In-game advertisements

No this is not an April's fool post, I do not usually participate in such rituals. Below in quotes is a reply I made to a thread that mentioned in-game advertisements. I run into this topic so much so I decided to include it in this blog. For some unknown reasons people in gaming forums always vehemently object to in-game advertisements. I still do not see what is so bad about the concept.

Is it a general hate against all forms of advertisements? Is it herd behavior? Misinformation? Absence of critical thinking?

The relevant discussion is Guild Wars 2 Business Model

I still do not get why people are so against in-game advertisements. All those arguments against in-game advertising by standard comes with such poor marketing practices as examples. In-game advertisements =/= bad advertising.

You know, all those references GW make to popular culture? Those references operate the same way all advertisements do - they relate to a popular phenomena the same way advertisements relate to a product. In fact, some references in GW refers to a brand or a product. I am sure you can think of a few already. Now I am not saying Anet gets paid to include those, but really, it is a viable marketing practice and I have yet to see someone speaking against such references.

All those horrors of the end-boss telling you to buy this or that is just silly. Such intensive promotion is typical of TV advertisements. It is done so because the TV is a low-participation medium, and as such require the message be burned into your retina in order to compensate for the lack of attention. Advertisements that are built into entertainment medias that involve the users do not need such aggressive practices - a mere indirect but memorable reference is all that is needed - to put the product at the back of the audiences' mind.