Madden's Swagger -- cheap advertising ploy or legit attempt at a rating? - RaychelSnr's Blog

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Madden's Swagger -- cheap advertising ploy or legit attempt at a rating? Stuck

Posted on June 29, 2010 at 02:27 PM.

(24)

It finally happened -- sports gaming has jumped into the present day where anything is fair game for advertising.

Enter Madden's swagger rating.

Supposedly, the rating does nothing more than determine a player's likelihood to celebrate on the field. It doesn't progress and it doesn't effect gameplay in any other manner. Oh and the rating is brought to you by Old Spice.

So is this is a positive trend for sports gaming, where even ratings are fair game for advertising influences? Could there be a moment in time in the not so distant future that Nike goes all in with a Madden sponsorship deal and requests the athletes that pitch Nike products have higher ratings to make them seem more elite? I'm not sure, but to say it's an impossibility is to deny the ever growing presence of advertising is invading every corner of sports games -- much less society in general.

Perhaps it's not so bad, and perhaps it should have been more anticipated. Besides, what else did we expect? Most sports which are worthy of being depicted on the digital screen are huge advertising festivals anyways, so in a lot of ways it's more realistic to actually have legit products being marketed to gamers. I'm totally look forward to the day commercials begin to filter into games for the truest to life broadcast presentation possible -- I'm kidding about that, but only in a 'this might actually happen someday' kind of way.

So what do you think about the swagger rating and advertising in games in general? Should we embrace advertising or should there be a gamer led revolt against it?

Chris is the Executive Editor of Operation Sports and maintains this blog on the site. He is also a native Oklahoman and avid storm chaser. You can follow him on Twitter @ChrisSnr.

Comments

# 1 Bruce Wayne Jr @ Jun 29

Is called capitalism my friend and its a beautiful tang.

# 2 Eski33 @ Jun 29

I know many people will hate the Swagger. I could care less what they name a rating...I agree with BW Jr....It's all about the money...That is why publishers are in the business...Can't hate for that. Plus, it doesn't detract from the game.

# 3 bigsmallwood @ Jun 29

Capitalism at it's finest...Did we really need Old Spice to give us a "swagger" rating...especially when the celebrations are nothing to write home about already? I could understand if AP were to celebrate after a long run...but they only pose for like two seconds after a TD...if at all.

# 4 jmik58 @ Jun 29

This just helps remind me why i love the college game much more than the NFL.

To answer a question related to your article though, I'm fine with advertising filling up my video games if it means the games cost less for me. Why not take that advertising income and use to to charge us less for the product?

# 5 ajaxab @ Jun 29

Count me as one who was considering buying Madden and possibly, at some point down the road, Old Spice. Now I will happily swagger past both.

The argument for advertising in sports games used to be that it made the game more realistic. I would be hard pressed to argue that the addition of the Old Spice swagger rating makes Madden more realistic. This is patently ridiculous.

I think it makes a mockery of the developers who are wanting to make a realistic football game. It probably isn't their choice to see this encroachment on their craft. Throwing this crap in for a few more dollars is an insult to the programmers and artists trying to create something they can be proud of.

# 6 Bruce Wayne Jr @ Jun 29

lol note to all over the age of 5: money makes the world go round

# 7 bonannogiovanni @ Jun 29

I find it stupid why should there be a likelihood to celebrate is beyond me, they could have chosen a better feature-advertise match, coaches challenges for instance.

# 8 berad88 @ Jun 29

I don't mind the old spice swagger rating since it is more of a behind the scenes thing than a gameplay changing thing. Sponsors have been in Madden for some time now so this is nothing earth shattering. I do wonder how the old spice swagger rating will work with NCAA draft classes though.

# 9 khaliib @ Jun 29

well they have to put something in this years game to justify a $60 cost. I can't believe people are still planning on buying after they have confirmed little to nothing will be different from '10 version.

Everything about EA is streaming towards Online because they are hoping that's going to be the new "Money" bubble.

I've noticed that in most of the information put out about M'11, deals with presentation, which of course, is were all the advertisement is. BTW, who wears "Old Spice" products these days? At least advertise current, up to date products. There aren't any 80 yr old guys playing video games that I know of.

Somebody tell EA they are off by 3 generations!!!

Advertisers due not cough up money only to have their name presented in a cluttered background. I'll bet that there is going to "Old Spice" pop-ups through out the game and at the wrong time, which will annoy gamers.

# 10 guaps @ Jun 29

Child please!

This is "Everything You See on Sundays" gone too far.

# 11 Valdarez @ Jun 29

I have a feeling M11 will usher in the demise of 'everything you see on Sunday' and the Madden resurgence. The push to digitize and monetize Madden has taken precedence over increasing the quality of the game itself. With that said, I don't care what they do with the Ads as long as it doesn't cover up the gameplay or affect my ability to play the game. That wasn't the case with Madden 10 and the overlay Ads, easily the worst use of Ads ever in a video game.

# 12 darknmild @ Jun 29

I COULD CARELESS ABOUT ADVERTISING JUST MAKE A GOOD FOOTBALL GAME BRING BACK THE DAYS THAT MADE THIS GAME A PHENOMENON WHEN THE GUYS THAT PLAYED MADDEN WHEN IT ONLY HAD PLAYOFF TEAMS IN THE GAME THIS GAME SHOULD BE MADE WITH THESE GUYS IN MIND.

# 13 CreatineKasey @ Jun 29

I don't care about this particular ad.

# 14 DJ @ Jun 29

What's the point if this "rating" has no affect on actual gameplay? Cheap tactic to bring in more dollars by EA. Can't blame them as they are just trying to make money, like all companies.

But, at the same time, it's something that as a gamer, I'm not necessarily happy to see games trending this way.

# 15 superjew887 @ Jun 29

@bigsmallwood; No, we didn't need Old Spice to give us a Swagger rating. But EA Sports needed Old Spice to give them $$$$. Did someone say "make it rain" in sports video games. The advertising is sick, and I'm tired of it.

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