not be catego-
rized as such, is America's Army . This is a game funded by the U.S. Army
and published by Ubisoft, a traditional game publisher. The game has been
developed specifi cally to communicate the good life of an American soldier,
in order to get more U.S. kids to sign up for the military; a secondary goal is
to communicate a positive image of the American soldier abroad. The game
is free to play and has over eight million registered users.
In the America's Army game, players are bound by Rules of Engage-
ment (ROE) and grow in experience as they navigate challenges in
teamwork-based, multiplayer, force versus force operations. In the
game, as in the Army, accomplishing missions requires a team ef ort
and adherence to the seven Army Core Values. Through its emphasis on
team play, the game demonstrates these values of loyalty, duty, respect,
selfl ess service, honor, integrity and personal courage and makes them
integral to success in America's Army. 17
Whereas America's Army is a big production, many companies use
smaller games to promote their product, or services, called advergames.
These games most times have a very simplistic construction. It could be a
three in a row game with Coca-Cola bottle caps, or a shoot-'em-up game
where one hits Carlsberg bottles with a pistol. These games are distributed
at no cost over the Internet or played for free on the company's homepage.
Many times they also have a ranking system and prizes for high perform-
ers. These games are almost never long-lived as the construction does not
of er much of gameplay. On the other hand, the goal is not gameplay, but
getting a consumer to interact with a brand.
There are also advergames with political goals. Games have previously
been used in, for example, political campaigns: what better way to explain
what the suggested reforms will do to the economy then getting the citizens