An advert telling me to drive safer in Scotland when I am driving my car in somewhere which clearly (from the screen shot) isn't Scotland breaks the immersion of the game some what.

It would be like everyone in a film about the industrial revolution in Britain speaking in Spanish accents.

Get rid of the immersion breaking stuff then we will talk.

Hey that's cool. Maybe they should just have signs reminding people not to drive under the influence, instead of signs just for Scotland. But hey, I think its a great idea.

@Charlie Brown
Because its only appearing before Scottish gamers.

It may be only appear before scottish gamers, but theres no need to actually point out that its targeted at scots. I doubt that the message will be to "drive safer in Scotland" but rather to "drive safer"

Personally I like this piece of enws, as they see gaming can help people prevent deaths, and nt blame them for deaths. Plus it is also from Scotland :D

As for the whole thing, I'm guessing it'll apper to all, as in Xbox Live, I'm regarded as British, Not Scottish, and I'm sure the Welsh will be regarded as British too (not that we have a problem with that) so I think it'll be hard for it to apper to Scots only as Scots are regarded as Brits and that Brits in general may play against other nations.

Plus as Cully pointed out, It can be targetted at everyone. It's "Safer Scotland" is not saying "be safer in Scotland", as Safer Scotland is part of the Scottish Executive, so it can technically apply to English, Welsh, Irish (both northan and republic even though the latter isn't British), French, german, South African, American, Japanesse, etc etc etc anywhere with cars and roads effecitvly. Just us Scots are smart enough to use this means first :p

Because an ad in a videogame is going to make stupid people stop being stupid.

If videogames start having regular ads, and the ECA doesn't do a god damned thing, I'm going to raise a hellstorm unlike any other. If you see ads, you shouldn't be paying a dime.

I have to agree with Brandon. I'm a founding member of the ECA, card-carrying (*checks wallet* Yep, it's there) even, and while there are TONS of things more important for the ECA to be working on, and I wouldn't want resources wasted on this, anything low-effort the ECA could do to dissuade publishers from ads in games would be fantastic. You've got my $50 (and in some cases, my $15 - $30 a month, or in the case of LotRO, my $480 up front--I'm not stingy). Don't get greedy. If you're putting ads in my games, the price had BETTER drop.

I'd also argue that it's not REALLY inevitable. We allow it. If we opted not to buy games with ads, publishers wouldn't make them. They'd lose the sale revenue, and advertisers have no use for a product people don't see, so they'd pull the ads. The problem there is, boycotts almost never work.

It's just another in-game ad that people don't care about. Besides, people will be too concentrated on the road/track and won't notice it.

The next logical step is to create a "Drunken Mode" where the screen is constantly blurry, you repeatedly swerve off the road and crash even though you're going straight, and you can't win because you always get arrested before you reach the finish line. (They had a level like that in Vice City, come to think of it.)

@kurisu7885

Yup - I remember that stage. Good days

This is funny. Not so long ago there was an article about the CCFC saying that kids' games shouldn't include advertisements, and the response was that you can't get rid of adverts so it would be stupid to try. Now when an Xbox game is going to include real billboards for a non-commercial purpose, the response is that it's ridiculous and that the billboard shouldn't be in the game.

What exactly is so wrong with having commercial ads on billboards dotted around virtual cities? They don't get in the way - older games just used fake products or ads for other games from the same developer - and they inject a revenue stream into the design process. Obviously unskippable "TV commercial" style ads would make you want to throw your controller through the screen, and even skippable ones irk (No, I wanted to play Unreal Tournament, not be reminded to buy an nVidia card I already own), unobtrusive ads mean the devs get more money. And money is a serious issue, particularly when you're dealing with today's movie-sized budgets and ludicrous licencing fees.

Movies have used product placement for the past ever and nobody cares unless they're gratuitously in-your-face about it. Dropping a few familiar commercial reminders in games isn't hurting anyone and is keeping the industry afloat.

Back on topic though, this billboard is reminding people not to kill anyone by driving drunk. It's a good thing.

Folks in game ads ARE inevitable.

The biggest thing the ECA can do is work to make them tolerable and put limits on how they can be used.

Well I wonder if Team Fortress 2's Demoman might be one of those gamers, oy.

If advertisements can make games cheaper by letting the developers meet their bottom line, I may be open to the suggestion so long as the adds aren't very intrusive. For example, the sideline signs you get in the madden games could be used, or billboards in a fictional cityscape etc. If the adds are cleverly placed in the game, I would be fine with that. If 60 seconds of my game play is interrupted by a Pepsi add, then I would be angry about this.

using some ingame billboards for PSAs help make the games seem more realistic, what's not to like?

Sounds like a good idea, as long as they aren't obnoxiously placed.

@Steve Furtado
Sorry, but kids are the MINORITY when it comes to purchasing video games. I don't want to feel like I'm in D.A.R.E, when I'm trying to do drugs and shoot mob bosses in a virtual world. Or be told that violence doesn't solve problems while hacking my way through demon hordes. I might get a chuckle out of it the first time, but then its just annoying.

I got to say, it could have been worse...

They could have been advertising for Hilary Clinton....AAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

ok, maybe Drink Driving ads are not so bad after all....

I don't see anything wrong with this kind of ad. However, if I start seeing Nike adds when I am driving 180mph down a digital highway then I am going to be more than a little pissed:

1) Because if I can make out the ad then it is intrusive at those speeds and;
2) If the publisher is going to charge the same $50+ for the game with adds in it that is complete BS.

Discount or the ad better be for the public good. Anything outside of that and I am grabbing the torch and pitchfork.

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