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The UK's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) has made moves to ban online mobile game adverts that wholly misrepresent downloadable games, their contents, and their plaudits. The regulatory body made the ruling following a complaint partly upheld against mobile gaming juggernaut, King.
The ASA successfully banned a Facebook ad for the mobile game Farm Heroes Saga that showed a farmyard-based Match-3 title with graphics, models and special effects that don't appear in the game itself. Despite the advert's use of the modern marketing Get-Out-of-Jail-Free card - the "Not Actual Gameplay" disclaimer - the ASA ruled the ad misleading and ordered its removal from online spaces.
A second commercial for Farm Heroes Saga was ruled "not misleading" and later reinstated. King itself defended the banned advert, stating that several of the extraneous elements "were intended as fictional, creative additions to convey pace and urgency, rather than to depict a separate game mode or level."
In a statement printed on GamesIndustry.biz, Senior ASA Investigator Freddie Alcock writes:
"Mobile game ads must give people an accurate impression of the gameplay they can expect and mustn't mislead them with scenarios or features that aren't representative of the actual game. It's important that people are able to make informed decisions about the games they choose to buy or download, so we'll continue to take action in this area where we see ads breaking the rules."
This debacle is reflective of a trend that exploded over the past decade, with an abundance of mobile gaming commercials that partly, or in many cases, wholly, misrepresent the games in question. The distortions can range from fictionalised graphical fidelity and visual design to an entirely falsified depiction of a game that, in essence, does not exist.
The situation has gotten worse since the advent of Gen-AI, with some of these adverts going as far as to be wholly incomprehensible - featuring bizarre narratives frequently involving abandoned children, homeless mothers, vore-loving knights, and sobbing/pregnant/warrior princesses in bondage/barefoot/outer space. But if there's one particularly dubious element these worst examples have to offer, it's a recurring themes of misogyny and/or domestic abuse.
While the abjectly ridiculous nature of these commercials makes for hilarious viewing, the ad revenue these adverts can generate is real - not to mention any sales revenue made by players fooled by some of these games' lofty promises.
The ASA has also recently upheld complaints against Vistrex' Idle Zombie Miner: Gold Tycoon, and several spots advertising Omnilojo's Dark War: Survival for its overt use of cinematics in lieu of any gameplay footage, and for its use of misleading "award" badges.
Much ado. Just buy a pre-owned Game Boy and a Tetris cart. Sorted.