Today Mr. Sterling presented an article that tossed some statistics on the impact that in-game product advertising has on video game players. Much to our chagrin, I’m sure, a surprising 82% of gamers didn’t see ads as obtrusive and continued to enjoy the game as normal. More striking, is that an average of 61% of gamers felt better about the products being utilized in the ads than before the study.

In fact, I was so surprised about these findings that I decided to take a gander at the raw numbers. The study was conducted by Nielsen BASES and Nielsen Games on behalf of IGA Worldwide. Nielsen is the great collector of various statistical information and probably the most famous for their TV show rankings. IGA is a specialist in in-game marketing, a conduit of sorts between developers and product placement. The bias here is fairly obvious, but is the data correct?

Unfortunately, Nielsen has yet to produce the raw data on the study, but IGA dropped a few numbers. The study only had a whopping 1,300 participants. It was also confined only to PC gamers with the utilization of a “sample game disk” provided by IGA, which was developed by Electronic Arts and Activision. This leaves a few excellent questions to ask. Were gamers happy to receive these titles? Did they feel any sort of exclusivity that would tilt their feelings about the game regardless of how detrimental the ads were? How long was the sample game disk? Was every “gamer” in the study someone like you or I, who takes games a bit more seriously than most?

This article instantly reminded me of my experience with Metal Gear Solid 4. I am a self-admitted Apple enthusiast, to the core. My computers all have the lovely decal, as well as any portable instrument that I carry on my person. I love the style, the community, the culture, and most importantly – the usability. The first time I glimpsed Octacon in MGS 4 I was very pleased to see him clacking at the mini-keyboard of a very trendy Apple machine. I was even more excited with the introduction of the iPod, as well as all the other product placements. As an enthusiast, I didn’t find it obtrusive. I thought it was cute and clean fun.

But, I wonder how the casual observer would view the obvious camera ploys to show off Johnathon Ive’s monumental designs. I really don’t care about in-game ads for the most part. It gives developers more money, which usually translates to a better experience for us. As long as I’m not walking across an “I am Legend” level, in Coca-Cola world, in the Microsoft dimension in Mass Effect 2 - I’m good. There’s a line to be treaded here, but I’m not quite sure where it is. Perhaps as long as in-game ad companies don’t destroy immersion or our suspension of disbelief we can all live with advertising in our games.

But, I would still gladly watch Apple advertisements in more video games. Go Snow Leopard.