GameRx: Need for Speed: World

This week at GameRx, we're changing it up a little. While I normally prescribe older games for your enjoyment, I'd like you to take a look at a recent-ish free-to-play MMO, Need for Speed: World. The game was originally free-to-play up to level 10, requiring purchases afterward, but has been completely free to play since fall of 2010. It's a great little racing game, but it's also a fantastic learning opportunity regarding the video game industry, especially in the free-to-play market.

As you'd expect from anything titled Need for Speed, everything revolves around illegal street racing rings and ensuing shenanigans. Naturally, your goal can be boiled down to three familiar words; break traffic laws. Explore the city, participate in illegal PvP street races, evade police, collect prize money, buy new stuff, and repeat. The game does feature an impressive selection of snazzy cars with an admirable amount of customization for your automotive avatar, both mechanical and cosmetic. With a dynamic difficulty setting, the game stays fresh and challenging, maintaining a good shelf-life. Gameplay aside, the thing that really impresses me is how NfS:W stays free to play: product placement. Let's take a look at how this affects the design of this game.

The trick of good product placement is finding a sort of balance between adver-tisement and immersion. Much to the chagrin of con-sumers, this line is really hard balance to perfect; the advertisement needs to be seen by the consumer, but it can't be as heavy-handed as to break immersion. If you're looking for examples of products with more agg-ressive product placement, watch a few episodes from the 2011 season of USA Network television. If you're even remotely paying attention, chances are you'll find at least one reference to Angry Birds, Red Robin, or Snyder's of Hannover pretzels. It tries to tie the story to the real world, but doesn't quite do it. The most recent game with similar product placement complications was Homefront with the inclusion of a White Castle in one level map (I thought it was a nice touch, but I did wonder why they'd pay to have their storefront blown up by the Chinese army, but I guess it's better than the Infamous Pepsi machines). If you want a deeper look at product placement in film in particular, check out episode three of Ad Nauseum at ChainGangMedia.com for a discussion on the topic.

That's the neat thing about having an MMO on cars, though. The entire point of the game is product placement, so it never breaks immersion. When making the game, the developers go out looking for bids from car companies to have their models included in the game. The companies are charged depending on several variables, including how many cars they want added, how expensive the car is in-game, how the car behaves, and what upgrades and paint jobs are available. You can even collect data on which cars are more popular and make marketing decisions based on the numbers. I mean, let's face it; would the average consumer be more likely to play a free racing game that let you drive a Ford Mustang or one with a Fjord Clydesdale?

Exactly.

It doesn't stop there, though. If a company pays enough to have their car free in-game, non-automotive companies can pay to have advertisements painted onto the car with no other color choices, effectively "sponsoring" your playtime (such as T-Mobile at the time I was playing). Billboards with ads scattered around town don't break immersion either; in fact, you're more likely to retain billboard ads since it's a familiar format your brain can identify. If the right money came through, you could probably even sell storefront space for advertising, putting different auto-shops, insurance companies, or chain stores along the sidewalk. You couldn't interact with them, so the in-game utility would be practically useless, but the roadside is prime advertising space for some sneaky product placement.


Seriously, though. I think these guys are on to something big. If you can run your game around a set brands or franchises, you could really rake in some money through sponsorship. It's difficult to come up with an example that will work nearly as well as automobiles, although the next-most applicable thing would easily be firearms and military manufacturers. It sort of falls in with the idea of trying to build a first-person MMO. If you can make all the guns real military products rather than Counterstrike's off-brand look-alikes, you could get some really legitimate revenue; goodness knows arms dealers and weapons manufacturers have money to burn.


As for the actual Need for Speed game, it's pretty solid fun. Since it's a racing game, there isn't much to describe in the way of game mechanics, but the different cars all handle pretty well and have their own distinct feel. It's really easy to find a happy place for your gameplay style as well as getting a car that's fresh to death. Get a friend or two to make an account with you and try a few races together and take a look around. While you're on, you should definitely try the police pursuit challenges (easily my favorite part of the game) if you have a bit of a chaotic streak on your character sheet. The game is pretty special in the way it plays and the way it makes revenue, so it's definitely worth your time to give it a whirl; if nothing else, you'll get a look at the potential future of the next big free-to-play MMO's.


Now that we've finished, I'm awfully thirsty. Anyone else want a Fresca®?

Doc Watson is a writer and editor for The RedShirt Crew and founder of The GameRx Clinic. He has a love for the underappreciated cars of the eighties and, incidentallu, is currently hoping for a game to feature advertisements for the motion picture Rampart in the next year or so. If you have questions, thoughts, or other input, leave a comment or send him a tweet by @DocWatsonMD