Quote: "the store at work has 1/3rd of floor space dedicated to the Sims and its expansions"
This is completely off-topic, and it might sound like a silly question, but... do you get free games? I'd hope so
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Quote: "My personal gripe really is that you are paying for something which is essentially a big advert."
If you think about it, unless you buy your clothes at Wal-Mart or K-Mart or some other "mart," you're most likely a walking, talking advert yourself
. And even then, you'd probably be a billboard for Loony Toons, or whatever other tasteless and tacky garbage they sell in those places. It isn't quite as evil as, say, direct product placements... in Fight Night Round 3 (not singling out EA or anything, just using FN3 as an example), you can't go three minutes without a really annoying advertisement that completely breaks the immersion value. "This fight is brought to you by Burger King! Because boxers are big fat slobs!"
My problem with advertising in games is that they often ruin any chance of suspension of disbelief, because the suits deciding on the adverts apparently know absolutely nothing about the games they're making. Battlefield 2... Road to Tampa map. Drive around in your Hummer and look at the billboards. Intel? In a ***** warzone? Whose idea was that? Stuff like that ruins the game for me, and lessens my opinion of the advertised product. Imagine the hobbit guy in the Lord of the Rings movie sitting on a log. "Man, my legs are tired, but thanks to my Timberland hiking boots, my feet feel fine! I better crack open a cold refreshing Gatorade though and hydrate myself with electrolytes!" Sadly, games are doing stuff like this right now.
But honestly, the Ikea thing doesn't bother me. The game is about playing with a virtual dollhouse, so to speak, and Ikea sells stuff for said dollhouse
. Sims 2 is a marketing goldmine, since it emulates everyday people in a contemporary setting. They can get away with any sort of advertising so long as they're clever with it and don't get rediculously greedy. When they start forcing you to see advertisements, like a load screen advertisement or something in the frontend, that's when I'll stop playing the Sims
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