Play games or watch ads? The mini-game is flooded with advertisements and hides all kinds of traps

□ reporter Han Dandong

□ Intern Wang Yitian

"Playing a game, 3 ads pop up in one minute, I really don't know if I'm playing a game or watching an ad." Beijing player Xiao Liu complained in a recent interview with a reporter from "Rule of Law Daily" that many mini program games are flooded with advertisements, which seriously affects the game experience.

There are many similar complaints on the Internet. The reporter's recent investigation and interview found that most of these games flooded with advertisements are online mini games, many of which can be played without downloading, and these advertisements also contain a lot of bad information such as inducing consumption and vulgarity.

Why are there so many ads in mini-games? And how can this be regulated?

Ad flooding affects the experience

Not long ago, in order to relax, Shanghai citizen Ms. Liu downloaded a small game called "×× Artifact" on her tablet. She tried it, and the many advertisements made her bluntly say that she couldn't stand it: "Start, use props, upgrade whatever, will pop up ads, over and over again, so many ads, don't call it '×× artifact', just call it 'advertising artifact'." ”

The reporter's investigation found that on social platforms, many netizens complained that the flood of mini game advertisements affected the game experience, and netizens called out "there are many small game advertisements to be outrageous", whether it is using props, resurrection, or getting clearance tips, you need to watch ads.

After the guidance of the player, the reporter tried a small game called "×× Lian" in a small program, just clicked to enter the game page, an advertisement immediately popped up, you must manually click "close" to continue playing the game, the word "close" is still very small, difficult to find; During the game, the page is full of various small ads, such as ads appearing at the top left, top right and bottom of the page, and you will click by mistake if you are not careful.

At the same time, the reporter found that changing themes, "clearing bombs", rearranging and prompting in the game required watching tens of seconds of advertising.

There are many more mini-games with many advertisements in a certain application. A mobile game called "×× Clean", the game is stuffed with ads, the ads at the bottom of the page will keep switching, and every time you pass the level, an ad will pop up, and if you accidentally click by mistake, you will jump directly to another platform. At the same time, every time the mini-game skips a level, you need a key and watch an advertisement for tens of seconds to get the key.

The reporter noticed that most of these mini games are embedded in the promotion advertisements of a type of App.

In addition to mini games, there are also many advertisements in some game apps. In the comment area of some beta games on a platform, the reporter saw that many players reported that there were too many in-game advertisements. "Ads are flying everywhere, and if you accidentally click on it, you have to watch it to exit." Some players say so.

There are traps behind advertising

There are many advertisements, and many advertisements also bury "thunder". The reporter's investigation found that many advertisements that jumped out of the mini game had bad information and content that induced consumption.

The reporter opened a mini program game, and many of the advertisements that jumped out during the trial were vulgar. For example, after the reporter clicked on the "watch video lottery" activity, the interface that jumped to directly began to play a video advertisement, the content is to promote another mini game, the characters in the promotional picture are scantily dressed, the posture is provocative, and the promotional slogan says: "You don't play this, what else makes you feel fun?" ”

There are also players who have been scammed due to false advertising. In September last year, Ms. Yan of Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province, reportedly watched an advertisement to get props while playing a mini-game. Coincidentally, Ms. Chang, who had financial needs, saw a loan advertisement and downloaded and registered the loan app according to the instructions. In order to withdraw the balance displayed in the loan app, Ms. Chang transferred a total of 9,9 yuan according to the customer service guide, and later found that she was deceived.

There are many similar incidents, such as the "29.9 yuan recharge 100 yuan phone bill" advertisement with the wrong goods, but after payment, you get a bunch of full discount coupons; Suspected of false propaganda of "2 to 3 days to learn skills to obtain ×× certificate", after paying the training fee, only got a few teaching videos...

According to industry insiders, advertisements in Mini Programs support banner ads, incentivized ads, interstitial ads and checkered ads, among which the type of promotion page applicable to checkered ads only supports Mini Games. Mini Program banner ads support click-to-auction purchase, interstitial ads and grid ads support per-exposure auction purchase. Mini Program traffic owners can combine the characteristics of different Mini Programs to select custom ad display scenarios, support a variety of promotion goals and promotion pages, and meet different marketing requirements. Mini Program advertisements start from 50 yuan per day advertising budget, and the charges vary according to the purchase method.

A staff member of an advertising company told reporters that game companies and studios generally have "game advertising departments", and some large companies will also have "game advertising production departments", and game advertising is usually responsible for these two departments. Many online ads now have templates for creation, and the production department can change the content as needed.

The staff member also revealed that there are currently many small games that rely only on advertising revenue, and the number of advertisements is its main source of income, and the demand for advertising by game producers is often large, and it does not matter whether the content and the game are related.

How do these mini-games connect with ads? Why are there so many bad ads?

Si Binbin, a lawyer at Beijing Taoan Law Firm, which focuses on the online game industry, told reporters that casual mini games have the characteristics of small size, simple gameplay and short development cycle, and their business model is mainly based on advertising fees. The R&D manufacturers of this type of game are generally not large, and in terms of team structure, they pay more attention to research and development, and the game operation is very dependent on the app store or channel platform, so the app store or channel platform has a stronger voice.

"Under normal circumstances, mini game operators receive advertisements, it is difficult to choose or select the advertisements they want to cooperate in display, and can only choose to access the 'ad pool' provided by the app store or channel platform, such as each 'ad pool' has 50 ads for random play. Some game developers want to exclude some categories, and platforms often don't agree. Si Binbin said that these advertisements are mainly reviewed by app stores or channel platforms, and the advertising fees charged for higher risk ads will be relatively high.

The reporter opened the advertising content review rules of a platform and saw that the rules were clear, and after the game manufacturer created and submitted the advertisement, it entered the review system for review. In the "Ad moderation" column, "bad-oriented" ads are clearly stipulated: the use of ambiguous ambiguous scenarios or descriptions, such as "unspeakable things", is not supported; Do not support words that contain ambiguous words, such as "shh, look quietly, look at quickly, delete after watching", etc...

But in fact, the reporter tried a number of mini program games on the platform, and a large number of advertisements jumped out of the game, containing some bad information and inducing consumption.

Excessive advertising needs to be addressed

The reporter's investigation found that these small games with many advertisements have a common feature, that is, they do not have a version number. Si Bin Bin told reporters that the no-version Mini Game cannot be profited by in-game "prop charging", and advertising charging is its only or main profit model, so it leads to more advertising than games with "prop charges".

For how to regulate the problem of more small game advertisements, Si Bin Bin believes that the crackdown on illegal advertisements should be strengthened, if the content is legal and compliant, there is a certain quality and quality of advertising, the user experience is more friendly, the majority of users will not be so disgusted with advertising.

Si Bin Bin suggested strengthening the supervision of in-game advertising, such as similar to the management of advertisements in film and television dramas or long videos, putting forward specific regulatory requirements for advertising duration and advertising impressions, and controlling excessive advertising.

"App stores, channel platforms, and game developers should strengthen industry self-discipline, increase compliance reviews of advertising content, and make reasonable arrangements for the content, duration and display methods of advertisements." Maintain a moderate number of commercial advertisements, and can also intersperse some suitable public service advertisements to assume more social responsibility. Si Binbin appealed. (Source: Rule of Law Daily)