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I think this video beautifully illustrates a number of themes from Ellen Seiter’s work on Neopets, as well as a number of tropes that have cropped up in relation to consumerism in video games (particularly those online). First off, I think Colbert’s video demonstrates just how effective online games can be in not only “training” children to be model consumers, but in engaging them, perhaps unknowingly, in real acts of consumption. Although using real money to buy virtual products may seem like an absurd proposition to the majority of the population, such practices already exist in a number of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). For instance, in the MMO environment of Linden Lab’s Second Life (2003), player Anshe Chung was able to make a net profit of over one million dollars selling virtual real estate.
I guess my problem is not so much that virtual consumption exists in general. I just feel that developers have crossed a line when the game mechanic rewards real life consumption over devoted or skilled game play, as in Seiter’s example concerning the massive amount of points culled from completing consumer surveys over completing tasks within the Neopets game. I also think it is particularly insidious when real money must be used to buy virtual products like food or medicine that are specifically able to be “used up.” It’s particularly interesting to think about these sort of transactions from a business perspective, because these items cost nothing to (re)produce and must be bought again and again by the player in order to facilitate sustained game play.
I’m also curious as to whether the advertisement that Seiter talks about in Neopets is a phenomenon particular to online games rather than those made for domestic consoles. As Cynthia Meyers wrote about in her essay “From Sponsorship to Spots: Advertising and the Development of Electronic Media” in relation to television, contemporary services such as DVR and user viewing habits online have made it increasingly easy for consumers to skip watching 30 second spots, forcing product placement within the entertainment text to re-emerge as viable marketing strategies. If we extrapolate Meyer's observation to the online gaming market and debates surrounding banner advertisement vs. "immersive advertising," such a trajectory may have made it more necessary for online game companies to insert advertising into actual game play, but as Seiter points out, this practice makes it increasingly difficult for children to discern content from advertisement. Within console games, I know that players have responded rather unfavorably to games which blatantly try to insert advertisement into the game play mechanic, particularly when the advertisement disrupts the fidelity of the diegetic world (as in fantasy games). The only type of advertising that doesn’t seem to bother players that much is that in racing or sports games, which feature advertisement along the lines of the walls of stadiums (simulating the practice that exists in physical reality).
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