EA Fail of The Week: Ads in Madden 10
By Sam Jordan on Monday, December 21st 2009
Ripten is reporting that EA’s latest American football (no, it’s not real football) game Madden NFL 10 has acquired some highly annoying ads in a recent update.
Once installed the update adds (as well as some gameplay fixes) adverts to every ‘œsnap’. If you’re like me and have no idea what that is, it’s basically the bit when the game pauses, the ball is thrown backwards to a player who then hurtles in down the field. Just check out this video if you’re not sure.
The ad is for EA’s Madden NFL Arcade, a PSN or XBL download game, which is a five-on-five version of the sport (or Bing on the Xbox version). The problem is that snaps happen a lot in American football, meaning that this gets very annoying, very quickly. (For civilised British readers, imagine an ad every time you have a throw-in or goal kick). The writer guesses at around 100 ads every game.
How annoying is it? Ripten puts it more eloquently than I could have:
How bad could it be? How bad? It’s pull the hair from your head bad. It’s toss the game out your window bad. It’s ‘œI’d rather have a buffalo take a diarrhea dump in my ear’ bad.
Which I’m sure you’ll agree expresses his annoyance amply. The article highlights a gamer who has not only bought Madden 10, but also the Madden Arcade game and is still shown the ad!
EA have a long history of in-game ads, and I’m sure won’t curtail its behaviour because of the reaction to this. The money you spent on the game obviously isn’t enough to quench EA’s lust for profits, even if you’ve already bought the product they’re advertising. Hopefully EA will scale down the ads a little in a newer update, but maybe they’re sending a message to all Madden players to stop playing the game and hate American football as much I do. That’s right America, come get me.
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As someone who’s quite fond of both, I’ve never understood the animosity between football and soccer (GASP! BLASPHEMY!) fans about their chosen sports. They’re different enough so that it’s possible to appreciate both as good games.
On topic, ads at every snap is complete bullshit. There is absolutely no excuse to shove adverts down a customer’s throat that often. If playing a full-length game, its possible to get well over 100 ads – more in the range of 120 or more. There are some ways to work in advertising or product placement to add a sense of realism or other benefits to a game, but this is a prime example of doing it wrong.
Ripten apparently watches a lot of Angry Video Game Nerd videos, and apparently I do too for recognizing the ingestion of buffalo fecal matter via one’s external auditory canal.
Ads at every snap though, is bullshit. Who thinks that helps? That doesn’t make me want to buy what’s being pushed, it makes me want to NOT buy it for annoying the bat shit out of me and stop playing the game.
And why the hate on American Football, Sam? You don’t have to like it, but why the hate? Someone make you watch it with your eyes held open A Clockwork Orange-style?
As one of the dozen Brits who actually owns a copy Madden I can attest to the nonsense of these additional ads.
@ouched: Yes they did, it was horrific and something I never wish to experience again…
No, I just think it’s a bit boring, all the stopping etc. But it’s all meant in jest anyway…
*Stupid sport*
Ah, to each their own. Yes, I can see the stopping and starting between plays, TV time outs, scoring, etc could make it a bit of an acquired taste.
Regardless, thanks for giving me a reason to mention A Clockwork Orange.. haven’t seen that film in years.
@ouched: If it means anything, I do enjoy baseball. I have fond memories of sitting up playing Xbox Live at 3 in the morning watching the Boston Red Sox on channel Five…
@ouched: All the stopping and starting just gives you more time to get more beer without missing anything :D