The market for computer games is growing. In recent years digital gaming has established itself as one of the most popular leisure activities for adolescents. Whether on the game console, on the PC or on mobile devices, coin master free spins have become popular for mobile gamers.
Importance of media advertising for mobile games
Sports and racing games as well as first-person shooters and strategy games are particularly popular with adolescents. They search for social contacts or, specifically, for virtual communication with friends and acquaintances.
The importance of mobile games has increased enormously for the media advertising industry in recent years. And so, more and more games of this kind are coming onto the market that also functions as advertising media. A special feature of so-called in-game advertising is that game and advertising content merge and a clear distinction is often difficult. This fact presents children and young people in particular with new media-related challenges.
Mobile games: Forms of in-game advertising
The term in-game advertising generally refers to all advertising-relevant placements in the plot or the world of digital games. In-game advertising comes in a variety of forms.
Virtual products: In this form of in-game advertising, there is no symbolic reference to the advertising object, but the advertised product itself appears in the game. If the advertising object is actively integrated into the game, it is also referred to as “virtual product placement”. In this context, the term refers to implicit and camouflaged advertising objects that form part of the virtual game environment.
Static and dynamic advertising: Dynamically changeable advertising content plays a special role in in-game advertising. While static advertising can mostly be found in offline games, dynamic advertising content relates to games that require Internet access to start. A modification of the advertising content can take place during the online phases.
Challenges for media education regarding mobile games
The fact that when using in-game advertising, game and media advertising content often merge in such a way that adolescents can no longer tell them apart, requires the teaching of skills in dealing with advertising, which is often referred to as advertising skills. Young people should be enabled to perceive advertising content as such and to distinguish it from the actual game content. The critical questioning of the advertising content and the goals pursued with it are also part of advertising competence.