Below The Line (BTL) Advergaming
Examples of BTL advergames include recruitment tools, edutainment, and traditional in-game advertising.
In utilizing BTL advergaming, games are published in the usual way and cause players to investigate further. The subjects advertised for may be commercial, political, or educational in nature. Commercial examples are numerous and include advergames funded by Pepsi, 7 Up, NFL, Formula One, and most recently Burger King. Political/military examples of BTL advergames include recruitment tools like America's Army, intended to boost recruitment for the United States Army, and Special Force, intended to promote Muslim resistance to the state of Israel. Educational advergaming is closely related to the Serious games initiative and falls under either Edumarket gaming or edutainment. Examples include Food Force (made by the United Nations' World Food Program) and Urban Jungle, an educational traffic simulation.
Another BTL advergame technique consists of advertising within a game itself. Since the intent of in-game advertising is typically commercial rather than political, some consider such advertisements to make up a category of their own. However as with the above-mentioned BTL advergame forms, it is the technique by which the propaganda is purveyed rather than the nature of its intended audience which defines in-game advertising as a subset of BTL advergaming and not its own category. In-game advertising is similar to subtle advertising in films, where the advertising content is within the "world" of the movie. Thus billboards, fliers, sponsored product placement, and the interplay between the player and these elements in the game allow for a great degree of virtual advertisement. Examples include billboards advertising for (and product placement of) Bawls energy drink in Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel, and billboards for Adidas sportswear in FIFA International Soccer.
One company that is infamous for BTL advertising is EA. EA games frequently have advertisements on in game billboards, stadiums and other areas. However, some will argue that this helps to add realism to sports titles, mimicking the extremely prescient product placement in modern sports broadcasting.
In-game BTL advertisement can be a way to combat costs that the game makers encounter and reduce the cost of the game to the consumer (especially games with monthly fees) while providing an outlet to advertise products. It also currently helps many people sustain free online games. This method of advertising in offline games is somewhat controversial, however, as players may feel the advertisements cast an unsavory commercial/avaricious pall over gameplay without substantial reduction in game price.
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