PC

Funny how many engagement debates settle themselves with bribery. The Guinness adult beverage site has rolled out an advergame called "The Legend of the Golden Domino." You watch video clips to find clues, which you use to find codes, which in turn unlock dominoes that release video clips -- which you can ultimately assemble into a finished Guinness ad. If you succeed you can win a solid gold domino.

On a tip from Adrants, I took a look at a flash game presented by PETA. While I'm certainly for the ethical treatment of animals, it's prudent to remember that people are animals also. The game gives you some spray paint, which you use to vandalize fur coats while avoiding store security. Hmmm. In a gaming environment where crashing into police cars and shooting up entire city populations is routine entertainment, perhaps a little property damage isn't so bad. But that ethical claim seems a bit dubious.

Paramount recently became the second studio (after Warner Brothers) to pursue video game publisher ambitions. Initially, Paramount will focus on casual and mobile games, which will be titles with lower development costs and shorter development cycles. The studio will be well-positioned to take advantage of its stock of intellectual property and access to star talent.

Advergames inspire millions to engage with your brands for hours online. The trick is luring gamers to come to your game. USA Network believes the answer is making its characters a part of the action in games like Malibuland and Monk Shui. In addition to the game play promoting the programs, the games include product integration, site sponsorships, and in-game interstitials.

Fusing user-friendly ads with interactive entertainment has been a consistent challenge in the gaming world. Double Fusion and Gearbox Software have entered an interactive advertising partnership. Double Fusion, a game advertising network, will provide Gearbox, a gaming company, with the technology it needs to support interactive ads in soon-to-be released Gearbox games.

Business publications like Forbes and Business Week increasingly find themselves reporting on social networking and branded entertainment. Now they can report on themselves. Forbes has started an ad network for business blogs, and Business Week is joining the fun by launching a gaming arcade for its website. When even stuffy old business publications embrace this sort of thing, Web 2.0 ventures have gone mainstream.

According to PQ Media, advergaming and webisodes are the fastest growing branded entertainment segments, climbing at a 51.7 percent compound annual growth rate from 2002 to 2007. That's because online games and simulations are great at educating prospects in both the consumer and B2B marketplaces across a broad range of industries -- financial, health, lifestyle, technology, sports, retail, automotive and more.

Recent analysis of Dynamic Logic's MarketNorm database revealed that, compared with younger women, women aged 45 and over were more likely to respond to consumer product ads featured on gaming sites. According to Millward Brown, over eight million women aged 45 and over access the Internet to play online games.