The Pie Whisperer

I was playing Need for Speed: Undercover this morning and while I was in the middle of a high speed escape from the cops, I raced past a billboard that I had thought had an ad for Toronto Blue Jays tickets. After I zoomed past it, I convinced myself that I must have read the sign wrong. I know that EA has been putting ads in their racing games, but I’d never seen one that was so localized to me (I live about an hour outside of Toronto), so I kept on Need for Speeding, keeping an eye out for another billboard, which of course, I found. My eyes hadn’t deceived me. There was an ad for Jays tickets in the game.

I know that some find any type of in-game advertising annoying and intrusive, but - depending on the situation - I don’t mind it, and in some cases, actually enjoy it. In a game like Need for Speed: Underground, driving past a billboard that has a real ad rather than a made up one (“Buy Oink Zero - America’s Number One Zero Calorie Pork Soda!”) adds another layer of immersion into the game. When I race past an ad that I’ve seen in real life, I feel like I’m more a part of that world.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go order some Jay tickets.