DIGITAL GAMES 491 INGAME ADVERTISING WITHIN ALAN WAKE AND ITS PERCEPTION CASE STUDY Zdenko Mago – Jarmila Knapcová Abstract In-game advertising as a mean of advertisement placement within digital games represents one of recent ways of how to reach potential consumers in current digital era. The aim of the study is to determine the difference in perception between digital in-game and non- digital print advertisements of the same product. The digital game Alan Wake represents an ideal research material because it contains various types of in-game advertising. A quantitative content analysis of the game examines occurrence rates of particular types of in-game advertising placed in it. Afterwards, we investigate using semantic differential the difference in perception between in-game advertising and corresponding print advertising as a form of „traditional” advertising. Reduction of prejudices or aversion towards in-game advertising is also a partial goal of the study. Key words: Alan Wake. Comparison of in-game and traditional forms of advertising. Content analysis. Digital game. In-game advertising. Perception. 1 In-game advertising and Alan Wake In current digital era, the importance of digital games in understanding of media as well as a marketing communication is still gaining its signiicance. Despite the existing criticism of digital games (e.g. in form of stereotypes, prejudices, aversion) or the use of digital media in general 1 they represent a novel way of reaching potential consumers. In the digital games environment, in-game advertising as a placement of various advertising forms inside digital games that have not been originally created for promotional purposes is one of such marketing tools. According to DFC Intelligence – a video game and entertainment research company – the in-game advertising market will have globally grown to 7.2 billion USD by 2016 2 . In-game advertising can use any form of traditional advertising in form of its virtual analogies – virtual billboards are the most common 3 , while it is possible to ind posters, replicas of real shops and cars, even TV spots and more creative forms of advertising. 1 SPLITZER, M.: Digitální demence. Brno : Host, 2014. 2 Games: In-Game Advertising. [online]. [2015-03-10]. Available at: <http://www. theesa.com/wpcontent/uploads/2014/11/Games_Advertising-11.4.pdf>. 3 MAGO, Z., MIKULÁŠ, P.: The Use of Computer Games for Promotional Purposes. In Journalism and Mass Communication, 2013, Vol. 3, No. 1, p. 55-56.