Article in International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations · October 019 doi: 10. 4018/ijgcms. 2019100103 citations reads 105 authors: Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects

THEoRETICAL BACKGRoUNd

Advergames and the Gaming Environment

Advergamesarethegameswhicharedesignedonlyforasinglebrand(SB)(Hofmeister-Tóthand

Nagy,2011).In-gameadvertising(IGA),beinganotherformofBE,is“theinclusionofbrandswithin

adigitalgame”(TerlutterandCapella,2013,p.95),andresembletraditionalproductplacements

(CoubergheandPelscmacker,2013).Athirdformisthecombinationofthetwo:Anadvergame

thatisspeciallydesignedforasinglebrand,butalsopromotesotherbrandswithinthegame(MB).

Independentofthetype,researchersmentionsomecommoncharacteristicsoftheonlinegaming

environment.Amongthem,themostimportantonesarethefollowings:

(1)Thegamingenvironmentisinteractive(KleebergerandHummel,2002;OkazakiandYagüe,

2012).BEisdesignedwiththeprinciplethatuserswouldvoluntarilyandcontinuouslytake

action(Alina,2013).Therearemissionsineachgame,andtheplayeristryingtocompletethem

interactively;

(2)Interactivityleadstoevokingofcognitiveresources.Itisthedepletionofmentalresourcesthat

decreasestheinformationprocessingcapacityoftheplayer(GunawerdanaandWaiguny,2014).

Advergames(inbothSBandMB)areinherentlyloadingtheplayerscognitivelysincetheyforce

themtocompleteamission(EvansandHoy,2016);

(3)Asuccessfulonlinegamemusttaketheplayertotheflowstatewhileplaying(Refianaetal.,

2005;Hernandez,2011;VanReijmersdaletal.,2012;Steffenetal.,2013).AccordingtoHam

etal.(2016),flowmakestheplayerengagedinthecommercialmessageentertainingly.

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