Blizzard Seek In-Game Ad Guru

The games journalism equivalent of binology involves scouring the job advertisements that developers post, seeking clues as to the content of future titles. Say Popcap were to exhibit a desire to hire a Masters degree wielding "actual unicorn-handler with three years experience of rainbow-wrangling" I would assume Peggle 2 was a glorious physical playground rather than a digital toy. That hasn't happened, but a poster at NeoGAF spotted that Blizzard are looking to recruit a Franchise Development Producer for their "next-gen MMO", with one of the main responsibilities being to "work with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment's next-gen MMO". Hmmmm.

I can't think of many existing products that would fit into a fantasy or far-future world and, in keeping with that, the speculatrix is muttering wildly about modern day or near-future settings. Titan is already considered to be a sci-fi type of thing but perhaps this is enough to warrant belief that our own culture and its commercial products will be the focus. I wonder what the flesh of Professor Zarglebrox Pepper, Dr Pepper's great great great great great great great grandson, tastes like when distilled into a liquid form?

It seems highly possible that this could also betoken an alternative revenue stream to the subscription models of prehistory (and SW:TOR). The full listing is here.

Let's see: in a world where real-life products exist, in-game advertising is an aid to realism; all in-game advertising is evil; in-game advertising is a decent alternative to paying a subscription; I am unhappy and believe there will still be a subscription price; drinking Pepsi to regain health is terrible and wrong, and it is precisely what will definitely be happening; ACTIVISIOOOOOON!!!

Print that out and circle your choice or add your own thoughts below. I suppose you could even just shrug and move on. It is your life!