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<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>I’ve dealt with a lot of different brands and advertisers
and I think you nailed it on the head, Damon. The advertising world all too
often appears to have little or no knowledge of interactive. I wish I could
share some of the incredible things advertisers have asked for … oh, and
it has to be less than 500kb in download size, full 3d, joystick support, work
on all platforms and cost less than a 2 second tv spot during the wee early
hours!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Being able to deal with and manage client expectations is the
biggest hurdle I’ve come across. Advertisers concentrate very little on
delivering the best within the constraints and are often so concerned with the aesthetic
that they overlook the actual experience. Without the ability to understand the
constraints of, say, browser-based delivery and why they can’t have that
1024x1024 50mb image as a 20mb cd-quality mp3 plays in the background, is
something that frequently crops up in advergame dev. Having good client service
managers to try and communicate this is a great start, but not always the most practical
route.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Since I certainly don’t want to slap logos on tired old
concepts, it’s extremely difficult to get advertisers to think about ‘how
to build a game AROUND a brand, not slap a brand ON to a game’. It’s
also extremely difficult to get advertisers to understand quality over quantity
– ‘game design by checklist’ is what I call it – that’s
when someone has obviously been through a bunch of similar games making a
checklist of features for their own version. Often ‘game design by
checklist’ leads to the mentality of ‘if that game had x number of
features, we want x number more’, when a much better approach would be to
find the core experience and concentrate on making that the most entertaining
possible. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>People remember good experiences a lot more than bad ones, so it
makes sense to try and make people enjoy the games rather than watch slideshows
of new and un-exciting product features – it’s just that the ‘old
school’ advertising folk just haven’t caught on yet!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Rant over :p<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Them’s my two cents on the subject, anyways .. I should
probably stress that this is my personal opinion etc. disclaimer blah ;)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'>Jeff.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:gray'>Jeff Murray</span></b><span
style='font-size:8.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:gray'> |
Director, Game Development</span><span style='color:gray'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#C00000'>FUEL INDUSTRIES</span></b><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:gray'><br>
tel: 613.224.6738<br>
</span><span style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#C00000'><a href="http://www.fuelindustries.com/"
title="http://www.fuelindustries.com/"><span style='color:#C00000'>www.fuelindustries.com</span></a></span><span
style='font-size:7.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:gray'><o:p></o:p></span></p>
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