Advergaming Genre Guide & emerging trends
Here is an overview of the key advergaming genres and their prospects for the future, with respect to their use in online viral marketing and advertising. The ratings assigned to each genre (out of 5) are obviously very rough indicators and vary greatly depending on the quality of the game in question, but may give some perspective to newcommers to the gaming world (especially all those account managers out there who are working on their geek-quotient).
I have included a few examples that demonstrate each genre. They may not be the best exponents so if you have any better examples to add, please send them through - particularly any examples that are more focussed towards marketing & advertising campaign objectives than some of the examples listed.
Cheers & happy gaming,
Adam Pryor
Genre quicklinks: 3D Shooter, Webcam Games, Racing, 2D Shooter, Flying, Cryptic Challenge / Alternate Reality Game, Build & Customise, Traditional Board Game, Trading / Token Redemption, Bizarre / Off Beat, Quiz / Strategy, Adventure / Story, Sports / Skill / Precision
EMERGING GENRES (TOMORROW’S BIG HITTERS)
3D Shooter
There is plenty of potential to leverage this genre in advergaming. People have always (and will always) love 3d first person shooters (FPS) and playing them for free, optionally in a massive multiplayer environment through the browser (BBMMORPG) is an exciting possibility. The Phosphor sample below shows how far this genre can be taken, especially if it was focussed towards a specific campaign / branding objective rather than just showing off the technology. That particular example shows off the power of shockwave and supports a true multiplayer environment (and it’s free, and it’s running inside a browser people!).
The best marketing application for this type of game may come from departing from the established conventions. You can probably get more cut-through by differentiating yourself from the typically gory and violent FPS genre by incorporating light-hearted or humourous subject matter combined with fun challenges that don’t involve blowing your enemies away with an assortment of futuristic weapons.
Remember also that a strong creative idea for this type of game is critical, because despite the progress in browser based gaming technology, you are still stuck with graphics and physics simulations that have been around since 2002 on game consoles and PCs.
Examples: Phosphor (Beta 1), Tank Ball, Ratinator, Sherwood
Webcam Games define
Webcam based motion detection has been around for a while (mostly since Flash 8 came out with the combination of a webcam interface and the ability to access the pixel data of the resulting video stream). The Playstation EyeToy really brought this concept into the mainstream, but the possibility of putting this groundbreaking control style into the browser is quite exciting.
As the number of webcam users continues to grow (largely thanks to Apple including webcams as standard features in many new model laptops and desktops) this type of game will become increasingly viable, with the potential for a huge novelty-factor and correspondingly high cut-through.
But watch out for really buggy and user-unfriendly version popping up in the early stages…
Examples: PlaydoJam, Webcam Games Archive
CLASSIC GENRES
Racing
The HUGE trend in this style of game is moving to a 3D environment. Rather than seeing your little car drive around the track from the third person, 3D racing puts you IN the cockpit (or just behind your car) so you can feel the g-force of every corner and the impact of your collisions. Traditionally most online games in this genre have been played from a top-down or isometric perspective. The premise is usually fairly simple: Race around a track as fast as you can. Get the fastest time, collect checkpoints, or get as far as you can until the time runs out.
Gamers have always been pleased when this genre is juiced up with interesting extras like rockets or mines for taking out your opponents, or taking a demolition derby approach. Buying car upgrades is also another good way to add depth of gamplay.
A new feature that really helps to give racing games a competitive edge is multiplayer options. While it is only a matter of time before realtime racing against human opponents becomes the benchmark, currently an innovative half-way option is the “ghost car” system, where one player’s entire race is recorded and can be challenged by a friend. In this way the players can compete directly with each other, even though they cannot bump each other off the road.
Gameplay: 5
Addictiveness: 4
Viralness: 5
Price: 5
Examples: NFS Canyon Racer, Snowboard Madness, Beetle Buggin, On the Run, Miniclip Rally, Mercedes Drift
2D Shooter
Click on the target when it appears. While shooting stuff with guns is a big winner with a young male audience, there is also scope for less violent but still interesting variations - you know…pretty flowers, catching butterflies, things like that.
Gameplay: 3
Addictiveness: 3
Viralness: 3
Price: 3
Examples: Black Simulator
Flying
Traditionally flying games have been a bit under-represented online, probably because it’s hard to do much without solid 3d simulation, which is a fairly recent development inside the browser.
Gameplay: 3
Addictiveness: 3
Viralness: 3
Price: 3
Examples: A-Blast, Overkill Apache
Cryptic Challenge / Alternate Reality Game (ARG)
If you have ever met anyone who has devoted a summer to defeating NotPron.com you will know how addictive this type of game can be. The idea is that you need to work your way through a number of levels where the password or key to the next level is more fiendishly cryptic than the last. I have never really seen a true implementation of this genre for a commercial campaign. While NotPron.com has a huge following it’s amateurish style may be difficult to tie in with a brand. Producing a commercial version may also prove a challenge, since it feels more like a life’s labour of love than a campaign. Perhaps a more light-weight approach to this genre is more suitable for marketing use, where navigation through a site takes the form of a cryptic adventure. The key challenge for producing this type of game is to make challenges and stories that are truly engaging.
Interestingly, Notpron was originally just a basic puzzle game, but given the community that sprung up around it to a) provide hints for players who have run out of ideas) b) obfuscate the hint sites and provide fake hints to protect the integrity of the puzzle), it essentially blossomed organically into a true ARG (arguably the ideal outcome for any viral piece).
Gameplay: 5 (or 1 if you are not into this type of thing)
Addictiveness: 5
Viralness: 4
Price: 3
Examples: Notpron, Lost Website (spoiler warning: use tab to find hidden items)
Build & Customise
Make your own cool creation and show it off to your friends. Half way between a game and an application, sometimes this approach can be a great way to give your audience a hands-on experience with your brand or product. Till now this genre has been used fairly widely since it offers a good platform for brand building. Standard features include: save to gallery, save as desktop and send to friend which are all nice for supporting viralness.
Gameplay: 2
Addictiveness: 1
Viralness: 3
Price: 2
Example: Bling My Bomb
Traditional Board Game (i.e. Role dice and move 3 spaces)
A direct translation from board games (snakes and ladders anyone?). The prevalence of these types of games in the past was because they were cheap, technically uncomplicated, and an easy option for those paying lip service to advergaming. I’m not particularly inspired by these types of games. But there may be hope - anyone who has played Jones in the Fast lane knows that a little creativity can turn a simple game like this into a phenomenon.
Gameplay: 1
Addictiveness: 1
Viralness: 1
Price: 1
Trading / Token Redemption
Anyone remember the Coke promotion where you earn tokens from Coke labels and trade them in to buy clothing and accessories for your online avatar? Me neither..I didn’t have the patience to go through the whole process, but I’m sure there were at least a few people that did. While I don’t know much about how that particular campaign performed, the potential certainly exists for this genre to foster a real community environment with an addictive game mechanism and strong product-tie in. You could also easily give out tokens through any other means such as on the radio, online scavenger hunt, with-purchase, etc. This type of approach can be quite costly due to the requirement of building a game and reward items (generally a while array of items) that are worth the effort of earning.
Gameplay: 2
Addictiveness: 5
Viralness: 4
Price: 5
Examples: Australian Coca Cola Music, Neopets (it’s been so long since I visited this site, is that even the correct url?)
Bizarre / Off Beat
Quintessentially Viral. Many miscellaneous games have come onto the public radar from time to time and not always because they were special in any traditional sense. Does anyone remember the Seal Clubbing game? Or, more tellingly, the Paris Hilton (or Bill Clinton) falling rag doll “game”? It doesn’t appear that there was any particular objective to this one, but it was strangely amusing to see Paris’ lifeless body falling endlessly whilst bouncing off obstacles into uncomfortable contortions. Sometimes masterful positioning (accedentally or purposefully) and spot-on consumer insights can take these gimmicky trifles into the viral stratosphere.
(Smack that seal! A cute idea combined with simple, addictive gameplay can sometimes go a long way. I don’t have the url anymore…someone please help!)
Gameplay: 1
Addictiveness: 1
Viralness: 5 (or 0 if it’s a crap concept, which most games in this genre actually are)
Price: 2
Examples: Paris Hilton Ragdoll (ok so I couldn’t find the Paris Hilton version, but you get the gist), Seal Bounce (There is a much better seal smacking game that did the rounds in about 2004 but I just can’t find it anywhere!)
Quiz / Strategy
It doesn’t get much more basic than this type of game, but surprisingly these games can often outperform many of the other genres, especially with well written content (quiz games) or a nice implementation of an old classic (strategy games), or when the campaign is supporting something that people already have an strong interest in.
Gameplay: 1
Addictiveness: 1
Viralness: 3
Price: 1
Examples: Wizard Home Loans NRL quiz, Sudoku
Adventure / Story
I’ve never seen this type of thing done very well online, but there have definately been some very popular and successful versions on pcs and consoles, and there is no reason why they can’t be transferred faithfully online.
Gameplay: 2
Addictiveness: 2 (it’s really a one-shot game, because once you find all the secrets there isn’t much more to do)
Viralness: 5
Price: 5 (a heap of work generally goes into this type of game…more often a labour of love than of ROI)
Sports / Skill / Precision
Generally these have been based on very simple gameplay elements, like press keys faster to run faster, dodge left and right, click on the target to shoot the ball, etc. An opportunity exists for taking this type of game to the next level by adding more depth to the gameplay. Sports fans also seem to like slick visuals, so there is also a fair bit of ground to cover in that department to make the most if this genre.
Gameplay: 4
Addictiveness: 4
Viralness: 3
Price: 4
Examples: EA Sports Fifa World Cup 2006, Kick Ass Australia, Golf Ace, Bombay Taxi
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