Product placement in Rockband

I am a weekend drumming warrior - I excel at the "medium" setting in rockband, and my "band" has played many different venues in many different cities around urban America. We play hits by all my favorite bands from the 80's 90's and 00's - the crowds love us - they sing along at every opportunity and pack the clubs we play at.

Every so often, we're asked to play for extra money or fame. These challenges are sponsored by instrument companies - Zildjian or Ibanez to name but two.

Is this a realistic depiction of life as a professional musician? In some ways it is, musicians, like other professional entertainers and athletes compete for sponsorships so that they can afford to keep plying their trade. On the other hand, however, my no name band in real life is less likely to be offered a sponsorship from a large instrument company, and more likely to play in a small dive bar, half packed with an audience who could care less whether we are there or not.

So rather than adding to realism, I would say product placement in games like Rockband reinforces a fantasy and provides companies with a new captive audience for their product. Not that this is necessarily a problem, however those who insist that products are necessary for the realism of the game should examine how realistic the game is as a whole apart from product placement. Rockband is certainly not an accurate description of the life of a musician's life.

Thoughts?

Gaming

Here are some interesting links about gaming:

http://www.torontosun.com/news/world/2010/01/21/12555591.html

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2008/Teens-Video-Games-and-Civics.aspx

http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Adults-and-Video-Games.aspx

http://www.pewinternet.org/Presentations/2009/28--Teens-Mobile-Phones-and-Video-Gaming.aspx

http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2006/1881

http://www.mycoke.com/index.jsp

http://www.joyitforward.ca/joygles/

http://zone.msn.com/en-us/home

http://us.blizzard.com/store/browse.xml?f=c:6

http://usmilitary.about.com/od/armyjoin/a/armygame.htm

http://www.americasarmy.com/

http://www.eamobile.com/Web/CA/en/mobile-games

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