Real Ads for Fake Truckers
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- čas přidán 20. 06. 2023
- Real world trucking company places billboard ads for truck drivers in American Truck Simulator.
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I play euro truck and I always have a mod installed to ENABLE real ads on billboards that would normally have fake ones on them. It's just more fun seeing a real company's ad like mcdonalds
same but for ats
And then you can stop by the In game McDonald's while you order McDonald's on the delivery apps lmao
Always hated the part in games and other media where they have to replace products due to licensing like the fake cokes and mcdonalds etc. So as long as they are not invasive and immersion breaking I am find with real adds, and especially so in realistic simulators like ETS2 and ATS. As in those cases fake adds can break immersion.
Everything about this comment is dystopian, people going out of their way to get exposed to more ads
@@JoelLebreton-lh1ignot for getting exposed to more ads, but to make the simulator feel more immersive and realistic. Same goes for real life businesses, shops, landmarks and such that may not be included in the simulator for licensing reasons. These ads have zero effect on us and are there purely for the sake of realism and immersion. We're simulator drivers. Simulator. Same goes for racing sims, flight sims and such. I'd rather not fit my truck with Gestone tyres and a Tonda engine and drive with a Dear John tractor to a Sale Mart supermarket to get lunch... Hehe
The Duracell in Pikmin was actually a piece of world building. In the game, you’re stranded on an unknown planet. After a while, you start finding generic household items like a Duracell battery or a Dr. Pepper bottle cap, implying that the unknown planet is actually Earth.
I found that a very clever way to use product placement.
Yeah, the Pikmin product placement is actually really charming in context.
I wouldn't say the game wouldn't work without the product placements, but it definitely adds something.
I really loved it
@@DraakjeYoblamaThe Pikmin rerelease on the Switch has swapped out all real brands (except for the Nintendo items) for fictional ones. Likely because the licensing deal they used to have in the original game expired.
It still works great, but I do low-key miss the real ones. It had some real charm.
It also ties into the game's theme of anti-corporatism. The plot is that you get sent back to Earth because your company is in debt & you have to work to pay it off rather than being able to see your family after your adventure in the 1st game. The fact that you are collecting real products to pay off the debt adds to the theme imo
I'm a truck driver and I played a lot of ATS when I was in driving school. That game does teach you how wide you need to turn and roughly what backing trailers is like under good conditions. Other than that, I promise you it isn't a great representation of what the job is like. ATS wont give you a driver manager who thinks your scheduled vacation is more of a suggestion, or a maintenance department who things AC isnt necessary for working and sleeping in the Carolinas to name some examples
add to that restroom breaks, fuel/ equipment costs, and dealing with idiots driving next to you that you cant escape for hours at a time. it is a pretty decent starting point for learning the trade though
Does ATS have $15 showers and $20 parking spot?
@@theangryotaku3361 Yeah, the game also needs stop and go traffic with the occasional BMW ripping down the shoulder, maybe add a few road raging brake checkers, some swerving Altimas, and even the odd power-tripping officer for good measure.
@@MintyGT lmao the speeding swerving altimas blasting tee grizzley and missing 3 hubcaps with a tail light out 😂
Don't forget being stuck between the company and the drive time regulations. Though I don't know how it works now. It's been quite a while since I was a driver. But I remember learning how to make the log book fit your trips. LOL
Hopefully game devs get the message: Gamers are okay with in game ads as long as…
1) The ads are not on the HUD or in the menu, but actually *in the game*
2) They do not distract or attempt to draw the attention of the player. They only exist in the periphery of the game world (same as IRL)
3) They market things that might reasonably exist in the game world or at least things that are directly related to the genre/subject matter of the game. But not the game itself as that would massively break immersion
And as long as they don't make it necessary to be online in a singleplayer game just so they can load the ads.
Both opinions are valid and should be counted as straight FACTS. I second these.
I dom't like ads at all, especially on cable which I haven't watched in a lomg time due to the abundance of ads. CZcams ads are super annoying and thats why I use ReVanced. If I wanted to buy something, I would know what I'm looking for, thus I would do research to find the best product, and not go based off of an advertisement I saw a month ago.
also the brand representation needs to be "fair". A billboard over boosting a company or product? Totally fine! A game mechanic where one company objectively pays better with no draw back? that is a problem. Red bull giving temporary wings? Riding the edge depending on the game. If I need to drink red bull to progress - problem. "Redbull man" is one of the possible super heros? Sure! as long as he has a cool down.
Just to shorten this 3 points: they can be okay as long as they are not immersion breaking and invasive,
i have no issue with ads. THIS is one of the few times that ads totally and absolutely make sense... IF the ads help a small developer continue to drive development of niche games in a way that makes sense.
As long as SCS doesn't let those ads take over the game. If they use them on billboards and trailers in a way that makes sense, then fine. But I damn well better not have to watch an ad at the scales lol
the stupidest way to integrate the brand would be to make them an in game company that pays the best and giving you the best truck with perfect maintenance, making them "the objectively best option" to play the game. But they would not do that.
Truck simulator is about the dream of owner/operator, so showing "the big guys" existing is totally fine in universe and they have their benefits over owner/operator in the real world - but that makes a subtle "we exist and we train and hire for real" the best approach. It also lifes up to the standard of "the illusion of choice and freedom" that draws people into the industry, while being honest that it is a hard job requiring real training and the upfront investment is not affordable to everyone, so going to the big players is not a bad option to start.
@@combatwombat594 It'd be so realistic if they slowed the gas pump to show you ads while you wait and make you actually wait. Oh God, minigame while you wait to make you stay at the computer during fillup - you have to be around the ads. The ads are the background of the minigame.
Totally agreed, ATS developer studio (SCS software) have been releasing free updates for American Truck Simulator7 since it came out in 2016 and for Euro Truck Simulator 2 since 2012
I am completely fine with these ads but what really annoys me is that they expect you to pay for every single state they come out with. So far the states as DLC's right now add up to 5 and a half times the price of the base game. That's around $120, it's absolutely ridiculous. I got the game when it first came out and never expected them to make all new states cost money.
Their subreddit did have a few stories of ATS gamers turned real truckers. This is pretty in-line with what's already happening, just accelerating it.
Yeah, nothing earth-shattering with this one. Heck, some actual IRL truckers play ETS2/ATS in their down time, as they take a break or wait for the trailer to be loaded.
I am one of them. I do super loads and after a day or two of sitting, waiting for permits, I will play the game a bit
i mean if the guys trackrecords are clean ingame and if they like the simulation that much, why not give em a chance at a real job? They probably love it.
Not gonna lie, I've been playing it a lot and I've considered it as a possible alternative job in case anything happens. I think if they want to go that route, however, a tutorial and hyper-realism mode would go a long way. Maybe have Schnider sponsor the development of a Driver's Ed tutorial which teaches players how to properly back up various types of trailers in a variety of configurations and angles, or informing them of other minutia you're supposed to do like turning on your hazard lights when maneuvering in a fueling station or stopping at every rail crossing when hauling hazardous/flammable materials.
I saw a trucker that had a steering wheel controller in his passenger seat and played ar truck simulator
It's a good idea anyway, many veterans in ETS2/ATS is already a truck driver IRL 😂
Man, talk about only having one thing in life. That’s a little sad
@@Mawyman2316 eh it's fun tho
@@Mawyman2316What's sad about enjoying something? If that's what they want to do then leave them be
@@Mawyman2316 well sometimes people take their job as their hobby too
@@maxkeller4848 devoting your life to something and your free time to the same thing shouldn’t really be a thing. As much as people talk about making your job your hobby and you never work a day, that just doesn’t tend to happen.
I would hope that people drive trucks virtually as an enjoyable hobby not spend the limited time they have not driving their truck he spent driving a real truck. Especially with how bad the trucking market is right now.
the pikmin one has a reason that makes the product placement make sense pikmin is suppose to be set on earth that has been abandoned and the aliens you play as value earth objects high. so pikmin includes product placement and they make sense in the story they want to tell. As for uncle sam poster I'm pretty sure people just assumed they were innuniverse canonical posters that the people in the world would have instead of a meta reason for them being there.
I've only played Pikmin 1 and 2, but the impression I got is that Earth is *not* abandoned. It's just that Olimar and his people aren't looking at things that are human sized due to some unknown perception bias.
My justification of this is that Olimar remarks in 2 that an area he was in in the first game had changed far more than expected. That suggested to me that he was in a garden or other area that had been remodelled or landscaped by a local human.
There is an option in the game to disable the real billboard ads and replace them with the usual fake ones, too.
wow we have options? 😊
I worked for schneider for about 4 months... I never worked so many hours for such a small paycheck in my life
Golly, I wonder why they can't find more drivers!
That's the megacarrier experience. I'm at Western Express right now and I'm making more than I did in retail but not by much
Extra Medium yeah they made me do regional loads but my pay was based on doing local loads. So instead of getting 4-5 loads a day I would only get 1 or 2 loads but my days were still 12+ hours long.
I'm with Penske now and I'm making $28 an hour plus OT after 8 hours
@@epicshitz damn, well I'm glad you found a better company. I was promised a dedicated route between PA and GA that never happened. Instead of a steady 2400 miles a week I get whatever they find which usually means going into Maine and/or sitting around a lot
yep all these shortages are caused by low terrible wages. just look at the teacher shortage, they pay like $16/hour. u make that working at walmart and don't have to deal with kids or all the other shit that comes with it
I agree that the ads are not much of a big deal since they fit with the game world of this particular game, as it's a driving sim. I just hope ubisoft or whoerever doesn't get ahold of the concept and starts putting bilboards in ancient egypt.
imaging EA getting that idea - they would work together with the most corrupt four letter entity they can find, put the brand name in front of the game name and simply attach the year for the annual release.
@@sarowie Having had played madden, they already have ads for snickers in game
Steep has entered the chat, and I personally think the implementation in there is great. Such as having GoPro cameras that can be equipped, or helmets with that energy drink brand on them, it's great because the brands are usually found in real-life sport events, so since Steep is a sim-like, it gives an additional depth to the immersion.
@@badgoogle9938 Like around the side of the playing field as it would be in real life, which would be fine, or just arbitrarily in the game, which would not be fine?
@@justanoman6497 no, I talking about flashing up on the screen, more intrusive than what is being discuss here.
Smellable billboards got be one of the most dystopian thing I've heard all week.
Like, I'm not typically standing in vegan people's corner on things, but imagine having to smell something you want nothing to do with on so many levels because of a fricking ad. Like, imagine if someone put up an ad for oysters, scallops, kimchi, durian, and so on. There needs to be a fine for this. I have to imagine the stink Hormel plants give off are something they have to pay for.
@@orijimiOh god the seafood one might be horrible for pregnant women. Just a vomit inducing billboard. But also I wonder if the scent could be a negative to wildlife too, drawing animals closer to highways if the scent happens to go the wrong way, I would imagine the scale would be much larger than one cheeseburger left on the side of the road because it's meant to be smelled by lots of humans.
Missed the best part of the Alan Wake Duracell product placement. There were generic batteries in the game as well, but generic batteries wouldn’t power your flashlight for as long as the Duracell ones
Honestly the idea isn't a bad one and doesn't seem intrusive or anything. The only problem I have with this whole story is the 48k a year. Where I'm at in the USA you can barely afford to pay rent on that, much less raise a family. Should be closer to 60k for a livable wage.
And that's just the median
The whole thing you don't need to pay rent if you're a trucker. You, well, live in the truck.
@@arkhikun the average US wage is not $24k lol
@@arkhikunaverage US wage is $90k
Median wage in the US is about $48k.
There's a difference between Average and Median
thats the thing, there isnt a shortage of drivers. only a shortage of people willing to take pay that low. a CDL isnt cheap to get. those trucks arent cheap to run, hell the tires alone are 700 each, they get literally 6 miles to the gallon. and for an owner operator that comes out of pocket.
The problem with this is the way it’s being implemented now is fine. The issue is later when companies are like hmm they were ok with it let’s make it obnoxious, go too far and put it everywhere.
Or something that doesn’t fit the theme, like the monster energy drinks in death stranding. In a post apocalyptic wasteland the monster energy plant is still going strong?
@@genericjosh96wasn't the monster drink a goofy plo point in the game
I actually don't mind the pikmin duracell battery at all. If I recall correctly, the "lore" of pikmin 2 that is heavcily implied is that olimar is finding objects on a planet of extinct humans, so its IMO a pretty diagetic example that doesn't detract from the experience or setting.
I personally actually really like the Duracell battery in pikmin because it makes it feel more like you’re exploring the actually earth as an outsider with real items
My favorite games were always racing games. Both sims and arcade style. They always had ads for tires, fuels, manufacturers. It’s never bothered me one bit. Built it into the game world and I think it’s ok. Take the player out of that immersion just to sell something, and that’s a problem.
I was not bothered by the Duracell battery in Pikmin. The main character, Olimar, is a 1in tall alien exploring earth on a micro scale and bringing items back to his planet to sell. The Duracell battery is not at all out of place with the other objects he finds in my opinion. I found it funny in game that the computer has wild speculation about what is a commonplace object for us.
I played ATS for a few hundred hours. I Decided to go to CDL school IRL, cost $4,000 USD. I passed my CDL on my first attempt but then decided to go back to school for I.T.-Networking. Quite the adventure.
The AXE one is the least bad, it's a billboard that's integrated well into the level. You could stand next to it and still not realise it's branded content.
The Cingular ads were weirder.
@@orijimiNeed for Speed most wanted had right?
@@anonymousinfinido2540 They might've been in that too. I don't have as intense a recollection of that game as SC:CT. The Cingular ads were weird due to how they were placed, but what's weirder now is that anyone younger or who has forgottten/never knew of Cingular who might play the older version of CT will just think the orange blob is just some weird thing made up for the game, because they never spell out the name IIRC.
I worked on a DLC for a different simulator game and insisted we put real ads in the game for immersion, even personally walking around town taking pictures of different ads and billboards that you can still find in the game to this day. We were obviously not paid by any of these companies, that would've been even better.
Old need for speed games had billboards that had real adds, it added to the immersion somewhat.
Eventually they ended up putting banners and billboards throughout their entire maps (nfs undercover I think) which got annoying
The cans of Monster energy drink being displayed front-and-center in _Death Stranding_ were bad enough, but then came the ads for Norman Reedus's role in _The Walking Dead._
The Army recruitment centers have a suspicious tendency to be right next to Gamestops too
Half the fun of the trucking sims IS to go crazy and drive 100mph down the highway and try to keep it on the road. I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment every time I flip a truck in AMS
I drive trucks in the US, about a year in. 80-90k is what the short runs can bring in. The longest run we have is about 145-150k a year. You just have to get on with a good company.
11:37
I think another major difference between the truck, simulator billboards, and a U.S. Army billboard in COD is the truck simulator seems to be a decent approximation of the real profession. for example, I feel like a lot of people wouldn’t be happy if GrubHub started advertising in GTA.
I love still playing the original PC release of burnout paradise, because the support is long gone and EA doesn't care, some of billboards are still advertising EVGAs top end X58 motherboards lol
John Oliver did a great piece on the state of the trucking industry. It is brutal.
Long story short, after law changes a few decades ago, the american trucking industry literally raced to the bottom in terms of wages and rights. A lot of truckers aren't even considered "employees".
Long story a little less short, many of the operating and repair costs of the vehicles that used to be paid by the companies, are now coming out the pockets of the individual drivers.
My uncle works for UPS and makes a shit ton of money. But... He does multi-day non-stop drives, is qualified to pull triples, works mostly nights, works lots of overtime, etc... For all of that he will be able to retire nearly 10 years early, which is in a year or 2 from now. He also didn't get married until 2 years ago. Meeting a woman is kind of tough when you're always working and sleeping during daylight hours.
I like the realness of it and it's a good recruiting tool as a former driver and a father who drives for Schneider.
Rush 2 on n64 had SO MUCH Mountain Dew product placements and advertisements. Collectables, and billboards etc
Valve tried putting in-game billboard style aads into Counter-Strike in roughly 2006. They just plastered them on random flat walls on popular maps.
Don't forget one of the best product tie-in-games ever: Chex Quest.
The games I played the most that had blatant product placement were the Need for Speed games in the mid-2000s. NFS Underground 1 & 2, Most Wanted (2005) and Carbon are some of my favourite games of all time but the product placement for Cingular and T-Mobile every time you opened the in-game messages was always in your face. I also remember UG1 had ads for McDonalds, UG2 had literal Best Buy stores in the world, both UG2 and Most Wanted had multiple Burger Kings in the worlds, and I think Carbon also had the Obama campaign ads as well.
It's like everyone forgot about all the ad placement in sports and racing games, or hell, the fact that ads were literal ENTIRE NES games (Noid the Void, McKids adventure or whatever, etc.) given away to young children.
Anybody else remember that Battlefield 2 had a plug-in that allowed you to upload jpegs to the billboards on various maps? We mostly used it to wish server regulars a happy birthday, but we got paid ads occasionally too, once we had one from Overclockers.
Surprised they didn't talk about Roblox. Probably the most popular game among marketing companies.
It has actual virtual billboards that can be bought in featured games by either other users to advertise other games, or companies to advertise products or services.
Also there are often events and actual games made by conglomerate companies where you can earn free avatar items for completing tasks in those games. Some examples are: Gucci, H&M, Spotify, Taco Bell and of course Walmart Land.
This is genuinely the one time I think ads are good. Like, it just adds to immersion.
From more recent examples, there were Monster Energy drinks in Death Stranding.
In Pikmin all hte characters (especially the Pikmin) are just very small, so it's not a giant battery, it's a regular-sized one
Signing bonuses are common, but Schneider would try to compete with my previous employer where I managed a few dozen drivers.
My drivers bumped docks around Boston, when home every night, and could park their truck at home if they had space. Most of them made $80-100k.
A few of my old employees called when the ATS ads became news because we poached people from Schneider, half the time they'd apply in my office after chatting with one of our drivers. down in the warehouse, etc.
America's army was such a good game. I played it so much from 2005 to 2008, then discovered proving grounds on ps4. Made so many long lasting friendships on that game. Almost the whole group upgraded from ps4 to PC and now we all still game together.
In Australia inter-state truck drivers start at around S61k (USD), but go to a mine-site and a truck driver gets about $92k. I was getting $50k working in a hotel valet parking cars, and that didn't even include the tips we got.
Pay good money, and you'll get employees begging for a job. Over here people beg for mine-site jobs because they pay stupidly well
I remember as a kid having games on roblox get changed to have massive billboards added to them.
Always was weird loading into a favorite game and finding the map changed to showcase in game advertisements to children.
my favourite are the Red Bull advertisements from Wipeout 2097/XL from 1996, perfect product placement 🤘
In "Death Stranding" there's a blatant ad for Norman Reedu's TV series he was in at the time on the door of the shower/toilet when he goes to the bathroom and it even plays a motorcycle sound to when he poops. Also, in the original version of the game his drink of choice was Monster energy.
I remember in "Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee" there are in-game vending machines for health recovery and power-ups. Most health vending machines are normal Health-up machines, but a few ate SoBe Energy branded.
6:50 can't believe they didn't talk about Need for Speed Underground 2. You received messages on a Cingular phone, there were Best Buy stores and ads, there were ads for Autozone, and whenever you bought an upgrade, most of them had you chose a brand. For example, you could chose to buy an HKS turbo, or a Turbonetics turbo. I never really minded, and I still don't, but it's definitely worth mentioning.
I’m a truck driver, and I like my job, but I HATE my company. I think the reason why there’s such a trucker shortage is because the pay has stagnated and companies will treat you like shit until you have more experience and tenure, which isn’t easy when most well paying places won’t even look at you until you have 2-3 years experience. You also get abysmal home time. If I’m actually doing runs efficiently, which is always up in the air because again, they don’t care, I get 36 hours a week to be home for my “reset”. Most of the money in trucking is for owner operators, people that own their own truck, but not everyone wants to do that either. It’s just a mess tbh.
Played farm sim the other day, the ads in game were advertising dlc for the game. The same sign would even change
ATS and ETS (American and European Truck Simulator) games actually have a quite popular game mod that replaces fake ads with real ads. So this is something that the community already did to itself, before the developers thought they may as well.
I've never really had any issues with the inclusion of ads in games provided they:
1. Aren't invasive to the gameplay
2. Aren't repetitive or otherwise distracting
3. Don't force internet connectivity when there otherwise shouldn't be any.
I remember back when Battlefield 2142 was a thing, they had billboards EVERYWHERE that advertised the new Intel CPU at the time. But it was like on every single wall with an open space. It was incredibly distracting.
i have a class A CDL. delivered for a beer distributor. i was salary at 800 a week for a quoted 40 hours. realistically, i was working anywhere from 35 to 65 hours, most of that was spent outside of the truck stacking beer on a hand truck. snow, rain, scorching heat, didnt matter. i had to run my route. my boss was actually angry at me for skipping 2 out of 23 stops in the middle of a literal blizzard on december 23rd... i make more money in half the time delivering pizza at one of my former stops. realistically, i probably wont get back in a commercial truck.
No! That is not Solid Snake!
Crashes truck, phone starts ringing for SWIFT.
Like The Last Starfighter, if you get the high score in Truck Simulator you get to deliver interstellar cargo.
7:40 "No! that is not solid snake!"
There are mods for real ads on billboards in the game, and they are some of the most downloaded mods
In game advertisements when they make sense in the gameworld are actually awesome when done well.
I've always played the game with mods to make real ads in the game, so I'll never complain about it. this is the type of ad placements that I feel really work and I have 0 issue with
Re: games as secret testing and recruiting tools - Does nobody remember the movie "The last starfighter?" That was basically the plot of the movie.
Pikmin one had the Duracell in the game but the remake of Pikmin 1 replaces it with a generic battery and I was so pissed. IRL companies in video games makes it feel INFINITELY more realistic. So running irl billboard ads in video games (like they did with that transformers game on the original Xbox) is so cool.
The Duracell battery is great, but it's NOT Novelty-sized! The character is the size of bugs. He can't even lift a bottle cap without a dozen helpers.
My guy the plot of Pikmin two is you’re collecting treasures from a ruined earth. The battery doesn’t power your ship they sell it for money. It has a bunch of different products like pickle jar lids and Nintendo game paraphernalia, it’s good product placement. It’s probably the only product placement in a video game that doesn’t make me hate it.
I remember playing Need for Speed: Underground 2 and there being places like Burger King and Best Buy in-game, and the SMS system was Cingular (RIP). It didn't really bother me since it felt a little bit immersive and the stores were uncommon and not actually involved with the gameplay at all.
What's funny is that sports games get the most leeway for advertising because of the nature of the games. Skater XL recently put out a map in collaboration with Dickies that replicates the Fire Station skatepark in Fort Worth, Texas, and then you have Red Bull going haam in both The Crew 2 and Riders Republic
I LIVE in NC and had no idea about those smell billboards
It doesn't stop at billboards emitting smells. Dunkin Donuts was installing coffee-scent emitters in busses for a while, they might even still be doing that.
I 100% agree with Luke. The billboards were there anyway. It doesn't hurt anything to make them have real ads. Devs get a nice extra revenue source, the players get a more immersive experience without it interfering.
Can't believe I'm saying this, but this is the one time ads are a benefit.
- Player gets more immersed in game without being intrusive
- Company gets the advertising space that may actually work
- Devs get increased income to put back towards the game
This kind of advertisement is so tongue and cheek it's allowable. The day it becomes the Ready Player One " blocking x% of the screen before inducing seizures or brain hemorrhages" that's when we burn down the means of production.
Hold on a gosh darn minute. On I-45 here in Texas, between Houston and Dallas there is a small town (I believe it’s called buffalo) that I swear has smelled like pizza when driving by. Lo and behold, one of the more prominent giant fast food signs that I can see right off the highway is a Pizza Hut. I didn’t know scent billboards were a thing but I guess I’ve experienced them before
Dirt Rally is a game that comes to mind that also puts real ads where they'd be in real life anyway. AMD is one of those ads for that game. As an avid ATS player myself, I'm not sure how I feel about this. I think it'd depend on the content. This particular ad doesn't sound too intrusive (I haven't played recently, so I haven't seen it. Maybe I'll play this weekend.) but I could see others being intrusive. The fake ads on the billboards are pretty solid. For example divorce lawyer ads and such. I think my favorite in-game billboards are in GTA games where they've mastered the art of satire.
I actually run a ton of mods that add in real billboard ads, real gas station chains, real pickup and delivery outlets. It'd be a licensing nightmare, but I don't have an issue with real brands in games that are trying to simulate/replicate reality. Keep the Nissin cup noodles out of my Final Fantasy games, but do give me modern and up-to-date billboard ads, trailer skins, and storefronts for real brands.
I have considered being a truck driver like my dad did for 6-7 years if only to have the CDL so I can do a diff job requiring it.
But truck drivers don’t make much at all compared to how much they used to 30-40 years ago.
Truckers USED to make really good money when our parents and grandparents did the job (mostly 2 generations back and on), but now they make above barely minimum wage.
I was making the same wages a trucker was by driving a taxi cab, but for that job I got a Tesla and went home every night.
Surprised that the FFXV cup noodle quest wasn’t included on the list. It’s easily the most egregious out of all the examples, with one of your buddies going wildly out of character explaining how much they love them.
I can see a future where they hook truck simulator players up to robot trucks in order to avoid paying truckers.
Nah, they'll have self driving trucks before that happens.
the problem with automation is that the most problematic and subtle decisions are given to a human, while the bulk of "normal" high way driving is done by fully automated system.
The effect would be that you essentially get a video stream and have to classify unidentified objects - so trucking simulator would become full time chapter solver simulator which is already a job, while some highly skilled remote truck operators would resolve difficult situations.
I thought the placement of Porsche in Cyberpunk was pretty creative, just seemed really organic minus the mission status saying *Get in the Porsche*
Splinter Cell Chaos Theory also had product placement of Airwaves gum in CGI cut-scenes and Diet Sprite vending machines. But billborads with real ads in nothing new. Valve experimented with it in CS 1.6 back in 2006, Anarchy Online had billboards advertising Fanta, Batman Begins premiere, US Airforce, and Sons of Anarchy.
I have been playing Need for speed underground 2 and the in game advertisements are pretty egregious but funny because a lot of the ads are for dead brands, the main ad is for Cingular wireless where there is a logo on the screen at almost all times and also funny to see Pontiac adds on billboards
The only problem I can foresee with ads on in-game billboards is for content creators and streamers, though I'm sure there are work arounds (as there are already mods to change the billboards to custom images)
I like the Pikmen battery placement, at least that make sense. The Alan Wake one is hilarious because of how fast you burn through them, basically saying don't buy our batteries, they die in seconds.
I remember one Splinter Cell game had the protagonist use a Sony Erricson mobile phone. I don't mind that, it fits the time and is not too aggressive in its placement.
I wonder what the break down for those median income statistics is and whether it takes into account truck ownership I’d imagine nowadays there are more large companies hiring drivers for their fleets vs independent drivers who own their trucks themselves. I know that in the US truckers who own their trucks can make upwards of 100k a year but they’re typically in a very leveraged position as the trucks are often financed not even mentioning how expensive maintenance and repairs can be for the trucks. That doesn’t necessarily discount that drivers are being underpaid and that it is a possible factor in the trucker shortage but the market might be different in a way that explains the perceived pay disparity as something other than big companies cheap.
One of my best friends has over 4000hrs in American Truck Sim and Euro Truck Sim combined...... And he's actually a real full time trucker 😂
Another one: Rush 2 Extreme Racing USA had four Mountain Dew cans in each track to collect in order to unlock the Mountain Dew dragster car.
“That makes perfect scents” :)
6:56 Also in Alan Wake were a Samsung phone that he uses heavily in the game that had a specific cutscene to show off that it was, indeed a Samsung phone. Additionally, many of the vehicles are Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, and Alan and his wife specifically arrive in a Lincoln MK-T with Microsoft's Sync Technology as the infotainment
That game was full of product placement, but it was subsequently removed in the remake
speaking of real ads in video games, I was playing Burnout Paradise Remastered and there were advertisements for Nvidia on billboards throughout the city.
it was pretty weird but also kind of cool
How can this entire segment have gone through with not one mention of Cool Spot? The entire game was an ad for 7up, and it was actually a pretty good platformer. It's probably the best product game in history.
The lead dev on Cool Spot was also the lead dev on Earthworm Jim, Aladdin (Genesis version), and MDK.
When it gets to be like The Last Starfighter when they try to recruit you at the arcade or through some in game messaging because you showed some talent in a mil-sim, then it'll be a problem.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 had/has ads that do the same just via the online radio for a long time and to be real with you, i kinda liked them. the first 3-4 times hearing those i thought they where just "fake" ads, but no, the immersion for me was at peak at this moment.
they are optional, and quite fitting for an sim game so yeah, i'm using adblock everywhere i can but done right i'm down for ads in games
I was literally. LITERALLY. Driving through Morrisville NC when I heard this... BRUH
It's possible to setup internet radio in ETS2, so you can hear ads on the radio AND see ads on the road
10/10 immersion
I've had a British navy ad in dirt rally 2.0
It makes sense for there to be billboards by the side of the road in a trucking game. It does not make sense to see billboards in a warzone. For me personally, though, if I see a game taking place in a world where billboards might exist, I've made a mistake. Therefore, if I see an ad in my games, that's a signal to get a refund, no matter why it's there.
7:43 don't worry, the bag is still 90% air due to "settling"
$48,000 a year seems low. The truckers at my workplace make like $55+ an hour plus really good benefits (coworker’s dad is a trucker) and we still have a shortage. We on the other hand have a top out of $28 atm which is 6 figures a year with mandatory OT.
This is kind of funny hearing about this for the first time. I just started driving a Semi in the US a little over a year ago. My first full year of driving I grossed around 105k at 24 I don’t think I can complain, however I had no idea that the median was so low