Google Looking To Profile Online Gamers?
Google has shaken many boots in the past whenever the media picked up on a possible privacy-infringing venture the search giant was looking to take, and there may be another on the horizon. Or maybe not.
Last month, Google filed patents in both the U.S. and Europe for plans to monitor and collect psychological profiles of online gamers. Google thinks that tracking a gamer’s preferences and personality in their gaming personas will give them valuable information to sell to advertisers.
So, aggressive, violent, and foul-mouthed players in a virtual realm might be served different ads than someone who is patient, kind, and quiet.
Privacy advocates are already calling this possibility "alarming."
"I can understand why they are interested in this, but I would be deeply disturbed by a company holding a psychological profile," said Sue Charman, part of Open Rights Group.
Games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft are especially attractive for a venture like this one since it relies heavily on player interaction, and would better reflect a user’s personality and tendencies in the real world.
The patent says, "User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc)."
All of this information would, of course, be used to deliver player-specific ads in their virtual environments.
The patent also indicates that players who use any console to play online could be monitored as well.
The possibilities are interesting and even fun to think about.
For instance, would a belligerent player online be served up ads for a book about manners? Or would a player whose spelling and grammar leaves much to be desired be shown ads for English courses?
Of course, it’s not hard to envision a group or a government becoming overzealous about this information and demanding that it be used to predict and preemptively deal with gamers who exhibit excessively violent behavior in their virtual worlds.
It’s likely that the advertisements resulting from this tracking would deliver more conventional ads and suggestions. The patent offers a couple examples: "In a car racing game, after a user crashes his Honda Civic, an announcer could be used to advertise by saying ‘if he had a Hummer, he would have gotten the better of that altercation’, etc… If the user has been playing for over two hours continuously, the system may display ads for Pizza Hut, Coke, coffee."
But, these patents do not say anything more than the fact that this is something that Google has just considered, and has not made any firm commitments to just yet.
A spokesperson for the company said, "Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them."
What is certain is that Google and its new AdScape acquisition will take a big dive into the gaming market, which is expected to have $500 million spent on it in 2007, according to a Guardian article.
Sources:
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2007/05/14/google-develops-
plans-to-profile-gamers
http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2078061,00.html
