Every person encounters at some point in their lives a game or toy which does not deliver what the ad promised. A ruling by the Advertising Standards Authority made on September 20th against Playrix, maker of mobile games such as Homescapes and Gardenscapes, pushes back against misleading video game advertisements in the UK.
The ASA was founded in 1961 with the goal to establish a relationship of trust between consumers and advertisers by ensuring that advertisements on radio and TV in the UK made realistic promises compared to the product delivered. After evaluating seven complaints raised against two Facebook ads funded by Playrix, the ASA has ruled the ads did not set a realistic expectation for gameplay. The ASA ruled that the advertisements should be pulled, but as of October, they are still at large.
The crux of the issue was that Playrix’s advertisements focused on a specific pin-pulling minigame, which was not a part of the core gameplay. After reviewing gameplay footage, the ASA determined that the gameplay for both Homescapes and Gardenscapes centered on one match-three style puzzle for each level, and the advertisements were not focused on this mechanic. The pin-pulling minigame had been added in April, but was only available infrequently at more advanced levels. Playrix has since tweaked the games to make the pin-pulling minigame appear earlier in the game’s progression.
Advertisers have an incentive to attract certain kinds of customers and will craft advertisements with that in mind. In the mobile game industry, the most valuable player is one who will spend a lot of money on in-game purchases and/or have the patience to sit through ads frequently. One of the strategies advertisers could take was to have the ad focus on a specific game mechanic that would appeal to that audience, even if it didn’t turn up that much in-game. The workaround Playrix tried was disclaimer text that appeared at the bottom of the ads, which read, “Not all images represent actual gameplay.”
The issue is so prevalent, especially in mobile gaming markets, that multiple internet communities have emerged on sites like Reddit and Facebook just to complain about misleading and badly-composed game advertisements, including ones set up just for Playrix in particular. When the BBC reported on this ruling, reactions in such spaces were predictably jovial.
At this point in time, the ruling will only matter to advertisers who plan to market in the UK, but the ruling is likely to give developers around the world a greater incentive to ensure that their advertisements are closer to reality. Other government agency rulings against video game companies, such as Australia’s content advisory label for games containing microtransactions, are known to have ripple effects into other markets as consumers take notice and apply pressure to their own country’s legislators.
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