PLN 4; Presidential Ads Imbedded in Video Games

In Karl Ficsh’s blog, Presidential Ads Imbedded in Video Games, what matters is informing the public on matters in politics, particularly in the presidential election for 2008. The main question is whether this is a good idea or not. Some people may say that it is a good idea, while others have the stand point that it is a waste of time and money, especially when the election is over, and those ads won’t have any affect anymore.
There are those people who stand in the perspective in favor of placing election advertisement in video games because they think it will get the people’s attention. It matters to them to inform the nation and encourage them to vote, specifically for their candidate. Those types of people are correct when saying that by placing ads in video games, they have found another creative way to campaign and inform the public about what is going on in politics. They think that the cost is worth it, especially if their candidate is elected.
There are also the types of people who think that by placing ads in video games to campaign for the election, they are wasting money and time. They think that it’s a waste of money because when people are playing these games five years ago, the election will be over, someone new will be in office, and the showing of the ad will just waste people’s time, when they could be already playing the game. It goes to show that these temporary ads could prove to be ineffective, especially since most gamers don’t pay attention to the ads, and would much rather just get to the game.
I think that I tend to agree with the people who are against placing the ads into video games. I agree that it is a waste of money, and in five years from now, will be unnecessary, and not useful. Nobody will care about the election years from now, yet they will be forced to waste their game time while the ad continues to play over and over again, every time they play the game. I don’t see the point in spending billions and billions of dollars for an ad that will only be affective for the next 22 days.
Overall, I think that the fact that this has come up means that the election will be close. Even though it has only been reported by a few people, it goes to show that some people can get so desperate for their candidate to win that they are willing to go to the trouble to create and spend money on the advertisement. This also shows that the election will be close, and can create much tension and controversy between people campaigning for their candidate for the 2008 election.