Resumo

The videogame industry has been one of the leading forms of media in terms of revenue. Being such a profitable sector, advertisers have long since entered the market. While there is an abundance of research exploring the effectiveness of product placement in games, and researchers like Terlutter and Capella (2013) have brought attention to the potential behind studying how people of different cultures react to the same IGA, there is also an open opportunity to compare the reaction of players to advertisements of similar styles originating from games of different cultures.

Knowing the growing worship through exoticization of Japanese culture originating from forms of entertainment media (Koníček, 2019), alongside the potential in backlash from IGA resulting in a drop of the attitude towards the brand or game, maybe as a result of identifying the advertisement as invasive (Malhotra et al., 2021), a question is raised: Are gamers more accepting of IGA in Japanese games in comparison to western ones? This research seeks disparities in the degree of acceptance and incongruence of IGAs from both cultures. If there is a difference, this article also seeks its causes.

We explore the core tenets and concepts of In-Game Advertising and the history of the practice in the Japanese gaming industry, before leading into Reception Theory, which argues that meaning is both co-created by authors and readers, and shaped by cultural contexts. Analyzing IGAs under the lenses of this theory remains a gap in literature.

In this qualitative study, semi-structured interviews were performed, participants selected in a non-probabilistic, purposive manner, being members of anime forums and players of Japanese-developed games that self-admitted having an affinity for Japanese media. Three videos comparing IGAs were made, and each one was shown to three participants in order to better represent diverse types of IGA. The resulting information was then scrutinized through the use discourse analysis.

The results were divided into the factors identified to influence ad approval and rejection, and how those factors affected the comparison. We found common elements in the participants’ dialogue, such as the importance of an ad fitting inside the game’s setting, realism and the issue of immersion. Their opinions towards the ads were classified as liked, disliked and neutral, and their reasons for each opinion were discussed, as well as their cultural perception of western and Japanese game developers.

While cultural context and personal experiences shaped their perceptions, it cannot be said a bias towards IGAs in Japanese games was identified. We found the tendency towards participants disliking blatant ads and preferring subtle placements that did not break immersion remained regardless of the game’s cultural origin. However, the factors determining what an individual considers to be either subtler and more immersive will vary depending on subjective interpretation of the media, so Japanese methods of ad insertion in games may be more palatable to most players.

Terlutter, R., & Capella, M. L. (2013). The gamification of advertising: analysis and research directions of in-game advertising, advergames, and advertising in social network games. Journal of advertising, 42(2-3), 95-112. Koníček, M. (2019). Japanophilia: becoming the other. Theory and Practice in English Studies, 8(2), 107-117. Malhotra, G., Mishra, S., & Saxena, G. (2021). Consumers' psychological reactance and ownership in in-game advertising. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 39(6), 842-855.